General Discussion

Otherwise, I was thinking short-wave set.

My first was a "Build it yourself" Lafayette Explor-Air. Apparently there was a Lafayette store in Boston, because Dad picked up the kit and soldering iron for me.

Only 4 bands, though!





The tuning capacitor was "standoff-ish"

I had a larger Deci-lon. Kept the two smaller ones. I keep only a few reminders of the good old days, though the IMSAI chassis and the boxes of S-100 cards remain.

I never advanced much in radio beyond a little Hallicrafters. 5 tube series-filament design. The equipment was more exciting than the programs or ham conversations (meaning no disrespect to ham radio operators). It's just that I got enough geek in my life and recalling the time I spent with classical music instead (and great audio gear!) my life was really enriched by that experience. I had intended to design and build an electronic piano, but by the time I had any spending money, such things were available, like the old Roland FP-1, currently needing repairs now and then as levers break. (cross my fingers, epoxy is holding, but I move repaired key levers to the top keys, where they get no usage). Anyway, I always had the baby grand, gift of my wonderful parents, and got a Clavinova to replace the Roland before it disintegrates.

I got my first electronic piano when my wife was working evening and night shifts, so that I could play during the day using headphones. I told her about this recently and she didn't know why I did it, proving that it worked.

I have an 80's or so Kenwood amp, but it has reached the stage where capacitors are getting old (it has a constant hum) and it's going to be a bunch of work to restore. And these days, decent, if not great amps are $10 in the thrift store. Most of audio quality is in the speakers (or not) and I got 80's Klipsch Heresy speakers, also from the thrift store, about as good as hitting the lottery, and more likely (since I already won).