Hack-A-Day had a nice post about this piece of gear:
My radio emotions were swinging wildly as I watched this video.
Readers may recall that over the years I have brutally cannibalized several QF-1s. I was enticed into doing this precisely by the tuning cap that the videographer so alluringly describes. It has a built in 7:1 reduction drive! How could I resist? These wonderful caps live on in several of my homebrew rigs.
I also put the conveniently sized metal cabinets to good use -- one holds frequency counters for my AM station, the other houses an Si5351 VFO/BFO that can be used with many rigs.
After extracting the cap and putting the boxes to good use, I was left with the remainder of the circuitry. I recently put even this stuff to use by using the coils to make a triple LC circuit filter for 455 kHz. This may someday be used in a receiver. So you see, I've not been wasteful.
And the thing only cost 9 bucks back in the day... So I didn't really do anything bad. And besides, adding a regen circuit to a superhet is kind of backwards, right?
But then the video producer started talking about how nice his QF-1 looks, even after more than 60 years. And about how much it improved the performance of his AR-1. And then, the kicker: He said the QF-1s are now "relatively rare."
I hang my head in shame. I am a serial QF-1 killer. And I don't know if I can stop.
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I think it is a forgivable sin.
ReplyDeleteI've often thought that if I ever found a cheap Heathkit HW7 I would throw the insides out and build something decent in there - perhaps with an arduino and Si5351. Just to torture the Heathkit purists you understand ..... :-)
Oh Bill, we must stop you before you kill again! I guess you’re just a radio capitalist, putting an asset to its highest value. Bezoar would be so proud:)
ReplyDeleteBut maybe you undervalue it. After watching WU2D’s HR10 video where he built a 1680 kHz Q multiplier, I put a QF1 on 500 kHz and still use it with a 51J, and have modified another one hoping to use it with the HR10. I bet there’s an S38 there wishing it had a poor man’s 2BQ. That’s an analog joy Pete may never experience 🙈