[geeks] Moved to geeks: Cheap Ham radios (was Dayton Hamfest)

[wa2egp at att.net]

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "256 at 128.ca" <256 at 128.ca>
>
> The ft101 was a miserable rig that wandered all over.   Kenwood 520  
> bit nicer to use. A.
> 
Well, I knew some hams that had them and they didn't seem to have that problem.  But if it switched inductors or capacitors in the vfo and the contacts were not clean, that could certainly do it.  I have an old Swan rig that switched VFO compnents and it was quite stable considering.  Soemtimes the mechanical components were not "tight" which would cause problems.  I think some Ten Tec rigs had that problem and the VFOs had to be "rebuilt" to get them back to some sort of stability.  Some of the Drakes (and even Collins) had some problems with the mechanics in the permeability tuning mechanism if not maintained.  It is really tough to build a really stable VFO without mechanical or temperature problems.  Been there, tried to do that. :)

Bob