Our local radio club, Capital City Amateur Radio Club, (http://w7tck.org) was donated a bunch of equipment. We decided to have a silent auction for it for the club members. The idea was to allow members to obtain some equipment inexpensively rather than try to make a bunch of money off of it. Here is my windfall.  WOW! What Fun!

Click a picture to see a larger view, or click HERE for a slide show of my new “Junque”.

My favorite acquisition was this beautiful Heathkit SB-230 Amplifier.  When I built my shack several years ago, I plumbed into it 220 Volts for that day that I may have an amp.  It is about 1 KW input (probably about 600 Watts output), but that is very sufficient for me, since I operate in the QRP range much of the time.  This will be fun too though!  Look HERE to see my Ham Shack equipment; and you will see that I like Heath gear.

The photo below shows an old Heathkit Impedance Bridge.  At first, I was hoping it would be an instrument I could use to measure impedance of RF circuits, but it is usable at audio frequencies.  Non the less, it is a beautiful instrument with a wooden case and will sit up on my shelf with my other vintage items.

The photo below is of a James Millen model 90662-A Grid-Dip Meter.  It is in perfect shape and is a very beautiful piece of test equipment.  I have a much older Heath grid-dip meter that I have been using that I will be glad to put up on the antique shelf, and put this beauty to use.  It is really a nice piece of test gear and a welcomed addition to the Ham Shack.

The picture below is of a Heathkit Tube Tester model IT-17.  I have wanted a tube tester for many years, and passed up an opportunity to acquire one a couple of years ago and have been beating my self up over it ever since.  Since I have vacuum tube equipment, this will come in handy at that time in the future when it will be needed.  Tube testers are becoming increasingly rare and I am glad to add this one to my test equipment collection.

The picture here, is of a Step Attenuator.  I have been thinking about either building, or purchasing one of these for a while now.  Of all the pieces of test gear I purchased in this sale, this is probably the most practical.  I am eager to put it to use while I learn and build transmitter and receiver circuits.  This is going to be a good piece of gear to have.

The following picture is a Wilcom Reference Level Test Set model T 105B.  I believe it was used with phone systems.  I purchased this gem for the case.  It is a very nice case that has nice rubber feet, handles on the instrument face, buckles to keep the lid closed, and a rubber seal to help keep the elements out.  It would make a very nice case for a piece of portable radio equipment that might be made some day for it.  It looks like it will be a good source of some nice parts also.

Here is another piece of Heathkit gear.  It is a model IM-5228 VTVM (Vacuum Tube Volt Meter).  I really purchasedit for the meter movement and for parts.  I might, however, keep it together as I do not have a good analog meter.  I fired it up and it works, so I might keep it around for those times an analog meter will do better than a digital one.  It will make a nice addition to my test gear collection.

There was a few odds and ends that the club was trying to just get rid of.  I just couldn’t let this one go to the dump, so I acquired it.   I’m sure I will be able to use some parts of some sort from this box of goodies.

Tags: Ham Shack Gear, Heath IB-1b, Heath IM-5228, Heath IT-17, Heathkit SB-230, James Millen 90662-A, Step Attenuator, Vintage Radio

The following is portion of a news entry from the ARRL. Click the link and read the whole post;  and if you have some vintage gear, fire it up and get ready for this fun sounding contest.  I am hoping that I will be able to participate in the fun.  Will you join me?
John – K7JM

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Classic Exchange — A Vintage Radio Contest

By Mario Dianora, N2AK
dianoramd@verizon.net

ARRL – January 09, 2009

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Warm-up those filaments for the Classic Exchange contest, January 25/26 and February 15/16.

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Do you have any old equipment from the bygone days of radio? Are you a homebrewer who likes to make nifty low power (QRP) radios or replicas of old rigs? Well the good news is that you can put those pieces on the air in an operating event that will make you feel like you are in another era. That event is called Classic Exchange (CX) and it is held twice a year. The purpose of CX as described in their newsletter is to “Encourage restoration, operation and enjoyment of older commercial and homebrew ham gear.” Some years ago, I heard stations on 40 meter CW calling “CQ CX.” After some research, I discovered that this was a contest for vintage and homebrew gear. It sounded like a great way to get some use from the old rigs I had in my basement. Since then, I have rediscovered the magic of radio and await the next CX event for more of it.

via ARRLWeb: ARRL NEWS: Classic Exchange — A Vintage Radio Contest.

Tags: Amateur Radio, Classic Exchange, Ham Radio, K7JM, Vintage Radio

A “Leap Second” was added to our clocks at 12:59:60 on Dec. 31, 2008 (12:59:60 is not a typo).  Leap Seconds are added or subtracted every so many years, to keep our clocks in sync with the actual orbit of Earth around the sun.  There are several different methods to capture the leap second, and I took the opportunity yesterday to see if I could do the same without fancy or expensive equipment.

HERE is a good web site about the “Leap Second”.

And, HERE is a page about how to watch a “Leap Second”.

This is how I did it.  I tuned into WWV on my Ham Radio receiver, and set up a camera to record the time on my GPS.  After looking at the Leap Second web site, I should also have connected my computer to my GPS to capture the NMEA output from it.  Click on the picture to the left to see my setup. View the video below, and you will see that 12:59:59 lasted for two seconds on the GPS.

John – K7JM

Tags: K7JM, Leap Second, McDougallsHome.net, WWV

Tags: Ham Radio, K7JM, Tower