It’s sometimes said as a joke, but good wines definitely improve with age and, strangely enough, it seems to me that the same is true of both wine and old sophisticatedly designed tube rigs. The older I get the more I like to revitalize and to operate them - it definitely has a different flavor! And I recalled this feeling again during my QSO with Bruno, HB9CBR/P, on HB/SO-010.
Thank you Bruno
73 Karel
Ah, yes. Peak the exciter, dip the plate. Replace an electrolytic. Repeat.
Elliott, K6EL
Thanks for the QSO Karel, I do not really remember whether the sound of your keying was different, I guess it was…
Good luck with the old gear and hope to cu again
73 Bruno HB9CBR
Looking good Karel. But how long does it take to change bands? I like to use my old stuff but it’s a chore changing bands 10 or more times a day!
And Mine is a separate transmitter/receiver.
73,
John, K6YK
Taking band changes to the extreme, I have a trio of rare Hallicrafters SR-75 transceivers, which are S-38B with one added tube, good for ten watts. Chrystals needed. Only one of the three still has a back. Here’s why - to change bands, you have to unscrew and remove the back, short the B+ to discharge the big capacitor, snake a hand through hot tubes to reach and extract the specially designed plug-in tank coil, do the same to install another one, and re-fasten the back, which is supposed to have a safety connector for the AC line. The two backless ones have the safety defeated. None is polarized, so you have a 50% chance of a hot chassis, including the set screws in the front panel knobs.
Elliott, K6EL
yes, the good old days 
Geoff vk3sq
It was a very nice challenge for me to lick Galaxy’s transmitted signal into shape in terms of today’s standards. The signal is stable, chirp-free with smooth transitions and clean spectrum up to -60 dBc. Not bad for an old tube rig (1968). Weak (-80 dBc, that is, a hundred million times weaker than the carrier!) spurious signals at ±800 Hz offset are caused by the AF CW monitor. Unwanted signals (a very acceptable value of - 60 dBc) at ±100 Hz offset are dictated by the residual ripple of HT power supply. RF harmonics suppression also meets FCC requirements.
73 Karel
El,
That’s what made ham radio fun for all us young whippersnappers back in the good old days ! Nowadays, we push a couple buttons and voila, it’s
all done in a couple of seconds. Where’s the fun in that ?
JL K6YK
P.S. Do you have 3 of those transcievers, one on each band so you don’t have to go through that band change procedure? Heh Heh…
It’s a bit like old cars. To drive a veteran car is a big challenge, especially in today’s traffic. No onboard computer, no automatic transmission, no power windows, no air-con, just three pedals accelerator, clutch and back brake only.
73 Karel
