Tonight I've been getting reintroduced to an old HF friend. Yes, thanks to eBay, I've been reunited with a singleband SSB/CW transceiver like I once ran mobile and fixed more than 15 years ago.
The rig is a Kantronics KT-110 10-meter singlebander. The rig was manufactured by Tokyo Hy-Power and distributed by them in Japan. In the U.S., the Amp Supply Co. imported the line of singlebanders and sold them under their label.
Tokyo Hy-Power offered seven models covering the 80, 40, 30, 20, 15, 10 and 6 meter bands. The output was about 20-25 watts on all models but only 10 watts on 6 meters. The image I have pictured here is of the 30-meter version of the rig.
I owned the Amp Supply 10-meter rig, and worked a great deal of 10-meter DX during college. My commute to ECC was basically 30 minutes of DX'ing, as the sunspot cycle was near its peak and Europeans were pouring in. Due to odd class times, I had a number of empty periods, and I normally went back to the car to catch what DX I could find. I often moved my car out the edge of the parking lot to get away from the metal in the buildings. Heck, I should have carried a dipole and a helium balloon … anyway, I worked the world with the rig, both mobile and fixed when I wound up at WKU.
On campus parking was hard to find; no, not hard, just nearly impossible. There were some free on-street spots that filled up early in the morning, and on newspaper production days (which would keep me on campus until the wee hours of the next morning) I would get up an hour early to park my Dodge Charger (the 80s version, not the classic one) in the free on-street spots. The campus transportation system had a bus stop on this side of the street, and I know more than once these young men and women — desperately trying to look hip, cool and relevant — wondered silently what this creepy guy in the car with all the antennas was doing, and who the hell this guy named Vlad was. Had it been the fall of 2003, I believe the WKU SWAT team would have surrounded my Dodge and arrested me, thinking me to be a threat to national — no, international — security.
I digress … the little Amp Supply 10-meter rig had excellent performance. It had a very hot receiver for such a “cheap” rig. After the band died the rig sat in a box and was later sold.
I've been looking for one of the other versions of this rig, and during periods I've been searching, I've only ran across a couple of them — one for 15 meters and one 10. Though the band (10 meters) is still relatively inactive, I couldn't pass by giving this little rig a workout.
This is the Kantronics version of the rig I had. Kantronics picked up the Tokyo Hy-Power line of rigs after Amp Supply folded, and sold them until the early 1990s. As late as 2000, Tokyo Hy-Power still had parts and offered service on the rigs.
I'm tickled to death with my KT-110. So far its got the same hot receiver and stable transmitter I remember using before. It's not a bad QRP rig, and I would enjoy using the 80, 40 or 30 meter versions if I ever saw them. The 30-meter rig seems to be quite popular with QRP enthusiasts.
The rig is very, very basic, and lacks a lot of the features we expect. Mine doesn't have the optional CW filter, but that's not much of a problem on 10. Imagine trying to work 40 CW without one. No thanks. It'll be a fun rig to run and the 10-meter band can't come back fast enough to suit me.
Time to QRT … 73, GN de KY4Z … sk … dit dit ….