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Author Topic: What was your first rig?  (Read 104345 times)
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David, K3TUE
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« Reply #75 on: September 14, 2006, 10:10:44 PM »

Americans are strange people. They love to preach to the rest of the world about freedom, yet they voluntarily move to communities where the local commisars of the homeowners' association dictate every aspect of community life, even down to what color one may paint his house or what kind of plants he may plant in his flower beds. F--k that s--t!

"Fool me once..."  Not next time.
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David, K3TUE
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« Reply #76 on: September 17, 2006, 12:09:10 AM »

First receiver -- Boy Scout (maybe Cub Scout???) Crystal Set (sometime in the dark ages)

Second receiver -- Knightkit Ocean Hopper (1957)

First Station -- Heath DX-40, BC-455 w/HB power supply, and one lousy crystal -- 7198 kc (1959)

Second Station -- DX-40 + Eico 730 modulator, homebrew Handbook VFO, BC-312N (1960).

Third Station -- DX-40/730, HB VFO, SX-100 (1961)

Fourth Station -- Globe Champ 350, RME 4350A (1962) .. and yes, the vernier drive on the 4350A never did work right, but it was a better receiver than the SX-100.

(I didn't add SSB until 1970 with an SB-102).

Those were the best times ever!   Grin
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W7IXZ
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« Reply #77 on: September 17, 2006, 05:27:48 PM »

First ticket in 1954 as WN7WZY and first rig was home brew 6L6 from handbook or how to become a radio amatuer.  The receiver was also home brew 26 RF amp, 27 regenerative detector and a 45 amp tube.  All this was built from parts scrounged from radio and TV repair shops.  They were very happy to have someone haul the stuff off.  Graduated to a Heathkit AT-1 and AR2 my parents bought me for Christmas!  Ant. was a longwire with home brew tuner.  More fun than a barrel of monkeys!  New hams just do not get the thrill from the first contact made with "junk" carefully soldered together!  This was the beginning of a long 40 year stint in the broadcast business!  I now have 7 BC rigs in the shack.  Just love that glow!
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wa2zdy
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« Reply #78 on: September 17, 2006, 07:40:14 PM »

IXZ we need pics of your heavy iron shack there.  Sounds downright magnificent!
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W1RKW
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« Reply #79 on: September 17, 2006, 08:48:47 PM »

IXZ we need pics of your heavy iron shack there.  Sounds downright magnificent!

Just to add, if anyone has any photos of their first rig/setup/station post it here.
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Bob
W1RKW
Home of GORT. A buddy of mine named the 813 rig GORT.
His fear was when I turned it on for the first time life on earth would come to a stand still.
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« Reply #80 on: September 17, 2006, 10:18:19 PM »

I knew I had one...here's the rig I remember most fondly from those days....
(Can't seem to preview...hope it comes out OK)

After blowing the picture up I see you built your own tube CW keyer and used two hand keys together to make a paddle!  Outstanding, OM.

Yep, those were magic days when the CW bands were filled with opportunity and mystery. Ya never knew what you'd come across after school let out.

Sometimes at age 13, I would get out of bed at 3AM just to listen to the band. It was like the deep dark ocean with strange creatures crawling about..

T
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Use an "AM Courtesy Filter" to limit transmit audio bandwidth  +-4.5 KHz, +-6.0 KHz or +-8.0 KHz when needed.  Easily done in DSP.

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« Reply #81 on: September 18, 2006, 11:54:53 AM »

I used to think the jammers on 40 M were airplanes
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W1QWT
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« Reply #82 on: September 18, 2006, 06:20:37 PM »

Quote
Just to add, if anyone has any photos of their first rig/setup/station post it here.
This is my second station, I can't find a picture of my first station.
This is a HT-40, HQ-110, and a scanner built into a wooden console.
That was me back in the 1971 time frame.


Regards
Q, W1QWT
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Regards, Q, W1QWT
w1guh
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« Reply #83 on: September 18, 2006, 06:43:15 PM »

I knew I had one...here's the rig I remember most fondly from those days....
(Can't seem to preview...hope it comes out OK)

After blowing the picture up I see you built your own tube CW keyer and used two hand keys together to make a paddle!  Outstanding, OM.

Yep, those were magic days when the CW bands were filled with opportunity and mystery. Ya never knew what you'd come across after school let out.

Sometimes at age 13, I would get out of bed at 3AM just to listen to the band. It was like the deep dark ocean with strange creatures crawling about..

T

Can't claim to be the builder, I traded the tank receiver I posted about for that keyer and paddle.  Those were the days when J-38's were a dime a dozen.   Grin  Love hearing about first stations.  BTW the pic was taken in 12/62
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wa2zdy
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« Reply #84 on: September 18, 2006, 07:19:21 PM »

Again Phil, I agree with you essentially.  You and I have different situations.  You have only yourself to answer to. I have a wife and three kids all school age.

I'll get some RF into the ether, not to worry.
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WU2D
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CW is just a narrower version of AM


« Reply #85 on: September 19, 2006, 10:46:20 PM »

My first rig was a crystal radio with a coil wound on a chunk of hockey stick, built from plans out of Alfred Morgan's classic: The Boy's First Book of Radio and Electronics. I also built the one tube regenerative receiver from the book exactly as shown with the stupid 6BF6 tube. I can still remember my dad complaining about having to shell out 3 dollars for a tube at the TV repair shop downtown in 1970.

My first ham radio was an ARC-5 BC-696 from Fair Radio Sales which I bootlegged using my buddies call until my ticket finally arrived! THEM WAS THE DAYS!

Mike WU2D


* boysbook.jpg (123.39 KB, 580x834 - viewed 1004 times.)

* REGENRX.jpg (272.39 KB, 2000x1556 - viewed 1155 times.)
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These are the good old days of AM
W1RKW
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« Reply #86 on: September 20, 2006, 04:37:20 AM »

I like the B+ connection to the headphones.
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Bob
W1RKW
Home of GORT. A buddy of mine named the 813 rig GORT.
His fear was when I turned it on for the first time life on earth would come to a stand still.
Carl WA1KPD
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« Reply #87 on: September 20, 2006, 10:36:36 AM »

My first rig was a crystal radio with a coil wound on a chunk of hockey stick, built from plans out of Alfred Morgan's classic: The Boy's First Book of Radio and Electronics. I also built the one tube regenerative receiver from the book exactly as shown with the stupid 6BF6 tube. I can still remember my dad complaining about having to shell out 3 dollars for a tube at the TV repair shop downtown in 1970.

Mike WU2D

This guy does some great construction of Morgan designs as well as other classics
Check out his web site


http://www.bignick.net/TubeRadio.htm




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Carl

"Okay, gang are you ready to play radio? Are you ready to shuffle off the mortal coil of mediocrity? I am if you are." Shepherd
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« Reply #88 on: September 20, 2006, 11:34:58 AM »

My first rig was a crystal radio with a coil wound on a chunk of hockey stick, built from plans out of Alfred Morgan's classic: The Boy's First Book of Radio and Electronics. I also built the one tube regenerative receiver from the book exactly as shown with the stupid 6BF6 tube. I can still remember my dad complaining about having to shell out 3 dollars for a tube at the TV repair shop downtown in 1970.

My first ham radio was an ARC-5 BC-696 from Fair Radio Sales which I bootlegged using my buddies call until my ticket finally arrived! THEM WAS THE DAYS!

Mike WU2D

Hey Mike,

It was a treat to see that copy of Boys' First Book of Radio and Electronics.  That was my introduction to the hobby as well.....back in the mid 50's.  I too, built the crystal sets using the square piece of wood for a coil form, etc.  The copy of the book that I got from the library had a red cover and was the earlier printing.  I still have that book.  I was very fortunate......much later (after being a ham for many years) to find the exact same copy at a library book sale and I was able to purchase it for a couple of bucks.  Really brought back many pleasant memories of when I was a young kid just starting out with radio.  I even found a couple of notes that I had made as a kid in the margin on a couple of pages.  (Shame on me, marking up a library book!)
Mr. Morgan probably had a hand in starting many youngsters out in the hobby and his plans and circuits are still very popular to this day!

73,  Jack, W9GT
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73, Jack, W9GT
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« Reply #89 on: September 20, 2006, 04:25:58 PM »

I like the 2.5 Meg  coil. That many Henerys aughta  keep them b+es away...
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WA1GFZ
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« Reply #90 on: September 21, 2006, 11:22:45 AM »

I used morton salt container for my first coil. My Dad made me a mount for the crystal out of a hunk of copper tubing he cut and bent. Then he put a lead screw in the side to hold the rock.....then I took a 1n60 diode out of an old TV.
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The Slab Bacon
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« Reply #91 on: September 21, 2006, 01:19:49 PM »

everybody wanted the old glass Sylvaina 1N34A's but I always thought the 1N60's
kicked butt!!

I build a "diode set" for my neighbor a few years ago. He was fascinated at the thought of a radio that played without external power. (He grew up with computers and is a compuker wiz) He is 27 now still plays with it! I used a toilet paper roll for the coil, and a red and white 1N60 for the detector!

                                                the Slab Bacon
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WA1GFZ
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« Reply #92 on: September 21, 2006, 04:40:59 PM »

I still have a stash of 1N23s from radar days. Yup 1N60s from the UHF tuner.
It was before I had a soldering iron so they were hard to attach. When I really needed to solder something my Dad would wrap wire around the end of the benzomatic and solder with the wire. Acid flux of course. Quaker Oats boxes made good coil forms also. We would strip the wire off an old TV transformer secondary. We had a spot in the woods where all naughty TV's met their maker. Today it is someone's back yard and bet they are still raking up hunks of picture tube glass.
Just over the hill was the track for old cars to meet their maker. This went on until my buddy and brother caught a stump with the center link and both kissed the dash.
Man did they bleed and I got to dispose of the bloody rags. That car died with the brick on the gas no load rev test. (since the toe was way off)
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wa2zdy
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« Reply #93 on: September 21, 2006, 04:43:57 PM »

I like the B+ connection to the headphones.

That's how it was done back in the day.  And radio hobbyists managed to survive despite themselves.  Sometimes I realise it's a miracle I survived being a Novice.  Can you imagine today's new hams playing with the power supplies we had back then?
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WA1GFZ
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« Reply #94 on: September 22, 2006, 11:44:40 AM »

I set up a bench next to the oil tank in the basement. I yanked the chassis out of an all American 5 and set it on the bench to monitor tunes. One day I was leaning on the tank with one hand and went for the volume control with the other and there was no knob. Guess which phase the plug was in. Almost welded my BAs.
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W2RBA
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« Reply #95 on: September 23, 2006, 12:00:44 AM »

A Lafayette KT-135 3-tube regen receiver kit put together at the tender young age of 11 was my introduction to the mysteries of radio -- and the AM guys on 75 were interesting to listen to (of course, there were many AM signals in 1961!).

Licensed in 1964 and the first rig: A Hallicrafters S-38D (pity me!) receiver and another Lafayette kit, a KT-390 "Starflite" (DX-60 clone) was the transmitter.  About a year later (upgraded to a General by then), I put together another kit -- an Eico 730 and plate modulated the KT-390 and had a surprisingly good, clean signal. But then girls and college and a job got in the way and before you know it, I had a used Galaxy V MkII...but that's another story!

73, folks!
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« Reply #96 on: September 23, 2006, 01:03:39 AM »

My first rig was a Lafayette regen... I wired the tube sockets in backwards..... and a few other things in the wrong place.... Norm, K2KLV (sk) fixed it up for me.<< He had a TV camera and monitor on the front door..CAM pointed outward so you saw yourself when you rang the bell. cool stuff for the 60's>> .... 28 years later, it was an Halli SR-150 with the licence .. by then the madness had decended        klc
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N3DRB The Derb
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« Reply #97 on: September 25, 2006, 07:46:56 PM »

I do think my first rig I ever saw was a multi yell mac af 67, and a surplus navy rx when I was about 11 at a friends house. His brother was into it.

My first actual honest ham rig was probably a Viking 2, and couldnt even guess what the RX was. Even though I didnt get on until mayb 1982, I started with vintage gear and never used boxes of rice. I remember putting out a call for boat anchors on the local 2 meter swap net about then and came home with a DX-100, a Hallicrafters sx-100, a Ranger 1, and a navy vlf rx in one day. Old rigs were damn near worthless in the early 80's still.

Having owned literallly hundreds of rigs back when I was active, it's hard to remember them all. I kept bartering and hamfesting them all and never kept on longer than a few months. I did that for years.

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KA8WTK
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« Reply #98 on: September 25, 2006, 09:14:21 PM »

Ah yes....the crystal receiver.
  Mine was some sort of "science" kit on a cardboard box with springs you pushed the wires into. Had it hooked up to the aluminum screen on the bedroom window. Would fall to sleep at night with the ear piece in my ear listening to KYW (Jerry G and Company) and WIXY 1260. Love that late 50's and early 60's music still. WHLO 640 would go off the air at sunset. Just a few minutes later Radio Havana Cuba would fire up on the same frequency.
  It is amazing what such a simple receiver can do!
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Bill KA8WTK
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« Reply #99 on: September 26, 2006, 06:54:37 PM »

May 1967 Globe Scout Deluxe and HQ_140XA.  First days contact was some guy named Tim, WA1HLR
de WA1HUM  Draina
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