Friday, Oct. 30, 2015 — It has been a rather surprising 24 hours here in the Zed’s Ham Radio World, one with a lot of nostalgia and both good and bittersweet memories.
Received a social media message from the XYL of an OM who had been one of my Elmers when I first got a ham ticket. Oak Bailey sold me my first HF rig — a Hallicrafters SR-150, otherwise known to Oak as “Old Ironsides” or just plan “Ironsides.”
It was a fitting nickname, and it was funny to hear Oak telling other hams that he had or hadn’t “fired up ol’ Ironsides tonight.” Oak lent Ironsides out to hams who needed a rig, and knowing that I was a new ham who did welding and needed a rig, he had a proposal.
Oak was retired, and he and his wife were into RVs. Oak needed a storage chest on the back of his RV, so he said if I built the chest he would make a deal to sell Ironsides to me.
He wanted it strong, and boy howdy, did I built it strong — 3/4 inch angle iron with steel sides welded in place. Sumbitch was heavy, too. But Oak was ok with my rather rough-around-the-edges storage chest, and with a pile of cash (how much I’ve forgotten) and the storage chest, I received Ironsides, the matching speaker/power supply, and a hand mic.
I took my Novice test in Dec. 1986 and once I got Ironsides and Novice Enhancement had just taken effect, I prowled the 10 meter SSB band for signals. Of course, 10 meters was 
dead at the time since we were near a low point in the sunspot cycle, so I had to wait for the arrival of e-skip, which finally arrived and did not disappoint.
Oak had been a ham since the days before World War II, and he was one heck of a technical guy. In his shack he had a National NCX-5 that I really admired and a Heathkit HW-2036 2 meter rig.
Oak’s XYL had two items that Oak bought brand new and asked me to sell them for her (a mobile HF rig and an MFJ antenna tuner). What I didn’t count on when I met her in the store parking lot was that she also had boxes of Oak’s other ham (and assorted) stuff!
My Jeep Wrangler sits in the barn literally stuffed with boxes … its ham gear, electronics stuff of all sorts. It also included the Heathkit HW-2036, an ancient Alinco HT, an early 
synthesized Kenwood 2meter and 220 handhelds, and something special — Oak’s 1949 Vibroplex Original bug.
The bug (serial no. 162,518) has suffered some over the years … some paint loss on the black crinkle-painted base, some of the chrome is pitted, the key is missing weights and the finger and thumb piece (these may show up in another box I haven’t surveyed yet).
Oak’s XYL was very happy to hand the stuff off to me, as I had worked with Oak early in my ham radio career. And I’m just tickled to know that I have his bug now.
As you can see in the photos, it was modified to operate as a single lever keyer, though Oak was smart enough not to cut the keying lever off. It will be simple to convert the key back to bug operation.
So my plans for now are to do just that. I’m going to remove the third terminal, fill the hole and then strip and refinish the base in black crinkle. Yeah, I’m tempted to paint the base in the pre-1940 color scheme … but I want this key to look like it did with Oak bought it after World War II.
The chrome is average for its age. More important than condition is the fact it was Oak’s bug. I think I’ll put it on display with Old Ironsides (though the Hallicrafters SR-150 isn’t a very good rig to operate in CW mode).
I’ll sort through the boxes in the coming days, and see what else I might find. One treasure trove I located was an assortment of tuning wands, as those are difficult to find these days.
I’ve had Oak on my mind today, my early days operating Ironsides with my ear to the speaker, praying for e-Skip openings. Good times, hi hi!
73 es CUL de KY4Z GL SK CL … dit dit …