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Lafayette KT-135 EXPLOR-AIR radio kit |
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Welcome to the Lafayette KT-135
pages. If you found this site because you Googled "KT-135"
then you're probably a fellow fan of this radio, and likely
built one as a teenager. Below you will find a restored
KT-135, and in the following pages some information,
pictures and repair tips.
When properly constructed and used with a decent longwire
antenna, the KT-135 is capable of surprising performance. |
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Lafayette
KT-135
EXPLOR-AIR
regenerative
radio
(1958-
1965) |
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Lafayette
KT-135
EXPLOR-AIR
regenerative
radio
(1965
- 1971) |
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Lafayette
KT-135
1958
prototype recreation (See
page 4) |
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1968 Lafayette KT-135 EXPLOR-AIR found on ebay
in 2015 |
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The radio directly above was originally built around
1968 by persons unknown. It was purchased on ebay
in February of 2015, but it wasn't sold by the original owner,
and there is no
history on it.
Lafayette sold the KT-135 Explor-Air kit from 1958 to 1971.
In 1972 the Lafayette catalog didn't carry a KT-135, but
interestingly you could purchase the much older Philmore
Model 7001C three tube, two band kit.
The copyright to
Lafayette for "Explor-Air 4 band receiver kit"
was granted on January 6, 1961. Originally sold in 1958 for
$18.50, in 1963 it went up to $21.95. In 1964 the price rose
to $22.95 and remained there till 1971.
According to Peter A. Markavage, who worked for Lafayette,
the cost of the kit for Lafayette was about $9.00.
This 1968 version was purchased in 2015 for $90.91 which was a
good deal. $90.91 was only worth $13.35 in 1968! |
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This is how it looked after it was restored.
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Click for full size photo. |
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Above is yours truly in my
"ham shack" in 1971. To the left of the KT-135 is a
40 meter transmitter. It was built into a wooden box that my dad's
"English Leather" aftershave came in. Believe it or
not, I actually made a few contacts with this setup.
My first contact was made on April 28, 1971 with
Emil B. Walker, WN8GBT in Columbus, Ohio.
The "ham shack" was a storage room in the basement
that my parents let me use. On the outer door was a
clasp that had a clothespin in it, but I put a padlock
in its place so my
brother Rob wouldn't mess with my stuff.
This attempt to keep my brother out actually made him break in to see what was
in there. I would have been better off with the
clothespin.
I had a novice class
license. My call letters were WN3QQE, which I hated.
When I sent my call sign, the end of it sounded like
"Dah-Dah-Dit-Dah, Dah-Dah-Dit-Dah, DIT". I didn't like
that DIT at the end because it sounded so dumb. I wondered why I had been cursed with this by the
FCC. C'mon man,
FUNK DAT!
Notice the little desk I'm
using. That was once in my bedroom, and it came from
my Uncle Jim via my grandmother. I built my first
crystal radio on that desk in 1966. In 1974 we moved
to a new neighborhood and I lost track of it. |
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Here is the KT-135
right after I built it, but before I built the
transmitter. On the left is a key and a code
practice oscillator built into an old radio cabinet.
Behind the KT-135 is a stack of Conan books, the real
ones by Robert E. Howard! Above them on the shelf is
my (useless) Astro Commander walkie-talkie. The
plastic bag-looking thing is the dust cover on
my enlarger, a Durst J35. These pictures were
printed with that enlarger. |
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This colorized photo shows the
second version of the transmitter. It's the same
transmitter, but now it has a choke filtered power supply.
It's not isolated from the AC line, which was a not good idea
considering the floor was concrete and you could get
shocked on the key, but that's the way we did things
back then. A piece of wood was nailed to the top
of the desk to hold
the KT-135. The transmitter chassis was aluminum but had a bronze colored
metal plating. |
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Before and After.
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| Before and After. |
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| This is how it looked when I got it
in the mail. It was in very good condition cosmetically and
when I turned it on, IT WORKED! Sort of. It didn't work very
well, and the antenna tuning control (on the bottom-left)
gave a horrible static when you adjusted it. The vinyl clad
wooden case is in excellent shape. |
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In addition to causing static, the
antenna tuning knob wobbled. There was some kind of gunk on
the front panel that I initially thought was rust. It came off
for the most part with water, but it took the letter "U" in "ANT.
TUNING" with it.
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I tried to rebuild the letter "U."
It's not perfect but it's hard to see when you're using the
radio. To the right is a broken and glued knob. I don't know
what kind of glue that was, but I got most of it off. ALL of the
knobs had issues. One was glued on to the shaft!
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| The wiring was another story. I have
no idea how this radio was working. Several of the
connections
didn't even have any solder on them. One of the resistors
BROKE when I touched it. |
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I don't want to be too critical of
the soldering job. It's not an easy kit to build and it may
have been somebody's first attempt at soldering. It worked when I
turned it on, so I can't complain. The best
thing for this radio was to take it apart, turn it back into
a kit and put it back together.
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