At Long Last . . . A Mark III!

Riverman · Feb 11, 2022

Spent the past three years searching the internet for a just the right one. Could never pull the trigger on the typical ebay offering. You know the kind. “Lights up, no further testing performed. Sold as Parts Only.” No better luck on Craigslist.

Then, a few days ago, I came across a link for Associated Radio, a ham radio business in Overland Park, Kansas. There in their "Used Equipment” section was a beautiful Mark III with a Golden Eagle D104.

I contacted them and was told it looks even better in person and had been gone through by their technicians. Not refurbished, just cleaned up, checked out and found to be in great working order. So I bought it. Received it yesterday and set it up today. Having had one in the 70s, I am greatly enjoying my Blast From the Past and trip down memory lane. Persistence pays off.

nomadradio · Feb 11, 2022

I'll skip raining on anyone's parade, especially if it meets your expectations.

But I have one word to the wise. If you ever see the "Mod" setting of the transmitter's meter peg out while receiving, PULL THE PLUG. RIGHT NOW.

Don't want to burn out the meter's coil. This is one of the most common first symptom of breakdown in the mode selector AM/USB/LSB switch. This failure is a downhill snowball that only gets worse when it happens.

And if someone has upgraded that selector to one made with white ceramic insulation, you won't have that risk to worry about.

73

Crawdad · Feb 11, 2022

Good for you Riverman!

Glad you finally found one worth having. Hope you enjoy!

73 sir

RT431 · Feb 11, 2022

Nice find!
I remember a man I use to talk to in onawa Iowa, we where about 50 air miles away, and I knew it was him when he keyed up. Nothing sounds like an Eagle. Not many on the air these days.

Riverman · Feb 11, 2022

nomadradio said:
If you ever see the "Mod" setting of the transmitter's meter peg out while receiving, PULL THE PLUG. RIGHT NOW. Don't want to burn out the meter's coil.

73

Thank you, Chris!
Will non-use of the selector prolong/prevent that problem? Outside of setting the bias, my mode selector hasn't been used and likely won't be. I'm an AM guy and hang out on Channel 23.

BigLou · Feb 11, 2022

Good for you I hope it loves you as much as you love it.

nomadradio · Feb 12, 2022

Ironic part of the mode selector's design is called "self cleaning".

The moving contacts are silver plated. The fixed contact points have a pointy end that will cut a track through the oxide layer that builds up over time. But there's a catch. You have to turn that knob often enough to keep the oxides cleared away. If you let years of oxidation build up between twisting the knob, that self-cleaning action breaks down and can't penetrate the schmoo layer. You get crunchies at best, and complete cut outs at worst.

A shot of cleaner that maintains the lubricant film will typically clean it up to work smoothly again.

But the problem with the Mark 3 mode selector has to do with the insulation, not the contact points. The brown bakelite plastic will darken in the area between contacts. Not separated by much more than 1/32 of an inch or so. Two adjacent circuits that operate hundreds of Volts apart from each other will cause the brown plastic to age and turn dark. Eventually it turns to black carbon and fireworks follow.

Cleanliness seems to count. First radios we saw with this failure were used in buildings heated with wood. Enough airborne schmoo would stick to the surfaces to cause trouble the first day humidity gets really high, turning dust to mud, causing leakage current. And those radios were under ten years old at the time.

I would predict that a radio that was literally "NOS" and had been in the factory carton the whole time won't have this problem before the first few years of use.

Just hard to find a 45 year-old radio with really low miles.

73

Riverman · Feb 12, 2022

nomadradio said:
Ironic part of the mode selector's design is called "self cleaning".

The moving contacts are silver plated. The fixed contact points have a pointy end that will cut a track through the oxide layer that builds up over time. But there's a catch. You have to turn that knob often enough to keep the oxides cleared away. If you let years of oxidation build up between twisting the knob, that self-cleaning action breaks down and can't penetrate the schmoo layer. You get crunchies at best, and complete cut outs at worst.

A shot of cleaner that maintains the lubricant film will typically clean it up to work smoothly again.

But the problem with the Mark 3 mode selector has to do with the insulation, not the contact points. The brown bakelite plastic will darken in the area between contacts. Not separated by much more than 1/32 of an inch or so. Two adjacent circuits that operate hundreds of Volts apart from each other will cause the brown plastic to age and turn dark. Eventually it turns to black carbon and fireworks follow.

Cleanliness seems to count. First radios we saw with this failure were used in buildings heated with wood. Enough airborne schmoo would stick to the surfaces to cause trouble the first day humidity gets really high, turning dust to mud, causing leakage current. And those radios were under ten years old at the time.

I would predict that a radio that was literally "NOS" and had been in the factory carton the whole time won't have this problem before the first few years of use.

Just hard to find a 45 year-old radio with really low miles.

73

Thank you, Chris.
Fascinating info.
Will keep an eye out for the warning sign.
And keep my fingers crossed.

Eldorado828 · Feb 13, 2022

Wasn't sure if your title was referring to the guy down in the land of hills have eyes

Looks like I better "pay attention"

Riverman · Mar 25, 2022

Onelasttime · Apr 4, 2022

I wanted one in the 1990's but decided to go to college so I never pulled the trigger on one or the Tram's or any of the other really rare and fantastic bases that are insanely priced now. Fast Forward to 2022 and I would not want one if if it was given to me in fantastic shape because I know all the issues that would come with it. I could not just let it go I would have to restore it. It is getting hard to find replacement parts that even if NOS are still good like all those transformers with the built in mica caps that go bad. Same thing goes for car's I am almost 49 years old and live in a state with hard winter and lots of road salt I would rather have a brand new Corvette than a Million Dollar Hemi Cuda. If I had a Cuda I would drive it regularly since I think it is criminal to have a nice car and turn it into a garage queen or trailer queen! I am the guy that if I owned a McLaren F1 it would have 150K miles on it like an old friend of mines had before he sold it. It might have been 150K kilometers not miles! I think his had the most miles of any F1 in history!

I guess I do not see lusting after old things when you get old. It is not like people are making "re-pop" electronic parts for these things! The glory days for a lot of this gear are long gone. I have old gear that I think was fantastic in it's day not because it was the best rather the price was right. I tend to buy them pair's so I have a parts unit to keep the other going!

If someone has one it makes perfect sense to keep it in working order and keep it in great state of repair but to buy one on purpose at this point that has not been recapped or repaired or modernized as need be call it maintenance to keep it from self destructing just does not seem like a good thing. Well unless the price was right.

To me it is just as pointless as guys willing to spend $699 plus shipping from Canada for a NOS Uniden Washington base station. It might not work, prob. needs to be recapped, if the board has any water damage from improper storage it is toast. Given how things are now it is probably more like $1299+$275 shipping from Canada now! LOL

Although most of the jelly bean parts in a the Washington can still be had.

I do understand how fantastic the audio was on a lot of old tube gear since it had an insanely wide bandwidth prior to FCC narrowing the bandwidth. I just do not know if it is worth the money at this point in it's life cycle. I was born in 1973 that radio was could be older than me. LOL I think they started the Mark III in 1971 or around then!

You might be getting close to your "Best Buy Date" too! LOL

The time to have bought one and really gotten your monies worth out of these things was 20 to 30 years ago! Cheer's!

Was the previous owner still alive our is a donation from a dying Baby Boomers? Prob. 5 years ago I predated a massive die off to start soon. I predicted 10 years. So we would start to see a glut of old guitars, audio gear, rf gear and the like primo stuff made in America, Europe and Japan not made here any more. The thing I did not see coming though is the current economic, fuel, food, pandemic situation. I thought that was still 20 years off!

Shadetree Mechanic · Apr 26, 2023