Ham Radio From The Past...

This should bring a smile to anyone who played around with radios back in the "good old days"...

I received this today via email. It's a page from a 1960 issue of Electronics Illustrated showing a home-made, 4-tube transmitter/receiver project.

This is the "stuff" that we did as kids back in the mid-20th century and, amazingly, a simple set like this could communicate all over the world.

(Click on the photos for 
an enlarged view)

Pictured below is a 3-tube set that I made back in the mid-1960's. It had three tubes (6L6 transmitter, 6SN7 receiver and 5U4 power supply), and fit in the attache' case shown in the photo.

Home-made Transmitter... WOW!

What we have here is a beautiful example of a home-made transmitter. As you can see from the photos, the ham (unknown) who built this was a true craftsman. He even made the chassis and formed the mesh cabinet!

The transmitter uses one tube (a 6L6) and puts out about 10 watts on the 80 and 40 meter ham bands.

The workmanship is beautiful inside and out.

I can't imagine how many hours were spent creating this little gem, but I greatly admire the person who has this kind of skill and patience!

Click on photos

to see them enlarged.

K6CU Featured in CQ Magazine!
The March issue of CQ magazine had a nice little write-up on my "vintage" station (top photo above). This was part of the "How It Works" column, written by Dave Ingram for the past 30 years.

The equipment shown in the photo is from the 50's (the receiver) and the 60's (transmitter). Both units work very well, and are in very nice condition. I had a schedule with Dave to have a contact using this set-up, but conditions were not good enough to work him on the east coast.

Sadly, this is the last column Dave (K4TWJ) wrote as he passed away on January 20. I had spoken with and emailed Dave several times over the years.

To read the text, click on the image for a larger view.

Cincy In The Wintertime...

For the past 13 years I've traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio for the annual V-Twin motorcycle expo. Sometimes the weather is very nice, and sometimes not so much. Last week at the show the weather was bit on the cool side (highs of 18 degrees) with SNOW!

Pictured above is the view in front of Applebee's restaurant, where we had dinner on Friday night. This was the start of a snowstorm that dumped about 6 inches on us.

This is not the nice soft "throwing a snowball" kind of snow. It's icy, crusty and hard as a rock, which makes walking and driving a challenge. I'm glad to be home!

On The Air With The GRC-109...


Today I finally got the old GRC-109 military "spy" radio on the air, and made two contacts right away! One of the contacts was with John (N4HBH) located on the east coast in Virginia who gave me a nice signal report. The other contact was with a station in Oregon.

The video above shows me calling CQ (calling for any station). Sorry there's no sound, but it shows the lights on the transmitter blinking as I send the call.

This was about the easiest set up I can remember. Just hook the transmitter to the power supply, hook up an antenna, and start transmitting. This radio is about 50 years old, and puts out about 25 watts of power. There is a matching receiver that I would like to add to this setup.

In the video you can see me using the little key that is built right on top of the transmitter.

Blast from the past...

Our daughter Kristen was going through some old photos and found this one of Robbin and me.

Boy, those were the good old days! Just thought everyone would get a laugh seeing this old photo from 1980!

My Newest Toy...

Pictured above is my newest "toy". On the right is a 2-tube radio transmitter (GRC-109). This is a military "spy" transmitter, and was used extensively during the Vietnam war, especially during the early days when the special forces were in operation covertly.

The little transmitter is about 8-1/2" x 5-1/2", about the size of a VHS video tape. It runs about 10 watts output and covers from 3 to 22 megacycles, quite a range for such a small set. It only operates "cw", or morse code mode, and has a built in key!

Although low power, with a decent antenna this transmitter has good long-range capability, and many hams have worked around the globe using this set. There is also a matching receiver and power supply that I would like to find (see photo below).

On the left is a home made power supply that I hope to "mate" with the transmitter. I'll do an update once I've connected the two units and run some tests.

There is some interesting background on this radio set. Click on this link: SPY RADIO