Today, just before I began to get ready for church, I turned on the 1955 Hallicrafters SX-62A I have in my office. http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/SX62.htm It doesn't get "lit off" too often, but when you feed those push-pull 6V6's into the "Reproducer" speaker; that big grey bass-reflex cabinet with the REAL die-cast metal (port) grill, well, it comes off like a concert hall. Normally, I keep it (like most of my other tube-type entertainment radios) on the 40's station, here in Denver (KEZW - 1430 kcs), but on Saturdays, there's a bluegrass program, and those 5-string banjos, fiddles, and flat-top guitars just don't have it out of a solid-state amp. On Sundays, well... it's just plain nice to listen to, before gettin' holy.
I guess the other wonderful thing about he '62A is the smell - after it's been running for a while (and finally settled down on ONE frequency), you can lift the lid on that puppy, and take a deep breath of "old radio". Now, the ladies can swoon over their Chanel No. 5, and kids can get all big-eyed over the smell of a chocolate shop, but nuthin' does it to an old ham like the smell of "Eau d'Tube". I've often mused to my friends that I should start my own line of men's fragrances (no offence, XYL's), including "Hoppe's No. 9 (gun cleaning solvent), "WD-40", and "Burned Dirt and Capacitor Wax". Frankly, I think the latter would outsell the other two by a big margin.
There's another thing about "slide-rule dial" radios. Unlike a digital readout, or our earlier adventures at "getting spoiled" by a Collins S-line, the slide-rule dial gives you the VERY CLEAR impression that the radio is doing sumpthin'! The wider bandwidth of the older receivers also meant that you could hear MORE than one station (yes Virginia, that actually can be BETTER), so as a shiny-new Novice, way back when a Technician meant you could only be on 50 mcs+... you'd call CQ one 1 of your 3 or 4 crystals, then tune the WHOLE BAND. Well, those S-38's, AR-3's, and BC-348's were wide enough to HEAR that guy that was 20 kcs up the band from you! You got a contact; if you tried to use a super-duper modern Yaesu or ICOM, you just might miss the call, under the same restrictions - besides, it was FUN. You also learned to "interpolate" for guessing exactly which frequency you were on - "Hmmm, lessee... 7.150 was here on the dial, and my crystal is on 7.155... so that guy must have been on 7.165 or thereabouts"
Today, I went to a Vintage Voltage show out here. Lots of tube-radios, tube-amplifiers, 1970's receiver/amps, reel-to-reel recorders, and the like. Seeing those "delicious" plastic art-deco and "catalin" radios, shining like new, was enough to make me put a drool-cup around my neck. Beautiful wooden cased RCAs, Zeniths, Silvertones, and Stromberg-Carlsons (I have Grandpa's 1939 S-C 410-T, and it still functions perfectly), even a vintage "Predicta" television (the one with the tube in a top-mounted frame) that was WORKING. In another room, displays of wonderfully restored radios and equipment lazed on the table-tops, smiling for us to stare upon. One display from the Wings Over the Rockies Museum (on the old Lowry AFB) www.wingsmuseum.org , is an original BC-15 "transmitter, aircraft - mfg 1918), oh... and it works too. Spark is how it worked, and it must have been awfully broad, but then again, it was 30 more years before anybody worried about TVI, wasn't it? About the only people you DID'NT want to hear it were the "Hun".
I got so nostalgic, looking at all those neat old radios, that I came home and went out to the shop... pulled back the cover on my SWAN 350; restored from my Stepdad's best buddy, when he became a Silent Key (WRAS SK). It looks and works like NEW now, so I take great joy in checking into the Vintage Sideband Net, and the Collins Collector's Net with it. There's just something cool about hearing a guy who's running an S-Line, with a 30S1 linear, saying "Boy, that SWAN sure sounds good". Unfortunately, the bands were very crowded with contesters. Now, I know some of you folks REALLY like "radiosport", but I have noticed a disturbing trend during contests in the last few years - people DON'T CARE if somebody's already ON a frequency... or... they don't bother to tune up or down a bit to see if they're gonna "step" on somebody (see paragraph 2 about narrow-bandwidth radios), 'cause their filtering is so good, that they don't HEAR the station that's already there, a kc. away!" Oh well, one of these days (some year), the bands will finally come back to REAL life, we'll have that great DX again, and won't have to worry about that pesky "adjacent channel rejection".
Until then - keep those straight-keys a'hummin. I love hearing keyers, and copying a good fist, using a "bug" is pleasure to me, but there's just something 'bout a ham using a straight-key that gets right down to the nitty-gritty... the essence of the whole magilla, it seems. I've tried using a keyer, and it sounds like I'm the biggest LID on the band - I used a straight key and Bug in the Navy, so I guess I'm a throwback to "old timers". I still have a Vibroplex Presentation-Deluxe "U.S.N." bug, bought in 1964, but my fave' is a 1948 or so Johnson Speed-X bug, that my Chief gave to me, when I was a 3rd. Class Radioman, hen proceeded to get my Speed Key Certificate with it. That VERY key was used to send messages referencing he murder of President Kennedy, his National Day of Mourning (I have copies of the messages!); the Tonkin Gulf Incident, and our "official" entry into the Vietnam War. It's rather light, so when you use it, you either have to screw it down, or hold it with your other hand, 'cause it tends to 'skate' really badly... oh, but is it quick! Whooee... that baby flies.
Well kids - enough of the old guy's stories. Just remember - tune up 3 kcs away from a Net Frequency, then come back - your transmitter won't know the difference, but your NET sure will.
Keep those antennas greased - keeps the birds off.March 31, 2008