www.ozham.com

This free web site is devoted pre-dominantly to VK/ZL ham radio operators who are active in construction or restoration and use of vintage transmitting and receiving equipment in the amateur radio service and wish to display their vintage gear.  This equipment is affectionately also known as Boat Anchors! 

Post or E-Mail your details along with your vintage shack photos or restoration project(s) and I'll load them onto a dedicated page on this site with a link to it from the next page.  If possible, include a description or story about your gear as well so this can be included too.

If e-mailing it would be preferable to send 'zipped' files to keep the size to a minimum. Photos no larger than 800 x 600 pixels are preferred.

If you do not have any digital photos.  Photos can also be posted to me for scanning at:-

   GLEN MILLEN

   PO Box 553

   RAYMOND TERRACE,  NSW  2324

I'll return them by post when done if required..

Boat Anchors. The term refers to older equipment - nominally using tubes. Personally, I set my own framework for the term because there is a lot of older solid state or hybrid (using semi-conductors and tubes) gear out there as well.  My TS-520S, TS-530S & TS-830S transceivers are good examples of this. This series of radios are hybrid designs, with just 3 tubes in the final transmitter stages and the remainder of the circuitry being solid state.  I personally don't believe these radios truly qualify as a Boat Anchors - just yet!

But whatever your definition, collecting and using older radios is both interesting and rewarding. It's rewarding because, in some cases, you must take what seems to be a non-working, sometimes rusty or otherwise almost worn out piece of yesterday's state-of-the- art and today's electronic history and restore it, as closely as possible, to its original condition.  Achieving this with a piece of equipment that has seen many years of service and then probably been stored in someone's shed or under the shack bench for possibly just as long is a great feeling.

Seeing that radio light up again and smelling that tube technology functioning almost like new again is extremely satisfying. Somehow, it's more than just getting a radio to function again. For me at least, it matters to know something is not ready to go to the junk pile, but is going to be able to occupy its small place again in the rich history of ham radio again.

Click on the tube to continue.