KD5OEI Heavy Metal


From left to right:

1947 RCA BTA250L for 160M: 250 watt carrier, 1KW peak envelope. I need to get a baseplate with casters made up and get the 1300 lb. beast off the cart.

Durward Tucker's 1957 80-10M homebrew KW: This one can make and modulate a KW carrier very easily, and was built by COL Tucker for emergency use with the Texas State Guard as well as ham radio under the old "KW input" rules. I rescued it from a scrapyard and am restoring it.

1949 Link 250UFS 30-50MHz low-band VHF base station: This ex-police base unit provides 250 watts of 6M FM. The base station uses mostly loktal tubes. It has a 250TH final behind a thick glass window.

As a dimensional reference, the Link unit is 24" wide and 78" tall. The lightest of the three, it weighs only 380 lbs.

(The rightmost rack in the picture has some receivers and audio amplifiers temporarily stored in it.)