My first SSB rig was a second-hand Central Electronics 20A with a BC 
whatever as the VFO.  I drove a Globe Electronics LA-1 linear with it 
and paired that with a Hammarlund HQ-170.  I thought I was in hog heaven!

73,

Dave, W7OQ

At 02:21 PM 10/14/2010, you wrote:
>To expand that a bit; many of the early SSB users used the military
>surplus BC459 as their VFO.  Central Electronics used this unit in a
>nice cabinet and most poor folks bought them for five bucks from
>radio military surplus stores.  in the mid and late fifties we had
>several blocks of those stores on the near South Side and what a
>bonanza they were for a kid with no money to speak of!!
>I remember that the BC459 ran in the five megacycle range and as
>Butch described the output was used in such a way to generate
>sideband signals.  For sure the Central Electronics 10A,  10B and 20A
>SSB exciters all used this principle.  Those rigs ran ten and twenty
>watts respectively, came as kits or factory wired and weere pretty
>inexpensive.  They were "phasing" rigs and their unwanted sideband
>suppression wasn't terriffic but they got a lot of hams on sideband.
>i got licensed in 1957 and my first band of operation was 160
>meters.  Then there were only 25 khz.of space and SSB and A M guys
>were really peeing all over one another about the space!!  Guess
>sideband ultimately won.
>Sorry for the length of this!!
>Pat, K9JAUAt 09:28 AM 10/14/2010, you wrote:
> >I'm not sure, it is kind of like which came first the chicken or the egg.
> >   Many early radios were designed in such a way that the 80 and 40 meter
> >bands were derived by the difference frequencies between the vfo and
> >mixer and the 20 15 and ten meter bands used the sum of the vfo plus
> >oscillator.  Hope that makes sense.  If you remember theory, when you mix
> >frequencies, such as a vfo plus oscillator you get on the output, both
> >original frequencies plus sum and difference.  In my national ncx 200
> >which was my first radio, the if as I recall was 5.2020 and the vfo was
> >somewhere around 9 mhz.  Anyhow, when your mixing a signal and one of
> >them is ssb, if you use the sum, the sideband stays the same, and if you
> >use the difference such as my national did for 80 and 40, you get the
> >opposite side band.
> >73
> >Butch Bussen
> >wa0vjr
> >open Node 3148
> >Las Vegas
> >
> >
> >On Wed, 13 Oct 2010, Phil Scovell wrote:
> >
> > > I think I heard once but I can't remember so does anyone know why the =
> > > various bands are used for upper and lower side band?  Just curious.  =
> > > There's got to be a reason why it is different based upon the band you =
> > > are using.
> > >
> > > Phil.
> > > K0NX
> > >
> > >