My NRD-525 and other goodies are on the block...

Fiscal realities are forcing me to sell off more of my JRC collection, this time a mint, new-in-box, untouched-by-human-hands NRD-525 HF Receiver along with likewise mint CMK-165 VHF/UHF Converter and CFL-232 500 Hz Crystal Filter. All three now on eBay as separate auctions.

Sorry to have to do this, but since I'm not a multi-billion dollar corporation I'm not on the list for a government bailout; and a particular deadbeat client of mine is apparently not hip to the most basic of free-market principles, that of monetary remuneration for services rendered (promptly, I might add...) by your faithful correspondent. And so my shack becomes even more desolate.

Let the bidding begin...

Thinning Out The Herd

The NRD-505 is gone, the JST-245 will be gone next month, the NRD-535D is still for sale. If someone told me even a few short months ago that I would sell off most of my JRC gear I would have slapped them. But alas, it's time to get over my separation anxiety and find good homes for this stuff. The reality is, the K3 has proven itself to be the complete HF rig for me, as close to perfect a radio as I've ever owned. I'm keeping my pair of NRD-515s for mediumwave DXing, and there's that mint NRD-525 sitting in an unopened box. But the rest of it was just eye candy, well loved but never used.

Then there are the boat anchors still sitting in boxes since our last move -- do I really need a pile of hollow-state relics? Do I have the time to work on them and get them into good working shape? Would I ever use them? Probably not on all three counts. So they will probably be gone soon, too.

Oddly, I'm not too depressed about it. The cash this stuff has turned into will pay off some lingering debts, with likely enough left over to go towards some needed goodies for the shack (sub-RX module or panadapter for the K3, or maybe an amp). A bit of real estate in the shack has been cleared up, too. But most of all, I'm happy that this gear will finally get some use.

My NRD-505 is on eBay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250504814357

Hate to do it but need some cash flow. This is another one I'll regret selling.

Update 10/3: Sold for $2,025.00. Was hoping for more but think my eBay rating (a big, fat zero because it's a new account) probably pulled down the final price. Also had my NRD-535D and NVA-319 listed; the speaker sold ($202.50) but the radio did not.

Dallas Lankford & NRD-525/535 Mods

The ARRL Contest Update for May 13, 2009 included a mention of Dallas Lankford and a link to a collection of his writings on various technical topics, including several pieces on the JRC NRD-525 receiver. This struck me with a blast of nostalgia.

Though we never met, Dallas and I had exchanged letters (not emails, mind you, but real, honest-to-God handwritten letters!) when I worked for JRC about filter modifications to the NRD-525/535. Almost all of it went straight over my head as I am merely an appliance operator compared to Dallas, but with his help I managed to successfully install some Collins torsional mechanical filters in my NRD-535 by changing out a bunch of the surface-mount components that comprised the filters' input and output impedance matching networks. It was a big accomplishment for me, even though I had to butcher up a perfectly good CFH-36 filter board...

Don't try this at home, kids.

I lost touch with Dallas after I left JRC, but I have copies of all of his letters in my file cabinet, a reminder of a great gentleman and maestro of the radio arts. The above linked files are required reading for anyone who wants to dig into his NRD-525.

NRD-505 Schematics

I've scanned the schematics from JRC's NRD-505 Instruction Manual and posted them on my NRD-505 fanboy site under "Links and Downloads" as a PDF download.

WW2PT/5

A quick update from W5-land... We arrived at our new QTH in Robinson, TX on August 29 and I quickly got most of the radios unboxed and set up the shack. My old desk was in pretty bad shape so a trip to Ikea was in order and yielded a nice corner desk with a riser platform I made from a cabinet door and some 8" stainless steel feet. The new backyard is about 50' x 50' but treeless - great for astronomy, not so much for dipoles and longwires; I think a ground-mounted vertical is a good possibility if I can keep it somewhat out of site of the management. Also a wire antenna of some sort in the attic as a second antenna though I doubt I can go longer than 40' or so.

Meanwhile, the same old story - SWLing with a random wire out the window, picking up every plasma TV and light dimmer in the neighborhood but occasionally pulling in some interesting stuff (interesting, that is, because it's far different than the northeast: no strong Euros on 75m in the evenings, for example, but many XEs. Just heard W6RJ booming in on 3799 kHz as I write this, but whoever he was working is buried in the noise.

Speaking of noise... all this computer shit is killing me! Cable modem, wireless router, printer, and computer PS all add up to a solid S9+ noise level. I'm sure this will be reduced when I have a coax-fed outdoor antenna but right now with a random wire running straight into the shack, I'm in RFI hell.

First thing I did after I got the internet hooked up was to upgrade the K3 to firmware version 02.38. Still no synchronous AM but a number of new features that were not there in the last version I loaded (1.75). Will need to download the updated manual to see what's what. In just a couple of days I've heard 3 different people on the 75 and 40 talking about their new K3s. Looks like the word is out...

I finally have the NRD-515 I bought last year unpacked and hooked up to the Kiwa MW Loop; when time permits I'll do some comparison tests to see how the 3.5 kHz Murata filter in this radio stacks up to the Kiwa 3.5 kHz module that I installed in my other '515.

The cable installer was fixated on my radios; he thought I was a broadcaster until I told him about ham radio. A PSK31 QSO was scrolling across the K3's display, so he asked about that as well as all the funny cards on the wall. Not sure if he's going to run out and get licensed but he was clearly interested in the technical stuff, especially the digital modes - we've come a long way since Morse code, I told him.