Simple Ham Radio Antennas--Vintage Hybrid Transceivers. Post #838.

Vintage Hybrid Transceivers
(http://www.eham.net/articles/36648).
Author:  James Benedict (N8FVJ)
Please click title or article link to read the complete report.

Comment:

This article by James Benedict (N8FVJ) is one of the more interesting reviews of vintage hybrid transceivers online.  A hybrid design uses a solid state receiver and a tube type transmitter, usually with 6146 finals.

Benedict concentrates on early rigs produced by Yaesu and Kenwood, two companies that drove many U.S. manuafacturers out of business during the 1970s through the 1990s.

Many of us owned some of these rigs early on during our "careers" as radio amateurs.  Many of these rigs are still on the air and continue to receive outstanding reports of audio and transmission quality.

According to James, here are the vintage rigs worth saving, repairing, collecting, and using.

The Kenwood series of HF transceivers:

Kenwood TS-520s
Kenwood TS-530s
Kenwood TS-820s
Kenwood TS-830s

The Yaesu series of HF Transceivers:

Yaesu FT-101.
Yaesu FT-101E
Yaesu FT-101Z & ZD through the Mark II series
Yaesu FT-102

While this list is certainly impressive (I still use a Kenwood TS-520s), I would add the Drake C-Line of HF transceivers to the line up.  I have an old Drake 4C which needs some TLC (tender loving care) before I put it on the air.  The old power supply is dead, so I'll have to find some parts to get that thing going first. The one drawback of the old Drake equipment was the use of television sweep tubes in the final.  Such tubes are getting rare and are quite expensive to buy.

If you want a classic HF hybrid rig, try one of the transceivers listed above. While they may not have the competitive edge of current models, they are fairly easy to maintain and sound great over the air.

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Opinions expressed in this blog are mine unless otherwise stated.

Thanks for joining us today!

Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM).

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