Rex W1REX in England with the Original Tuna Tin 2, aka "The ASR" -- Ancient Sacred Relic. Indeed!

 

There he is, Rex W1REX, the esteemed owner of QRPme, the maker of so many great pads for Manhattan boards.  He was in the UK for the GQRP convention.  And he brought with him -- on loan from the ARRL Museum -- the original Tuna Tin 2 transmitter, the ASR (ANCIENT SACRED RELIC).  You can see it in the pictures sent to me by Charlie NJ7V. 

Way back in 2014, I met up with Rex at the Vienna Wireless Association's Winterfest Hamfest.  There too he had the original TTT with him.  I asked him to share some of the mojo from that famed rig with my homebrew BITX transceiver.  Here you can see a video of the mojo-ification ceremony: 

Thanks to Charlie NJ7V, to the GQRP club, and to Rex W1REX for all the great TTT mojo over the years! 

Another Blast from the Past -- Dino KL0S in the early 70s -- A Turner mic, a Vibroplex, an HQ-100, a DC receiver, and a tech library.

Dino:  Yes the parallels are really eerie OM.  There is that Turner mic.  I still have mine too, but I had to replace the element with an Electret. Mine brags that it is Transistorzed. Wow!   It apparently had three transistors in it. Therefore it was a Turner +3.  I also had a Vibroplex bug, but I never really used it and it fell apart.  Pieces were donated to a restoration of the K3ZO bug in the Dominican Republic.  I kept the base, which now holds a straight key that I use very infrequently.   There is of course, the Drake.  In the other picture (below)  I see your HQ-100 (A model).  Please tell us more about that DC receiver.  Homebrew?  Solid State?  Band?  Where did you get the schematic?  I also see that you had a good library even back then.  FB OM.  I remember fondly the Zoom visit to the Williamsburg club.  And I still use the coffee mug!  73 to all.  Regards to Toby.  Bill N2CQR 

Dino writes: 

Bill - saw your 15-year old pix on the blog today and immediately found a distinct likeness in my teen ham pix!

And me, WB6FZN at the time, I probably had a similar plaid shirt too:

Come to think about it all of us “of an age” look a lot alike back then.  I still have the Vibroplex key, Turner 454-C mic and Drake MS-4 speaker/AC-4 power supply.  My dad bought me the TR-4 when I got my General license and that setup was north of $600 if I recall correctly from AES; that was big money for ~1969 as he was a bartender, bless his heart.  Sold the TR-4 in Alaska during our first duty assignment with the blessing of my YL Toby KLØSS and got the Drake C-line to replace it which I also still have.

You visited our Williamsburg Area Amateur Radio Club’s “Builders Group” via Zoom during Covid and guys still talk about that session we had with you.

BTW, you can see my first direct conversion receiver in the aluminum chassis sitting on top of my Hammarlund HQ-100A here:

Hope all is well in Northern VA and/or the DR!

73 - Dino KLØS
Williamsburg

Scott K6AUS gets a Drake 2-B from Steve KW4H

 

Serial 10219, after refurbishment by Steve KW4H, with the 2-BQ he sent as well perched on top.

https://nomadiq.net/blog/post/a-drake-2b-from-kw4h

For many years, Scott K6AUS has been doing the mathematical analysis of serial numbers on the Drake 2-B receiver.   His work has been based on mathematics developed during WWII to let the allies know -- just from serial numbers -- how many tanks the Nazis had.  Scott's analysis and the gathering of Drake 2-B serial numbers has been going on since May 2011.  See: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-many-drake-2-bs-german-tank-problem.html

and for a Scott's presentation of the math: 

https://nomadiq.net/blog/post/how-many-drake-2bs-were-ever-made

We were saddened to learn that in spite of all this work, Scott K6AUS did not have a Drake 2-B himself. Steve KW4H stepped forward to correct this.  Steve refurbished a 2-B and sent it to Scott.  FB Steve. See the link above. 

We have been chronicling Steve's work on this partictular Drake 2-B.  Steve also wrote an excellent two part article on this receiver for Electric Radio magazine. Part I recently went out. Part II is coming. 

Thanks to Scott for all his analysis of the serial numbers.  And thanks to Steve for his amazing generosity. 

Steve KW4H's Restoration of a Drake 2-B -- Part 3 -- Alignment With a New Calibrator

Steve KW4H writes: 

The passband tuner realigning went just fine. To do this, I remove the audio output transformer and push it aside, insulating it from from the components on the chassis underside using a snack-size baggie.  Then, it's necessary to clip the frame of the audio transformer to ground so audio works.  I won't go into the nitty-gritty technical steps, but am just pointing out that in order to align that passband tuner you've got to get that transformer out of the way.  In the 4-line, Drake solved this inconvenience by putting the passband tuner above the chassis, with all of the alignments easily accessible.

 The 2-B is receiving, but not totally realigned yet.  But before we do that, I'm installing a custom-built calibrator/marker generator that will plug right in to the calibrator socket on top of the chassis.  This calibrator provides selectable 25/50/100 kHz spacing (I'll preset it for 50 kHz).  A note for you:  it's operated by the "CAL" switch on the front panel, and is rewired to run on that 9V battery I've installed on the bottom of the chassis (see photo).  The calibrator consumes almost no power when switched on and the battery should last a very long time.  But now you know where the power source is for the calibrator.  I've also attached a photo of the calibrator so you know what it looks like -- for the 2-B, the screw terminal isn't installed on the circuit board -- instead, I wire it directly to a Drake-style 4-prong plug that fit right into that calibrator socket above the chassis.

 The signal from the calibrator will be used for some of the alignment steps, so I like to install it at this phase.

Grayson Evans' Modest Proposal: NO MORE VALVES! NO MORE TUBES! THERMATRONS FOREVER! (and a great video)

First, a big THANK YOU to Grayson KJ7UM and to Zeynep, his wife and video editor.  The above video is a really excellent look at not only the technical characteristcs of thermatrons, but also at the history of their development.  There is a lot to be learned in this wonderful video. I am glad that no one was shocked in its production. And I am glad that SolderSmoke is no longer the only podcast/videocast using a "shamless commerce" segment! 

Grayson's video and his "modest proposal" are eerily timely for me.  Just yesterday I dragged out my old thermatron 80/40 receiver and got it inhaling.  It uses 6U8s and 6EA8s which were featured in this video.  This morning I used this old thermatron receiver to listen to Tim WA1HLR, who has been using thermatrons for many years. 

I have also been talking about Compactrons -- specifically the 6T9 -- on the podcast.  This prompted Jeff Tucker, W9TH to send me the PC board for the simple 6T9 circuit that I should have built as a teenager.  I also got words of encouragement from Mike WA6ARA.  The pressure is building!  

Finally, this gets us to Grayson's "Modest Proposal."  See:  https://kj7um.wordpress.com/2026/09/16/a-modest-proposal/    He proposes that we STOP calling these devices "tubes" or "valves" and instead refer to them as thermatrons.  I am with him on this.  But I warned him that his proposal (even with modesty) would provoke HOWLS of protest from the many, many change-averse radio amateurs in the US and, especially in the UK.  I know from personal, lived experience (four years in London) that the Brits love their valves.  But, hey, Grayson is right!  So I will pledge -- whenever possible -- to use his preferred term.  Gentleman, don your Kevlar now!  

Thanks Grayson for the video, and for the modest proposal!  

Get the Third Edition of Grayson's excellent book "Hollow State Design"  here: https://www.hollow-statedesigns.com/books