Have you ever

[Gaspasser]

Yep back in the day I had my ticket too, and life gets in the way sometimes. And then I became a scoff law and started messing with 11 meters ,and somehow or another, a crystal misalignment found its way into some RC freqs. Have no idea how that got there, but them old tube radios did all kind of strange things. And gave all that up and went and tried a SDR dongal, and found things so over grown, so obnoxious by so many hams, it is no wonder kids are no longer interested.

Yes, alas. My TS440 and various other rigs have been stored in some forgotten, dusty box somewhere in the garage for 2 decades. School and work got in the way. Now that I'm "semi-retired", I'll try to pull out the gear and relearn CW. I enjoyed QRP operating as well. A kick to see how far 5 watts would get you. And packet (if it still exists in some form) might be a good backup if the zombie apocalypse ever occurs.

 

[skeets]

I dug my old NC60 special out, plugged her in and the tubes warmed up, and got such a hum out of the power supply. I checked and the caps are all swollen and yucky and that was it put it back

 

[Daylight]

Work - project inspection trips.

And what were you doing in the sand box 30 years ago ?

 

[Hugo Habicht]

Yes, alas. My TS440 and various other rigs have been stored in some forgotten, dusty box somewhere in the garage for 2 decades. School and work got in the way. Now that I'm "semi-retired", I'll try to pull out the gear and relearn CW. I enjoyed QRP operating as well. A kick to see how far 5 watts would get you. And packet (if it still exists in some form) might be a good backup if the zombie apocalypse ever occurs.

Not sure if not most of the packet stuff is routed via the internet those days.

5W can get you quite far. I once did Stuttgart (Germany) to New York on 10m (SSB) with 5W only and a poor balcony antenna... Have to admit though, the guy on the New York side had a lot of patience

. .. ..... -.- .-..

 

[Hugo Habicht]

I dug my old NC60 special out, plugged her in and the tubes warmed up, and got such a hum out of the power supply. I checked and the caps are all swollen and yucky and that was it put it back

Fix it !

Btw: never plug in any electronics that has been sitting for years. Use a varitrans and turn the mains voltage up slowly, really slowly while watching the current. The caps have to reform the insulation layer, otherwise they short or burst or both.

 

[skeets]

I havent had a variac for years, in fact I cant remember the last time I saw anybody that used one, but you are spot on!