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- Jun 13, 2018
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About a month ago an old friend came to visit and to help me try our mutual luck at the CQ 160 Metre CW contest. That contest was a spectacular flop, accentuated by an equally spectacular pyrotechnic antenna display-- But what followed was much better.
My friend** brought with her two neat toys- a pair of HeathKit 'Two'ers," the famous Benton Habour Lunch Boxes of the 1960's.
"Where did you get them?" I asked.
"At a garage sale. The fellow selling them said they were his father's, but that's all he knew about them. He thought they may have been part of his Civil Defense team"
"I know how you like vintage radios; I thought they'd be fun for us to play with" she added.
----------------------
I was amazed at how pristinely new they looked- as if they were assembled only yesterday. Opening them to peek about their circuitry I was also amazed at the careful, professional assembly with perfect solder joints- these radios were once someone's pride fifty years ago.
We plugged them into AC and both came alive with a nice rushing sound of their super-regen receivers. Into a dummy load with a watt meter the transmitters each showed a cool 7-8 watts output. The modulation had that beautiful tonal quality so classically AM.
Each radio came with a transmit crystal, but they were not on the same frequency-- like that would matter with regen receivers.
"145 3-5-zero (145.350 MHz) and 145 3-8- 8 (145.388MHz)"- on a frequency counter.
"Thats the old two meter AM band" I said. "Its a good thing our mountain valley is so isolated (that is, no repeaters, or virtually nothing VHF anywhere near these frequencies)--- "Lets try them out."
The nearest towne is the county seat some thirty miles away-- its pretty much a straight shot down a long valley with a few intervening low hills in between. Testing our new radios would be a good excuse for me to run a few brief errands there, so----
We stuck a little 4 element beam on an aluminium mast, bungee-corded to the front porch -and then a discone/mast bungee'd in the back of my pick-up truck.
The mobile radio was powered by a 12 volt inverter - with everything sitting loosely on the truck's bench seat.
-----------------
How did they work ? Pretty spotty after the first couple miles. But just above towne I pulled up on top of a hill over-looking, with a clear view back to our 'base'-- and my friend's voice was 'full quieting." (And you have to use a regenerative receiver to really appreciate the full meaning of that expression
.)
-----------------
The experience of using these little five tube, low powered transceivers was a real thrill... it was a step back to a time when hams built their own stations with their own hands- and then marveled at their abilities to actually make them talk.
That may not be the last of our Two'er adventures - Soon spring will be coming to the high country - and with it ? ---maybe some summit-to-summit 2 metre AM DX'ing.
Lauri
______________________________
**"Barbi"-- who decided one day she wanted to be a radio ham-- got her study manuals... sat the exams- and went from no license to extra class all in a single session. Being a nuclear physicist probably didn't hurt
.
My friend** brought with her two neat toys- a pair of HeathKit 'Two'ers," the famous Benton Habour Lunch Boxes of the 1960's.
"Where did you get them?" I asked.
"At a garage sale. The fellow selling them said they were his father's, but that's all he knew about them. He thought they may have been part of his Civil Defense team"
"I know how you like vintage radios; I thought they'd be fun for us to play with" she added.
----------------------
I was amazed at how pristinely new they looked- as if they were assembled only yesterday. Opening them to peek about their circuitry I was also amazed at the careful, professional assembly with perfect solder joints- these radios were once someone's pride fifty years ago.
We plugged them into AC and both came alive with a nice rushing sound of their super-regen receivers. Into a dummy load with a watt meter the transmitters each showed a cool 7-8 watts output. The modulation had that beautiful tonal quality so classically AM.
Each radio came with a transmit crystal, but they were not on the same frequency-- like that would matter with regen receivers.
"145 3-5-zero (145.350 MHz) and 145 3-8- 8 (145.388MHz)"- on a frequency counter.
"Thats the old two meter AM band" I said. "Its a good thing our mountain valley is so isolated (that is, no repeaters, or virtually nothing VHF anywhere near these frequencies)--- "Lets try them out."
The nearest towne is the county seat some thirty miles away-- its pretty much a straight shot down a long valley with a few intervening low hills in between. Testing our new radios would be a good excuse for me to run a few brief errands there, so----
We stuck a little 4 element beam on an aluminium mast, bungee-corded to the front porch -and then a discone/mast bungee'd in the back of my pick-up truck.
The mobile radio was powered by a 12 volt inverter - with everything sitting loosely on the truck's bench seat.
-----------------
How did they work ? Pretty spotty after the first couple miles. But just above towne I pulled up on top of a hill over-looking, with a clear view back to our 'base'-- and my friend's voice was 'full quieting." (And you have to use a regenerative receiver to really appreciate the full meaning of that expression
.)-----------------
The experience of using these little five tube, low powered transceivers was a real thrill... it was a step back to a time when hams built their own stations with their own hands- and then marveled at their abilities to actually make them talk.
That may not be the last of our Two'er adventures - Soon spring will be coming to the high country - and with it ? ---maybe some summit-to-summit 2 metre AM DX'ing.
Lauri
______________________________
**"Barbi"-- who decided one day she wanted to be a radio ham-- got her study manuals... sat the exams- and went from no license to extra class all in a single session. Being a nuclear physicist probably didn't hurt
.
