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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment.

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Old 21st Aug 2019, 1:11 pm   #21
MrBungle
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

Will do. Thanks again.
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Old 21st Aug 2019, 4:38 pm   #22
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

There's Telford in just over a week's time.

I may be making a foray south for that.

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Old 21st Aug 2019, 5:27 pm   #23
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

Quote:
Originally Posted by g4aaw pete View Post
Used this setup on the 80m VMARS net about 15 years ago.
It could easily have passed for a 1970's installation.
Snap! well almost , my ham shack as a very newly licensed back in the day. Chinese copy of a Vanguard using 807's and a Geloso VFO. The sort of VFO where you have to send a preamble to the main message like " Please follow me up the band while I transmit". Seriously though, it wasn't that bad after a good warm up but fellow radio hams living nearby would say to me next day " I see you were working Malta last night". "Gee" I said, "Did you hear me on 20 metres then?". "No", came the reply, "I copied your CW on my television screen". . That CR100 was heavily modified with 1 minute warm up delay valve and a crystal calibrator. I wonder where it is now!
The other bits are a Hudson and a Pye Reporter and my first HF radio being a simple Lafayette HE40 which I still keep for nostalgia
73 es gd dx de G4CNH
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Old 29th Aug 2019, 11:15 am   #24
Steve G4WCS
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

Quote:
Originally Posted by G3PIJpeter View Post
Receivers - BC348 or HRO-M, MX / R106 or something early Eddystone (640 / 750 / 680).

Transmitter - VFO from a BC221 frequency meter with homebrew multiplier / PA - follow the instructions at http://www.k4che.com/BC221/BC221pg2.htm

- Peter G3PIJ

used my the late G(D)3HDL, who years ago freely gave me many hours of morse code training to pass the code test to get my class A licence. happy days
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Old 29th Aug 2019, 12:19 pm   #25
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

To back up Mr Bungle, I have had mixed experience buying 'working' receivers from rallies. I had decided I wanted a working set to enjoy straight off rather than a project. I have found two superb sets this year -an R1155, modified, to a high standard, for £50, and a CR100, original and also painstakingly restored for the same money. I found a couple of other R1155's for more which I did not keep once I found that one (I didn't lose out), but were described as working. One was full of terrible and unsafe bodges, the other did work, not very well, and needed a full restoration as had simply been repaired some time in the past. It was all well worthwhile but time consuming. The 1155 isn't an especially good set imop, but the one I now have performs well. The CR100 is far nicer to use if you don't mind the weight. Really it's a matter of what turns up. Sellers at rallies aren't as accountable as ebay sellers. But they are far cheaper and you don't have to worry about it getting to you.
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Old 29th Aug 2019, 2:26 pm   #26
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

Indeed. I did consider a couple of things at the MKARS rally but walked away with just two air variable capacitors and a Drew Diamond book and slithered off to the computing museum instead. Discovered they sell a valve regen kit in there, for momentary excitement, then saw the £50 price tag, went pfft and ambled off home to look for the bits to build my own for twice the price probably on ebay.

Alas I haven't progressed very far with this yet. Thanks for all the posts so far. Lots to consider and lots of valuable information.

I did mean to mention I got a mint 1942 dated WT 8 amp straight key which I rather like more than my Kent one. That's a start I suppose!
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Old 29th Aug 2019, 11:31 pm   #27
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

That period of late 50's to mid-70's may not sound like very many years numerically, but it was a time when things were changing very fast.

The first ham radio station I ever visited was Harold, G6QO, in 1965. He was an old-timer and his station comprised of an HRO receiver and then various home-built AM transmitters. I'd say that at that time, very many people were still using ex-military WWII receivers, and there were still lots of home-built AM transmitters. Codar, Labgear and Eddystone were around and about. But I recall him telling me that commercially-made SSB gear was probably going to take over, and he was very quickly proved correct.

When I arrived at university in '72, the club station consisted of little more than a KW2000 transceiver (which was most unimpressive) which was soon replaced with an FT101 (which was quite impressive).

Of course, there's the 2m side of things to consider also, that really took off about 1968 with loads of commercial RT stuff coming on the market at low prices, often being used together with a 2m converter feeding the main receiver.

That too was displaced by commercial SSB stuff by the mid-70's.

B
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Old 29th Aug 2019, 11:46 pm   #28
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

The era of the Rice Box was beginning. Credit for that I must assign to G3THS of Marham.

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Old 30th Aug 2019, 1:22 pm   #29
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

Speaking from personal experience with receivers, I would recommend the RA-17 and the Eddystone 888A. Plus, for the period you mention, the RCA AR88 was always a firm favourite, but accuracy of tuning is far superior on the '888A and the '17.
As for the EA-12, it's reverse tuning scale used to drive me crazy! Plus the 'birdies' on 160 m. and 80 m.

Al.
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Old 30th Aug 2019, 3:31 pm   #30
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

Talking of AR88's I found a stash of them in TNMOC the other week...
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Old 30th Aug 2019, 4:52 pm   #31
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

I see an impostor in the bottom of the rightmost rack....

An AR88 would be a decent enough Rx for use in your proposed station - they were very popular back in the days of Amateurs using AM/CW and a good one can still give a credible 'single signal' CW performance on the LF bands with its nicely-peaked xtal filter.

[Just don't use the "STBY" position of the power-switch to silence it when on transmit though]
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Old 30th Aug 2019, 5:38 pm   #32
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

The HRO? Indeed

Yeah they certainly are under consideration. The 44Kg or so does scare me a bit but that comes with the territory. Seem to be not terribly difficult to get hold of as well as there's one on the usual place at the moment not too much of a drive from here.
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Old 30th Aug 2019, 5:48 pm   #33
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

There's also a BC221 in the leftmost rack to keep them all honest

David
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Old 30th Aug 2019, 5:50 pm   #34
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Almost missed that one! Good day out that is if anyone hasn't done it. It was dead quiet because everyone went straight to Bletchley Park so I got a one to one tour.
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Old 30th Aug 2019, 8:38 pm   #35
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

It's a while since I was at Bletchley, but my recollection is that HRO's significantly outnumbered the AR88 there. I think I've raised this question before, but don't recall any answer coming forth - I wonder which receiver was more popular among operators at Bletchley - the HRO or the AR88 ?

Evidential replies preferred - we can all speculate.

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Old 30th Aug 2019, 10:33 pm   #36
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

Must be careful not to muddle StationX and the Intercept stations.
Best part of photograph for me - the aerial distribution rack.
Pat Hawker wrote on these a little. They are an interest of mine but so far I know little about them.
35 years later the same idea on PMR sites - that I know.
He wrote about needing isolation to stop interference from local oscillators crossing the output networks...
It was before it's time...looked back on from here.

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Old 31st Aug 2019, 9:30 am   #37
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

The HRO is notorious for LO radiation.

I understand there were lots of HROs put into use, then there were lots of AR88.

Operator preference? I think the front panel crystal phasing control gave the HRO the win as these were CW operations.

(No reply to PM, so I didn't bring that KW Viscount down with me)

David
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Old 31st Aug 2019, 9:49 am   #38
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Default Re: Vintage British amateur radio stations

HRO is a bit open plan between LO and Antenna sections of the tuning capacitor so no wonder it radiates!
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Old 4th Dec 2019, 10:08 pm   #39
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Minor update on this one finally. Due to some unforeseen family circumstances this has been put on hold. As a positive I’ve been clearing out my somewhat extensive collection of junk so have the funds now to pounce on something if it appears.

Apologies for not replying to the PMs received! My gratitude goes out to those who offered some items. I will resume normal service shortly.
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