From about 1965.
First - - I wish I could be on here more.
As I told my good friend Carl from KDX - -
I have mainly been working on the Gates board.
Work on the outside - - cabinet, knobs, paddle switches, the
VU meter, status lights, and soforth (sp?) will probably take me
another 6 months to a year - - at the rate I'm going. The internal
electronics work will probably begin in the summer or the fall.
As many of you know I'm legally blind. It' s not a problem. It
just slows things down a bit.
There is a vintage wall mount on-the-air light which
needs 25 volts. No problem there. The Akai reel to reel
GX4000D deck work continues very slowly.
The LPB RC6A carrier current AM transmitter work continues.
It was on 1020 kHz, which is dead clear during the day. Night time
is another story of course. I don't know if the RC6A can be saved. We will
see. The AMT-3000
9.5 foot stick matching coil continues.
I expect to have a vintage ham station running in the spring.
The receiver is a Hammarlund HQ-140XA. The transmitter is
a Heathkit DX-60A or a DX-60B. (I have both.)
The VFO is a Hallicrafters HA-5.
I just posted this because so many people like the
old gear.
In all of this - though - the Gates board is getting
the most attention.
Very best wishes to all.
Brooce, Part 15 Hartford
Bruce you will be happy to know that a picture of your Gates Studioette Board from a few years ago will be going up on the new Low Power Gallery page that will be opening soon at the new Low Power Supercenter linked below.
If you get the chance to take a comparison photo I will post it alongside so we can see what's changed.
Note: The link will not function during some hours when the KDX Server is offline.
- - - You are the only person in the whole wide
world that has a photograph of my Studioette from
back then. Why does this not surprise me?
Even I don't have a picture from that time.
A few more odds and ends to follow.
Brooce
Brooce, it is good to read that you are interested in getting/keeping old gear working. I just finished getting a H H Scott LK-48 tube type amplifier which I built from a kit in 1963 working again. It really sounds great and to my ear better than some of the modern solid state amps around the house.
The time, effort, and money required to restore old gear is often far exceeded by the joy of accomplishment and the performance of the "they don't build them like that anymore" equipment.
Best of luck in your projects.
Neil
For lack of a better way to say it.
That Scott amp must have that warm vacuum tube
sound! When I graduated from college and moved
into my first apartment in Newington, CT there were a few
things that were done right away. One thing was getting that
stereo component sound system going.
The amp was a beautiful Bogen tube amp, which
looked great and had a good looking gold colored metal
enclosure. It ran so hot the cabinet would actually
expand when it was operating. When it was turned off,
one would hear a little "tink tink tink" noise as the cabinet
was cooling off and contracting. This was followed by a small
"thunk" sound as everything went back into place. It almost
sounded like a old V8 car engine as it was cooling down. My
Dad's 1953 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 comes to mind.
No other stereo components - - FM tuner - cassette deck -
reel to reel - or whatever could be placed on top of the Bogen
amp. If that was done the amp would not vent properly. And
any equipment on top of the amp might have been damaged.
I wish I still had that amp... By the way - the final audio amp
tubes in the Bogen had envelopes that were metal -
not glass - and I wonder if that is one reason why
the amp ran so hot.
(The stereo system was in constant use and the FM tuner
was always somewhere in the 88 to 92 MHz range.)
After that was set up the 2 meter rig was set to 146.49.
That simplex frequency (WA1POI) and the phone got me the outside
world. And TV was very important too. There were no
VCRs yet. (For most people, I guess.)
Great times. It is very fortunate that you
still have that Scott amp, Neil. What fun!
Brooce
Can I get a job as a door greeter?
It would have been great to have had you there!
(Did I say that correctly?)
I lived by myself there sometimes. But in the 9 year run
of that apartment there were many other people that lived there.
Many were hams. And then there was the one guy who tried to
fire up the 1000 watt ham HF amplifier from that little apartment. He was smart
enough to try it in the middle of the night. There was the guy who caught the curtains on fire. The guy who was from Hawaii and tried to cross country ski
out in the front yard. There was the guy downstairs who worked at the dump.
And the guy across the hall who had the Dodge Charger and all kinds of guns displayed on his walls. For some reason he always needed help getting his TV
to work. Too much beer there I think. A lot of funny characters.
Because the ARRL and W1AW were just a few blocks down the street - I
never had a Part 15 station there. There might hve been problems.
I did have the above mentioned LPB carrier current transmitter. It worked perfectly and was on 640 kHz, which was clear at the time. But I didn't know how to do carrier current then. What a shame. That would have been great!
So many stories. So many goofy people in and around there.
Brooce
Happy to inform Mister Druid Hills Radio that he has been chosen as a Greeter for the Low Power Super center. What we need is a photo of you to post there to give you a web presence.
Brooce, your Studioette is now on display along with Radio8Z's Knight Kit tube oscillator and John Ganley's radio station in a train car.
Hey, the board looked so much better then um er um
than (?) it does now. Ha Ha Ha Ha I guess I have a lot more work to do
than I realized. It's good you have a record of it from that
time Carl. The other pictures are really good to see. Especially
Neil's vintage Knight Kit AM transmitter.
Thanks again
Brooce