Hello -
I joined while waiting for my new-to-me rig to arrive. Back a zillion years ago I had an old President Grant export radio that was super loud and clear in both TX and RX. If memory serves, it made about 40 watts and was a great radio. I sold it to a guy that waived a ton of cash in my face, figuring I'd replace it at some point.
FFWD to this past week, and I decided to grab a radio to install for an upcoming trip. I spied an ad for a President Grant export radio and was shocked! I talked to the seller and he said that it was unmodified and just checked for alignment etc. I paid what I thought was too much, but the time-crunch and the nostalgia took over, lol.
I just received it. It is not a Grant. It is a Grant "Classic". It's from 1997. The board looks about the same as I recall (kind of a typical Galaxy or 2950 looking board; dual finals, mirror board, etc), but I haven't looked at a radio since the 90's
It shows signs of work being performed. There's various replacement parts in the audio section and a few other places, but the output was right on stock specs. I even tweaked the VR's and it is about what I'd expect into the dummy load. Frequency is spot on with freq counter too. I did notice two odd things though. I'll post a pic of the PCB side showing a TR that's hanging in free space and soldered to two points on the board, and then running a wire down somewhere at the face. It also has some kind of (perhaps factory?) ASC Auto-Squelch-Control feature. Is that factory on a Classic?
Beyond the above, I'm wondering if I bought something as good as my old radio, or some newer piece of junk? I can't see any markings as to country of manufacturer or even a number on the board.
Lastly, is this radio able to be modified like the original? I'm thinking NPC mod? It will be barefoot only, so I'm thinking 8-10watt carrier should be about right? If that's no good, I seem to recall volting the finals being popular on this chassis... any new ideas or better methods out there for these? Hopefully 20 new years of progress will yield something new and better
Thanks so much in advance for any help!
Wally
I joined while waiting for my new-to-me rig to arrive. Back a zillion years ago I had an old President Grant export radio that was super loud and clear in both TX and RX. If memory serves, it made about 40 watts and was a great radio. I sold it to a guy that waived a ton of cash in my face, figuring I'd replace it at some point.
FFWD to this past week, and I decided to grab a radio to install for an upcoming trip. I spied an ad for a President Grant export radio and was shocked! I talked to the seller and he said that it was unmodified and just checked for alignment etc. I paid what I thought was too much, but the time-crunch and the nostalgia took over, lol.
I just received it. It is not a Grant. It is a Grant "Classic". It's from 1997. The board looks about the same as I recall (kind of a typical Galaxy or 2950 looking board; dual finals, mirror board, etc), but I haven't looked at a radio since the 90's
It shows signs of work being performed. There's various replacement parts in the audio section and a few other places, but the output was right on stock specs. I even tweaked the VR's and it is about what I'd expect into the dummy load. Frequency is spot on with freq counter too. I did notice two odd things though. I'll post a pic of the PCB side showing a TR that's hanging in free space and soldered to two points on the board, and then running a wire down somewhere at the face. It also has some kind of (perhaps factory?) ASC Auto-Squelch-Control feature. Is that factory on a Classic? Beyond the above, I'm wondering if I bought something as good as my old radio, or some newer piece of junk? I can't see any markings as to country of manufacturer or even a number on the board.
Lastly, is this radio able to be modified like the original? I'm thinking NPC mod? It will be barefoot only, so I'm thinking 8-10watt carrier should be about right? If that's no good, I seem to recall volting the finals being popular on this chassis... any new ideas or better methods out there for these? Hopefully 20 new years of progress will yield something new and better
Thanks so much in advance for any help!
Wally
