From the Newsletter history archives... Vintage Equipment From the June '87 Newsletter (entitled "Ham Radio News & Views"), it was noted that the club had just finished up a simulated emergency test involving county & state agencies to determine emergency preparedness. The test seemed to satisfy most of the officials present, both county & state. At the following critique at Oak Hill Park, one of the most often repeated discrepancies was with county communications. This was attested to by looking at the LARC's efforts. According to the count of messages handled from the field to EOC headquarters, the ham effort accounted for no less than 17 different pieces of traffic compared to only 5 that came in on the county radio which were passed on to Dale Coffey, the Director of Protective Serices (as it was known then). This was not a bad showing, especially since this was LARC's first coordinated attempt in a county/state/ARES drill. Every participating ham responded in due time, answered when called, and acted professional all the way. It was suggested that distinctive uniforms of some sort (such as a "jumpsuit" or a shirt with the club's logo) would be nice to present a more "visible" presence. Good idea!!
(Each month, a brief spotlight will appear here on equipment you may have seen at hamfest swap tables. This month the spotlight is on the Ameco AC-1 Transmitter ). This little baby has been a thorn in my side for the last 30-40 years, as I have searched high and low for one! Why do I want an old, diminutive 20 watt CW transmitter? Well, mostly for nostalgic purposes. This transmitter, first manufactured by Meissner as their 2-CW model, later to become the Ameco AC-1 when Ameco bought out Meissner back in circa 1955, was the transmitter in use by a Novice ham in Dallas, Texas in late 1953 that I had a chance to visit. So actually, it was part of the first ham station that I ever laid my eyes upon back in the infancy of my ham career. I never got the picture of this transmitter out of my mind...but I have never seen one at hamfest tables, etc., in all the intervening years. The transmitter could be purchased either as a kit, or as a completely wired & tested unit for a few dollars more. The crystal-controlled, single 6L6 output tube with a 5Q4 rectifier tube and the open-wound tank coil belted out a clean, beautiful signal. -Ed Pg 3 Ameco AC-1. Home Previous Next Now, try your hand at this month's offering: Yeah, Ralph Nader had a ball with this one too! Why he jumped all over these and not the, by now, very familiar Volkswagen, I'll never know...as the VW's suffered the same engineering problems as did this particular series of autos. These were snazzy autos by anyone's imagination. They were elegant in body design and were fairly peppy too (at least this one was!). This car sports a huge "fan" base and many are being restored by collectors today (if one can still be found in a restorable state!) (Email me if you know! -Ed) ??? ??? ??? ??? Auto Trivia - [Last Month] This car was the forerunner of the WW II Jeep!! Although this manufacturer was the designer of that famous vehicle, the contract to produce massive quantities of Jeeps went to Ford, Dodge, & Willys (due to this manufacturer's limited production facilities). You should have guessed it to be a 1939 American Bantam Pickup. Did you? Bill Barr, KG4GSV, got the name correct!

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