No is such a powerful answer! Like when your 12-year-old daughter wants a butterfly tattoo on her back -- 10X full size!
So, it is with our hobby that we should say NO. We ought to narrow that NO a bit as we are not talking about an ARRL membership or whether to outlaw LC VFO's or take up contesting or even buying an ICOM IC-7300.
The NO is for me personally and that involves buying any Boat Anchors or even gear that is older than 25 years.
Hallicrafters SR-150
[For those looking for schematics for a simple project or code for the Seeed Xiao RP2040 we will not be covering that today so you can close out this posting.]
Just look at the front panel of the SR-150 as it literally says take me home to your ham shack. It has large knobs for those of us with Fat Finger Syndrome that we can actually twiddle! The panel layout forces you to look at the dial scale and S Meter.
The SR-150 production run was during the early 1960's and just the radio alone was $650. It had 19 tubes and known for its quiet receiver. As a newly commissioned Ensign in 1963 my pay was $222.50 per month. If I could amass three months of gross pay, I could buy one. So, while the SR-150 was at the top of my list the Collins KWM-2 was completely off the table.
Fast forward to the late 1990's when I was retired and the kids were out of college so there was a bit more money in the radio budget, it was time to fulfill some dreams of past times.
Yes, it was not an either or, but I bought both the SR-150 and the KWM-2. That is when I realized the technology time warp continuum. What was leading edge in 1963 was now very far behind what was being sold in the late 1990's. One of those two got moved on but I still have the KWM-2.
Now with no time to build I still look at eBay and see those rigs of old. I keep saying NO! So, if you have an itch to buy a radio older than 25 years, don't as there are some hidden land mines awaiting your stepping off the plunger.
The SR-150 as nice as it looks had a non-linear VFO dial. C'mon guys for $650 it should be linear.
A neat feature today for the SR-150 as it used 12DQ6 tubes in the final is that you could buy a set of matched 6DQ6 tubes for about $25. A simple filament string rewiring enables the use of the 6DQ6.
But this is a 1st part of the critical NO. Many of the offshore rigs had final tubes that are near impossible to find, and no matched sets. The Yaesu FT-101 series comes to mind. There were also driver tubes used where American brands won't work (12BY7).
Most of the electronic parts are easily found except for things like encoders. The ICOM IC-701 was the 1st solid state rig I ever saw. It was so small and wow frequency stable and a linear VFO. It had a lot of relays to switch in BPF's and LPF's. (This was late 1970's a mere 15 years past the SR-150).
I was gifted an ICOM IC-735 that needed some repair and the tech shared with me that they no longer serviced the older ICOM radios like the IC-701 as they could not get the encoders which was kind of unique in the mid-70's and that those little relays were unobtanium. That draws us to the radios built before 2000 and the custom parts that are only found in donor radios. That forces the buy a pair as one is a spare.
Mechanical parts are particularly hard to find. I have three working Collins KWM-1's. It might surprise you to know that while the KWM-1 has a PTO it has a friction drive mechanism that uses an idler wheel that drives the outside of the circular dial. The idler is two circular plates that have a flanged outer circumference and the dial fits between those two plates thus creating a captive friction drive mechanism.
There is no way to adjust the resistance of that arrangement. I have a SWAN SW120 with the same arrangement but the SW-120 has a curved washer in the mix that enables you to set the feel to very loose or tight as you tune.
One of the KWM-1's has the idler that was physically pinched by a prior owner and so the tuning is not smooth. I have an idler from a 4th donor KWM-1 and it is corroded and not usable. I have not been successful in locating that part.
Custom IC's are another huge negative for older solid-state radios. With a shift to microprocessor's as embedded elements some were custom and not COTS (commercial off the shelf) so when you read on eBay: Powers on, but LEDs show 9999999 think the microprocessor is toast. Say NO!
Other red flags are like when you look at the schematic for the LC VFO's in the older boat anchors you see a capacitor with no value but a note "factory select". How lucky do you have to be to have such a factory select capacitor in your junk box?
Crystal and Mechanical Filters are another significant problem area. The manual for the KWM-1 tells you that the 455 kHz filter and the BFO crystal are factory select. You are told if you change the filter, you must change the BFO crystal. There is no netting capability in the BFO circuit. The SR-150 uses a 1650 kHz Crystal Filter and I am not aware of any other radio that uses that IF frequency.
Relays are also an issue. The KWM-1 uses three odd ball relays -- ruin one of those and you might as well junk the unit.
Many radios were built in such a way that servicing is a huge issue. I had an NCX-5 Transceiver that while it was mostly tubes had a solid-state VFO with plug in transistors. The VFO board was under the main tuning capacitor and there was no way to remove the 2N706 from its socket without a major disassembly.
The same for an early Yaesu FTdx100. The power supply electrolytic cap terminals were inaccessible underneath the factory wiring. Replacing those caps was a major effort. No thought was given that the radios might need to be serviced.
Another issue with the vintage 1967 FTdx100 is that some circuits are installed in soldered shut metal boxes. Check my website https://www.jessystems.com for a look at a refurb I did on a FTdx100. I only paid $35 for it so it was a bargain.
When I moved back to California in 2013 this particular unit was passed on to another ham. Exactly 2 years ago I found another FTdx100 in much better condition for not a lot of money. That unit is shown in the front-end video.
In 1967 the FTdx100 was a sort of a test market transceiver and not really actively marketed in the USA. It has Germanium transistors and three tubes. Luckily the 6JM6 finals are easily found in matched sets and the cost is low.
The follow-on radio from this test radio was the FT-101 and I thought I heard that somewhere north if 250,000 radios were sold world-wide. Even today an unmolested FT-101 commands a hefty price north of $300. The finals are 6JS6C's and they are costly, hard to find NIB and as matched sets. Some daring souls have converted their rigs to 6146's.
I could go on and on but a final word about the low-end radios sold during 1960 to 1990. They were low end because of value engineering. The manufacturers reasoned hams being hams had a product life cycle of about 1 year to 18 months before they had the itch to buy a new radio. As long as they could find the cheapest part that would last 18 months, it was selected for the build. Mechanical switches and relays are the issue as well as electrolytic capacitors. These are failure points in the old boat anchors.
Cost is another issue. The old radios are commanding prices off the scale and do not represent a true value. How about a Central Electronics 100V that has issues for $999. It likely will get bought.
I leave you with a final caution to me --- NO!
Think build it or buy new!
73's
Pete N6QW