1950's and 60's Ham Radio Gear at K4NYW

1970-71 - HB 6146 6m xmtr, NC-300 w/ Ameco 6m converter, R-390A
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I 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). Six meters was fun! 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 I 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 (General, Advanced, & then Extra Class)

In Jan 2009 I finally "upgraded" my call to K4NYW (which had never been issued to anyone). 


 Starting around 1990 I 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 - See photos below. 

Here's a list of post-war tube-type ham radio kits

Here are photos of my Heathkit Apache/Mohawk era collection - one of everything
See also more vintage shack photos here

Also see my Unbuilt Kits and more Unbuilt Kits - all these are gone to new homes now.

The earliest Heathkit I have is a Transmitter Power Supply with assembly instructions dated Jan 1948.

Bob AF6C has written a lot of great articles on early Heathkit gear.

In 2007 I got REALLY interested in Navy Radio and now all of my vintage ham gear has been replaced by 1950's-60's Navy gear.  

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Station photos from around 1998-2001 - More vintage shack photos here
- All this has now gone to new owners and been replaced by Navy radio gear

This was my main vintage operating position - Desks #1 and #2
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


Another view of Desks #1 and #2 with some different gear in place. Desk #3 is to the right with a Drake C-Line, Ten-Tec Omni VI and various  VHF and ATV gear.
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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. 
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My Desk KW set-up was pictured in the 1998 CQ Vintage Radio Calendar posed to match the Johnson advertisement belowdesk-kw-calendar.jpg (1453419 bytes)

 

More vintage shack photos here

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Desk #4 with SX-115, CR-88A, HQ-170, HQ-180 and Globe Champion

 

This was my Hallicrafters heavy metal setup on Desk #2 - SX-88 receiver, HT-20 transmitter, & HT-18 VFO
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  My hamfest vehicle back then
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And here was some of the pile in the basement awaiting its turn on the workbench.
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Some "boatanchor" info I have collected

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Burstein-Applebee - Radio gear suppliers 1927-80
           

 

 

 


More Links


 Links to more Vintage Ham Radio Siteskwikette-01.jpg (49075 bytes)

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:  03 Apr 2025