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| The ham radio shack, with a look at Dad’s lurking Johnson Viking… |
Pretty sure now I’m not going to get on the air with Dad’s battered old ham gear. Father’s Day’s in the rear view mirror, and that makes it less culturally complicated to reassess. I’m working my way through a new pile of ARRL books; the Ops Manual, the General Class License Manual, the Grounding and Bonding book, and, of course, the Antennas book. The focus now is on the General license. But in contemplating breaking in on the air with Morse, or sending CQ with Morse, I find, as I listen in on the doings, that I need a clean signal, powerful enough to be heard at some distance, and I’m not getting it in the room with a dummy load. The Bob Heil pine board transmitter, designed for crystal frequency control and AM phone operation, puts out a maximum of about 5 watts. The lowest 80 meter crystal I have on hand vibrates at 3563 KHz (3.563 MHz), and that’s a bit north of the 3550.25 I need for Morse on 80 meters. The VFO (Heathkit VF-1) I have brought back up is dodgy. This was part of a rig Dad bought for $30 at a Hamfest. The Ameco TX-86, which I’ve lately gotten a “manual” and schematic for, is equally, if not even more … dodgy. It has a homebrew power supply that puts out 373 volts DC. I replaced the jumper on the PS for an actual switch, and added an indicator light. I took some measurements with a voltmeter. It puts out voltage. How clean? Unknown. But the “manual” tells one very little about operations. The selectable meter is dead. That I know. In CW mode, I get a carrier on key down (all with a dummy load). But in Phone, the final starts to glow, and that’s not a good sign. I don’t much feel like putting this stuff on the air. My call sign needs to be protected form earning a bad reputation. Assuming, of course, anybody out there could here this feeble squawk.
Back in Dad’s active day, there was no internet where one could buy manuals and docs. I seriously doubt that Dad ever got this Ameco/Heathkit rig on the air.
Then, there’s the massive Johnson Viking. It’s taking up a lot of space in my little corner devoted to radio art.
So I’m wondering, here, out loud and publicly… Where is the path? Why am I doing this? If it’s to get on the air and use my privileges, then I’d better pony up for some current functional gear. If it’s too honor Dad’s memory by getting his junk on the air… well…
It think the memory of Dad is of a piece. His bike, which he rode to death, was junk. He made do. He was perhaps a bit of a cheapskate, but he had a family to support, and he was retired by the time he got into radio. Not to detract from the man; I share so much, and I miss his presence. But I’m not convinced his omni-presence is well-served by devotion to his radio junk. Two pieces of gear from his shack aren getting a good workout: the Kenwood receiver, and the Azden 2 meter transceiver. That’s plenty of legacy. It’s good, functional equipment.
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| The Arduino keyer, paddles and bug. The VFO doesn’t like the keyer. |