Vintage Radio, Vintage Cars, Vintage Brain
Some
"boatanchor" info I have collected
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Boatanchors version of
Burstein-Applebee logo |
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radio gear suppliers 1927-80 |
1950's and 60's Ham Radio Gear at K4NYW (ex-KD4CPL)
I first got my Novice ham license KN4NYW around 1960. I built a Knight-kit
SpanMaster regen receiver and a homebrew 6L6 transmitter - results were pretty
pitiful! I later built a Knight R-55 receiver kit and homebrew 6 meter transmitter
(6146 modulated by 6L6s). At some point I also acquired a BC-348 and Ameco
6m converter. I was active on 6 meters AM before college and afterward,
but dropped out when I went back to grad school in 1972 and discovered the
intriguing world of computer graphics.
I got active again around 1990 as KD4CPL and had great fun collecting, repairing, and operating gear I just read about and lusted
after in earlier days. I was particularly interested in kit gear and at one
time had one of every tube-type ham radio kit made by Heath, Knight,
Eico, Johnson, Hallicrafters, WRL/Globe, & Lafayette
Here's a list of post-war tube-type ham radio kits
The earliest Heathkit I have is a Transmitter Power Supply with assembly instructions
dated Jan 1948.
PLEASE let me know if you have an unbuilt
Heath MR-1 rcvr, HX-20 xmtr, or HR-20 rcvr kit for sale or trade.
In 2007 I got really interested in Navy Radio and most all of my commercial
gear has now been replaced by 1950's-60's Navy
gear. I "upgraded" my call to K4NYW in Jan 2009. Here is info about my call's "namesake", Navy
Radio D/F Station NYW.
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Station photos from around 2000-2001
This was my main vintage operating position
bottom row: Mohawk, NC-303, SX-101, SX-88, HQ-170, NC-300 receivers
middle row: Apache, Ranger II, Valiant II, Valiant I, DX-100B
transmitters
top row: Drake 2B, SX-117, R-388A, SX-62 receivers.
speakers: Hammarlund S-200, Heath AK-5, National NTS-2, NC-300TS,
Hallicrafters R-48A,
R-46, R-46A, R-46B, Collins 270G-2
To the right is a Johnson Desk Kilowatt, found in a warehouse along with the Ranger
and Valiant. It took about four rolls of paper towels and a gallon of Windex
to clean off all the accumulated grime. The National HRO-60 was added later.
This set-up is pictured in the 1998 CQ Vintage Radio Calendar.
In the background you can see a deskful of Knight-kit gear as well
(T-50, R-100, R-55, T-60, R-100A, T-150A).
Below -this was my Hallicrafters heavy metal setup
(SX-88, HT-20, & HT-18)
And here was the pile in the basement awaiting its turn on the workbench.
More Links
Some "boatanchor" info I have collected
Links to more Vintage Ham Radio Sites
Local Ham Radio Activity
Here is a page full of Research Triangle Ham Info.
Clubs, repeater frequencies, packet info, classes, etc.
What can I say? It is all fun and relatively harmless.
mail nick@virhistory.com
Nick England - home page
Last modified: 14 Nov 2009
