On Thu, 14 Nov 2013, 2M0QRO/MM wrote:

gareth wrote:


I wonder if any have pressed into service the tinplate from cans of
baked beans to provide a similar function?


CANTENNA ???

That was a paint can. Probbly the kit Heathkit made the most profit on,
since they just had to buy empty paint cans for the cabinets.

A round "box" like that isn't so useful, hard to arrange on the desk and
where's the front panel? But in the solid state age, most controls could
be remoted, so the paint can could be a very useful chassis. I've seen
them used for things where you need a lot of shielding. There was some
exotic military surplus in the old days that were in round cans, I get for
airplanes, though I don't know why they had round cabinets. But those were
the days when remote ment motors for controls, and clunky relays for
switches. There was a relatively rare SSB transceiver that was in a can
like that, synthesized (but based on crystals), it was really exotic. I
remember the surplus columnist in CQ writing about it, then saying "but I
traded it for something, because I couldn't find the control box for it
and without it, the thing is useless". He knew people in the military, so
he could test the transceiver via a borrowed control box.

Michael VE2BVW