I guess we all tend to collect or dispose of a variety of amateur equipment throughout the years. Each one is, perhaps, a stepping stone to the next. Can you remember what you bought, made or used? Have you still got them? Here are some of the things I have owned and used - as far as I can recall. The images are not to scale.
ICOM IC-22A - Purchased June, 1976. The first transceiver I ever owned. A full 10 Watts on FM only. The Limited Amateur Operator's Certificate of Proficiency, which I had just acquired, only permitted operation on 6m and above. Only 22 Channels and 2 crystals required for each one. Yippee!
No, I don't still have it. Replaced it with an IC-290A which I still use.
ICOM IC-502 - Purchased 1977. A portable, 3 Watt SSB and CW transceiver. At last, I could work the world on 6 metres. I didn't really. Worked the odd JA with it but mostly stations within Australia. The fickle nature of 6m.
I don't have it any more due to an equipment upgrade.
JIL SX-200N - Purchased around 1982. A nice scanner in its day. 26-88, 108-180 and 380-512 MHz (5/12.5 KHz steps). Nice blue electro-luminescent display and a faint tinkling sound as it scanned. Needed to replace a capacitor twice during the time I had it.
No, I don't still have this particular one but I bought another at a radiofest about 2009 for nostalgic reasons. How's my old one going, Fred?
ICOM-290A - Purchased in 1982. FM, CW, USB and LSB on 2 metres. 10 Watts, 2 VFO's, 5 memories, prority channel and scanning. A very nice rig. Had to resolder all the PA joints early in its life. It was retired for about 8 years as its scanning and tuning operation became rather lethargic and, sometimes, just plain stubborn. When I found the reason, I'm amazed that it ever worked from new. Brickbats, Mr. ICOM.
I sold it around 2008 as an upgrade reduced the need for it.
Yaesu FT-107M - Purchased 1983. A nice HF rig, I thought. 100W multimode and all bands including WARC. A digital readout, too. Having obtained the Amateur Operator's Certificate of Proficiency, I was ready to cut loose on the world. Had the external VFO as well. Mine was the grey colour scheme, not the one pictured. It's the same colour as the external VFO I had.
No, I don't have it anymore but I recently acquired the matching ATU which I use.
Yaesu FT-209RH - Purchased around 1987. A nice little VHF hand-held. 5 Watts on 2m FM with about 10 memories.
It was great for taking the dog for a walk and keeping tabs on 2m. Used to run it into an 80 Watt amplifier in the car until someone who obviously thought they needed it (the amplifier) more than I did decided to borrow it without telling me or returning it. The headset and microphone, too. Fortunately the FT-209RH wasn't in the car at the time.
No, I don't still have it. Sold it to buy a couple of classic cars - and they are a whole other story that you will find elsewhere sometime if I get the info together.
AOR AR-8200 MkIII - Purchased Aug, 2003. A very nice hand-held scanner. Purchased August, 2003. All modes, 530kHz to 3GHz and no annoying gaps either. WFM, NFM, SFM, WAM, AM, NAM, USB, LSB and CW. TCXO, 1000 memory channels, 40 search banks, 2 VFO's, Alphanumeric channel and bank labels, free downloadable software for computer control, internal slot cards for memory expansion, band activity "scope" with "save trace" capability, etc. This is the device that got me interested in amateur radio again.
In addition to being able to receive almost everything, it makes a great "sniffer" in the shack. One of the reasons I got it was that there were no gaps. You can listen to almost any oscillator you are ever likely to use.
One day I'll get around to making up the serial port interface and introduce the computer to it.
I most certainly still have it and use it every day.
Yaesu FT-847 Earth Station - Purchased Jan, 2004. All mode, 100W on HF and 6m and 50W on 2m and 70cm. Purchased December, 2003. Receive coverage 100kHz to 76MHz, 108MHz to 174MHz and 429MHz to 512MHz. CAT control (I use
Ham Radio Deluxe for that), dual frequency registers, digital metering and a wide variety of status displays. Crossband full duplex capability with normal/inverted tracking for satellite work, DSP noise reduction, notch and bandpass filters built-in keyer, digital speech processor, etc.
Yaesu FT-60R - Purchased Jan, 2005. Dual Band, 2m and 70cm handheld, 1000 memories, 10 memory banks, DTMF, WIRES, ARS, .5W, 2.5W and 5W transmit power, receive 108MHz to 520MHz and 700MHz to 999.99MHz.
I weighed it up against a tri-bander and decided to save the dollars. I didn't really need FM and AM ability on 6m or the ability to listen to HF without sideband.
It sure saves walking down to the shack when someone calls on the local repeater. and allows monitoring of certain emergency transmissions as well.
Created 2004 by
Kevin Crockett. Comments and suggestions may be e-mailed to
