Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016 — Just a quick note before bed … I finally got around to doing a little job with my Kenwood TS-690S I’ve been waiting to do — swap out the top and bottom covers of the case.
Sometime back I purchased what was left of a TS-450S that had been completely stripped of parts; it amounted to the internal metal “carcass” the top and bottom covers the front and rear panels. Included in the deal were the internal cooling fans and the internal speaker.
The TS-690S I’ve been writing about of late works great, but the covers were worse for wear. I’m not sure why, but the top cover seemed to have some surface rust around the edges and bubbling paint on the front of the top and around the speaker grille. “Bubbling” paint is an indicator of rust beneath the paint, and I was planning to strip the covers down and refinish them (as I had on two other Kenwoods I bought and sold). New paint makes a LOT of difference when the covers show a lot of wear. Well, while I was waiting to find the right paint, I ran across an auction for a TS-450S case and carcass. I submitted a couple of offers and finally snagged it … it was less trouble buying top and bottom covers in good condition instead of refinishing the ones I have. I’m probably going to put the extra parts back on eBay at some point, the covers could be refinished successfully.
ANTENNA CHANGES. I’m still running the Icom IC-746 in the shack after moving it there from the library, and its the great performer I expected it to be. I arrived equipped with a CW filter, which makes it doubly sweet.
I’m going to try to split the two long wires I have coming into the library and setting them up into a doublet feed a balanced feedline. I’m pretty sure my noise and apparent deaf receivers are suffering from local noise and hash induced into the antennas.
READ MY LIPS — NO NEW RIGS. Looks like my radio fund is going to be depleted for a while by a combination of events. The largest is that my son’s college tuition is due by the first of next week. On top of that, my trusty Dodge Durango wasn’t so trusty on Thursday — the brake pedal went to the floor and I was swerving and cussing like crazy to avoid hitting someone. I was half a mile from our usual mechanic’s garage, so I — every so slowly I drove to his shop. I’ll have to pay the repair bill from my radio fund, but that’s ok I guess. Gotta have wheels!
After promising myself I would sell off some stuff, I have done so, and in the process, restored my radio fun money account. I don’t think I can count on that money again — at least until I sell more stuff!
73 es CUL de KY4Z SK … .dit dit …