Old tube radio transmitter

[chris p]

On my recent ambling through NZ's wild lands, I popped into a second hand place that had an old wireless transmitter (something like an early 60's version of a CB) - three transmit frequencies, gain control and an unlabelled knob. Absolutely chock full of tubes in a bakelite casing, for about NZ$25.

Now my reasoning went like this - yes, it has a tube preamp circuit but these things were not designed to be hi-fi, those tube amps are about power not fidelity. So just because it has tubes doesn't make it workable as the basis for a nice preamp. And given most of the tubes are likely burned to a crisp by now, its unlikely to be a significant source of 2nd hand parts.

And so I let it pass. The big question is whether I did the right thing? Is this thing the turkey I though, or a treasure I missed?

[Peter Knight]

You should have bought it for $5 and sold it on ebay for $100, stating in the ad that the radio contains "tubes".

[Andrew]

Aren't those big old transmittor tubes seriously high voltage? like getting electrocuted just by being to close to it? maybe best leaving it.

[Henry]

Unless it has a mic preamp then it is probably worthless. The mains transformer may be useful if you want to build a guitar amp?