Hi.

Well, probably part of the reason why I didn't mind those days was because 
I had a lot of vision then, so it really didn't require any special 
adaptation for me to get on the air.  I think, though, that I miss my old 
Halicrafters receivers most of all, and I have to force myself to walk away 
from them when I see them at hamfests.

I still think my old Hallicrafters S108 had some of the best sound audio of 
any general coverage receiver that I've ever owned.  The fact that I did a 
lot of hard work in the August sun to earn that radio makes it even sweeter.

73, de Lou K2LKK



At 01:29 PM 4/25/2006 -0400, you wrote:
>John -
>
>No, you really don't want to try some of that old stuff. It's fun to
>reminisce about, no way around that, but it wasn't always fun to use on a
>daily basis at the time. It's like folks who reminisced about the model
>T--they tended to forget the broken arms from a backfiring engine while it
>was being cranked, the easily-shredded tires, the total absence of any kind
>of weather protection, etc., etc. The only "older" gear that I sort of wish
>I could have seen, if not owned, was the Viking (I think) KW station--it was
>actually built into an operating desk, so that when you bought it, you got a
>piece of furniture with a transmitter included. I think you used the desktop
>for a matching receiver. I've often wondered just how physically accessible
>the gear was for those times you had to replace a tube.
>
>The Drake C line is another that I wish I could've worked with. The fact is
>that for blind hams, today's equipment is much easier to work with. That's
>not to say, obviously, that blind hams weren't active in the hobby almost
>since its beginnings, but a lot of what everybody takes for granted today
>required a lot of cooperation from sighted hams fifty years ago. Nowadays,
>about the only thing a blind ham might need sighted help with are tower
>erection and some types of antenna maintenance/service, but that sure wasn't
>the case in earlier years. I think that the audio capabilities that chips
>like the VS-1 provided were, without any question, the greatest boon to
>blind hams ever. Coupled with the superior stability of modern rigs, it sure
>cut down on those pink slips from Uncle that used to indicate that you'd
>strayed outside your assigned frequencies.