- 2026
- Feb
- 4
Checking out some recent acquisitions - #6 - The last plastic Heathkit blue box.
This is another one of the plastic blue boxes that were recently presented in this series, and the last one I have. There were two other devices in this series - a signal tracer which goes for a lot of money when you see them, and a VOM, which I’ve never seen. This particular device is the Heathkit IG-5280 RF Signal Generator.
This device is the spiritual successor to the signal generators of yore, the ones that put out the terrible partial sine wave with 1kHz modulation. This one offers 310kHz to 110MHz (on banana jacks no less!) with 1Khz of AM modulation possible. Pretty standard stuff…here’s the front panel:
I’m not going to bother with the rest of the box, you’ve seen those before and there’s nothing different on the other two. The inside is more or less just like the others as well.
I’m pretty sure there should have been a shield on this thing. It would make much more sense to have a shield here than on the audio unit - I can even see where screws were once upon a time. Look to the right, and that hole in the chassis plate is quite mangled. This is pretty much the equivalent of the flyback cage being open on a television, there’s probably something wrong here. The stickers on the top claims that it works. We’ll see…
The first thing that’s wrong is the power switch on the back. You can run this device on batteries, just like the others. The switch itself is rather flaky, and I had to set it in the middle and wiggle it to get it to work.
The audio output is a little squished, but operational. It’s 1.04kHz, not too bad.
The RF side is a different story. I can get a little bit out, and it doesn’t really change with the selector switch. The only thing I could get that was big enough for the scope to grab was on the highest scale, and that’s not much.
The only thing I could really get was that little sinewave and some modulated garbage.
I don’t have any need for this, or desire to troubleshoot it, so into the pile it goes.
This is going into the donate pile for the Early Television Museum auction. If you want it, it should be there, assuming I can get hold of them. Otherwise, it goes to some other donation channel.
Next part of this series: Coming soon!
Previous part of this series: https://wereboar.com … -odd-heathkit-stuff/
- 2026
- Jan
- 16
The Wereboar Documents Archive zip for January, 2026.
It’s been a while since I’ve zipped up all the files in the document library, so it’s high time I do it again.
If you’d like a copy of everything I’ve collected for projects here, you can grab a copy of it from dropbox: https://www.dropbox. … ro3&st=djfaezpv&dl=0. The file is about 410MB, and is all of the files in a big .zip for easy extraction.
image courtesy of freepik
- 2026
- Jan
- 15
A Waterman OCA-11A “industrial / pocket” oscilloscope - Part 3: Final.
About a year ago, I had a small Waterman “pocket” scope on the bench. It needed some tubes, and had a bad power switch. In an effort to clean up the pile ‘o stuff waiting for bench time - here it is.
First thing I wanted to do was verify that the switch was indeed open, and it was:
By the condition of the unit, it was used quite a bit. Maybe one of the conditions that cause this device to be retired was that open switch. It was easy enough to fix, just a jumper across the terminals. Before attempting to plug it in, I verified that it had a fuse in it, and it was good.
There aren’t any shorts, I can see the transformer load on the cord. Plug it in! I can see tubes lit.
But, there’s nothing on the screen. I mess with the controls for a while and let it set. Nothing. Upon powering down and opening, I notice I can’t detect any heat on the neck of the CRT. Well…it may be open or have some other fault. That’s a show stopper here, and I remove my new tubes for later use.
This guy goes into the donation pile. Perhaps someone can make use of the parts.
Previous part of this series: https://wereboar.com … oscope-part-2-tubes/
- 2025
- Dec
- 30
The 2025 hamfest wrap-up and (almost) last post of the year.
This will be near to the last post of the year here on projects, and it’s something to browse while you’re waiting for the new year holiday to start. I found out earlier this year that you can reference galleries from different points within this blogging system, and thought it would be cool to have a year-end page with all of the stuff I saw at hamfests. So…here it is! The only ones that won’t be presented in that manner is the SCARF show in May and the Central PA hamfest - both of those because there were very few pictures. They’ll be links instead.
Without further ado, here is the stuff I saw this year at hamfests:
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The Sunday Creek ARF Hamfest, Shade Ohio.
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The Cuyahoga Falls ARC Hamfest, Cuyahoga Falls Ohio.
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The TUSCO Hamfest, New Philadelphia Ohio.
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The Athens County ARA Hamfest, Athens Ohio.
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The Dayton Hamvention, Xenia Ohio.
Friday:
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Saturday:
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The Scioto Valley ARC, Piketon Ohio.
https://wereboar.com … -2025-svarc-hamfest/
Breezeshooters Hamfest, Butler Pennsylvania.
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Columbus (Shriners) Hamfest, Columbus Ohio.
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Cincinnati Hamfest, Cincinnati Ohio.
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Johnstown Swappers Day, Johnstown Ohio.
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The Findlay Hamfest, Findlay Ohio.
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The Central Pennsylvania Hamfest, Clearfield Pennsylvania.
https://wereboar.com … ennsylvania-hamfest/
The Cleveland Hamfest, Berea Ohio.
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The Early Television Museum Fall Swap, Hilliard Ohio.
(no image annotations on these pictures)
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MARC @ MAPS Hamfest, Green (North Canton) Ohio.
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The Fort Wayne Hamfest, Fort Wayne Indiana.
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Here’s next year’s list. I’ve cut back some due to smaller shows all having the same vendors: https://wereboar.com … mfest-and-show-list/
That’s all for 2025. See you in the new year with more projects and more junk…I mean good stuff!
- 2025
- Nov
- 17
A PACO G-30 RF Signal Generator - Part 8: So we meet again
You probably remember this thing:
It wasn’t that long ago that this was wrapped up. (See the bottom of this post for that entry.)
However, a friend pointed out that the schematic didn’t match the unit. In particular, a capacitor in the audio oscillator wasn’t per the information:
C8 is a 103, aka 0.01μF capacitor, per the schematic. However, what’s in the unit:
That’s very clearly a 104, aka 0.1μF part. Note that the resistor in the image is the one that was incorrect and replaced in a previous post.
No problem, I have plenty of 0.01μF left over from various rebuilds. One goes in easily:
And,
It won’t oscillate. Okay.
The old part goes back in, and all is well. It’s oscillating again, right around the 499Hz it was the last time we looked at this unit.
So, what gives here? Well - I’ve found that many of these devices didn’t exactly follow the manufacturer’s information. Schematics were often printed before the unit was manufactured, and things changed. Problems were corrected, circuits were changed, new variants were released - all kinds of things that make what you have on the bench and what you see on paper deviate. You literally have to expect the unexpected here, or you’ll go crazy trying to figure out what happened.
I assume that the original owner probably put this part in, after discovering the same thing about the oscillator. Regardless, it’s back the way it was and bolted together again, waiting for it’s time to shine.
Previous part of this series: https://wereboar.com … rator-part-7-wrapup/
- 2025
- Nov
- 13
My 2026 Hamfest and Show List
With 2025 coming to a close, I find myself thinking about each show I attended this past year, and which ones I want to go back to. While the first answer is “all of them!” - I think I’m going to cut back some this year. The smaller shows are cool, but I started seeing the same vendors and the same items over and over. This will give things a chance to cycle through.
So - instead of 15 hamfests, I think I’ll probably drop back to 8 or so. There may be a few others in there - Athens, OH and Clearfield, PA, but those will depend primarily on “if I feel like it,” and perhaps Fort Wayne if 2025’s show turns out better than 2024.
As before, not all shows have updated at the time of this posting, so check back or check the Ohio ARRL section page for current event times Links to pictures will be posted as soon as I can after a show, and there will be a year-end wrap-up.
Cuyahoga Falls Amateur Radio Club Hamfest
Emidio & Sons Party Center
48 E. Bath Road
Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221
April 11
8A - 1PM
Admission $10
https://sites.google.com/cfarc.org/cfarc/hamfest
Event photos: Coming soon.
Dayton Hamvention
Greene County Fair and Expo Center - The Whole Thing
210 Fairground Road
Xenia, OH 45385
May 15 16 17
Hours vary by day, opens at 9AM
https://hamvention.org
Friday Photos: Coming soon.
Saturday Photos: Coming soon.
Sunday Photos: Coming soon.
Breezeshooters Hamfest
Butler Farm Show
625 Evans City Rd
Butler, PA 16001
Date TBA, usually June
8A - 2PM
https://breezeshooters.org/ns/
Event photos: Coming soon.
Columbus Hamfest
Aladdin Shrine Center
1801 Gateway Cir
Grove City, OH 43123
Date TBA, usually August
8A - 1PMish
https://aladdinshrine.org/hamfest/
Event photos: Coming soon.
Johnstown Swapper’s Day
Johnstown Community Sportsmen’s Club
7357 Sportsman Club Rd NW
Johnstown, OH 43031
Labor Day Weekend (Fri Sat Sun)
7A - 6P
https://jcscohio.org/swappers-day/
Event photos: Coming soon.
The Cleveland Hamfest and Computer Show
Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds, Eastland Entrance
160 Eastland Rd
Berea, OH 44107
Date TBA, usually September
8A - 12P
https://www.hac.org/
Event photos: Coming soon.
Early Television Museum Fall Swap Meet
The Early Television Museum
5396 Franklin St
Hilliard, OH 43026
Date TBA, usually October
10A - 2P
https://www.earlytelevision.org/swapmeet.html
Event photos: Coming soon
Scott Antique Market November
Ohio Expo Center (State Fairgrounds)
717 E 17th Ave
Columbus, OH 43211
Usually Thanksgiving weekend
Hours vary by day, check before you go.
https://www.scottantiquemarket.com/
Event photos: Coming soon
There’s a handful of “Maybe” this year as well. I’ll get to these if time allows:
ACARA Athens Hamfest
Athens Community Center
701 E State Street
Athens, OH 45701
Date TBA
https://www.ac-ara.org/
Central Pennsylvania Hamfest
Clearfield County Fair Grounds, Agriculture Building and grounds
5615 Park St
Clearfield, PA 16830
Date TBA
https://clearfieldcountyarc.net/hamfest/
MARC Hamfest
Military Air Preservation Society Hanger (MAPS)
2620 International Parkway
Green, OH 44232
Date TBA
http://w8np.net
Fort Wayne Hamfest
Allen Country War Memorial Coliseum
4000 Parnell Ave
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
Date TBA, usually right before Thanksgiving weekend
https://www.acarts.com/hfmain.htm
Johnstown Swappers Day and the Scott Antique Market aren’t really hamfests, but enough electrical and other goodies show up that it’s worth going if you’re in to general flea market type items. The Early Television Museum is a swap meet that happens during one of the venue’s open work days, so who knows what will show up there.
Always check dates and times before you go, and I’ll see you there!
- 2025
- Oct
- 3
The Heathkit AG-7 Audio Generator part 6: Removing everthing.
In the last post, I checked a few parts and found that pretty much every resistor (that I could measure in circuit) was out of tolerance, in a bad way. Seeing as how the device stopped oscillating, and started smoking, I decided that replacing everything was the best course of action.
I’m trying to save the old parts for later testing purposes, so unsoldering with intact leads is a must. That does tend to make it’s own problems, something we’ll discuss later on.
Here’s what I recovered (save the 10k removed in a previous step):
The chassis is now empty.
For testing, I just grabbed my scope-meter and a capacitor checker. I’m not really worried about ESR or leakage here, they’re just old and probably have issues with both.
So on to the good stuff. How bad do the parts test? Well, that’s the fun part. Most of them are ok-ish, even the ones that read substantially higher in circuit. The 100k in the previous post? It’s back to well within in tolerance range.
What happened here? Carbon Composite resistors change value over time because the carbon grains disassociate with one another, and they collect moisture. I hit these with some high heat during the desoldering process, which probably drove out the moisture and brought them back near tolerance. I suspect if I left these alone for a year or so, they’d be back to what they were. Perhaps I’ll segregate them and do a follow-up next year.
Of particular note was that 270Ω part that read 2.6kΩ. While this looks brown to me under normal lighting, the camera shows it has more of a red hue. This guy must have been pretty warm over the years and the color simply faded. It’s actually marked 2.7k.
Next up is actually placing new parts. Check back soon!
Next part of this series: https://wereboar.com … ion-thats-not-right/
Previous part of this series: https://wereboar.com … nna-need-everything/
- 2025
- Sep
- 29
Pictures from the 2025 Cleveland Hamfest
This was the second year I attended this show, and it was just as good as last year. While the stuff I like is generally going away (there’s just no more of it,) and some of the same vendors show up everywhere - there was still plenty of good things to see. I managed to make it out of there with only $40 missing from my wallet, so I did good.
Here’s what I saw at the show:
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Next up is the Early Television Museum fall swap meet in October (no idea on this one, I’ve never been there,) followed by MARC@MAPS and finishing the year with the (disappointing last year) Fort Wayne show.
I’ll probably use this year to make some determinations about which shows I want to attend next year. Some of this years’ shows have been smaller than usual, and seeing the same stuff over and over isn’t interesting. Who knows, but stay tuned for more photos from events and next year’s list. Perhaps it will give me a chance to explore some other, smaller shows that happen on the same dates.
- 2025
- Sep
- 8
Johnstown Swappers Day 2025
This probably should have been inserted before the Findlay show, as it happened over Labor Day weekend. But I’m a lazy piggy and didn’t get it posted in time, so here it is!
Swappers Day is a general flea market that happens over the Labor Day weekend. By general, I mean it’s all kinds of merchandise - but it started out as a sportsman’s club show, and you still get a lot of firearms and bows being sold. Kind of a strange mix of things.
A lot of general antiques also show up, and that includes electrical gear. However, this is an opportunity to take photos of all kinds of interesting things, and here’s what I saw that caught my eye:
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Not much else to say about this one, but more shows on the way!
- 2025
- Sep
- 8
The 2025 Findlay Hamfest
The Findlay Radio Club Hamfest is usually a pretty decent show. It’s been shrinking somewhat over the years, which is unfortunate, but there seems to be a lot of ‘fests in Ohio these days. Perhaps that, and the general aging of the population / equipment getting older and not having more made is starting to affect who and what shows up. No idea, but this years show was probably about 2/3 of the size of the first one I attended years ago. I may put this one on every other year or so…
That’s not to say there wasn’t good stuff to see, I usually bring home way too many things from this show and this year was no exception. There was plenty of good stuff to see, and it was still well worth the trip.
I did notice that prices seem to have come back down again, after the exuberance of the first half of the year. They’ve come down a lot, to the point where I noticed a certain piece of equipment that would make a good economic indicator. More on that later!
Regardless, it was a lovely day for the show and I took a number of pictures of interesting things:
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There are a couple more shows this year before the season wraps up, including a new one in Pennsylvania that I’m going to check out. Stay tuned, and I’ll see you there!