The second step was to mount the major components on the chassis.Ī third step was to connect the AC power cord with a fuse on the rear panel and the power switch on the front panel and then to the transformer primary winding. The first step was to drill all required holes in the chassis and to use a chassis nibbler for the meter hole. A phono jack at the upper left is the RF output, and another phono jack in the upper center is for the CW key input (cathode keying). A number of cathode bypass, plate and screen power supply bypass and coupling capacitors are visible. The high voltage (~ 300V) power supply is visible to the far right with the filter capacitor 2 diodes and 2 bleeder resistors. The 6C4 7-pin socket is just below the RF choke in the upper right. Three RF chokes are visible: one for the plate circuit of the 5763 RF power amp a second for the plate circuit of the 6C4 crystal oscillator and a third RF choke acts as a short to ground for DC power on the output circuit for safety and to drain static charges. The 2-pin socket for the crystal is visible to the right of the 5763 socket. In the center of the chassis the underside of the 9-pin socket for the 5763 RF power amplifier is visible. The output variable tuning capacitor is visible in the center bottom. Under the 10″ x 5″ x 3″ Hammond aluminum chassis, the output pi-network is visible to the left (it was wired to support only 80 meters). I purchased a new crystal at 3530 KHz to operate in the CW bands as of 2020. The crystal is the original from 1970 and at 3730 KHz is about in the middle of the old Novice 80 meters band from 3700 to 3750 KHz. This is a completed reconstruction of the novice special built in the fall of 2020 which is 50 years after I built a first copy of this TX and started my ham radio hobby in the 9th grade in 1970.
#OLD GRAYMARK RADIO LICENSE#
At that time, I replaced it with a Multi-Elmac PMR-7 and AF-67 that I acquired from W3PDW, Herb Swartz, who administered the Novice license test for me in the summer of 1970 and was also my geometry teacher in 1972/73 in 11th grade. My receiver was a Graymark 511 3-tube regenerative receiver with plug-in coils, and I used this RX and TX for almost 1 year until the summer/fall of 1971. In the fall of 1970, I built my first novice TX based on the design from the 1968 design from “How to Become a Radio Amateur” without the optional CW monitoring oscillator. KA1DDB has published a design here that is very similar to the version I built: The ARRL published this design here (see the article on “The Novice Special Transmitter”): The later version eliminated the current meter for simplicity and low-cost, and it used a #49 panel lamp in the plate current circuit to support tuning the output pi network by tuning for a dip in current or a dip in lamp brightness. The earlier version included a plate meter and an optional audio CW monitoring oscillator using 2 transistors. Another version of this simple novice TX was published in the 1971 ARRL Amateur Radio Handbooks. I am returning my cassettes, and soon, my LP's, to active service.This simple 2-tube transmitter with crystal control intended for ham radio beginners in the 60’s and 70’s was published by the ARRL in “How to Become A Radio Amateur”, 25th edition, 1968. The photo above shows George Harrision playing a few weeks ago. The first stereo equipment I bought on my own was new, early 90's, Technics tape deck, CD player, and a Sony receiver.Īnd also, thanks to posts here on audiokarma, I recently cleaned and demagnetized the tape deck, and played a cassette, for the first time this Century!
I also had a mid-80's small "boom box" which was my main personal music player in the mid to late 80's, the later teen years, when I was really only playing cassettes and radio.
I remember wishing that it had a cassette player rather than 8-track, but it was the very end of the 8-track era.I dont remember the brand.I have no photos of it.it was low-end, but it worked fine! My first stereo of my own (bought for me as a Birthday present by my parents when I was probably 12 or 13) was a early 80's "all in one" unit.8-track, radio, and turntable on top. Im not going to duplicate the 8-track player, or the exact same turntable though. We also used the same system throughout my teen years in the 80's.Īll the equipment disappeared decades ago.but I recently discovered what model the receiver was, and found the same model, thanks to Audiokarma! With an attached 8-track player, turntable, and two speakers. When I was a kid in the 70's my "family stereo" (really, my Dad's!) was a 1975 Lafayette LR-1100 receiver,