In a old, olive drab military foot locker I have kept a collection of family radio "Treasures." Years ago I limited their number to what I could fit into that box, largely based on uniqueness- and weight/size..... I was aware of the "boat anchor syndrome" long long ago, and I did not want to be one of those collectors - (I prefer polychrome Pueblo ceramic pottery myself) ....
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Reading this Post again, now with an awaken'd sense of nostalgia, I pulled out that little footlocker. Last night I took a stroll thru memories. Right, now at work, one of those 'treasures' sits on my desk at work, surrounded by flashing, sophisticated lab equipment... I am sure it must be feeling like a very strange little being in a very strange land!
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WB3DYE asked earlier if anyone built transceivers. Well, in my collection was that little treasure, a little mini box- 3 tube project my father, and his father, built together- considerably before my time. Orginally there were two of them, but this is the one that survived.
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It has a small speaker louvered grill, a pilot light, a crystal microphone plugged into the front- next to a toggle switch marked "T/R," a SO-235 antenna connector- and most notably, a Bakelite dial dialing out "420-430-440-450-" ----- A UHF Transceiver--- Opening it up (it hasn't been opened since the '60's) there is a 6AF4 oscillator/regen detector, a 12AZ7 audio preamp and 6AQ5 audio amplifier-- a small hi-voltage transformer, diodes... the tuned circuits are silvered copper wire tank circuits... all carefully mounted on ceramic stand-offs... I jokingly showed to our chief engineer who earlier walked by, and asked her: "why can't you guys make something pretty like this??"
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We plugged it in and, oh, Wow!... that regen receiver put out quite a broad spectrum of RFI hash (as seen on a HP spectrum analyz'r). I plugged a #47 pilot bulb in as a dummy load (not that I was worried it need one, but I wanted to see if it put out a measurable signal)- and was rewarded with a faint glow... The signal bandwidth was practically unmeasurable, but in frequency it was remarkably close to centering on the dial marks. How my father calibrated that is anyone's guess-
I wasn't sure what sort of signal would come out of it... a hodge-podge mixture of AM/FM to be sure- but over a Harris lab receiver it sounded absolutely sweet!..(though the band width was set to 'the outer-limits!").... and so much for the spectral purity standards of the "Good-old-bye-gone days"... (laughing)... as if I am sure these hams then cared.
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My father and grandfather used these radios for Field Day contests... I was told some the FD rules have changed over the years- that it used to be that all the members of their radio club would line up and using these two radios; they'd making a contact to the club callsign, across a field- and each club member would score a QSO point and UHF credit for the club-- in those days each operator did not have to have his own radio... or so my father told me.
..........I see there is a grease pencilled note on the back of this transceiver "Best DX 1 mile": and a now- blurred date.
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Hope you liked my tale- I sort of combined the home- made transceivers with 'boat anchors' subject ... I have another little 'treasure' sitting on my desk... but its getting on towards lunch and I *must* get to a task I have been avoiding .... maybe tomorrow?
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.........................................CF