Old rigs never die
This was first published in V44KF.spaces.live.com on 3rd December 2007
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Old and older rigs never die. They get victimized by their owners who might be trying to play keep up, or who feel they have to update their radio station to maintain a level of communications compatibility with their ham counterparts on the other side of the world. But most of the old rigs are compatible and could be made even more compatible with the 'modern' stuff with just a little effort and a couple components. But most modern day hams have more money than time so they go on eBay and bid for a good deal. The hams on a tighter budget resort to trade in sometimes for a not so old radio. I believe the trade in business is getting licks, but that is the nature of business.
I had two amateur radio photo albums here. The 'Today and Yesterday' album highlighted some of the rigs used by ham radio stations in St Kitts and Nevis over the last 40 years, as far as I can recall. Back in those days the better radio stations were considered to be a separate receive and transmitter, which provided the ultimate in frequency flexibility. Some transceivers also had an external VFO, with a price tag to rival a receiver, and the top of the line transceivers had two selectable VFOs in the one cabinet. The top rigs of that day allowed you to read out frequency to 1 KHz or less on a dial or display. There were also some pretty good rigs that gave a dial read-out to 5 KHz.
The other album 'tomorrow' highlighted the top of the line rigs which most of us would like to put in the ham station today. There are a couple old rigs here which can be modified to serve specific functions in the ham radio station.
Over the last few months I have compiled a dossier of all the old compatible rigs and their Internet published modifications. Compatible in the sense that they have the ability to be upgraded to meet the minimum specification for a modern day receiver. It is all about the receiver. It is all about sensitivity, selectivity and overload. How the receiver handles signals under varying band conditions in the field. The other features which are sometimes referred to as the bells and whistles are not critically important, but some of them do enhance the receiver experience.
New amateur radio station operators are faced with either [a] to buy a brand new rig or [b] to buy a used rig. As a new working ham who can afford it, I would go for the brand new rig. There are not many to choose from so it is relatively easy. But I am an old ham so I have a different approach and it does not have to do with any ham equipment cost. For me it is all about quality equipment engineering and easy after sales maintenance. I will not go into the debate on quality equipment suffice to say that all top of the line series rigs ever made are easy to spot and they represent quality engineering. For example, take the Kenwood TS-9XX series. This is a short series run where the TS-950SDX is the king. You can look at the TS-8XX series too. I use Kenwood for the example because I have a bias towards Kenwood gear. I find them easy to modify as in upgrade, and spare parts are not a problem. It is most unfortunate that Kenwood seem to have dropped out of the Ham radio equipment market.
So I am not in the market to give advice to any new ham station operator. Most likely they will not take it anyway, because that is the nature of most people, young or old. They stop you from what you are doing, ask for your opinion, then they get vex with you, when you give them your honest opinion, so I steer clear of giving advice, solicited or otherwise. The secret is to tell them what they want to hear, but then that comes with it's own set of horrors too. But they can still be pointed in the right direction, to read and research on the Internet, and there are plenty of testimonials available. Actually, the only piece of advice I will give is that after selecting the radio you think you will be happy with for the next 12 months at least, surf the Internet till you drop, and compile a dossier of all updates, upgrades and modifications you can find for that model. If you are willing to undertake all those modifications to put your 'new' rig on the DX-ing edge of perfection, no problem at all, go for it. But if you have any apprehension or doubt at all, it should be back to the drawing board. In any event, it is your call, and what you buy you will wear. A word to the wise is enough.
At some point in time you will become a collector, hopefully later rather than sooner. It is neither strange or unique. It has to do with sentimentality, not a sign of old age, but maybe related to age. For some strange reason hams do not wish to part with their first ever ham radio transmitter, transceiver or receiver. On the whole hams do not throw away stuff, equipment, accessories, or anything else. When anything is thrown away it is really dead, done with, of no further use to anyone except the sold waste landfill. And then again, ham stuff sometimes get retrieved from the landfill. I don't know if this is the nature of global ham radio, but it happens.
There are radio collector groups which provide all that you need to refurbish 'your special radio' to mint condition. You could invest more than the cost of a new radio in refurbishing but that is part of the hobby enjoyed by some hams with or without time and money on their hands. Some rigs never die they are given a new lease on life. But ultimately the old ham passes on and the XYL, harmonics [if not hams themselves] or estate executor, put your priceless and vintage ham radio stuff on eBay and start the bidding at 99 cents. Surprisingly though, I have not heard of any ham ghost coming back to haunt anyone for that. Could be they finally got their dream rigs.
But Life goes on.
You win some, you loose some.
***************************************
Old and older rigs never die. They get victimized by their owners who might be trying to play keep up, or who feel they have to update their radio station to maintain a level of communications compatibility with their ham counterparts on the other side of the world. But most of the old rigs are compatible and could be made even more compatible with the 'modern' stuff with just a little effort and a couple components. But most modern day hams have more money than time so they go on eBay and bid for a good deal. The hams on a tighter budget resort to trade in sometimes for a not so old radio. I believe the trade in business is getting licks, but that is the nature of business.
I had two amateur radio photo albums here. The 'Today and Yesterday' album highlighted some of the rigs used by ham radio stations in St Kitts and Nevis over the last 40 years, as far as I can recall. Back in those days the better radio stations were considered to be a separate receive and transmitter, which provided the ultimate in frequency flexibility. Some transceivers also had an external VFO, with a price tag to rival a receiver, and the top of the line transceivers had two selectable VFOs in the one cabinet. The top rigs of that day allowed you to read out frequency to 1 KHz or less on a dial or display. There were also some pretty good rigs that gave a dial read-out to 5 KHz.
The other album 'tomorrow' highlighted the top of the line rigs which most of us would like to put in the ham station today. There are a couple old rigs here which can be modified to serve specific functions in the ham radio station.
Over the last few months I have compiled a dossier of all the old compatible rigs and their Internet published modifications. Compatible in the sense that they have the ability to be upgraded to meet the minimum specification for a modern day receiver. It is all about the receiver. It is all about sensitivity, selectivity and overload. How the receiver handles signals under varying band conditions in the field. The other features which are sometimes referred to as the bells and whistles are not critically important, but some of them do enhance the receiver experience.
New amateur radio station operators are faced with either [a] to buy a brand new rig or [b] to buy a used rig. As a new working ham who can afford it, I would go for the brand new rig. There are not many to choose from so it is relatively easy. But I am an old ham so I have a different approach and it does not have to do with any ham equipment cost. For me it is all about quality equipment engineering and easy after sales maintenance. I will not go into the debate on quality equipment suffice to say that all top of the line series rigs ever made are easy to spot and they represent quality engineering. For example, take the Kenwood TS-9XX series. This is a short series run where the TS-950SDX is the king. You can look at the TS-8XX series too. I use Kenwood for the example because I have a bias towards Kenwood gear. I find them easy to modify as in upgrade, and spare parts are not a problem. It is most unfortunate that Kenwood seem to have dropped out of the Ham radio equipment market.
So I am not in the market to give advice to any new ham station operator. Most likely they will not take it anyway, because that is the nature of most people, young or old. They stop you from what you are doing, ask for your opinion, then they get vex with you, when you give them your honest opinion, so I steer clear of giving advice, solicited or otherwise. The secret is to tell them what they want to hear, but then that comes with it's own set of horrors too. But they can still be pointed in the right direction, to read and research on the Internet, and there are plenty of testimonials available. Actually, the only piece of advice I will give is that after selecting the radio you think you will be happy with for the next 12 months at least, surf the Internet till you drop, and compile a dossier of all updates, upgrades and modifications you can find for that model. If you are willing to undertake all those modifications to put your 'new' rig on the DX-ing edge of perfection, no problem at all, go for it. But if you have any apprehension or doubt at all, it should be back to the drawing board. In any event, it is your call, and what you buy you will wear. A word to the wise is enough.
At some point in time you will become a collector, hopefully later rather than sooner. It is neither strange or unique. It has to do with sentimentality, not a sign of old age, but maybe related to age. For some strange reason hams do not wish to part with their first ever ham radio transmitter, transceiver or receiver. On the whole hams do not throw away stuff, equipment, accessories, or anything else. When anything is thrown away it is really dead, done with, of no further use to anyone except the sold waste landfill. And then again, ham stuff sometimes get retrieved from the landfill. I don't know if this is the nature of global ham radio, but it happens.
There are radio collector groups which provide all that you need to refurbish 'your special radio' to mint condition. You could invest more than the cost of a new radio in refurbishing but that is part of the hobby enjoyed by some hams with or without time and money on their hands. Some rigs never die they are given a new lease on life. But ultimately the old ham passes on and the XYL, harmonics [if not hams themselves] or estate executor, put your priceless and vintage ham radio stuff on eBay and start the bidding at 99 cents. Surprisingly though, I have not heard of any ham ghost coming back to haunt anyone for that. Could be they finally got their dream rigs.
But Life goes on.
You win some, you loose some.
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