KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog
Keeping with my underlying theme of operatng an amateur radio station with a minimum of cost, I'm continuing to bring an old Kenwood 520 back to life. I'm indebted to Ken, K4EAA, for his informative website. He has given me plenty of helpful hints in restoring this classic hybrid rig. The new 12BY7 driver is working well and my self-constructed ac power cord seems to be holding its own. I ordered a PC-2 cord from Ken just in case my stubby fingers ruining the soldering job on the 12-pin con- nector. The rig runs well after blowing out the dust and spraying the switches with de-oxit contact cleaner. Al- though the 2001 finals are a bit soft, I can get out a more than adequate 60 watts. Since I tend to run rigs at qrp levels, the slightly lower output doesn't present an immedi- ate problem. I have a spare set of 6146Bs in the tube cabinet. While my minor tune-up was thankfully easy, I enjoyed getting inside the rig and doing a few things for myself. I