Here's a pic of another lately completed project. It's my workshop/reloading-room station.
In the late 70s, Swan introduced the "Astro" series of transceivers - a twin-PTO-tuned, 6-band fixed-station unit (the 102BX) and a fully synthesized, 5-band mobile/fixed SSB/CW transceiver. The latter was offered in 160-15M (Astro 151) and 80-10M (Astro 150) variants and could be ordered with custom (commercial/ICAO, etc) band coverage as the Astro-150C.
At the same time, Swan was producing an assortment of station peripherals: A 600w PEP, 2x 572B amplifier, PSU, phone patch and two tuners: One capable of handling 200w PEP, the other good for 2kW PEP.
Shortly thereafter, Cubic Communications (Oceanside, CA) bought Swan and began to bring the two lines together. They introduced their own branded versions of the 150, 102 (and later, the 103) and all the peripherals.
Cubic also produced very limited custom equipment runs. One such complete setup - the so-called "Cubic Kilowatt" - is shown in the picture. A complete Kilowatt consists of the Astro 150R, PSU-5CR/FP-7R, 1500ZR and ST-2R. There were a total of 20 sets produced, and in 1983 the ensemble supposedly cost in excess of $6k...though I have no actual figures. All were distributed via NCG in Miami.
This particular setup arrived in pieces over the years. Amplifier first - I thought I was getting a "ZA" when I bought one online and was rather surprised when a "ZR" showed up. It sat for a while...and a couple years back I ran into the tuner advertised online. Filed away for future reference, it immediately sprang to the forefront of my mind when I managed to score an Astro 150R and the accompanying PSU/FP assembly at Dayton. Upon arriving home I secured the tuner...and thus began the restoration process.
But not all of it.
A new IoMH member tipped me to an Astro-DR being offered on Ebay. It's the rack-mount version of the Astro-D suitcase rig. I have never seen one up for sale anywhere and luckily managed to snag the unit "...for parts or repair...". I have a number of -Ds plus spare parts on hand, so getting the set running wasn't that difficult. I really lucked out where the PA assembly was concerned - "no output" = "RF input cable not installed correctly".
The 150R required lots of work to get back into operation - I had to repair almost every board in the unit and install a new fuseholder/power connector - which of course necessitated tearing the whole flippin' radio apart.
Once that was done, the amplifier got a going-over: New caps in the power supply, replaced a flaky meter and a couple other questionable parts, new(er) knobs and modded the unit for 10M operation. It also got some new rack handles.
The tuner and PSU were functional - I lucked out there as well. Replaced the tuner's rack handles. Then came the fun part - building all the mounting hardware with which to rack this stuff. It took the better part of Christmas vacation to get the mechanical end of things lined up.
Have yet to cable everything together and am going to mount a pair of tubeaxial 120v fans at the rear of the rack, behind the Astro-DR and the PSU. The former runs a little hot. Too much so; aging CMOS will give up the ghost when subjected to excess temps over long periods of time. Fortunately, almost all of the ICs used in that radio are standard old 4000/7400-series logic chips.
In another month or so I should have the rack on the air.
In the late 70s, Swan introduced the "Astro" series of transceivers - a twin-PTO-tuned, 6-band fixed-station unit (the 102BX) and a fully synthesized, 5-band mobile/fixed SSB/CW transceiver. The latter was offered in 160-15M (Astro 151) and 80-10M (Astro 150) variants and could be ordered with custom (commercial/ICAO, etc) band coverage as the Astro-150C.
At the same time, Swan was producing an assortment of station peripherals: A 600w PEP, 2x 572B amplifier, PSU, phone patch and two tuners: One capable of handling 200w PEP, the other good for 2kW PEP.
Shortly thereafter, Cubic Communications (Oceanside, CA) bought Swan and began to bring the two lines together. They introduced their own branded versions of the 150, 102 (and later, the 103) and all the peripherals.
Cubic also produced very limited custom equipment runs. One such complete setup - the so-called "Cubic Kilowatt" - is shown in the picture. A complete Kilowatt consists of the Astro 150R, PSU-5CR/FP-7R, 1500ZR and ST-2R. There were a total of 20 sets produced, and in 1983 the ensemble supposedly cost in excess of $6k...though I have no actual figures. All were distributed via NCG in Miami.
This particular setup arrived in pieces over the years. Amplifier first - I thought I was getting a "ZA" when I bought one online and was rather surprised when a "ZR" showed up. It sat for a while...and a couple years back I ran into the tuner advertised online. Filed away for future reference, it immediately sprang to the forefront of my mind when I managed to score an Astro 150R and the accompanying PSU/FP assembly at Dayton. Upon arriving home I secured the tuner...and thus began the restoration process.
But not all of it.
A new IoMH member tipped me to an Astro-DR being offered on Ebay. It's the rack-mount version of the Astro-D suitcase rig. I have never seen one up for sale anywhere and luckily managed to snag the unit "...for parts or repair...". I have a number of -Ds plus spare parts on hand, so getting the set running wasn't that difficult. I really lucked out where the PA assembly was concerned - "no output" = "RF input cable not installed correctly".
The 150R required lots of work to get back into operation - I had to repair almost every board in the unit and install a new fuseholder/power connector - which of course necessitated tearing the whole flippin' radio apart.
Once that was done, the amplifier got a going-over: New caps in the power supply, replaced a flaky meter and a couple other questionable parts, new(er) knobs and modded the unit for 10M operation. It also got some new rack handles.
The tuner and PSU were functional - I lucked out there as well. Replaced the tuner's rack handles. Then came the fun part - building all the mounting hardware with which to rack this stuff. It took the better part of Christmas vacation to get the mechanical end of things lined up.
Have yet to cable everything together and am going to mount a pair of tubeaxial 120v fans at the rear of the rack, behind the Astro-DR and the PSU. The former runs a little hot. Too much so; aging CMOS will give up the ghost when subjected to excess temps over long periods of time. Fortunately, almost all of the ICs used in that radio are standard old 4000/7400-series logic chips.
In another month or so I should have the rack on the air.
