Lafayette vintage 11 meter transceivers

 

As a collector of vintage Amateur Radio equipment I also collect and restore/repair, where necessary, some 11 meter transceivers. The following pictures show a few of my vintage 11 meter transceivers. They are Lafayette HE-20, HE-20C, and HE-90. The 5 pin microphone plug was difficult to find. A ham on a Yahoo ham group provided the actual Amphenol part number which then lead me to an eBay seller who had more than 10 NOS plugs available. The original hand microphone is difficult to find in working condition so I used a few of my non-amplified Astatic D-104 desk microphone. They all work very well for being over 50+ years old. The HE-20 had a bad 6VAC DPDT T/R relay and a previous owner had painted the cabinet, mobile mounting bracket, and rear panel Brown. I was able to find a few NOS 6VAC DPDT relays on eBay that fit and worked perfectly in the space occupied by the original relay. I stripped the paint from the cabinet, rear panel, and mobile mounting bracket and painted them the original Gray color.

Prior to obtaining my first Amateur Radio Novice license, I was on the 11 meter CB band. My first CB radio was a Lafayette HE-20C I purchased from a high school friend for $25. The microphone I used was a Lafayette PA-17 dual crystal desk microphone sold in 1962 for $4.95. Today that same microphone is being sold for $165, way more then it is worth.

I don’t operate on the 11 meter band now, I simply collect 11 meter radios I like and use to have and operate in the early days of 11 meter band. A few of those vintage 11 meter radios are shown in the pictures below. I also have the Johnson Messenger One (White Face), Johnson Messenger II (Black Face), and a Johnson Messenger 223 in my collection. I’ve converted a DDS VFO controlled Johnson Messenger 223 to 10 meter AM (29Mhz).