| K6YE |
Rating:      |
2019-05-23 | |
| GREAT BACK IN THE DAY |
Time Owned: N.A. |
I bought one used off CQ or 73 magazine in the early 60s. It arrived in the mail with my novice license. I paired it with a Hallicrafters S-85 receiver and an endfed dipole. I worked a lot of domestic stations but replaced the AC-1 with a Heathkit DX-40 and an Eico 722 vfo when I upgraded to General. I also upgraded the receiver with a National NC-300, the antennas to Inverted Vees, and then had a respectable station and corresponding signal. The Ameco was a lot of fun despite the 15 watts input limitation. Those were the days, my friend.
Semper Fi,
Tommy - K6YE
DX IS and CW RULES |
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| K3MD |
Rating:   |
2016-10-10 | |
| My first rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| This was my first rig... did manage to make a few QSO's with it, before my Uncle W2MS took pity on me and gave me a Ranger 1 and HQ-129X. I got a replica AC-1 in 2008, but it consistently had low output (0.3W). Tried a 6AU6 oscillator and 6AQ5 final, but the same result. The recent replica by RadioDaze has a non-doubler HV power supply, a real full-wave with a 6X5 rectifier, and cranks out a good 7 to 10 watts. The crystal heats up and drifts, and the rig chirps a bit, but it is true to original form. |
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| K7KQ |
Rating:    |
2016-08-02 | |
| My first transmitter |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I received my AC-1 for Christmas in 1966. My Dad chose this transmitter because of its low power. He thought I couldn't electrocute myself with it. He never knew about my attempts to boost the power by using a 6146, with hundreds of exposed plate volts on the unprotected top cap! Not to mention the exposed high voltage on the straight key.
I was frustrated because I didn't understand how to set the loading control, but persisted and made quite a few contacts with my one or two crystals.
It was my first transmitter. Not very good, but it got me on the air and I wish I still had it. |
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| WB8CAC |
Rating:      |
2013-08-07 | |
| FUN ! ! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
For what it was / is supposed to be, you can't beat it. I built my first one at age 12. The kit cost $19.95 from Lafayette. Made many contacts using it and a Hallicrafters S-77A receiver. The note varied from great to terrible depending on the condition of the crystal used. A lot of people got on the air for a minimum investment using the AC-1.
I recently built a clone of the AC-1. It looks and operates just like the original. Unfortunately, using mostly new parts, it cost over $200 to build. See it at http://webpages.charter.net/wb8cac/ac1.htm |
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| KG8LB |
Rating:      |
2013-07-30 | |
| The Miracle of Radio Discovered |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I can remember back in 1961 going to Radio Supply and Engineering on Selden in Detroit with my dad . I had cut out the ad for the Ameco and had it all folded up in my pocket . Somehow the salesman talked my dad into an Eico 720 . The 720 was OK but I still wanted the basic little TX in kit form . Finally saved up a few $$ and landed the little Ameco . Somehow the little Ameco was a bit more gratifying to operate . Yes , the self described real hams may wrap themselves in an imagined aire of superiority because it wasn't built from parts but an 11 year old can still take satisfaction from making contacts with a lowly kit built TX .YEs some folks pay big bucks for them . This my tend to make the frugal a bit angry . The fact remains enough people are willing and able to pay for their desire to re-kindle the fondest memories of their excursion into amateur radio . Many of those same "kit builders" have gone on to build some very impressive home brew gear as well . |
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| K5MO |
Rating:      |
2008-06-18 | |
| Great simple fun |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I built one as a n00bie at age 14 and again built a clone 2 yrs ago. Both provided huge fun for the dollar investment, neither chirped, and both were built with my two hands (the second time around I did NOT melt the coil form pins when soldering the wire, however. I STILL remember doing that!)
What more can you ask for? |
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| K3MOV |
Rating:      |
2008-02-23 | |
| Hard to give your first transmitter less than a"5". |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Until Steve mentioned it, I had forgotten the "joy" of trying to sandpaper away the paint on the bottom of the chassis in order to make good electrical contact.
Almost fifty years later, that just doesn't bother me the way it did then. All I remeber is putting it together with my grandfather's raingutter soldering iron (about 1" in diameter) and having it work the first time I threw the switch. It also reminds me of the improvement in my signal as I went from the 67' long wire to the dipole descibed in the instructuion manual of the AC-1. My evaluation of this rig is obviously clouded by the good memories associated with it.
As for Mac's eveluation, I say bully for you. Your evaluation is just another example of how mean spirited some in our hobby have become.
Steve, as usual, gives a good theoretical explantion of why he did not like this transmitter. Mac, on the other hand, takes a product as simple as a two tube transmitter kit and personalizes it by referring to those who liked it as "appliance ops" with "more money than brains" and "lazy". Ah, if at fifteen we were all only as intelligent as Mac. We could have probably torn an old TV apart and made a Commodore 64. I'm sure that Mac's first computer was hombrewed and he has fond memories of it!! Chill out Mac. Different fond memories for different folks. |
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| WB2WIK |
Rating:  |
2007-12-05 | |
| Junque |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I agree with Mac.
I bought one brand new in 1966 (kit form) for $19.95 at Federated Electronics in NJ and put it together in one evening -- not much to it.
Frustrating that I had to use a file and sandpaper to get rid of the paint on the underside of the chassis and ensure good ground connections and several locations. For ten cents in paper and tape they could have masked that. But then, if they masked it, they would have had to use PLATED steel, which they did not! Ameco painted everything to keep it from rusting.
Needless to say, when you scrape the paint away to make ground connections, those spots do rust.
It made contacts but was neither a fun project nor something I looked forward to using. I'd fire up the AC-1 (with the NC-300) but then always go back to the DX-60A, which I also build from a kit ($79.95 back in those days, and a far better deal) and had more power, more bands, a meter, an accessory outlet to power a VFO, AM capability, and a non-rusting chassis.
If people are paying hundreds for them today, they have to be nuts!
WB2WIK/6 |
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| W8ZNX |
Rating:    |
2007-12-05 | |
| hb a better rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
if you want real nostalgia
get some old parts
and build your self
a one or two tube cw transmitter
you can build a better transmitter
from scratch
one weekend
gave away my AC-1 over 30 years ago
and don't miss it one bit
if you could still find them
selling for what they are realy worth
they would be fun to play with
it not worth the collectors price
unless you are an appliance op
with more money than brains
that is to lazy
to make their own simple novice transmitter
from scratch
mac
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| N3DG3 |
Rating:      |
2007-07-06 | |
| Reliable, Cute, Fun |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Many of us AC-1 owners seem to have so much in common. In 1971 I was WN3SZD and my mother gave me an Ameco AC-1 kit from Lafayette in Northeast Philly as a birthday gift and companion to a Sears Shortwave Receiver. With my elmer Jim K3OBY reviewing my work every step of the way, they project was complete and amazingly worked.
My antenna was almost 20 feet of end-fed wire from the bedroom window on my row home to the clothes pole 5 foot above ground, and with no counterpoise. My receiver was a Sears Wayfarer Transistorized Sortwave which did not even have a BFO for CW. I overloaded the Sears receiver with the AC-1 and then got a loaner of a National NC-109 from a ham, after it was struck by lightning and with marginal sensitivity and no filters. If I dropped the pencil on the table, the NC-109 changed frequency about 20 KC.
With just a few crystals, the Ameco AC-1 worked on 40 and even 80. Never forgot my very first QSO with another Philly Novice WN3TIF and peddling my Banana-seat Bike to the post office to mail my first QSL card, a postcard with Magic-Marker call sign.
Eventually, I learned how to build a tuned circuit with a loading coil and capacitor, and the dummy load bulb became brilliant with RF. Now, I really could operate with 20 feet of wire somehow on 80 CW. Every Friday & Saturday, I looked forward to staying up late with no school, to work DX; first Ohio, then Indiana, Illinois and then even Nebraska on 80.
Later in the 1970s, I got a Heath AT-1 (which exploded), DX-60B, HW-101 and the fine superior Japanese rigs like the Kenwood TS-520S, TS-820S and Tempo One.
Thankfully, I still have that Ameco AC-1 sitting next to an IC-7800, FTdx-9000D and Alpha Amplifiers to try and keep my “ham career” in perspective, but I cannot say that I ever was so excited since those beginning days with that $25 Ameco AC-1.
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