Former Vintage Station

PIX AND THOUGHTS ON THE SECOND GO-AROUND WITH VACUUM TUBE RECEIVERS, TRANSMITTERS, AND AMPLIFIERS

Collins and Drake tube rigs and accessories

This is what I refer to as the "vintage" side of my former radio shack. Okay, there's a computer too, but it was mostly analog over there. I'd recreated my college-era Drake B-Line station, and acquired an S/Line that was built when I was 4 years old. With the help of others, I'm rediscovering some old magic in radio, using this gear. For DXing and the little contesting I do, there's more modern gear on the other side of the shack. Thanks Dad, N3ADT, for bringing home a radio that glowed, and starting me in this terrific hobby.

Thanks to Maury, W4HYB, for selling me his 1958 S-1/Line. I did my best keep it in the great condition after all his years of taking such good care of it. The next owners of each piece (TX and RX went to different buyers) were delighted with them. A few months after I received the S/Line from Maury, the RE 30L-1 was added. My sincere thanks to K3TRM for "making it happen." It completes the S/Line nicely and adds the first 8 dB or so to the signal from the same size package as the transmitter and receiver. Frank also provided a 312B-4 that I spruced up, but I was never happy with my repaint job on the cabinet. I replaced it with one from eBay in very good condition, so that finished the WE pair nicely. You can see more pictures of the amp clean-up at RE 30L-1 from a yard sale. This original lineup is currently being replaced at my current station in Amissville with RE 75S-3B, 32S-3, 312B-4, and 516F-2. The 30L-1 remains to complete the RE station.

Here is a fun restoration project. The Hallicrafters HA-1 T.O. Keyer appeared with several slight variations over the years it was manufactured, including differing knobs, and the addition of the newer, round, red logo, and new Hallicrafters logo on the aluminum trim band on the front panel. It was a little hard to tell that it had black and gray under the dirt and dust, but it cleaned up nicely, at least from the outside. It seemed wrong to use a solid-state keyer with all the hollow-state gear. My thanks to John, W1JA, for making it available to me. A more complete pictorial record of the cleanup and refurbishment is shown at refurbishment of T.O Keyer provided by W1JA . I'm honored that this keyer is now in the shack of a famous local contester. I suspect it's part of a vintage station there. Meanwhile, I've replaced it with one that required less cleanup. Having one in the black & gray corner just seemed right.