Friday, Oct. 27, 2017 — As I sat down here in the library to begin this entry, I glanced over at the bandscope on my IC-756PROII and wondered what was going on — set at 100 kc spread, there were signals all over the place on 40 meters. I should have known without looking it was the CQ World Wide DX phone contest. I should be in the shack prowling the bands for DX, but I’m not in contest mode. Just finished supper. My son and wife were making goodies for his Halloween party with the Society of Physics Students group at University of Louisville. I told him to not to expect the Physics Department to have the kind of funding to provide escorts (like the athletic departments have, hi hi!).
I have some updates regarding eBay acquisitions that promise to keep me busy for a while.
If you’ve browsed eBay recently you undoubted have seen items from the estate of noted Morse key collector Tom French, W1IMQ. I find it sad to see his collection scattered, but it has been fascinating to simply watch the listings for portions of his collection. For example, an original print of the TR McElroy 1943 Poster Chart Of Codes & Signals. Now the listing doesn’t say it was Tom’s, but since Tom sold reprints of the chart, it would make sense he owned an original. As one of the nation’s top McElroy collectors, he would have one I assume.
There’s been a long list of Mac Keys and Mac Key wooden boxes. From out of the listing of his collection in the past 10 days, I won the auction for a Mon-Key electronic keyer he owned (apparently I was the only bidder who was interested in the key). I also was fortunate enough to win one of the auctions for a 1941 McElroy A-400.
As you can see in the photo, the key doesn’t have the large nameplate as previous Mac Keys had, but it does carry the “MAC” logo noting it was manufactured by the “world’s champion radio telegrapher.” Of all the McElroy keys out there, one I did not have in my collection was the A-400. According to Tom French’s book on T.R. McElroy, Mac marketed three keys in 1941 — the A-400 (notable because the Mac dropped the “ears” from the main pivot frame); the P-500 “Professional Model”; and the S-600 Super Stream Key.
And of course, I didn’t need another Mon-Key in my collection, but this one was special because it was part of Tom’s collection. I had pursued several of Tom’s Mac Keys on eBay, but the ones I pursued were also sought after by other collectors. Auctions for two A-400s ended about the same time, and I was outbid on the first one, but managed to be fortunate enough to have the winning bid on the next one.
NEW RIG? YEP. I got a wild hair last week when I looked at the money I made from the hamfest several weeks ago. I combined that with the past couple of weeks I’ve been putting the “leftovers” — the things that didn’t sell — on eBay with some success. After getting an OK from the XYL, I decided to pursue the purchase of a new-to-me rig — the Yaesu FTDX-3000. The rig arrived today and is still in the box. Hope to get it out tomorrow and give it a whirl.
My next decision will be if I want to put additional HF rigs up for sale on eBay — my IC-746; my IC-756 PRO and my current rig here in the library, my IC-756PROII.
I took a look at more recent Yaesu HF rigs like the FT-991 and the FT-1200, but opted for the older FTDX-3000. The other rig I took a serious look at was the Icom IC-7600, the rig that looks like an up-to-date version of the IC-756 series of HF transceivers. Depending on how much money I can raise in selling other equipment, I might take another look at the IC-7600 as a possible replacement for the Yaesu FT-2000 as my main rig in the shack. Well, its something to shoot for.
In the mean time I’ll have to put the HF rig through the paces, and then check out the Mon-Key. Nearly every Mon-Key I’ve ever owned had a bad resistive line cord, and though the cord on this one is original, I’m betting its open.
73 es CUL de KY4z SK … GUD LUCK IN CQWW … (dit dit) …