Posted	Category
	"Winter Projects" I know many of us who enjoy restoring and repairing vintage gear look forward to winter when there is less competition for time and energy, and a chance to really make a dent in our "to be fixed" piles.    A couple of years ago I set time aside for "Heathkit Singlebander Week" and went through every one of them I had, with the result that they're all working ...  READ MORE	ranickels 01/19/2023	Vintage Ham Radio
	The Galaxy COMM2 Leo Meyerson had been in the ham radio retail and manufacturing business for over 25 years, and by 1970 he was ready to retire.  His son took over the WRL distribution and retail business but the Galaxy Electronics manufacturing operation was sold to his long-time friend Andy Andros WØLTE, founder and president of Hy Gain Electronics in nearby Lincoln NE.   The CB radio eleme...  READ MORE	ranickels 11/26/2022	Vintage Ham Radio
	The Pioneer 530 In 1917 a missionary named William Cameron Townsend went to Guatemala to sell Spanish Bibles. But he was shocked when many people couldn’t understand the books. They spoke Cakchiquel, a language without a Bible.   He believed everyone should understand the Bible, so he started a linguistics school (the Summer Institute of Linguistics, known today as SIL) that trained people to do Bible ...  READ MORE	ranickels 07/02/2022	Vintage Ham Radio
	The Mosley Commando II The Mosley CM-1 receiver is quite well known and not especially hard to find in the US even though it was the only radio produced by the company that has been well-known for antennas since 1939.   Or is it...?A full-page ad (advert for you on the other side of the pond) appeared in the RSGB Bulletin in 1963 for a nice looking and very capable SSB transmitter called the "Commando II&...  READ MORE	ranickels 04/15/2022	Vintage Ham Radio
	My Johnson "Five Hundred Desk" Story Not a lot is known about Jacob C. Thomas, other than he was born in 1903 to John and Anna Thomas in David City Nebraska, and died just a few months short of his 90th birthday in the same town.    And that he was a radio man.David City is a small town of 3,000 not far from my home town so it made sense that the auction notice would appear in the local newspaper where my Dad would see...  READ MORE	ranickels 01/22/2022	Vintage Ham Radio
	Hammarlund PRO-310 Restoration Having grown tired of seeing this rare and somewhat incredible receiver sitting on the shelf, unusable due to slipping dial belts, I bit the bullet and tore it apart to begin restoration.  The quote above comes from Tom Rousseau K7PJT's article in Electric Radio on the PRO-310 and boy, is he spot on!Since I will be depending heavily on what he and others have written about this receiver, ...  READ MORE	ranickels 01/14/2022	Vintage Ham Radio
	The Multi Elmac A54-H project Elmac aka Multi-Elmac was actually the Multi-Products company after tube maker Eimac complained that their original name was too confusing.  Most hams just call them Elmacs anyhow!The company was started by Cletus Collum in 1947 to commercialize his design of a radio-controlled opener for garage doors and gates.  That product still lives on through the Stanley Company and it's succes...  READ MORE	ranickels 01/13/2022	Vintage Ham Radio
	Meck (Telvar) T-60 transmitter updating Meck, Telvar, Audar -  three names for the same company's products.The John Meck company of Plymouth IN made exactly one amateur radio product: the T-60 transmitter. It was sold under the name Meck as well as Tevlar and based on a limited sample, they are nowhere near identical. The T-60 did not sell well and was only offered for a year or two. Among the reasons for this may have been the...  READ MORE	ranickels 12/16/2021	Vintage Ham Radio
	The Sonar MR-3 mobile receiver The Sonar Radio Corp.  of Brooklyn NY is a well-known manufacturer of Ham, CB, and Marine Band radios over a period of several decades, and it's products were always well engineered and of good quality.    But despite several attempts, it's ham radio products never really managed to excite hams enough to plunk down their hard-earned cash.   The SRT series of t...  READ MORE	ranickels 11/01/2021	Vintage Ham Radio
	The Multi-Elmac CD-10 Project  In 1958, the Multi Elmac Company was riding high on the ham radio waves.   The company had seen an opportunity to provide feature rich but affordable transmitters and receivers to hams itching to "go mobile", which was all the craze.   Instead of sticking a converter in front of the car radio like many competitors did, Elmac produced full-blown receivers that tu...  READ MORE	ranickels 09/28/2021	Vintage Ham Radio