On Fri, 6 Jul 2012, Scott Dorsey wrote:

The VHF transceiver fundamental can be set for the 220 Mhz ham band, but
because of the drifting and the AM modulation, they take up pretty much the
whole band. Also the spectral purity is... not exactly good. I would not
not recommend firing one up today.

But that's not really unique to the Model 19.

Assuming it's a superregen receiver and modulated oscillator, that sort of
thing homesteaded the vhf and uhf bands. They were great when there was
little use, they were simple to build and cheap, it got people on the air.
And then "civilization" would come along, fancier equipment and a desire
for DX. So they were banished from six metres (maybe when it was still 5
metres?) and moved to 112MHz or if after the war, 144MHz, made an impact
and then were banished from there. 220 next, to the extent that 220 was
ever used, then 420MHz. Those APX-6 radar transponders were more
complicated (but had the advantage of being cheap surplus) but did the
same thing for 1215MHz, a simple transmitter with a broad receiver to
match.

Decades later, all those cheap doppler radar gizmos converted for use on
the 10,000MHz band was similar.

One could even argue that the Heathkit Lunchboxes were in a similar vein,
simple and cheap, yet more civilized since the transmitters were crystal
controlled. Though of course, there never was a Heathkit produced
"220'er" (I'm sure I've seen a modification article where someone put one
on 220MHz) or a "420'er" (but there were early CB sets that had similar
innards, and one article in "73" about 1968 that was a fairly cheap and
easy transverter made out of juice cans that was intended for a Sixer or
Twoer.

Michael VE2BVW