BOATANCHORS

W8JI   on  Straight Key Night January 2010

2010 was my 48th year of amateur radio

HQ-120

Globe Scout 65A

rock-bound radio

My early equipment was all homebrew, mostly built from old radios collected from a local landfill. Among the amateurs contributing to my pursuit of Amateur Radio were:

W8IQC, Fred Mahaney on Hanson Street in what is now Northwood, Ohio. Fred had a Viking Ranger transmitter, SX-99, and pair of 813's. I remember Fred's windmill tower he towed home, and his potent 160 mobile signal. Fred took me to radio meetings of the TMRA around 1962. At that time, there was considerable mobile activity on 160 meters. 

K8LRJ, Scotty. Scotty lived on Anderson Street just behind Fred. Scotty gave me a code practice oscillator to learn CW. I always had to be careful how the plug was plugged in, because it used a 117L7/M7 tube and ran directly from the power line!

K8KYB, Connie Morgillo. Connie gave me tube sockets and other parts to build rigs.

My first rig was a 6L6 used in a Colpitts oscillator that directly fed an antenna. Actually, I'm almost positive that rig started as a 6V6GT, until I finally found a 6L6.

I later added a 6AG7 oscillator. It was built on a peg board chassis covered with aluminum foil. After a few weeks I upgraded it to a real transmitting tube, an Tung-Sol  (nothing to do with the current Chinese name knock-off) 807 PA tube that I bought from Lifetime Electronics on Adams Street in Toledo. The people at Lifetime were very helpful to newcomers, and the building had a wonderful "old radio" smell.

My receiver was a gutted and rebuilt Zenith radio from the dump. I added a BFO, narrowed tuning range to just 80 and 40 meters, and added a few more IF stages.

A few months later, I was loaned a DX-60 Heathkit by WA8CTN, Vince. Vince was a sailor on lake freighters. He lived by the WSPD-TV tower near Bay Shore Road. I had the DX-60 for a very short time after I became a General. 

The first "commercial transmitter" I actually owned was a Globe Scout 65A purchased used from World Radio Laboratories.  The Globe Scout was a gift from my father for passing my General.  It arrived via the Railway Express office on the ground floor of New York Central's Central Union Terminal at 415 Emerald Ave. in Toledo, Ohio.

I used this rig with a Heathkit VF-1 purchased from Jim McCormack, W8WTW. Jim lived near the river in east Toledo.

This is my restored Globe Scout 65A. I still use it on the air. 

Click here for more Globe Scout restoration pictures.

Push-pull self-excited 45's:

300 volts DC on the copper coil, plates of the left side variable capacitor, and white clip lead.

This transmitter actually works, but does not run much power. Just a watt or so when "stable".

Modern Boatanchors

I have the following Boat Anchors in my "collection", plus a few more now:

as well as various Command sets, broadcast radios, and homebrew amateur equipment

Also see 160 meters

Since Sept 19, 2004