Stuff You Wish You Still Had

[MrColad]

So in 1963 my uncle gave me my first shortwave radio, it was the guts of a stand-up zenith shortwave. I just had the chassis with the tubes exposed but had the round dial.

He was a ham operator and he hooked me up with a grounded 200-foot copper wire insulated antenna. What a great radio that was with terrific reception. Big speaker just sitting on my desk.

I was 10 years old but needless to say that started it all and it was the start of a terrific Hobby.

That swl experience led to tunable police monitors, then to Crystal scanners and I ended up becoming a newspaper man. I'm 66 now and retired.

I wish I had that Zenith shortwave radio. Of course I wish I still had my uncle too, he passed in 1974.

I don't know what model your uncle blessed you with but I've seen vintage Zenith and other makes of console, floor model and stand alone shortwave receivers and looked like they belonged in your home. Back then the wives didn't complain. I pulled this off a sales site (Not Ebay) and this is selling for $5,800.00 and $450.00 shipping. And here I thought Mcintosh AM/FM tuners were expensive.

 

[KK4JUG]

We had a console radio, too. It was a Crosley. I wish I still had it. It looked and sounded great. (At least I think it did, I was about 8 or 9 back then.)

 

[trentbob]

Yep that radio looks about right, could have been a little older but the round dial looks right on.

I guess it was a bit of a learning curve when I was 10 but by the time I was 12 I had the HyGain collinear 2 ground plane on the roof and a Lafayette he90 CB and a tunable Police monitor hahaha. I took to it like a duck to water.

My dad was also ham operator and knew you either have it or you don't in understanding radios, he knew I had it.

My mother didn't know what to think of it, LOL.

By the time I was sixteen and driving I was stringing with the local newspaper and had my own darkroom. It was the start of a terrific career as a newspaper man, I retired from a large daily as a department editor.

I'm embarrassed to say how much equipment I've accumulated or bought over the years but I don't think I'm any different than any of you.

 

[riccom]

I'm embarrassed to say how much equipment I've accumulated or bought over the years but I don't think I'm any different than any of you.

Shoot i aint, i had a hord of radios when i was 17, i had an old plector station alert monitor (5 bucks at a swap meet and worked for klamath county fire oregon and still i miss that radio!
and then had a grunding sw radio with a c.b. radio (i lived on top of a 300 foot hill, and it was killer awesome)
and the old radio shack pro 7a radio i used till 2000.
my how we let go of so much and miss it, even when it is unusable now a days.
simple times back then

 

[ridgescan]

The Icom R71 and it's VHF/UHF cousin the R7000 were cutting edge for their time. Personally I felt they performed better then their replacements the R75 and the R8500.

View attachment 77341

iCom IC-R71A all band, all mode HF General Coverage Receiver

Christmas came early! Visited the candy store (HRO) yesterday and pleasantly surprised by N6MGM with this well build vintage HF all mode wide band receiver. ...

www.youtube.com

It was a stellar rig even by today's expectations. Like I said I still have it-it sits below my SX-88 as a display piece. But I intend to get it running someday so it can shine again in the shack running with pride.

 

[mitbr]

I miss my Sony Icf-2001 what a great portable it was.
Still have my Kenwood R5000.
Got rid of my Icom R7000 awhile back.
Tim

 

[MrColad]

Thanks guys for sharing your own tales of woe. This thread has turned out to be too funny for words. Like a great many of you I sold, gave away, donated and depending on the cash I dropped in fits of frustration which a time or two threw away some radios and other items I only wish I could get back like the original dynamic memory architecture BCT15 and a first generation night vision scope. Fortunately those are still on the market, the Mckay is history. Sometimes one throws caution to the wind and buys the latest "UNTESTED" sexy whiz bang gadget as opposed to a long standing proven product, case in point. I was going to buy the venerable rock solid Sonar FR-2526 10 channel VHF/UHF scanner going for about $200.00 until I saw the cutting edge new toy Tennelec MCP-1 which was a (No crystals needed) 16 channel VHF low band, VHF high band and UHF band programmable digital readout scanner going for $400.00 and bought it while looking at the Sonar like it was something to be scrapped off the bottom of my shoes.





Live and learn.

 

[phask]

A BC-348-M, no idea why it was a boat anchor when I had it in the '60s. My 66 'Stang

My first girlfriend, or maybe it was the 2nd one

 

[scanmanmi]

I started as a ham in high school in the 70's. I would love to go back in time and see what the noise floor was then. I turn on my radio now and it's always up to 9 and I can't hear much. I remember driving to northern Wisconsin and only being able to find one FM station after leaving Chicago.

 

[MrColad]

Okay I really didn't want to go the muscle car route but I was always a 1/4 mile track junkie (Raceway Park) and a loyal Mopar elephant raging on a billboard orange Duster 340 then a blue Challenger 383 and when I couldn't beat anybody off the line a second job and some help from dad I went totally rat with a custom eggshell white Chevelle SS 454 from Motion Performance in Baldwin and just knew I was it until a Shelby (A serious pony) beat me on Sunrise Highway. This guy actually circled me twice. That was one of those times when you wish you picked up your girlfriend like 10 minutes earlier. Moral of this story is no matter how much power is under that hood it won't matter if you think you're gonna beat your comp off the line if he has a 4 speed and you have an automatic. Lol.



I still miss them all.



Cheerleaders, fast cars and beer.

 

[Boombox]

Those McKays were definitely keepers from the day!

Here is a 1978 Fender Precision Bass Guitar and Case like the one I got when I was fresh out of college playing in a group. Sold it and the 200 Watt Peavey Amp Head and speaker cabinet with two 15 inch Celestions when I got married and had kids because there was nowhere to store them in a small house with three kids and a wife. LOL! Here are lookalike pictures of what I wish I had kept:

I can see why the amp would go, but the Precision? No one should give up their guitar.

As for radios, I still have every radio I ever got or bought, so I guess I'm lucky. I almost bought a Panasonic RF-2200, but didn't. It was in a pawn shop, and some of the switches were broken. Looking back, I'm still glad I didn't get it, as it probably would have had other malfunctions develop. Slipped through my hands, but just as well.

 

[GB46]

Wow, this thread brings on a flood of memories!

Radios I wish I still had:

1) A Lafayette HE-10 receiver which I left behind when immigrating during the 1960s.
2) A Hammarlund SP-600 boat anchor, which I sold in 1980.
3) A Westinghouse Model 100 AM console built in 1929 (possibly the same as a Radiola of the same vintage), which I bought at a farm auction back in the late 1990s. It was still working perfectly when we left it behind upon selling our house 17 years ago.


Non-radio stuff I wish I still had:

1) My nice red 1977 Chevy Nova, which was a pleasure to drive.

2) A whole slew of miscellaneous small things that went missing due to frequent moves. "Three moves are as good as a burning," as the saying goes.

3) My hair. Can't remember when I started losing that, but off the top of my head (!) it must have been in my early twenties.

4) The ability to play my guitar. I've lost that to the ravages of old age.


Stuff I'm glad I no longer have:

1) My 1961 rusted-out Volkswagen beetle bought for $284 in 1969. I had the engine and exhaust system rebuilt, and the thing ran like a top until the clutch cable snapped and somehow cracked the engine block. I sold it to a mechanic for $75.

2) My 1971 oil-burning Datsun 210.

 

[mmckenna]

"Stuff I wish I still had",

Short term memory.
Youth.
Short term memory.
my old BC-100 scanner
the Knight Kit Star Roamer SW radio my grandfather built and gave to me.

And my short term memory.

 

[GB46]

"Stuff I wish I still had",

Short term memory.
Youth.
Short term memory.
my old BC-100 scanner
the Knight Kit Star Roamer SW radio my grandfather built and gave to me.

And my short term memory.

Well, you know you're getting old when you tell someone nostalgically, "I remember it as if it were yesterday," and he replies, "That was yesterday!"

Oh, and I just remembered that my old Datsun was a 1970, not a 1971 model.

 

[ten13]

\\\\\\

 

[vagrant]

I remember when this thread was on topic until the first reply. Those were good old days.

I wish I had my old Sears HF/MW/VHF/UHF radio. Made in the early 70's it was a display model and sold for a big discount. Some of the labeling was coming off, but it was an easy fix. Fantastic fun when one is young.

 

[pjxii]

I always regretted selling my Drake R-7 and Sherwod SE-3, so 15 years later I probably overpaid for an R-7A and unused SE-3. Now that I loaded it up with the 8, 4 and 1.8 filters and the AUX-7 board it's not going anywhere (I'd never get my money back anyway).

As for cars, I shoud have kept my 1986 Buick Century Gran Sport

 

[N4DJC]

Icom R71A was a great radio for it’s time, good filter options. I longed for a Drake R7A.

I’ve been a ham for 40 years, but would still prefer to listen.

 

[Token]

Radio wise I have managed to either keep many of the radios I liked, or have reacquired them over the years. Several of my favorites went into the family basement when I went in the service, and a couple of decades + later I finally moved them to my place. I probably should build a copy of the 3 tube CW transmitter that was part of my first Novice station, then I think I would have everything that I had as a young radio hobbyist. I did, at one time, have a Hallicrafters DD-1, and I would love to have one again. Not because of any particular attachment to the receiver, but more to fill in the Hallicrafters collection.

Outside radios there are a few things I wish I had kept. I had two Plymouth GTX's in the past, a 1969 and a 1971, both were 440 six pack cars. OK, "six barrel" since the "six pack" was a Dodge thing, and "six barrel" was Plymouth. I would love to have either back, but the '69 was the better of the two. Early in life I sold off several firearms that I now wish I had kept. I had a .36 Walsh revolver that was simply new looking, despite being 110+ years old when I had it. There is one in the family today, but nowhere near as good condition. And there was a Smith and Wesson Russian I still kick myself for parting with.

T!

 

[Radioman77]

My Hallicrafters S-53 and '69 Cougar 351 windsor 4 speed. John