Mixed results on the Hallicrafters transmitter (see December 19 and December 23).  I took it to a friend’s house last night and put it on the bench.  A little poking and prodding, and we managed to get a good CW (Morse Code) signal out of it on the 80 meter band.  We only got about 50 watts out of the transmitter (it’s supposed to be capable of 100 watts), but that was before tuning.  Voice was a bit more of a problem.  It took us a while to get any signal at all, and then what we got had a lot of hum in the carrier.  That’s not unusual with old gear that hasn’t been used in a while, but there are several possible causes.  I’ll have to do some more testing before I determine what the real problem is.  All in all, though, it was kind of exciting to hear that CW tone on the receiver’s speaker.

One other note.  I said in my previous entry that the transmitter hadn’t been used in 30 or more years.  Talking to Mom the other night, I learned that my grandfather was using it in the late 1970s and possibly as late as 1983.  So it’s only been 20 to 25 years since the radios were operated.

I finished cleaning up my Hallicrafter’s transmitter (see December 19) over the last few days, checked the fuse, and plugged into the Variac.  I took a good 6 hours to bring it up to full power, and was rewarded with a nice glow from all the vacuum tubes.  I took a few shots without the flash, but the tubes just didn’t provide enough light to make a decent picture.  I guess there’s still some use for analog cameras:  fast film.

I’ve gone about as far as I can without help.  It’ll be next week before I can take it to a friend’s house for further testing.

The other major piece of amateur radio gear that my grandfather left is a Hallicrafters HT-37 transmitter.  Unlike the Collins receiver, this radio hasn’t been powered since at least 1989.  I suspect it’s been longer than that:  probably 30 years or more since anybody plugged this thing in.  As far as I know, the radio sat in my grandfather’s house until 1989 when my sister packed it in her car and delivered it to me in Colorado.  Jeff Duntemann took it with the Collins in 1990 and then returned it to me in 1995 when Debra and I moved here.  It’s been packed in a box in the corner of the garage for the past 8 years.

I dug it out of the box last week and scraped off the bigger pieces of deteriorated packing material.  Last night I took a bunch of “before” pictures and started cleaning it up.  A little Orange TKO (wonderful stuff, by the way) and some light elbow grease removed the worst of the stuck-on packing material and some other stains from the case. 

Inside, the radio looks like it was well treated, although I admit I haven’t yet opened up the bottom where most of the wires are.  I pulled the tubes and tested them, and will be placing an order for replacements at Antique Electronic Supply.  While I’m waiting for the tubes to arrive, I’ll be cleaning the accumulated cat hair, dust, and other junk, and examining the rig to see if there are any obvious signs of breakage:  loose or chewed wires, messy modifications, or exploded parts.  I’ll need some help from somebody more experienced than I am when it comes time to add power.  I lack the knowledge and the test equipment required to make sure the thing is working well.  I don’t expect any problems, as this radio was stored with the other one, and Jeff tells me that the Collins came up with no trouble.  “I plugged it in and it worked.”

The final step, of course, is to put the rig back on the air.  To that end, I’m studying Morse Code and the material required to obtain my General class amateur radio license.  Eventually I’ll put together a ham radio page featuring the Collins and the Hallicrafters, with pictures and descriptions of the steps I took to get it back into operating condition.

I spent some time over the weekend fiddling with my Collins 75A-4 amateur radio receiver, making sure it fired up okay and trying to get familiar with the controls.  Since Jeff Duntemann (K7JPD) had it working a year ago, I figured it’d come up with little trouble.  Even so, this old gear can be temperamental if it’s unused for a while. So I borrowed a Variac from a helpful member (Steve, KI5YG) of the Williamson County Amateur Radio Club and brought it up slowly.  I dug in the closet for my old flying headset, attached a too-short piece of lamp cord for an antenna, and was able to receive a few signals.  I need to attach a better antenna, preferably running outside or stretched in the attic, and then go through the calibration and tuning process to make sure the radio is functioning perfectly.

A bigger problem is that somebody apparently modified the radio years ago to receive military communications.  The 15-meter and 11-meter bands, and half of the 10-meter band have been hijacked.  The long-term project for this rig is to remove the modifications and put it back to original working condition.  I need to improve my soldering and schematic-reading skills before I tackle that one, though.  There’s also a BNC antenna connector on the back that I think was an after-purchase modification.  I rather prefer that kind of connector, so I’ll probably just leave it the way it is.

I’m fortunate in that I have the original manual for the receiver, including good documentation for the modifications.  That old manual is getting pretty ragged, though.  A search of the Web of infinite delight revealed the Collins Collectors Association which has, among other wondrous things, the full 75A-4 receiver manual in PDF format.  Time to download and print that, then put the original manual in a Ziplock bag.