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write your own review of the Eico 753 Triband.
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K1FPV
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 27, 2009 14:01
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I must agree with VA3BD
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I must agree with VA3BD! In the late 60's, I had just graduated from college, was moving away from my New England roots on my first job. I wanted an inexpensive way to have a state of the art rig to talk with locals in New England I was friends with. The Eico 753 fit the bill! I bought the updated version with the solid state VFO. I built it and was pleasantly surprised.
It drifted like crazy for the first 30 minutes. For the second 30 minutes, it's drift slowed down quite a bit and was actually pretty stable if left on for an hour prior to operating it. It put out about 100 watts PEP of SSB on 75, 40 and 20 meters. I used mine on 40 meters most of the time and regularly had skeds from the Washington, D.C. area into New England. I made sure the rig was on an hour before getting on the air.
Yes, today's rigs are better but we are talking technology that has advanced over 40 years since then. In it's day, the 753 was a good rig for the price.
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VA3BD
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 27, 2009 11:37
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Got you on SSB for a great price
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I'm obviously in the minority here, but I think a bit of perspective is in order. The 753 was a great rig. Here's why:
Back in the mid 60's there were very few affordable SSB rigs. The lowest cost transceiver was the Heath HW single bander at 100 bucks however this only gave you one band and no CW. The next step up was the HW100 at $250 (about $1,250 in today's dollars.) After that the prices jumped up to $350 for a SB100 and $500 for pre-assembled Drakes, Swans, etc. ($2,500 in today's dollars!)
For a young ham with little money there were few other choices. Sure you could build up a Heath DX 60 and matching receiver, but that only gave you low level AM and CW using an external VFO and no transceive. By this time no one was running AM, so you were basically stuck on CW. Even with those limitations that configuration still set you back around $200.
The only other option was the used market which offered enormous boat-anchors, usually AM and CW only. The BA's were usually old and tired with low sensitivity and lousy dial calibration. Few offered transceive operation. They were truly from a previous generation.
Along came the 753, which seemed to be a low-priced miracle. For around $150 you could own a tri-band multi-mode rig with all of the features of the "real radios." And you could build it yourself. Only problem was that it drifted. A lot. BUT, you could still get on the air on SSB and operate a modern rig.
Sure you had to keep one hand on the VFO and endure some kidding about your "7-drifty three," but compared to a crappy old NC98 receiver,and a DX 20 transmitter with VF-1, you had moved into a completely different class of operating.
So, while they had their share of problems, I give the 753 a solid score of four due to a great price/performance ratio.
73
Doug VA3BD
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WA4OTD
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Rating: 1/5
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Jul 17, 2009 16:19
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Piece of xxxx
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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It was better than the DX60 and xtal I was using! My elmer loaded me this rig when I upgraded to Advanced in 1974 so at 14 years old I would do anything to get on the air. This rig took full advantage of my attitude. I ended up leaving the top cover off and was lucky when it made it through a QSO without something breaking! THere was always smoke or an arc and radio down. I would race to get it fixed before my QSO left me.
In 6-8 months of use before I got a FT101EE I learned so much!
It did work well enough for several thousand QSO's on CW or else I would have given it a zero.
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K0BT
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Rating: 1/5
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Jul 5, 2009 10:10
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Remarkably bad.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This was my first sideband rig. It replaced a Heathkit HW-16. I paid a whopping $10 for it at a hamfest because the seller just wanted to get rid of it. The best I can say for it is that it got me on SSB at a time when I couldn't afford anything else. It drifted worse than any other radio I have ever used. I tried several modifications and got it to the point where it was usable, but it was never a fun radio. It was also ugly as sin. I still give it a one instead of a zero because I finally did get it stable enough to use it, as long as the guy on the other end had a sense of humor.
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W4HT
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Rating: 0/5
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Apr 14, 2009 15:58
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As bad as it gets for an HF rig
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I've owned some great, some marginal, and some poor HF rigs in 40+ years as a ham. But this one was the WORST ones ever. I built it as a kit about 1971 or so. The original VFO was the tube type that drifted about 10kc every 20 seconds or so! No kidding. The rig got incredibly hot and all my attempts to cool it with large war surplus muffin fans just made the shack hot! Eico did offer a solid state VFO which I purchased and retrofitted to try and tame the VFO drift. It did help some but was still unacceptable. The CW note was chirpy and I remember the SSB audio as being low and muddy sounding from the receiver. Like others, I finally gave it to another ham and I think he salvaged it for parts. I also learned a valuable lesson with this rig: I found out how much I love and really appeaciated Heathkit. I replaced the Eico with an HW-101 and an HW-16 which served well for years.
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N6BOB
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Rating: 3/5
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Mar 25, 2009 21:41
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First three band Rig
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Bought as a kit in the early 60's while in college and it worked right off. Operated from my up stars apartment for a few years with a dipole slung up on the roof. Yes it drifted but it was the best rig I had had up until that point in my life. Would I buy a used one? No... just not worth the fuss to get working but a fun rig at the time. I gave it a 3 or OK because it was only OK at the time. Today, rigs are so much better... The Eico is not even close to an inexpensive new rig like the Icom 718 or Yaesu FT-450. These modern rigs can run circles around the old Eico 753. They operate on 6 meters too.
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W7AMX
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Rating: 2/5
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May 21, 2008 16:11
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HOT radio! (especially if you put your hand over the PA!!)
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I built a 753 back in '70 and the matching AC supply. Mine had good audio on transmit and receive with a nice CW note. My friend Neil bought and built one also. He liked 20 meters and ran his mobile. While on a long distance trip he noticed that when the vents were open and a steady stream of air flowed over the radio, the VFO settled down. So he told me to put a muffin fan over the VFO. It sure helped the drift and made the radio 'useable'. Sure the radio had horrible drift issues, but could be somewhat controlled.
Neil and I still refer to the 753 as the 7 'drifty' 3.
Bought one at a flea market for $10. It works, but whoever built this one goofed up the driver coil/cap combos so the power out drops fast as you tune off the tuned frequency. Keep it for the memories. :)
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K1XM
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Rating: 0/5
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Jan 29, 2008 13:09
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An awful radio
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I borrowed one of these when I got my Advanced license (I went directly from Novice to Advanced).
The transmitter chirped on CW and on phone, where it was referred to as FMing. People would tell me to "get that thing off the air!" and they were right.
It drifted, and the drift was different on each band.
The Eico 753 was junk. It should never have been allowed on the market. I see that it has the lowest rating of any transceiver on eham - and it deserves it.
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KC8OJU
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 11, 2007 09:59
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I loves my 753s
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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After power supply rebuilds and changing most of resistors in critical circuits, gutting the 0A2 regulator that powers the VFO. With a voltage doubler off the 12VAC filament. Getting me 24VDC to power the TL431 I used to replace the VFO zener. Replacing the pilot bulbs with high output LED's. Putting my freq counter on the output of the VFO I waited and waited for it to drift more than 10hz.
I have three 753's and 2 power supplies.
My next project is putting in two 4CX250s' and rebuilding the final pi circuit. Putting 568 watt peltier coolers and a fan on the PA cage, tetrode protect ciruits and beefing up the supply to get 1000 watts on CW.
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