The World Radio Laboratories
Duo-Bander 84
In the mid 1960' 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.
Last Update: 01/02/2022
Web Author: Scott Freeberg WA9WFA
Copyright ©2022 by Scott Freeberg WA9WFA - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED