First thing upon arrival I sought out Tarheel Antennas, hell bent on getting an antenna before doing anything else. Had a talk with Gaylon WBØW and settled on the Model 200A-HP package with a ground radial kit and an extra 50' length of control cable. This lightened my net worth by some $600. Stuffed the whole lot into the car then went back to see the rest of the show. Grabbed the adapter cable to mate my Heil Classic 5 with the K3, and found the BNC-to-screw terminal adapter that I needed for the KX1. Shopping spree completed, I did my walkabout; The Best Damn Wife Ever™ parked herself in a chair with her Kindle and waited patiently as I ran around like a 5 year old at Chuck E. Cheese's.
I was happy to finally get my paws on some of the newer rigs like the Icom IC7800/7700/7600 and Yaesu FT-9000/2000 and spin the knobs and push some buttons. All of these radios had front panels that remind me of an instrument panel in a 747 -- lotsa' stuff going on. The K3 by comparison is minimalist and elegant, not that I would mind having any of these rigs in the shack. The 7600 was especially nice as it might be something I could afford someday, though I'd be hard pressed to replace the K3 with anything from Japan.
Elecraft had a booth, showing their new W2 wattmeter and K144XV 2m Module for the K3. Eric WA6HHQ was off giving a presentation so I didn't get to grill him about the lack of AM Synchronous Detection in the K3 as promised. Almost bought a K1 kit, but held off because I already spent way more than I should have already on the above mentioned , and also because I know I'll never use it. But I just have itch to melt some solder and wind some toroids.
K144XV installed in K3Sadly Ten-Tec was absent from the show. Too bad, I really wanted to have a look at the Omni VII and Orion II.
And then there was Flex Radio. Wow. Just... wow.
Flex Radio Systems. Did I mention, Wow?I can imagine one of these in the shack someday...
(From 1978 WRTH)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment