I just finished cleaning up the B&W 5100 I picked up at the Butler meet last Summer.
I don't know what prompted me to buy it , but now I am sure glad I did. Maybe it was all the great food ( including Russ's fabulous baked beans of mass destruction HI!) What strikes me the most about this radio is how well it is designed and constructed. My only complaint about the design is that the mode switch intereferes with access to one of the audio input shield screws - boo hoo. Other than that, this is by far the best built radio I own in terms of construction, ease of servicing and overall engineering. Better than my Collins, Halicrafters, WRL, Drake, Eldico etc. The only thing that comes close is my TMC gear or the T-368 - but these were obviously not for the amateur market. Modular construction allowed for easy replacement of a few parts in the modulator. I essentially replaced several .001 with some .02 and two out of spec resistors. The use of an oil filled cap in the filter was a nice change. Typically one has to take a small loan for direct replacements or cobble up a string of electrolytics with eq. resistors. In fact I only had to replace three electrolytics - the double 20 @ 450v and a 20 @150v. A wire brush was very useful cleaning up the milled edges on the knobs. I plugged all the interconnects and applied power through a variac. No problems at all in ramping up to 120v. Soon I had 150w CW and 100 phone output. I am really impressed how well the B&W 5100 is built and how easy it is to work on and put back on the air. I'll lug it upstairs and put it on the air for the DX-60 net tomorrow. So I ask you fellow buzzard ops, what is your favorite "best built ham transmitter?" 73 DE KA4JVY Mark __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com
