World Radio Laboratories WRL Duo-Bander 84, a 40 and 80 meter SSB Transceiver from the Mid 1960's

In the mid 1960's Leo Meyerson's World Radio Laboratories from Council Bluffs, Iowa came out with  the Duo-Bander 84 tube transceiver. It is a two band 40m  and 75 m single side band only transceiver that covers the phone portion of the bands.  It uses early generation printed circuit board construction rather than earlier traditional point to point wiring, contains four or five transistors and a few diodes in the microphone amplifiers and balanced modulator, but yet is still mostly tubes. The Duo-bander 84 came out during the transition from large heavy separate transmitters and receivers to the popular smaller size transceivers. There was a rush of American manufactures such as Swan, Drake, Heathkit, and Hallicrafters to come up with small SSB transceivers for home, portable, or mobile use.  The manual says "WRL sincerely believes you will be very satisfied with your Duo-Bander 84 transceiver. It represents a significant achievement in the art, enabling us to provide you with a high-performance transceiver covering the 75 and 40 meter SSB phone bands at unusually low cost." This fine example was given to me by a close friend Chuck W4MIL with hopes that I could finish his restoration and put it on the air. We both love the simple, functional, and cute looks of the transceiver. Chuck also included the mega-heavy matching Galaxy power supply. I've placed some large photos for a close up view of this beauty. Click on the photo thumbnails to bring up the full size photos.