'Loose Wires' November 2023

Of course, 'vintage' also includes add-on accessories, many of which remain very useable, such as high power AMUs, signal processors, adjustable BW/notch filters and test equipment.

Some 'modern' radios, such as the Yaesu mobile/portable rigs don't have AMU/ATU on-board, and for many of these an old manual ATU may not cost much. 

Many hams may not fully realise that most antenna designs are actually 'vintage', while some are truly 'antique'.

There are also some accessories, like a few Shure microphones that are better quality than many modern ones, although wiring them for a modern rig can be confusing.

A key point about 'vintage radios' is that they are not all that difficult to build into a hybrid setup: for example, using with an SDR or a DSP audio filter.

'First generation' all-solid-state radios can now be considered 'classic' or 'vintage' as many are at least 25 years old. Some of these, such as the Icom IC-735 had C-IV ports to allow computer control and will connect to almost all (later) Icom automatic ATUs. 'Second generation' solid-state rigs generally have some sort of interfacing that can be employed (with care).