Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020
I recently obtained my very first Sienna Beige Vibroplex bug via my favorite auction site, a 1979 Vibroplex Original built when Vibroplex was headquartered in Maine.
The Sienna Beige keys were only produced for a relatively short time, and as such, are a fairly rare find on eBay. The one I bought has a rather cool serial number — 388,000.
I’m not sure how I managed to win this auction; I sniped a high bid at the end and damn near didn’t win it. Its not like I need another Vibroplex Original, but this is a key I don’t have. I don’t plan to try to find Sienna Beige model of the other Vibroplex keys — unless of course, I happen to see them listed on eBay, hi hi!
I finally unboxed a radio that takes me back to my 11-meter days. I actually never owned this radio “back in the day,” but it was one of two radios I lusted for all my 11-meter days.
The first radio was the Tram D-201A, and the second was the Robyn T-240D 40-channel radio, also known by some as the “Yellowbird.”
I actually wanted the earlier versions of both rigs, back when they were 23-channel rigs. The 23-channel Tram was the D-201,, the 23 channel Robyn was the Robyn T-123D, which was green rather than yellow.
I recently submitted a low-ball offer to a seller with a T-240D in decent condition, and the seller accepted my offer. Unboxing the rig tonight, I was concerned because I felt it shifting around inside the box. The seller had wrapped it in two or three wraps of the the SMALL bubble bubblewrap, which really isn’t sufficient. Then they stuff wads of brown paper around the radio to help pack it. Luckily, nothing was damaged in shipment. The radio also included a Turner +2 power mic, just like the one I owned 45 years ago.
The Robyn used an early synthesized frequency system that avoided the use of crystals, and it was easy to add “extra channels” to this rig with a couple of wires and a toggle switch. The rig has such a toggle switch in the back, though I don’t know which direction is the normal channels and which is “extra.”
Watching some YouTube videos about the rig, I learned that the “Instant On” feature of the rig kept the filaments lit the entire time you have the radio plugged into AC current, much like the “Instant On” feature worked on the old tube-type TV sets.
The rig transmits about 4 watts of output, which is spec. I’ve got to check the output frequencies to see which way the switch in back is supposed to be for “normal” operation. I really don’t have an antenna for 11 meters, but maybe I can tune my inverted vee — which covers 10 meters — to do double-duty and cover 11. Maybe.
Anyway, I’m glad to have the rig, it’ll be fun to check out.
73 es CUL de KY4Z … SK SK … (dit dit) …