Mizuho MX-28S

So I've had this idea, I have a few bits of HAM radio gear that I consider interesting, I'm sure some other people will also (I'm equally sure others will find it boring) So I've decided publish a few pictures and comments on my blog.

First up is a Mizuho MX-28S I've had this radio for around 13 years or so now, Its a crystal controlled 10 meter hand held, output 2 watt, Mizuho made a series of these radios for different bands, info can be googled.

Here are a few pictures of mine.

Sports a real S meter! the 1000MP does not even have that :-)

The two cystals can be seen in above picture on the Right side, they can be changed to various sections of 10 meters giving 50khz per crystal.
Batterys go in round the back 6 1.5V AA cells or 7 rechargable cells.

10 meters is often closed so with a monoband radio having a pack of cards close by is essential! :-)

If anyone has a MX-24S or a MX-18S they would like to sell, please contact me!

Puxing PX-888

Towards the end of last week I got a Puxing PX-888 from Hong Kong sourced new via Ebay, cost about 40 sheets of queens money.

I've had a play about with it, and it seems to work fine, and at that price its damn good value, Its no Kenwood or Yaesu but nor is the price tag.

Box looks nice! So far so good!

The radio covers the 2 meter band plus some (a 70cm version exists also) has repeater offset, ctcss, DTMF, scrambler (voice inverter?) and some other "features" that you'd expect for 2 meter operations.

It also has some highly impressive features that I'll demonstrate below :-D

As you can see the light colour can be changed :-D

It also has a voice feature, you press a button and it attempts to communicate with you!
I'll upload a mp3 of this at some point for entertainment.

Conclution: its a budget radio, but its simplicity and price do bring a smile to my face,

First post

Okay well blogs seem to be the way to go at the moment, at least for getting stuff online with minimum effort.
I'm not expecting to be updating this daily or weekly even, but I will try to avoid it becoming another abandoned blog. [you know the sort 3 weeks of the owner posting about what he had for breakfast, then nothing :-) ]

I recently added two more morse keys to my small collection, both are in need of restoration and one is quite scarce and might be of interest to others so I figured I could document its restoration.

The keys are a "Standard Radio" dated from about 1943 and manufactured for the "US Army Air Corps" bug in fair to poor condition, its main spring is bust and its sporting unoriginal paint, however it appears to all be there and should be restorable to a fine example.

Less than 40 of these keys exist, and Fred KT5X has done some wonderful work researching and documenting this bug, I'd like to thank him for his work on this!
Freds page on the Standard Radio bug




The other Key I've obtained is a Vibroplex Zephyr, I've always liked the narrower base Vibroplex keys and I already have a nice 67 Blue Racer deluxe, the Zephyr is a bit rarer but not uncommon.
Again this key needs work, the spring has been butchered in this key also, I'm guessing to slow it down? I'll inspect this and decide what to do, most likely I'll put in a new main spring etc, and tidy it up cosmetically.


The finger pieces will be put back to orignal spec. and the base, I'll attempt to restore keeping as much of original crinkle finish paint as I can.