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Monday, September 21, 2026

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 

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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

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