Welcome to my station. Here
are a few pictures showing some of the vintage radios I have restored.
As you can see, they are not only operational but in daily use.
(Click on photo for larger
image)
An Icom 781 excites
an Alpha 77 to the legal limit. The mic is a Rode NT 2. It is shock mounted
and suspended on a boom. The audio is squeezed, stretched,
twisted and multi band processed to fill the side bands with as much information
as possible. Multi band processing has the advantage of making the tremendous
amount of audio manipulation quite transparent to the listener. The rig
on the left is a Johnson Desk Kilowatt driven by a Ranger. I enjoy the
vintage mode of AM operation as well as chasing DX.
This is a Johnson 500
AM Transmitter. It is paired with the Collins R-390A receiver.
I use the diode load output from the 390 to feed an Onkyo Stereo in turn
feeding a speaker system using a sub woofer. We also incorporate
a SONY mini disk for recording and play back from both the AM and SSB stations.
These are the components
that make up my "Multi band " audio system. The mic is a Rode NT2
condenser, feeding an EVENT MP1 mic pre amp. That feeds the RANE
VP12 set up as the EQ and Gating system. That feeds the Berihnger
Ultrafex II spectral enhancer for the physco acoustical effect of staging
and big bottom. Next is the AGC system ( compressor ) a RANE DC24
two band set with the crossover point at 200 hz. The compression
on the low end is 4:1 while the high end is set at 1.5:1. This allows
the BIG bottom to shine through with out bringing the high end level down.
Last is an APHEX Dominator that was converted by Cutting Edge Technologies
to become a Vigilante. This is a three band peak limiter feeding
a symmetrical clipper. This is how you get real LOUD without the
listener becoming fatigued by over processing. This feeds a
Carver solid state amp driving a Hammond 1650K audio transformer in reverse.
The 4-8-16 ohm secondary and the 3400 ohm CT as used to drive either the
Johnson 500 or DESK Kilowatt's modulator tubes. VERY low distortion,
great frequency response!.
These are known as the
Gold Dust Twins. Collins 75A4 receiver and KWS1 1KW transmitter. Vintage
SSB at its best.
The lower antenna
is a KLM KT34XA, the upper is a KLM 40C2 on a rotating tower at 90 feet.
The 55 foot tower has a Cushcraft A3WS WARC band antenna.