QRP Station > Transceivers

Rigs that got away

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G0BVZ:
So which Rigs do YOU regret not owning?

Way back when I first started I practically devoured QRP Quarterly, Sprat and Radcom: certain rigs kept cropping up in these mags.  I ended up lusting after two:

Heathkit HW-8 kit
Heathkit HW-9 kit

The WHY is easy: those who wrote about these rigs did so with very obvious enthusiasm and affection. Like many rigs, they had their limitations and quirks but the overall simplicity and performance marks them out as rigs well ahead of their time. If either of these kits were produced today, I'd buy one like a shot.

I really regret not buying one way back when Heath were still trading. The Youkits mini hf rigs probably perform better, but they ain't Hot Water 8s & 9s.

Do you have any regrets, rig-wise?

Vic  /drying his eyes on a corner of the sail.....

PG4I:
I deeply regret SELLING my HW8, after buying my first QRO rig at the end of the last century... I especially regret this after visiting a friend (PA3ADJ) a while back who has a collection of QRP rigs including a HW7, HW8 and a TENTEC argonaut 509, another fine rig!  ;)

G0BVZ:
Ohhhhhh  I feel your pain.... :-(

G0nmd:
Hmmm, this topic could run and run...
I regret selling my TS120V to buy George Dobbs' TenTec Argonaut 515.
I regret selling the TT Argo when I needed to get rid of either the Argo or the TT Omni D, wish the Omni had sold instead...
Regret selling my Racal RA17L which I used alongside homebrew & kit Tx's.

But I wouldn't swap my Elecraft K2, K1 or KX3 for any of them... So the regret isn't too heavy to bear.. My shack is as well equipped and pleasurable as I could wish.

Les g0nmd

GM0LVI:
It's a bit like cars one now wishes one had hung onto, like my first one a 1937 Austin or my Triumph TR4A but it's a question of space and finance.

As far as radios go - There a Heathkit Apache TX, a massive bit of kit that you could just about climb into, loaded it up using a light bulb, but about the size of a dog kennel so had to go. I've still got some of the bits.
A Heathkit SB-101. Sold that along with a matching scope and bullet microphone. I've still got a set of spare valves.
A Racal TRA????, can't remember the model, but it was fairly rare. Most of the production run had been sold to the Jordanian army. My one had been pulled out of an antarctica base in the 1990s and the previous owner had blown the PA transistors. I needed the cash and sold it to a friend for next to nothing  >:(

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