Saturday, April 24, 2021
After a trip to Washington, D.C., I got home to the shack and tonight I finally got back on the air to check-in to the nightly CW traffic net.
While I was gone, my replacement speaker for my Ten-Tec Omni V arrived. The speaker was actually larger than the original, but it was the closest replacement speaker I could find on the market. So a couple of days ago I installed the new speaker.
I had to trim the speaker mounting bracket to make room with for the larger size, but got it securely mounted. I checked it out for function and it sounded great.
So when I put the case back on, I ran into problems — the magnet on the speaker was huge, and it hit the PC boards in the left rear corner of the chassis. ARGH!
I got pissed, so I did what I wanted to do at the beginning — I swapped the speaker out of the Ten-Tec Paragon and put it in the Omni V. The Paragon doesn’t have an internal speaker now, but that’s ok.
The irony is that the speaker has a very large magnet … or psuedo magnet. The damn “magnet” wouldn’t stick to a metal case. It looks like a round metal case that is supposed to be a magnet, but only conceals a much smaller magnet. Of course, the speaker only cost $2.98, and that’s about what its worth.
HALLICRAFTERS R-46A. I submitted an offer recently for a Hallicrafters R-46A speaker that was accepted. This speaker looked different from every other R-46A I’ve seen (see photo). It looks like a previous owner made a modification to the grill — or this may have been something from the factory. I haven’t given it a close look yet, its still in the box.
I love the sound of my R-46B speaker, and this speaker really doesn’t need to be refinished, though it does have some scratches. I recently purchased a Hallicrafters R-46 speaker that is in serious need of paint. My plan is to refinish it in the colors and paint scheme of the R-46B, with gray cabinet, with black and silver trim on the grill.
These Hallicrafters speakers are getting expensive — they routinely go for well over $150.
NEW KEY ARRIVING! Speaking of making offers, I made a low-ball offer on an Elecraft Bencher Hex iambic key and snagged it. These show up from time to time on eBay — in fact, there were two of them on eBay when I bought mine. The other one had a Buy It Now of $450. The non-Electaft Hex key listed for $324.95, though the keys are listed as “out of stock” and have been for years.
I’m not sure why I bid on the key — I’ve been using my Heathkit Ultrapro 8999 CW keyboard. for CW exclusively.
I have mislaid my MFJ CW keyers. I have an inexpensive keyer I bought on eBay that works well — however, its screwed up a few times and I quit using it.
More to come … 73 es CUL …. de KY4Z …. SK SK … (dit dit) ….