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Ham Radio in the 1970s (and earlier, with some cool Jazz). What favorite rigs do you see?

✇SolderSmoke Daily News
Bill Meara

Rogier PA1ZZ sent me this today.  I think I may have seen pieces of it before, but this restoration 
is really nice.  But ham radio seems to have been a lot cooler in California.  I don't remember it being so socially advantageous on the East Coast.   See Dilbert cartoon below. 

So many memories: 

-- The video opens with someone working on a QF-1 Q multipliers.  We have destroyed so many of these relics, in pursuit of the variable capacitors (which turn out to be not so good). 

-- A Drake 2-B on Field Day. 

-- An HT-37 in a shack.

--What looks like an HW-32a in a mobile rig. 

-- Maybe an HW-101. 

--  A BC-348. 

-- The ATV station with lots of homebrew gear was very cool. 

-- I also liked the single THERMATRON homebrew CW rig made from an old TV.  FB. 

-- The CW used in the video was all pretty good.  There was a lot of chirp.  This, of course, adds character to a signal.  FB.

After the video, they take a walk down memory lane, looking at ham radio magazines with some cool jazz playing in the background.  I saw a Swan 240 and a D-104.  The debauchery of the 1970s was evident on the magazine covers.  Even QST seemed to be caught up in this.  Check out the August 1975 cover of QST.  

Anyway, this video was a lot of fun.  Thanks Rogier!  

What favorite rigs do you see?   Make note of them in the comments. 


This video and the Dilbert cartoon reminded me of a discussion we had many years ago about THE KNACK: 

Ham Radio Workbench: Stuffing Digital Stuff Into Poor Old Boatanchors

✇SolderSmoke Daily News
Bill Meara

Let me start by saying that I LIKE Ham Radio Workbench.  But I found a lot in the current edition that I disagreed with.  The whole panel seems to be chuckling at the older gear.  And the guest is from... Flex radio.   So what do you expect?  The title was "Radio Rejuvenation" -- I expected something different.  I thought we'd hear more about how to get old tube radios going.  Instead, the  focus seems to have been on how to take an old radio and stuff an RTL dongle, or a Raspberry Pi, or a Flex radio in there.  Yuck.  

At one point they are laughing at old magic eye tubes!  They wonder if there is a digital way of recreating this tube in digital form.  Sorry fellows, that has already been done: 

https://hackaday.com/2023/04/12/the-eyes-have-it-with-this-solid-state-magic-eye/

Even an analog guy like me spotted that one. 

Here is the show:  

https://workbench.libsyn.com/hrwb-213-radio-rejuvenation-with-dan-quigley-n7hq

But hey, like I always say:  To each his own.  I'm sure many people like this approach.  It is just not for me. 

Ragnar LA1UH's Wonderful Museums in Norway

✇SolderSmoke Daily News
Bill Meara


Here are two more great museum visits by Helge LA6NCA.  In these two he visits Ragnar LA1UH.  

Ragnar has a lot of maritime experience, so we see a lot of older ships' radios.  But his interest in the radio art is much broader and we also see a lot of other kinds of gear: 

-- Wow,  a "travel radio" in a suitcase from 1927.  Was this the idea that later lead to the Parasets of WWII? 

-- Lots of "Stay Behind" gear from the Cold War. That "Africa" receiver (that never made it to Africa!) is very interesting. 

-- We see an ART-13 with autotune, ANGRC-9s, several ARC-5 command sets.  I was hoping Raganar would fire up a Dynamotor, but no. 

-- I spotted a Galaxy V transceiver.  I have the VFO reduction drive from one of these in my homebrew 15/10 rig.   

-- We see several variometers in the emergency (500kc?) maritime transmitter.  I used a variometer in my super-simple ET-2 transceiver (with an N0WVA receiver). 

-- Lots and lots of tubes. 

Ragnar says he himself is of 1944 vintage. I hope some "stay behind" provisions have been made for these amazing museums. 

Thanks to Helge LA6NCA and to Ragnar LA1UH.  

Jens OZ1GEO's AMAZING Radio Museum

✇SolderSmoke Daily News
Bill Meara


Brace yourselves.  This is just too much, too much radio history, too much cool stuff.  We are into ham radio sensory overload territory here. The rigs, the radios, the radioactive stuff (including tubes!).  Lots of Whermact stuff.  A Chinese receiver.  Tesla coils and Faraday shields.  Much more. 

Thanks to Helge LA6NCA for alerting us to this and for shooting these videos.  And thanks to Jens OZ1GEO for putting this magnificent collection together.  I hope they find sometplace to keep this all together so that future generations can benefit from it. 

George WB5OYP points out there is more from Jens here: 

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