Another Fun Hobby: Amateur Radio

One of my childhood dreams was to get a ham radio license.  Even though Internet and cellphones became commonplace as I grew up, I’ve always been fascinated by their grandfather, the traditional radio communication. Throughout my teenage years I tinkered with radio receivers, built my own, and came up with gimmicky electronic gadgets such as clap on/clap off switch for my lamp. Having a grandfather who was a retired electronics engineer certainly helped make it even more fun. Listening to distant shortwave broadcasts from faraway countries that reached me without any internet or other infrastructure between me and them, just thin air was a magical experience. I’d spend many nights slowly spinning the large knob of my grandfather’s old tube radio, carefully listening to the ocean wave-like white noise, meticulously sifting through it for fading, distant voices. Often those voices spoke in foreign languages I could not understand, or the ones I needed to get better at. Every night brought different ones as propagation changed. The whole world ebbed and flowed like the sea in the huge dial that warmly glowed in the night. The green “Magic Eye” tuning indicator tube shined brightly when I really zoomed into the signal. This is how I got to hear different variants of English (which is my second language) and learned to understand them.

Life got in the way with school, moving to Canada and other things, so it took only 20 years for me to finally get the license. 15 years of dabbling with electronic circuits helped me get through the study material for the exam fairly easily, and finally now in addition to receiving and listening I could transmit! Though the basic Canadian license does not allow building or modifying transmitters, building antennas and auxiliary equipment such as power supplies is a very fun challenge by itself, too. As is programming the modern digital radios. Not to mention, of course, getting on the air itself.

Living in a big city highrise condo, I haven’t been able to enjoy shortwave listening much lately due to radio frequency noise prevalent in such settings, as well as due to lack of space for a proper HF antenna. Save for very strong signals such as from Radio New Zealand on a day when ever changing and temperamental skywave propagation brought it my way, I couldn’t hear much at all. On top of that, the sun cycle minimum has done its job in making sure there isn’t as much fun in that activity anymore. Even investing into a professional communications receiver could not overcome urban noise and bad propagation.

Shortly after getting my license in April, I ordered an Icom dual band VHF/UHF handheld radio, figured out how to program the frequencies into it, and by the end of the day when it arrived in the mail, I joined a local radio club net.   As a new and especially young radio amateur, I received quite a warm welcome. The magic of the radio came back. The little handie talkie opened the door to the world of thrilling technical challenges and interesting new people from all walks of life. No doubt, I achieved more complex contacts since then, but I will forever remember my first one and the excitement it brought.

So I will now include posts about amateur radio in this blog, as I think this subject is close in spirit with technical experimentation, emergency preparedness, and self sufficiency theme of it. Besides, it neatly fits into the “other curious things” part of “kerosene lamp restoration and other curious things”!  I will not spend much time explaining the very basics, since there are a lot of other sites out there for that, and it’s easy to look up any mysterious term or learn more on things I’ll be mentioning.

As they say on the air, 73!

Upcycling: My New Kerosene Can

The biggest issues that anyone who has kerosene appliances faces are safe, tidy fuel storage and transfer. The choice of container can really make it or break it!

Kerosene is best stored in a cool, dark place where it can last a long time protected from oxidation and moisture. Moisture in fuel results in sputtering wick lamps, which can be a complete nightmare on a cold dark night.

Since I live in an apartment and my kerosene appliances don’t see much use beyond camping, picnics, and occasional dinner table ambiance lighting, I don’t need to store much fuel at all, and whatever I have needs to be stored long term without spoiling.

Specially made cans for kerosene are available, most of them are made of plastic, and even they are pretty expensive. If you do choose to get one of those, a metal one is better. They usually come with spouts, just like gasoline jerry cans, which makes transferring easy.

One can keep kerosene in the original jugs it comes in from the hardware store, but being plastic, they don’t protect the fuel from light and air well at all. A metal container is better. One of the best options for that is an empty Coleman fuel can. It allows for easy, airtight long term storage of kerosene. Made to withstand the vapour pressure of much more volatile liquid, naptha (white gas, Coleman fuel), it works great with kerosene, too. The best part about it is the ability to use the Coleman fuel transfer spout for easily filling other vessels and lamps with kerosene without creating a mess.

A word of warning though: Coleman fuel is highly volatile and contamination of kerosene with it is extremely dangerous! Let the empty can thoroughly dry for a few days out in the sun with the cap off to get rid of any remaining naphtha and its vapours. You can rinse it with a bit of kerosene after and dry again, too, to be sure.

For additional protection from the elements, I painted my Coleman can with primer and a layer of blue paint. Blue is the official colour for kerosene containers in North America. I also created a stencil by printing the word “KEROSENE” on a piece of paper and then cutting out the letters with a knife. A puff of white spray paint through it created a professional looking label.

I’ve had this can for a few years, and it has been serving me great. For topping up the lamps during the times of heavy use I have a “day bottle'” which gets replenished from the can regularly.

 

 

Is this fuel any good? Use the hydrometer to find out.

Fresh clean kerosene should be colourless to light yellow without any debris or water droplets in it. The smell should not be very strong or unpleasant. While it can be said that any kerosene stinks, from experience you will be able to tell whether the fuel is fresh and clean or not. There is one more easy test you can do to assess its quality.

Just like diesel fuel and heating oil, kerosene is a product of oil refining  that boils off at higher temperature than gasoline (also called petrol outside of North America), and lower temperature than diesel fuel. All these liquids can be identified by their specific gravity, which is the ratio of their density to the density of water. Because they are all lighter than water, the specific gravity is less than 1. For kerosene it’s usually about 0.8, gasoline is lighter at 0.7 and diesel fuel is on the heavier side at 0.9.

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/specific-gravity-liquid-fluids-d_294.html

You can use a simple device called a hydrometer to check your fuel’s specific gravity and to see whether it is within the specs provided by the supplier. It is simply a float with calibration marks. As the buoyancy force and gravity find their equilibrium, it sits higher in denser liquids and lower in thinner ones. The specific gravity is read where the surface of the liquid is on the scale.

A hydrometer designed for measuring fuels is needed, the one used in home brewing won’t work. If your appliances don’t work well despite the new wicks and everything else being normal, you can test your fuel and see if it is off specs.  Old kerosene begins turning into straw coloured  varnish with a strong unpleasant smell, making it only good enough for starting a campfire at best. Sometimes suppliers make a mistake or there is a quality control issue, so if your fresh batch of fuel is bad, it’s worthwhile contacting them about that. Of course, this is not a surefire test that will give you all the answers, but a hydrometer is a cheap, simple, and very handy tool to have in your box.

There are two major types of hydrometers, the first kind you need to use a jar or a tall glass with (this is what I have, shown on the photo above), while the second one comes inside a clear plastic tube with a squeeze bulb. The bulb is used to draw fuel into the tube, and the calibrated float inside shows the specific gravity. This setup can be easier and less messy to use than having to pour kerosene into a jar to put the hydrometer into it, but of course it’s bulkier. The rubber bulb ages and deteriorates with time, too. When  this happens, the hydrometer can be removed from the tube to be used in the same way as the first kind.

Those who are into perfomance cars can also use this hydrometer to verify the specs of their fuel to see if it is indeed what they bought.

 

 

A dragon in the box: Optimus 111T Kerosene Stove

This is one of those stoves I’ve been wanting to find for probably 8 years. They are not common in North America and tend to fetch crazy prices on ebay auctions. Of course, I haven’t been looking for it continuously for 8 years, just on and off. This year I found one on ebay, and for some reason nobody else was bidding, so I got it for a fairly reasonable price. No doubt, it is sought after due to its unique, compact and practical design, and usually high quality with stellar performance.

The burner and the fuel tank neatly pack into a relatively small metal clamshell case with a handle, with lots of space left to store the priming bottle, matches or lighter, and maybe other things.

These stoves were made in several versions: Optimus 111, a kerosene or gasoline version with a roarer burner, 111B, the gasoline only version, 111T for kerosene, gasoline, and alcohol with a silent burner, and finally 111C and currently produced Hiker Plus.  I’ve always wanted the 111T because I like silent burners and the ability to use multiple fuels, especially kerosene and alcohol. This was exactly the one I found. It came missing the top burner cap, but otherwise complete. A few extras such as a priming alcohol bottle and things needed to run the stove on alcohol (the jet and the air restrictor) were also included.

Despite the neat and clever design, this is in essence a typical European Primus/Optimus style kerosene stove, just like the BAT one I have. With that comes the characteristic location and design of the pump nonreturn valve that’s often difficult to remove for replacement of the rubber pip. This time I was lucky, the valve spun out of the pump tube with ease and in one piece. It was equipped with molded rubber pip that got dry and hard, so I replaced it with a reproduction earlier style brass holder with a new pip.

With a new HDPE gasket and some copper anti-seize on the threads, the valve was installed in the tube again. The pump leather was oiled, and the pump worked great, to my great satisfaction. After that, I filled the tank and lit the stove, having installed an Optimus burner cap I had in my parts pile. The stove lit right away and produced a beautiful, hot hissing blue flame. I noticed soon though that the valve packing hardened and started leaking. A small flame appeared at the packing nut. Easy fix, some graphite tape from Old Coleman Parts, and the stove quickly became my favourite appliance for outdoor cooking and making tea during picnics. Since then, it has followed me to many picnics and never failed to make a kettle of steaming tea. It’s definitely one of those very successful, timelessly classic designs. If you want a compact, kerosene burning single burner stove, this might be the one for you.

 

 

Simplicity in Action: Optimus 99 and Svea 123 self pressurizing stoves

After I decided to replace my Coleman 550 stove, I knew what I wanted to replace it with: one of those very simple, but effective self pressurizing stoves. The most well known of those are Optimus 8r, 99, 80, Primus 71, Juwel 34 and 84, their numerous clones, as well as the legendary and still manufactured Svea 123. These stoves burn white gas/Coleman fuel, and the best part about all these designs is the lack of pumps. Pressure is generated by the heat of the burner itself, and preheating is needed to start the process. This, however, means that in cold weather more preheat is needed, and it takes longer for the stove to reach its normal operating temperature. Otherwise, these are extremely sturdy and reliable cookers to go for a hike with. Ideal for one or two people, but too small for large groups.

After a few weeks of searching on craigslist and in local junk shops, I managed to find a complete earlier production Svea 123 and an Optimus 99 with no filler cap and no lid.

The earlier Svea 123 does not have a built-in cleaning needle found in the later Svea 123R, which makes things a little less convenient if the jet clogs, but also there are less moving parts to break.

Here it is, a small, lightweight, solid brass stove with an aluminum lid that can act as a cook pot. It came with its original clever folding pricker for cleaning the jet included.

The Optimus 99 is a slightly bigger and heavier stove. Mine was missing its lid, the pot holder, and the filler cap. I got a new cap from A&H Enterprises in California, the official dealer for Optimus parts in North America.

The original case lids for these stoves are almost impossible to find, but I learned on the stove enthusiast forum that the ones from Coleman Peak 1 army surplus cooksets fit perfectly. The pot gripper from those sets is too long to fit into the Optimus 99 case, but can be easily shortened. So I ordered myself a Peak 1 kit and adapted it for my stove, which worked out great. The lid was designed to serve as a pot/pan, which is handy.

Both stoves were entirely taken apart and thoroughly cleaned. As you can see, they employ a wick to feed fuel from the tank to the burner. Good condition of this wick is crucial for proper functioning of these stoves, so always check it for any charring or clogging. A clogged wick can sometimes be cleaned, but a charred one needs to be replaced. The material used is nothing special, just cotton strings. You can easily make a new one from a mop head and some brass or copper wire.

In my 99, the wick was in great condition:

 

I wasn’t as lucky with my Svea 123:

For packing valves, I used graphite tape from Old Coleman Parts.

Another important things in these stoves are seals in the filler cap and its safety valve. For obvious reasons they need to be in great condition. Old ones can be replaced with new seals from the Fettlebox , if the spring in the safety valve isn’t rusty, and completely new caps can be found online from various sources. There are certain risks in rebuilding them, so if you are not comfortable, you can always just get a new cap. If you have any questions about how to repair or maintain, or use these stoves, there is always Classic Camp Stoves Forum.

To light any of these stoves, you put either some fuel (White gas/Coleman fuel) or alcohol into the preheater cup below the burner, light it, and when the flames die down, you can open the fuel valve and light the burner. A plastic eyedropper is very useful for taking some fuel from the tank for preheating. When doing that, however, remember to never open the tank of a hot or running stove, otherwise a flare up or an explosion of fuel vapour will happen.  As the stove heats up, the flames grow in size and intensity, producing a characteristic loud rumbling roar. With some additional wind protection, your pot of water should be boiling in 5 minutes or so.

In cold weather, additional preheat may be needed, and warming the stove up in the inside pocket of your jacket prior to preheating is certainly a good idea. In icy and snowy conditions, it’s advisable to insulate the bottom of the tank from the snow so that the heat can stay in it. Putting a small piece of cardboard or something like that below it will do the trick. A piece of wool fabric will work great, too.

One more thing to remember about these stoves is that you should never put a wide based pot on them. This will lead to reflection of too much heat towards the tank, leading to overpressurization and venting of the safety valve in the filler cap. The valve releases a blast of hot gasoline vapour close to the burner, resulting in an impressive fireball. As a precaution, it’s certainly a good idea to face the filler cap with its safety valve away from yourself and anything flammable. It is easy enough to notice that the stove is running too hot. The flames will be much bigger and louder than usual. In this case, simply shut it down and let it cool.

To prevent scorching of the wick, do not run the stove dry. Always check how much fuel is left between uses and top it up if needed, just to be safe.

Take care of your little firebreathing dragons, and they will reward you with a warm cup of coffee or tea on a cold dreary day, or they might even save your life in a crisis. Stay safe and happy trails!

 

 

 

An obituary for my Peak 1 Coleman 550 Multifuel Stove

About 8 years ago, I found this Peak 1 Coleman 550 stove on Craigslist. Back then I was looking for a compact stove to take with me on short camping trips or day hikes. Its one piece design and ability to burn both gasoline and kerosene, as well as a very good price made it the natural choice. A newer version of this stove, the 550B Exponent, is still available from Coleman today. People say it is a heavy stove, but I actually weighed it, comparing to the MSR Whisperlite International, one of the most popular contemporary stoves out there. It was almost exactly the same weight, if you weigh the whole MSR kit without fuel. The one piece design of the 550 is very advantageous when you choose to burn anything that’s not clean white gas, because there are fewer chances for your gear ending up reeking of kerosene, or worse, due to leaks this way.

I cleaned up the gummed up checkvalve in the pump and replaced all the seals, finding the numerous O-rings for the valve in a local custom gasket shop.

Here it is, looks like a cute little extraterrestrial spaceship, doesn’t it?

It was my go to stove for 8 years, I made many cups of tea, boiled potatoes, made instant soups and oatmeal over its hissing blue flame on my outdoor adventures.

This all came to an end last week when the stove failed during a power outage when I was trying to warm up my breakfast on it. Obviously, the gimmicky o-rings inside the valve needed replacement after all these years. Unfortunately, as I was taking it apart, the fuel and air tube detached from the valve and fell right into the fount. I was able to get it out, but destroyed it in the process, because a crushed, deteriorated O-ring swelled up and did not allow for careful removal. Of course, I can get a new tube and a new set of seals again, but alas the gasket shop I used to get O-rings at has closed, and I don’t think a valve design with so many specialty O-rings is a great idea anyway, so I decided to sell the rest of the stove for parts or restoration to some Coleman collector. It was a great, fun stove to use, but it had its shortcomings. Aside from an overly complex valve design, the control knob was also located too close to the hot parts, which made for burned fingers more than once. For future outdoor adventures, I have something much simpler and sturdier in mind, stay tuned 🙂

 

The Canadian Coleman 148 Table Lamp

Another Coleman table lamp I restored was the model 158 from 1948. It uses an external pump, the R55 generator, and can burn both gasoline and kerosene, or their mixes. It lack the instant lighting feature, so one needs to use a preheater cup on the generator to light it. I found it in a movie prop shop, and it proved to be the one of the most troublesome projects I’ve ever worked on.

The problems began right from the start. I found that the rising tube that connected the fount with the valve assembly had a stress crack in it, which ran along its entire length. Luckily, one local Coleman enthusiast had a spare fount for me. After that, it was found that the valve packing was leaking, and tightening the nut did not help. When I installed the new packing, the nut cracked as I was tightening it. I lucked out again, finding a spare valve stem and nut assembly on ebay from a seller in Argentina. It wasn’t exactly the same one as I had, the nut and the stem were longer. But the diameter and the threads were right. So I took the original valve stem and used it with the new nut. For packing, I wrapped some fuel resistant PTFE tape around the stem. It worked out great! You can see the old cracked nut and the new one here:

Of course, with this being a Coleman table lamp from the late 40s, the mixing chamber was in a bad shape, too. They must have cut costs on metal annealing, leading to all these stress crack problems. I swapped the original chamber for the one from a 220F lantern.

Then I got an Amish globe holder, a 220 style cylindrical globe, and a plain parchment shade from Sears. The troublesome lamp finally shined again. Since then, it found a new home where it’s used and appreciated.

 

The Canadian Coleman 157 Table Lamp

I found this lamp on Craigslist during my early days in this hobby. It turned out to be the Coleman 157, an instant lighting gasoline pressure lamp with a built-in pump from 1947. It was in great condition, save for missing the globe holder, the globe, the shade, and having a stress crack in the mixing chamber. I read online that these lamps are very easily converted to kerosene by replacing the generator tip with a smaller one and adding a preheat cup. It uses a common 220 generator, and can burn kerosene if you swap the tip and the cleaning needle for those from a 200 one. Which is what I did. The preheater cup I fashioned out of a copper pipe plug and a compression fitting brass sleeve by drilling a hole in the cap and soldering the sleeve inside it. With a new filler cap gasket and the stress crack brazed together, the lamp fired up very easily. The proper globes for them are available in reproduction, but those are very expensive. The Amish, who still extensively use such lamps, make a holder that allows using a 220 lantern style globe, or a large bulge one, such as for 237 and 639 lanterns. So I got one of those holders. It also came with a nicely machined brass finial for a shade.

I found a nifty looking vintage shade to match the lamp online as well:

A few years later, I did a major overhaul on the lamp: replaced the problematic mixing chamber, cleaned the inside of the tank, put in a new leather pump cup, and repainted the gold trim, trying to match the colour as best as I could.

The mixing chambers on the lamps from that era weren’t made well. I’ve seen stress cracks or leaks from crimped joints in other lamps I’ve worked on since. This time I decided to get a hefty, cast brass one from an older 220 lantern. Where do you get such things? There is a whole site for that!

Here is the burner assembly with the new mixing chamber, you can see that DIY preheater cup I made:

The lamp came together nicely and worked well after the overhaul:

Since then, I sold this lamp to a fellow enthusiast who really enjoys using it.

 

The Postwar Scout: Coleman 247 Kerosene Lantern

I found this lantern in my favourite junk shop. I recognized it was the wartime or early postwar seafoam Coleman 247 Scout (The little brother of the big, bright Coleman 237) in a very dire shape. The price was great, something like 25$. When I took it to the counter, the seller said, “Ok, 15 for you young fella”. That was even better. Needless to say, the lantern didn’t stay on the shelf for any longer.

As soon as I brought it home, I took it entirely apart for cleaning:

There were two things mysterious about this lantern. First, it came with a valve assembly which apparently belonged to an earlier model, 242K, looking at the bakelite knob of the tip cleaner. The preheater cup was also of cast aluminum style, which wasn’t common on the 247s, either. Another somewhat unusual thing was the colour. During WW2, and until 1948, nickel was heavily rationed and unavailable for finishing founts, so Coleman lanterns were painted seafoam green. This one is from 1948, the last year it was done.

Despite its condition, the lantern cleaned up easily. I installed a new pump cup, a new cap gasket, a new globe, a mantle, and very soon it was making light again. I was pleasantly surprised, since this turned out to be a small kerosene pressure lantern that has no issues with flame stability, because its cast iron burner frame retains heat very well, allowing kerosene to vaporize smoothly.  Since then, I sold the 242K valve to a member on Coleman Collectors forum and installed a proper 247 one, as well as repainted the found in colour very close to original, since the original paint was flaking off. Now it’s one of my most used lanterns, due to its compact size, great performance, and ability to burn both kerosene and gasoline or their mixtures. It needs Coleman 201 generators and #21 mantles (or equivalent, 250-300CP ones).

 

My Birthday Present: Coleman 237 Kerosene Lantern

Some years ago, right on  my 20th birthday, I wandered into a movie prop shop. Among tons of other interesting junk there, I found this Canadian Coleman 237 lantern from 1959. I never owned a kerosene fueled Coleman lantern before, but always wanted to. The fact that it was also my birthday, and not just any birthday, but my 20th one, made me buy it, as if I needed more reasons for it anyway 😉

The lantern was covered in dirt, missing the globe, and full of stinky, decades old white gas (thankfully not kerosene!). I cleaned it up, found a new globe, replaced the filler cap gasket, and voila, I got a shiny beauty:

This is a large, powerful, 500 candle power lantern that uses Coleman #11 or equivalent 500CP mantles to put on a spectacular show of hiss, light and heat. Very easy to use and maintain, too. One of my favourite pressure lanterns. It can safely burn both kerosene and white gas (Coleman fuel or equivalent), or their mixes in any proportions, being equipped with positive shutoff pump checkvalve and fuel valve. Unlike the gasoline only Coleman lanterns, it lacks the instant lighting feature, and needs to be preheated with alcohol before lighting. You can see the preheat cup on the generator tube. This is where alcohol is poured into with a special bottle (Either a Coleman squeeze bottle or a European Optimus/Primus/Radius “spirits can”) . The fluid is then lit, the lantern pressurized, and the main fuel valve opened when the flames in the cup start dying down. A little more involved than lighting a propane or gasoline lantern, but still simple enough.

More can be learned about this and other Coleman lanterns on Coleman Collectors Forum, or the Classic Pressure Lamps one.