Nostalgia - Not SOTA

Hello Jonathan,

Quite often the ‘teeth’ turn up here along with many other things :wink:

http://www.nvcf.org.uk/

Cheers
Mike

Nor am I ever likely to!

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

Seemingly a few have come up on Ebay in recent years. I always used to see HRO receivers without the coil pack units at rallies when I was younger.

Then again 19 sets hardly ever came up for sale, until it became known that some value was attached to them.

Its still difficult to find accessories for older equipment despite being a member of such organisations…

Jonathan

Jonathan, send me an email (ok on qrz) and let me know what you need and I will see what I can do.

Mike

If I recall rightly I had three and could listen from around 40m up to 10m. It was a long time ago now… between July 1970 and April 1971 according to my records (yes I know - OCD)… I can’t recall who I bought it off, but I exchanged it for the FR-100B at Lowes. In those days they were based at Matlock which was reasonably convenient to get to from my QTH in Nottinghamshire.

73, Gerald G4OIG

Good old Bandit Bill :wink:

Now THAT is nostalgia. I used to read his adverts eagerly for the laugh, they don’t write 'em like that nowadays, more’s the pity!

Brian

PS There used to be a small shop in Brum that sold nothing but old gear, there were shelves at the back of the room with rows of HRO’s on them, shelves of Eddystones, and I remember a restored R1155/T1154 unit that he wanted £220 for. Unfortunately when I went back with the money for a receiver I fancied he had closed down. This was about 15 years ago, I think.

For pure nostalgia (school radio club days), I have wanted one of these for a long time, but always have lost out when I have seen them on auction sites, The close of the auction usually coincides with me being somewhere I can’t get to bid. I think my XYL must have something to do with it as I don’t have the space available for one.

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That looks like the 840C, the 840A just had a small lamp which was replaced in the C by an indicator. How much do they go for, now?

Brian

It is, I have three of them :slight_smile: The 830 is even more impressive with its variable IF. That is still in bits waiting on a few parts to be remade for the tuning scale

I think the 640 is a nice receiver as well with its phasing control.

Jonathan

There’s an 830 on eBay for £499 with most of the world watching it… maybe the price will go higher.

I haven’t seen the list yet, but my local club is handling the SK sale and disposal of a local SWLer. I was told there was a lot of tasty stuff, receivers only. I’ll ping you Brian if there are any Eddystones in there.

Strange coincidence - my school radio club had the very same RX that we could take home and use over the weekends. On my first time home with the radio, using the domestic television aerial I heard G3SXF and sent him a letter. Following day at the front door was G3SXF with my first ever QSL card. The rest as they say is history.

Glyn

PS we weren’t at the same school were we Gerald?

We had 2x AR88, CR100, B40, many command sets at the school radio club when I started. Later we got a FRG-7 then an FRG-7000. Using the Frg 7/7000 was so easy as the tuning scales worked. They didn’t drift as much either. They were used to drive assorted RTTY FSK modems and then the true items of desire, Teletype TTY14, TTY15, TTY28 (my favourite), Creed 7B, 7E.

Ah the delights of watching the Mercury rectifiers in the selector magnet PSU flashing away in time to the TTY28 as it printed out the “news” from TASS or TANJUG in the early-mid 70s. :wink:

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ART-13 transmitter takes up the right most of my shack back at my parents house. 10 mechanical preset channels using an ingenious motorized tuning system. Not British, but still a great piece of engineering. Uses an 813 in the final modulated by a pair of 811A’s. Uses 6V6’s in the early audio stages. I was very lucky to purchase one a couple of years ago.

That’d have been down Hurst Street I bet Brian - ISTR there were in the glory days three shops at least in the same street with attractions for myself and like minded friends - on the right hand side Norman H Field at the top, and Marshall’s half way down ( used to have boxes of 100 Mullard ECC83’s for a tenner - if only I had a time machine…) and further down on the left the establishment you mention, can’t remember the name but used to have dustbinfuls (literally) of octal valves beside the counter.

Must go, got to wipe a tear from my eye :-s

73 de Paul G4MD

Actually no, Paul, those shops were demolished yonks ago. The shop I refer to was not far from the Swan at Yardley, in a side street I can’t remember the name of but not far from a motorcycle shop that has been there for decades. Dammit, though, you’ve brought back the Hurst Street shops to my memory, too. Ah, happy days!

Brian

Yes, sorry Brian the 15 years ago should have given it away! Unfortunately to me the 1960’s seems like “just the other day” :frowning:

Getting old is a terrible thing…

Maybe, but it’s better than the alternative!

Brian

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Hi Glyn - the school was Magnus Grammar at Newark in Nottinghamshire - G3PAW. The 840C was in the “B” Shack teamed up with a Heathkit DX-40U transmitter, homebuilt ATU and a 132 foot long wire. There was a converter available for supposedly better performance on the higher bands, though we mostly stuck to 80m and 40m. When we were older and more responsible, we were allowed into the “A” shack which sported a KW2000 (A version if I recall correctly) and a TA33jnr beam. I was only allowed to operate the stations under supervision as I was a lowly G8.

I don’t recall ever being allowed to take kit home, not least until we bought a Heathkit Twoer and I managed to borrow that over the Christmas break at the end of 1969 to make my first contacts on 2m AM. That allowed me to make contact with the locals who kindly helped out with the loan of a Heathkit Mohican (Doug G8ATM) and components for a transmitter (Dave G8CUO, later G4CUO) and I bought a secondhand G3PRX converter. The HRO replaced the Mohican which went back to Doug and the transmitters went from a QQVO3/10, to a 3/20A and eventually a 6/40A. I can’t recall buying any of those valves - they were all donated by generous locals. I well remember my mother accidentally knocking a gold pinned 6/40A off the mantlepiece - of course I was told off for putting it there!

My friend Derek G3YZJ has a Command receiver which we used to play around with, though I can’t remember whether he had anything to transmit with at the time.

73, Gerald G4OIG

Addition - the recollection of high voltages in this type of kit brought to mind that I got an electric shock last week - off a tumble dryer of all things (capacitor on motor still charged) which must have been the first time I got a shock for over 20 years. At least my ticker still works! The worst ever was the 800V DC that I had on my 6/40A when I ran it as a linear for HSCW meteor scatter.

Tell me about it! My 6-40A bit me several times, the vicious brute! I had the last Mohican from Heathkit - I used to make the obvious joke about the “last of the Mohicans”, an easy build except for threading the cord drive but I was a bit disappointed with its performance. I went back to hollow state and built an RA-1, which was much better.

Brian