William wrote:

Dave Heil wrote in message ...
William wrote:

Dave Heil wrote in message ...
William wrote:

Yep, 35 years later they've got Collins. Keepin' up with the times.

That's right, "William", I've got a modified 75A-3 which is about 51
years old, a 51S-1 which was produced in the late seventies and a
KWM-2A which was built about the same time as Len's Icom R-70 receiver.
I have an Orion which was produced last year.

How do you like using the Orion?

No rig is perfect. The Orion is very, very close.

I stopped by Ten-Tec last year and looked at it, didn't buy it.

They still make 'em.

I know. And the last QST had a nice ad for it. To be honest, I don't
know what I want in my next rig. That's why I keep looking.

I also have other functional ham gear from the twenties, thirties,
forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties. I'm
keeping up with the times--ALL of 'em.

Nothing earlier?

To have anything earlier, I'd have to find something earlier.

I've only seen photos.

All I
have is a piece of something earlier. My late friend W4JBP first became
a ham in 1912 on the family farm near Indianapolis. John gave me the
spark coil from an old Reo truck. It was the basis for his very first
rig. It is coated in pitch and mounted in a small dovetailed wooden
box.

If you build it, you'll be tempted to use it.

You vastly underestimate my self-restraint. Using a spark rig is
something to which I aspire. I have a couple of TNT self-controlled
type replica transmitters. If the antenna swung in the breeze, they'd
be all over the band. I've resisted the temptation to put them on the
air for about a decade.

Dave K8MN