More Changes in the Shack

 OK, I'm not getting better at doing this!

I've been in the clean-out mode right now, having re-homed several radios and purchased some others.

Fred, VE3FAL bought one of my 509s and loves it. When I decided to re-home the Century 21, he snatched it up and now has them on youtube. 

I'm down to a Tentec 505, a 509, an Icom 705, a Yaesu FT-726R, an FT847, a YouKit HB-1B, a 40m Pixie and a rather unique home made version of a Tentec PM-3 that uses all the boards that were for sale in magazines in the early 70s. Very interesting rig that has A LOT of switches and dials for such a simple radio!

Looking forward to taking the HB-1B when we do some travelling abroad and the 705 in the trailer when we go across Canada this year. Unfortunately, I can't take a radio to Europe this fall as the river cruise forbids ham radios on the ship!

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to see the sights!

I bought a Heathkit!

 Well I guess it had to happen eventually!

I was looking on Hamshack.ca and saw a forlorn looking little HW-8 that didn't transmit or have a sidetone or receive.

Well, that is just the kind of thing that I HAVE to have so I bought it! Once it arrived, I dove into it and found the output was blown, so I replaced it, then tracked down the problems with the receive. The LM3900 which controls the CW filter/preamp and sidetone was dead, so, no receive. 

After ordering and receiving the other minor parts it needed, it received a full calibration which included replacing the offset capacitor with a 4 to 12pf cap and setting the proper offset.

Now she is back on the air with one minor issue. The on/off switch on the rather unique RF/AF gain control is bad, so the switch is bypassed.

It is surprising how well it receives. It isn't a TenTec, but it is a sensitive little thing.

CWOps intermediate training

 Just finishing a session of Intermediate training with CWOps to improve my skills.

I have been using the paddle for a while to do formulaic contacts on POTA and such, but have fallen out of the habit of doing conversational contacts.

I highly recommend these courses as they are valuable and fun and let's face it, making it fun makes learning easier. I got comfortable enough with the paddle that I am now using the key more.

John(AJ1DM), Eric(WS4K) and John(N8AA) are 3 great instructors and I am sure they purposely make mistakes to make us feel better! Thanks guys!

 So, what are the differences between a Grimmer Wilson straight key and a Wilson?

Well, first, there is a misconception that the Wilson and Grimmer Wilson were all used in WWII by the military and therefore militaria. 

From what I have seen this is not true.

The keys that were used by the military have all got the code 10F/556 stamped into the lever between the adjustment screws. 7 of my 10 keys (so far) have the stamp. That was the code used by the war department to signify this type of straight key much like the J-38 was the designation for one of the US forces keys.

The Grimmer Wilson has a slightly longer square lever shaft and the adjuster hardware has a rounded kurled surface with a single knurled pattern whereas the Wilson lever is slightly shorter with a squared knurled surface on the adjusters with a checkered knurling.

Another odd difference is that even though the oval bases appear to be identical, the fastening screw holes are spaced differently!

The Wilson has 2 holes spaced 1-1/8" apart equally spaced from the centre and in line side to side.

The Grimmer Wilson on the other hand is slightly more than 1-1/8" apart with the right side hole in the same position as the Wilson and the left hole slightly offset to the left and slightly toward the finger piece! 

At first this seemed like it could be an anomoly, but after seeing it in 5 examples, it appears to be intentional.

There appears to have been 4 basic colours for the key. Dark gray and medium gray are fairly common with blue gray being next. I have also found 2 examples of gray brown in the Wilson only so far. 

Another thing that I have noticed on SOME of the Wilsons is that they have a painted marking saying "Made In Canada" which is not on my Grimmers but also not on all of the Wilsons.

Well, that is it for the Wilson type keys aside from one last thing.

Both variants also made a trainer for learning the code. I have one of the Wilson variants and it bears the war department broad arrow stamp on the underside signifying military procurenment.

73 and get on the air!

Tom

 Well, where does the time go!

Retired from Correctional Service Canada as the electronic security systems project officer last August and loving the new life!

Made a lot of changes to the shack (again) and changed out a lot of equipment.

The radios now include:

Yaesu FT-726R with 2,6,10,12,15m coverage w/600w 6m amplifier and 500w 2m amplifier

Kenwood TS-50 for QRO use---It was cheap so I bought a Kenwood!

Icom IC-705 for use in the trailer when we travel.

3 Ten-Tec 509 including a very early version.

1 Ten-Tec 505

1 Ten-Tec Century 21 Analogue

1 Ten-Tec 526 6N2

and

2 40M Pixies for laughs!

Lots of Ten-Tec accessories for the above as well as early MFJ units that match the 505/509 rigs.

Keys include:

Straight:

5 Grimmer Wilson keys

5 Wilson keys

 I'll describe the differences between then later although they appear ALMOST identical.

1 TAC Stream 100 

1 Bunnel 1881 Victorian key with gold stripes

1 Foster, Toronto 1850s key

1 Kent straight key on a green marble base. Probably an old kit on a locally sourced base.

1 Chinese cast resin miniature key

Paddles:

1 Nye SSK-1C chrome dual lever paddle which seems to be uncommon!

1 Kent Single lever paddle

1 Vibroplex Presentation Single lever paddle

1 Chinese Dual lever paddle

1 CW Morse Dual lever paddle

Bugs:

1 Telegraph Apparatus Corporation  (TAC) CP-810 chromed Hole-In-The-Wall bug

3 Telegraph Apparatus Corporation  (TAC) CP-810 chromed Hole-In-The-Wall bug

2 early Les Logan 515 bugs with serial numbers

1 later Les Logan 515 bug

1 Hi-Mound BK-100 bathtub bug

I might be a bit obsessed with CW paraphernalia!

More later, but hopefully not much later!

 I've decided I'm not very good at doing this blog thing!

I really should change that though and likely will with my late retirement looming on the horizon in April.

Still have the FT-726 but changed the one I kept around. I now have a unit with 15/12/10/6 and 2 which is likely the most unique 726 around.

Over a year ago I got back into HF QRP and started POTA hunting. Started out with a TenTec Argonaut 509, Xiegu G90 and an RS-918. Got rid of the RS-918 and the Xiegu G90 in favour of a Xiegu X5105 and several Argonaut 505 and 509s along with some TenTec accessories, a QCX and a QCM! When I want to run "QRO" I fire up the Century 21 with it's enormous 35 watts out!!

Will the madness ever end! 

Now I am restoring my TenTecs and in just under a year I have 50 states, over 1000 parks and 11 countries with POTA. Most of it with only 2 to 5 watts.

I'm currently working on another QCM also. Bought the low band version and now have the hi band unit on the bench. Very nice little units and getting better with every update.

Time to walk the dog.

72

Tom

 Well another year has passed and the shack has changed again! In the past year I've bought and sold about 10 rigs. Got rid of the Century Digital, the 920 and a bunch of other stuff to boot. Still have the bugs and keys and they seem to be breeding!

I decided to get back into HVF/UHF again and of course I went in with both feet! 4 FT-726s later, I have 2 full load units and 2 2m/70cm units. The one full load has 2m/70cm and the 15/12/10m module, while the other has 2m/70cm and 6m. at 10w output they won't win contests but I'm working on that.

On the bench is a 6m 600w MRF300 amp that I just finished and I am here to tell you, DO NOT put 600w into a Workman mobile whip dipole! They are rated at 250w and anything over 300w for more than 10 minutes raises the SWR! I had to try though!

Next to it is the 2m version that I need to get FETs for. After that, a 300w for the 15/12/10 module and to finish the 70cm 100w mrf9120 that I put aside for later. 

I need a tower and more yagis now.

Well, I might post again soon. Or maybe not!