[TenTec] In praise of older technology

[Winston Jones]

I first got on the air as a novice in 1960, using an AR-3 with a home brew 1625 rig. Had only two 40 meter crystals. Send CQ, then tune around for reply. Receiver drifted all over the place, but was the most fun hamming I ever had.
73, Winston K4CWQ

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 23, 2014, at 3:44 PM, k6jek <k6jek at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> We can morph the thread into just how bad was the old stuff. 
> 
> I just got through resurrecting a Heathkit AR-3. On that one, the entire 80M band is about 3/4" of dial with tic marks every 100 kc. I actually used this thing on the air the other night although I have to admit even with a lot of TLC it's still a pathetic excuse for a radio, essentially an AA5 with a power transformer and band switching and a clever but kludgy BFO design right out of old regen receivers -- same triode section acting as AF driver and 455 kc BFO oscillator. 
> 
> Old Ten-Tec gear is a real favorite among the vintage SSB crowd. Unfortunately, the cutoff is 1980. My Corsair is too new. It's considering lying about its age.
> 
> Jon
> 
> PS: Old Drake gear. Wonderful. I hope you still have it.
> 
>> On Feb 23, 2014, at 12:12 PM, Carter wrote:
>> 
>>> On 2/23/2014 1:36 PM, k6jek wrote:
>>> I certainly got everyone riled up with this one, didn't I?
>>> 
>>> Just to be clear, these guys were not giving me grief but I still don't like being the guy who is off frequency all the time even though I often run old, old gear. The Corsair (I) is not a candidate as a National Bureau of Standards reference.
>> 
>> I can't help but view this thread with a bit of humor, and dare I say, irony.
>> 
>> Got my Novice ticket in 1959 and remember that with the first 3 or 4 receivers I had, I was lucky to be within 50 kHz. Even when I got the Drake 4B line (wonderful radios!) in 1969, they were calibrated to 1 kHz.
>> 
>> So pardon me for smiling when I see people quibbling about 30 cycles.
>> 
>> My, how times change!   :-)
>> 
>> 73,
>> Carter   K8VT
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