Operating a vintage station with homebrew gear

[ONAIR]

    Wow, this is a real trip down memory lane!  Nothing like throwing together a tube or two and some wires, and making contact with someone a few thousand miles away!  For a real trip in a time machine, some of you may want to check out:  www.vintageham.com

[KB2FCV]

For a real trip in a time machine, some of you may want to check out:  www.vintageham.com

Wow! I need to get my power supply fixed. Makes me want to get my hartley and regen back on the air

[ONAIR]

For a real trip in a time machine, some of you may want to check out:  www.vintageham.com

Wow! I need to get my power supply fixed. Makes me want to get my hartley and regen back on the air

   Yep!  There is just something about putting together one of these oldies and actually getting the thing to work on the air, that seems to change the entire experience of ham radio.  Feels sort of like QRP on steroids!  It's an entirely different experience from operating the plug and play rice boxes of today.

[KA9YZS]

Don,
I seen the slant six.... hmmmm could that be the same guy who casts his own pistons? By golly it is! this tt (Terry Thorne aka oldgoaly in cyberspace) I'm just getting back into ham radio, of course have a bunch of old boat anchors, most needing recapped!  Hope to see ya on the air! if not on here or the Hamb! 73 de KA9YZS

[WA3JJT]

Don,
Just saw your video! Couldn't agree more! The "art" of homebrew is rapidly disappearing! Great to see someone keeping it alive! I have a homebrew regen using a single 6SN7, and am amazed at how will it works! Also have a TX to match using a 6V6 osc and 6L6 final with a knife switch for t/r. Lot's of fun!

Keep up the good work!

Steve WA3JJT

[N2EY]

The "art" of homebrew is rapidly disappearing!

I must disagree somewhat.

I used to think that. But then I encountered Electric Radio magazine, and found there was some serious homebrewing going on. Then I got online, and discovered even more.

Of course parts are higher priced and some things are unobtanium. But at the same time, there's far more info available online than we ever had in the old days, plus parts and entire units for sale.

Homebrewing is a niche thing today, yes, but it's been a niche thing for longer than I've been a ham (44 years plus).

73 de Jim, N2EY

[VE3CFE]

Hi,

For those of you wondering what happened to vintageham.com...It's now located at vintagehamstation.com

thanks
VE3CFE

[VE3LYX]

Old goaly. Tis me, the same fellow. Slant six is in the garage getting a new tach.
Well it has certainly been a lot of fun for me this vintage stuff. I asked my older brother if he had a shortwave set so if I was on air he could listen as he is about 170 miles away. He said no but if he got one he wanted a vintage set. So this week I built him one. A neighbour had given me a partly destroyed Murdock radio from the 1920s. Just the front panel and chassis board, all three caps , the gridleak and some interstage transformers. So I dismantled it and cut the two end of the 30 inch panel and wood chassis off and left the centre cap with its huge coil and a socket on either side. Also the hole for the heater (filament)control and power switch. I reinstalled the two sockets, the centre tuning cap  and the cpoil after rewinding it with 7 turns for tuning and 3 fortickler. I made a wooden cover for my new gridleak so it looked original (useda 220pf and a 1 meg resistor inside). Used a 100k potfrom an old Grimes batteryless radio for the regen control and a 220k resistor on the grid of the audio tube. Wound a RFC on a 1/4 inch dowel and connected the audio stage to it where the regen control connects. The audio stage is fed through a disguised .01mfd condensor. Wired in a phone plug with a 1920s phone jack and away we go. Works great. Runs on 11 nine volt transisitor batteries for Bplus and a 4.5 volt lantern battery for heaters. That one s a bt low but it is all i had in the shack other then 12 volt gels.. I had more fun doing this, no schematic, just cut and try.Will run a speaker (I have a 1920s old wooden one of about 10000 ohms ) Puts the fun back in radio. I used a pair of 01A tubes.
oldgoaly. iIwould be back you now where but they deactivated my password and I am too lazy right now to fix it.
Don VE3LYX
So how about a vintage rig freq where we can all meet.
VE3CFE? Seems a familiar call to me.  Arnprior?