Boat Anchors and BABE's

There are a lot of web sites on the Internet that deal with so called Boat Anchors - you know - old radio equipment full of tubes. If you are actually looking for boat anchors, try here. This site is quite different from most Boat Anchor sites. It deals with a specific model of Boat Anchor - the Hammarlund HQ-215. If I did things right, there will be more than you ever wanted to know about this specific receiver (well - at least I'll share with you everything I know).

And Now for Something Completely Different

This is the home of the BABE or Boat Anchor Beauty Evaluator. Using the evaluator, you will be able to objectively quantify the "beauty" of your Boat Anchor. Just think of all of the arguments this can solve. The evaluator evolved out of a thread on the R390 list back in September of 1998 (some things just never go away and take forever to get done). Someone (Matt) brought up the issue of desireabilty of certain boat Anchors based upon their appearance and functionality. This got me thinking about what factors I use in evaluating a Boat Anchor. As I had a little time on my hands (maybe too much), I developed a highly sophisticated mathematical formula to define just how beautiful a particular Boat Anchor is. Finally it's ready. Now go check out your BABE.

New News Flash: A downloadable enhanced version of the BABE calculator has been developed. You will be able to run it on your PC even off-line. It does everthing the web version does plus it has built-in data for hundreds of Boat Anchors (475 on 9/26/06). You will be able to change the built-in parameters as well as enter new info. But wait - there's more. It also has built-in help. It can print a certificate. I had planned to make it available for download from this site but have not found the time to complete that task. If you want a copy, just email me. I wish I could say it was developed by popular demand. It was developed mostly by whim. What a deal. And yes it will be free (as if I could sell it). Anybody out there? Anybody reading this? Wow, imagine what you would be getting if I got emails of encouragement!

The Collins R-390A receiver (a real and great boatanchor) uses an excellent PTO (Permeability Tuned Oscillator) as the master oscillator. There were a number of companies who made them. Although Cosmos is one of the more popular brands of PTOs, there were some other very rare manufacturers of PTOs. There were also some rare manufacturers of 807 tubes.

See pictures of dial cord used on a Heathkit SB-100. Someone requested this and I think I'll leave it here.

I recently "discovered" many BBOD's (Black Beauty Of Death capacitors) in my Hallicrafter SX-100. I will be replacing them soon just to be safe. For those not sure what BBOD's are, they are old style paper dielectric capacitors that have a common tendancy to fail by leaking heavily or shorting out. They sometimes cause other hard to find components (like I.F. transformers or filters) to fail as a result. Here is a list of the capacitors needed.

For those of you who are interested in the Hallicrafters SX-28 receiver, I have scanned an article from the May 1959 issue of CQ magazine titled "Updating the SX-28". There is good material in there on a great receiver.

An item mentioned in the above article is the S9'er, a method for improving sensitvity and reducing front end noise in older receivers. Here are the articles.

The Tektronix 7000 series oscilloscope was a very sucessful line that can now be an affordable hobby scope. Here is a list of plug-ins that work with the system.

Of course I have provided a list of links to other Boat Anchor sites. This list is far from complete but at least it will get you started (I know it did me).

I just realized I never put an e-mail link on this page. Here it is. Now you can tell me what you think (gulp).

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