After my recent acquisition of the Hallicrafters HT-32, a thought popped into my head: What does the boat anchor/vintage radio of the future look like.
Go to any hamfest or talk to any long time amateur radio operator, and it won’t be hard to find 40+ year old radios still in working condition (some better than others). Even if they’re not working, it’s not impossible in most cases to find parts to resurrect the radio.
I’ve got 3 Hammarlunds and 1 Hallicrafters in my boat anchor collection now. Our Kenwood TS-480SAT or Elecraft K2 could be considered vintage, depending on what time frame for vintage you want to use. Should they be considered part of the boat anchor collection?
In the age of (current) modern, IC based, software-defined radios (pretty much anything from 2010 onward), how many of those will remain servicable/fixable enough to become the boat anchors of the future? Will anybody be using an ICOM IC-7300/7300MK2 or Yaesu FTDX-10 in 2050? Will I be able to repair our Kenwood TS-480SAT in 2040 when something fails?
Ask anyone of a certain ham radio age what a boat anchor radio would be, and you’ll get answers like Drake, Collins, Hallicrafters, Hammarlund, National. What will people say in 2040 or 2050? What boat anchor radios be we be using 20-30 years from now?
Joining the vintage radio collection this week is a Hallicrafters HT-32 Mark I transmitter I acquired from a local ham who wanted to see it go to someone who would put it back on the air.
The HT-32 works on 5 bands (80, 40, 20, 15, 11/10m selectable by crystal), does SSB, CW, and DSB (double side band, AM without the carrier). Maximum power output is 100 W in SSB/CW mode and 25 W in DSB mode.
An old Hallicrafters HT-32 amateur radio transmitter sitting on a workbench
At 50.7 cm (W) x 25.6 cm (H) x 43 cm (D) and weighing in at just under 40 kg, this radio is a BIG HEFTY beast. This is the kind of radio where you set it down somewhere in the house and built your shack around it. None of this “Oh, maybe I’ll move it over to this side of the room”. No. Once you’ve set it down that’s where it’s staying.
When I arrived to pick it up, the previous owner had it plugged in with a light bulb connected to the antenna connector for a dummy load. Everything seems to be in working order, and there was enough RF output coming through the antenna connector to light up the light bulb. The brightness of the light bulb modulated nicely when he spoke into the microphone, so that seemed like a good sign. Wasn’t able to verify what the transmitted RF sounded like, but once I get it on the air I’ll find out soon enough. The previous owner mentioned he had done a full alignment on the receiver, but that was quite a while ago. Hopefully nothing has drifted or changed in the meantime.
The radio is in pretty good condition for its age, with some light surface corrosion (what 70 year old radio wouldn’t). The top metal mesh cover flips open to reveal an assortment of tubes, capacitors, tuned inductors, and a big chunky transformer.
Under the Hallicrafters HT-32 lid
One of the three crystals in the radio can be used to set up the HT-32 to work in either the 11 m (CB now) or 10 m band.
Three crystals in the Hallicrafters HT-32. The crystals are marked 21500 kcycles, 25000 kcycles, and 30.9 MHz.
The crystals are used to mix the SSB signal from the second mixer stage to produce the output frequency for that crystal’s band. The 11-10 m crystal can be switched out for operation in the 11 m band, or different 500 kHz segments of the 10 m band. The radio currently has a 30.9 MHz crystal which sets the radio up for operating in the 11 m band (26.96 – 27.23 MHz).
I haven’t pulled the radio out of the chassis yet to see how things look underneath. I expect that the rest of the radio will look fairly similar to the top.
I’ll have to figure out how to wire up a microphone to the radio. It looks similar to the connectors on the Heathkit IG-102 that I replaced with BNC connectors. A bit of research tells me that it’s an Amphenol 75-MC1F/Switchcraft 2501 connector. Wonder if I can find a working microphone with one of these connectors on it already.
Fortunately it also came with the manual, which I promptly scanned and made into a PDF. The manual also conveniently has the schematic for the radio. I’ll have to spend some time studying the manual to learn how to use it before I try to get this paired up with one of the Hammarlunds and get it on the air.
Hallicrafters HT-32 frequency dialBottom right of the Hallicrafters HT-32 frornt panel showing the band selector knob and frequency dial knob.Lower left row of knobs on the Hallicrafters HT-32
Looking forward to getting this radio set up and working.
While doing a bit of clean up in the garage, I came across the CML-47205 antenna loading coil units. They came as part of a couple of US Navy TCS-13 transmitter/receivers that ended up in my collection a few years ago.
They’re simple black boxes, 6 x 8.5 x 5.75 inches with a 7 position dial switch numbered 0-6, 2 thumbscrew terminals and a ground terminal. The top cover plate appears to be a plastic/resin material (Bakelite or something similar I’m guessing) and the rest of the enclosure is metal. The corner of the top plate on one of the units was broken and the screw missing. Inside it’s pretty simple, a multiposition switch and a tapped inductor coil on a plastic form.
From the manual, it’s meant to be used with a 20 foot whip between 1.5 – 3 MHz. Dial setting 0 selects the highest inductance for the lower frequencies, while dial setting 6 selects the lowest inductance for the higher frequencies.
Using my AADE LC meter connected across the two terminals, I measured the inductance for each position.
Dial setting
Inductance (μH) SN 1272
Inductance (μH) SN 1793
0
98.32
97.76
1
76.49
75.81
2
59.08
58.57
3
41.78
41.51
4
25.83
25.53
5
12.98
12.72
6
0.46
0.38
Might be interesting to see if I can incorporate these into a vertical antenna for Field Day.
W4BXC has done ARRL Field Dayin the back yard for a few years now. While I was trying to figure out what class we’d be operating at a while back, I came across this in the ARRL Field Day FAQ. The 2023 (and earlier) Field Day Packet the question/answer says:
Q: We don’t have an area club, but we do have a small group of area hams (generally two or three of us get together for operating events). I have a large-deep property, and we will be setting up in my back yard. What Class would we be? Class A, Class B or ?
A: Convenient access across one’s back yard to their home station facilities is not in keeping with the spirit of Class A or Class B portable operations. Such convenient backyard operations on property of home stations remain either Class D (commercial power) or Class E (emergency power), even if home antenna structures are not used. If the station will be a “good hike” away from a home station (eg. at the rear of a several acre lot, or perhaps operating from a farmers field down the road) – clearly away from home conveniences (away from home utilities, or home restrooms/bedrooms, or even eating facilities/refrigerator/kitchen) – then Class A (3 or more persons portable) or Class B (1 or 2 person portable) is appropriate.
ARRL Field Day Packet 2023
Because of this, W4BXC has been operating as Class E for the last few Field Days.
While preparing for Field Day 2026, I went to look at the rules and FAQ again. The 2026 edition isn’t out yet but the 2025 edition is still available. Much to my surprise, I found the response to the same question had changed. Now, the answer reads:
A: Class B stations, like Class A are designated as portable stations – the difference between Class A and B is the number of participants. Class B stations are limited to 1 or 2 participants, which includes anyone assisting in setup/breakdown, as well as actually operating. If you’re setting up at your property and you are not using your normal station, or using any facilities installed for permanent station use (including any antennas that you normally use), then you’d qualify as Class B. Other provisions are the same as Class A except it is not eligible for a GOTA station. If you’re operating at your normal station location using permanent station facilities, then you’d be a Class D or E home station.
ARRL Field Day Packet 2025
I don’t have the 2024 packet so I don’t know if the answer changed last year or before that.
I feel like this new answer is a little more ambiguous than the previous one, depending on how you interpret “using any facilities installed for permanent station use”. If you interpret that to mean just things related to the shack and radio operation (antenna, feedline, base station, shack, etc) then it’s a more relaxed version than the previous answer. If, on the other hand, you take a much broader interpretation to include things like “home conveniences” mentioned in the previous answer, then the answer remains the same only worded differently.
I’m going to go with the former interpretation where “facilities” refers only to things related to the shack and radio operation (antenna, feedline, radio, power, etc). For our past Field Day activities, we’ve never used anything permanently set up for the regular shack, and we plan to keep doing that this year. I think this means that W4BXC can operate as Class A this year.
W4BXC was on the air for another backyard Field Day, this time from Stan’s (WA4BXC) back yard in Ooltewah, TN. This year we were operating as 1E TN. Present for Field day were Stan WA4BXC, Connie NR4CB, and Eugene AB4UG. We had several friends show up, including one of the neighbours, Steve KQ4SMI, who got on the air for his very first Field Day. In between operating stints, there were breaks around the fire pit for roasting hot dogs, marshmallows, and making s’mores.
W4BXC Field Day operating position
W4BXC Field Day operating position
Solar panel used to charge the batteries, with manual sun-tracking.
The antenna was put up between two large trees with the help of Stan’s “air cannon”. It did a pretty good job getting the ends of the antenna up to a decent height, although overall antenna height was a bit limited due to the presence of other wire antennas. The center of the dipole ended up about 20 feet in the air. Good enough that the radio’s tuner didn’t complain on the 40m, 20m, 10m, and 6m bands.
Dipole antenna suspended in the air
Air gun constructed from white PVC pipe used to hang the antenna in the air
Band conditions were decent. Not the greatest, but not awful. Propagation seemed to disappear in the late afternoon/early evening, but then improved later into the evening. Bands on Sunday morning were pretty good, but then faded a few hours before noon and didn’t improve much the rest of the day.
AB4UG operating the W4BXC Field Day stationSolar panels getting some sunField Day display tableHam, the W4BXC mascotAB4UG operating the W4BXC Field Day station in the evening
Operations were interrupted briefly for a couple hours when thunderstorms rolled in late Saturday afternoon. Thankfully the really heavy rain moved around us instead of over us and we only got rained on a little bit. Wouldn’t be Field Day without thunderstorms.
For logging, not1mm was used instead of the usual N1MM+ that has been used previously. It does a pretty good job at replicating most of the features that makes N1MM+ a good program for contest logging, but is Python based and runs well under Linux.
Field Day wrapped up with 123 contacts, 21 more than last year. Contacts were made mostly on 40m and 20m, with a handful on 10m. The radio was powered entirely on battery power (a 100 Ah LiFePO) that had been charged with solar power, which qualified us for the natural power bonus (100 points). The battery had no problems keeping the radio going at 100 W, and I don’t think we made much of a dent in the battery’s charged capacity.
