Boatanchors
In general, boatanchors are considered to be any radio that is old, heavy, and uses lots of tubes. I have a broader definintion of the term. For me, boatanchors are any communications equipment that does not work to specification or, when working to specification it does nothing desirable.
In other words, junk. I see no romance in the glow of tubes, just pennies with wings as the old filaments heat up the room. With todays energy costs, such flagarant disregard for energy usage is irresponsible.
Fond memories of tube equipment escape me. It is my unfortunate circumstance to suffer from an ability to remember bad things more often than good things. My experiences with tube equipment were mostly bad. That may have been because I could not afford good tube equipment when I was using it so dont take this as condemnation of all tube equipment.
My early recollections of homebrew QRP and tubes brings to mind long hours of calling CQ on 40 meter CW with no replies. Then, if I did get that long awaited reply, my regenerative receiver would not allow me to keep the signal tuned in due to frequency instability.
No, I do not have many fond memories of my early ham days and I do not understand those who do. Perhaps others used better equipment. Perhaps others had more patience. Perhaps others were more easily entertained. Whatever the reason, all that old stuff, you can have it. MOPA, regens and inverted L s. Give me a modern solid state, mulitmode transceiver, a decent beam, and a air-conditioned office.
There is a reason that stuff is refered to as boatanchor.