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BDK[_6_] · June 5th 09, 07:45 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave

In article 4a28b659.9575625@chupacabra,
says...
BDK wrote:
In article 4a28046b.1206843@chupacabra,
says...
BDK wrote:
I'm at the point where I have to take off my glasses and get really
close. Reading glasses help a little, sometimes, but I always end up
taking them off and just getting really close.

I've accumulated various power 'coke bottles' from thrift stores and
some are quite thick, can only use them from about six to eight inches
away, and it's a real whiff of nostalgia to once again be able to see
all the stuff that I could in my youth without visual aids.
I think the first SMD thing I built involved an MMIC and was one of the
last freq counter kits Optoelectronics sold back in 1990. This was about
the time the guy was splitting up with his business partner (wife) to
become Startek and when I asked why the kits were being discontinued was
told there were too many problems with people not being able to see
enough to build them. Mine went together fairly easily and worked on
first power up with the residual charge on the NiCad pack.

I had one of those for a while, not a kit though. I traded a bunch of
CDs to a friend of mine for it. It wasn't much use for anything, and I
traded it in at Universal for something.

I got a more useful ATH (Auto Trigger and Hold) Startek that allowed the
freq to be 'captured' after I traded mine for something or other at a
swap meet.

Yeah, that would be an improvement. I have a much greater need for a
bench type freq counter to align radios with. I got one super cheap, and
it's amazingly accurate for $88 bucks, proven by WWV. Much better than
the one I used to have that you had to let warm up for an hour to get it
even close to stable, and about 4 if I wanted it to be dead on. The new
one is ready to go in like 20 minutes.
--

BDK..
Leader of the nonexistent paid shills.
Non Jew Jew Club founding member.
Former number one Kook Magnet, passed to Iarnrod.