Studio 'B' @ WB4IUY/AC4QD

These are pictures of the second operating position and station equipment here. I've been a ham since 1974, so I've collected a goodly amount boat anchors and older stuff. I'll attempt to show you some of them here on my webpage.

I love Heathkit gear...I can't explain why, I just do. There was always something magical about operating a piece of old tube-type gear on the air, to make contacts with distant stations. Some of my most fond memories are from 1974, when a beautiful 'constellation' of lights projected though the dark and up onto the ceiling of my first hamshack, by the dial lamps and tubes inside of an old Hallicrafters SX-42 receiver. The light from within it's cabinet projected up though it's perforated lid and into the surrounding room. My transmitter was a tube-tupe homebrew, built from a 1959 Radio Amateur's Handbook, and assembled from parts salvaged from old scrap TV sets. I guess I'll always have a fondness for those old bits and pieces from my early days in the hobby...

Most of the equipment below is in the 'Rainy Day Project' category. I have WAY more projects than there are rainy days, but I keep 'acquiring' these items for some reason. I can't help myself :-)

Hallicrafters SX-42 Receiver

This was my very first commercial ham band receiver. I had a few homebrews prior, but this was the 'cat's meow' back in the day!

Hal Telereader Interface

This Oldie-but-Goodie is a beautiful RTTY and CW interface. It has it's own vacuum tube monochrome display built-in, and still works great today. It has a place in my primary station position, due to it's dependability!

Heathkit SB-Series Station

I got this equipment back in 1991 at the Greensboro NC hamfest. It was mostly built in the '60's by various hams, and refurbished in my home workshop by me. It consists of: SB301 receiver, SB-401 Transmitter, SB-600 External Speaker, SB-620 Receive Panadapter, SB-610 Transmit Scope, SB-630 Station Console, and SB-500 2m Transverter.

Heathkit SB-101

This is an old Heathkit SB-101 transceiver I picked up at a hamfest, somewhere. I can't help myself around this green radio gear, hehehehehe. It's in the "rainy day project" category. I have it partially restored at this time.

Hammarlund Station Speaker

I snagged this cool Hammarlund speaker from Ronnie WA4MJF in 2010, when he was getting rid of a few old pieces from his station. It has the original paint, original speaker cloth, on a heavy metal enclosure. It sounds great and has a nice rich sound when receiving AM signals.

Heathkit SB-630 Station Console & SB-600 Speaker

This pair is nearly restored, the cases are painted and the electrics in the console are working nicely. I've got to finish the reassembly one of these days :-)

Heathkit SB-303 Receiver

This is the solid state ham band receiver that Heathkit came out with to match the SB-series line of equipment. It is fairly stable, and has good sensitivity. It was a good addition to the SB Station, and didn't have to be left on all the time to control drift from heating.

Heathkit SB-310 Receiver

This is the solid state Shortwave bands receiver that Heathkit came out with to match the SB-series line of equipment. It is fairly stable, and has good sensitivity. It's another piece for my Heathkit collection...I'm going to have to build a new operating position to hold this additional Heathkit gear.

Heathkit SB-650 Digital Display

This is a neat piece for the shack. It's a digital display that interfaces with the SB-301 Receiver. This one has some logic issues, but I've got all of the chips to replace all of the devices in the logic circuitry.

Heathkit HR-10B Receiver

I had one of these many many years ago, along with a DX-60 transmitter. I couldn't pass this one up, it was VERY clean!

Heathkit DX-60B Transmitter

I also had one of these many years ago, connected to a HR-10B receiver. I acquired this one to complete the station that I had back in my CW-only days. This one is very clean, but is going to take some serious electrical work, as it looks like the assembler didn't pay close attention to the assembly manual, hehehehehe...

Heathkit HW-101 Transceiver

This rig was purchased from Rod N4BNO at the Maysville Hamfest back in 1993 and was non-functional. Finally, in 2010, I got around to repairing it. It's now on the air and operating in fine style. See....I do eventually get around to completing some of my projects :-)

Gonset GSB-201 MkIII

This amp was purchased from M.M. Preston K4SQC (sk) in 1992 and was non-functional. I repaired the power supply in it, and put it back on the air. It uses 4ea. 572B tubes, and is built like a tank. It took a lightning strike in 1998, and was off the air until January 2010 when I made more repairs and put it back on the air. It looked pretty bad when I got it in '92, and I put a poor-boy's paint job on it to dress it up a little. It is in need of a decent paint job now, but works pretty darn good!

Heathkit HW-101 Transceiver

This is is a clean HW-101 Transceiver I restored for my dad (Duke KD4NNK) and installed at his place up at Kerr Lake.

Collins R-391 receiver

This is a clean R-391 receiver I picked up in an estate sale. I got it running to verify that it was OK, and gave it to my friend Ronnie WA4MJF. He runs it in his shack on a regular basis.

National NC-300 Receiver

This is a cool old rig...definitely a 'fixer-upper', but it has potential. I bought it with no tubes, but it did have a complete manual and looks to be all intact.

-BOAT ANCHOR-

This is a true boat anchor...covered in rust, missing parts, etc. I bought this many years ago at the Shelby Hamfest on a bet with Tripp Owens N4NTO. We used to go to hamfests, and agree to buy something before we left that was a total piece of junk. We did this quite often... I kept this old WRL Galaxy, because I got several parts radios and all manuals. I thought it might be a fun project one day, just for the exercise of performing a COMPLETE restoration to bring a total piece of junk back to life. This radio qualifies as that total piece of junk. :-)

Lafayette HE-50a/HE-62 Transceiver/VFO

This is an old 10 meter transceiver & matching VFO. It is operational, but requires a little cosmetic work.

WRL Galaxy

This is another WRL Galaxy... I don't know why I picked this one up, but it may become restoration parts for the old BOAT ANCHOR above...

CG-46116 / RAX-1

I was given this receiver in 2010 by a local ham and friend, Holt AC4UD. It is a Navy receiver that covers from 1.5 - 9.0 mhz on AM 7 CW. It was typically used in a shipboard radio room. I'm just getting started on restoring this now, so I have a ways to go on this fun project.

I found a complete schematic online for the unit, man...the internet is great! Here's a link to the schematic, in the event someone else needs it. SCHEMATIC

Here's a link to a great site with loads of info on the CG-46116 / RAX-1 series receivers. Click HERE to see pics and learn more about these interesting receivers!

Heathkit HM-2102 Wattmeter

This is another piece of Heathkit gear. This monitors the output and antenna conditions of my VHF operations from Studio 'B'. The HM-2102 is the VHF version of their popular HM-102 HF version.

Astron 35 Amp Supply

Studio 'B' has a small amount of equipment that requires 12 vdc for operations. This is another of my Astron power supplies, and is the 35 amp metered supply. It handles the DC supply tasks around the shack nicely, and has a built-in crowbar circuit for added protection.

Old Microphones

Along with Boatanchors, I also like old microphones. Click the microphone pic on the right to have a look at my 'Old Microphone' page...

James Millen Frequency Meters

These old frequency meters are mostly a display item, as there are much better ways to measure resonance these days. These were manufactured by the James Millen Company back around 1947. One would hold these near a tuned circuit, watch the current of the circuit in question, rotate the knob until a dip in current in the circuit was noticed, and this would be the approximate frequency of resonance. Just a cool piece of history, they are!

Old Tube Boxes...

Silly... I know. Since I have a pile of old tube gear, and I like the artwork used on the old tube boxes from that era, I also collect the various tube boxes. Some are pretty cool, like the Sylvania box in this pic that originally contained engineering samples that were "not for sale".

Galaxy Crystal Calibrator

This is a plug-in option for an old WRL Galaxy radio. I'm currently restoring one, and this will eventually be plugged in and made operational.