The advantage of the older, tube-based radios is that they were designed
with discrete components, most of which are available today.
No custom CPUs or ICs.
It's a known fact that, in electronic equipment of good design, the main
area for failure is tubes.
These can be on the expensive side these days but, if not abused, even
finals can last for years.
It may also be beneficial to inspect and possibly replace electrolytic caps.
I'm sticking with my Sherwood R-4C/T-4X and 2B receiver, for old times sake.
Okay, that's what I said about my Omni VI+ before it departed to make
room for an Eagle, which landed yesterday morning.
With all of this talk about logic board failure, maybe not such a bad
idea. I hope the new owner has many more years of use from it.
73 de Jim - AD6CW
On 1/19/2011 3:57 PM, Rob Atkinson wrote:
Right. Which gets us to the basic question everyone has to answer for
themselves if any of this bothers them: Am I willing to pay for a
throw away plastic rig in order to get all kinds of cool extras to
play with, or do I want to give up some features in order to get a ham
rig that will probably still be working after I'm not?
There are lots of guys running gear from the 1950s, i.e. around 55
years old. SX28s going on 70; ditto for BC610s and so on. Anyone
think their Omni 7 will be running in 70 years? Maybe it doesn't
matter unless you are around 15 years old right now and reading this.
Most of the Ten Tec users on this reflector are CW ops. The truth is
that if you are a casual ragchewing CW op, you don't really need about
80% of the capability and features in a modern box loaded with chips,
and air space, that weighs less than a Vibroplex bug. If you are a
new ham, don't be too quick to dismiss anything just because it has
vacuum tubes in it. A ragchewer CW ham can do quite well with a
Ranger and NC300 and separate antennas for QSK. Or make it a DX40
with a VFO of your choice and save a few dollars. Lots of CW hams
getting the old novice CW rigs and fixing them up these days, and
finding TO Keyers at hamfests and having fun discovering what they can
do without their Elecraft or Orion _and_ none of this logic board
business to worry about.
I have an Omni 6 too and I wasn't real thrilled to hear about the
logic board but I was more disappointed than worried. I was already
in the process of getting out of the plastic chip radio end of things
and into filaments and this just gives me more motivation. I guess
I'll run the Omni 6 until it dies, then it can be someone's parts rig.
73
Rob
K5UJ
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