Ham Radio Question of the Day: What’s the one piece of gear in your shack you will never part with?

We recently asked readers of DX Engineering’s Facebook page a question that triggered a deluge of nearly 400 responses from hams who understand that a trusted piece of equipment is not easily discarded:

What’s the one piece of gear in your shack you will never part with, no matter how many upgrades you make?

Here’s a sampling of what operators had to say about the receivers, transceivers, keys, and other devices that hold a special place of honor at their stations:

Icom IC-7300: I have lots of other radios, but that one is the simplest. It’s the cheapest yet gives the biggest bang for the buck—and never disappoints.
My Heathkit SB-104A. Troubleshooting and repair is very easy. I powered it up for the first time in years for a local 10-meter net not long ago. I got excellent signal reports.
A J-38 key my first Elmer gave me in 1975. Years earlier he had worked at Kingman Army Airfield dismantling/recycling a graveyard of WWII aircraft. My J-38 came from one of those planes.

vintage morese code key — (Image/**Lionel J-38 Key** by John Schanlaub | **CC BY 2.0**)

My Begali, by golly!
Vibroplex Bug, but my Bencher paddle is a close second!

Vibroplex morse code key — Vibroplex Original Bug Key. (Image/Vibroplex)

bencher morse code paddles — Bencher BY Series Iambic Paddle. (Image/Bencher)

My Kenwood TS-890S. My cold dead hands, as they say.
Yaesu FT-897d. It was a prize at the RSGB convention years ago; hence, it has sentimental value.
The Epic PWRgate by West Mountain Radio is something that everyone can benefit from. It is a small device, about the size of a hamburger. It allows a seamless, uninterrupted transition to emergency power in the event of an outage and can also accept a solar panel.

west mountain radio epic-H PWRGate — Epic PWRgate Battery Backup System. (Image/West Mountain Radio)

Heil Pro mini headset. It’s the old style and has been back to Heil for refurbishing twice. Also, my Palstar AT2K.

AT2K Antenna Tuner — Palstar AT2K 2,000W Antenna Tuner. (Image/Palstar)

My Anderson Powerpole® collection.

power poles assembly kit — (Image/Anderson Power Products®)

My Kenwood TH-F6A—the Swiss army knife of radios.
My first transmitter, a Heathkit DX-20!
Realistic DX-160 receiver I received as a teenager 50 years ago.
My original, new to me Astron RS-20A. It’s a workhorse from the 1990s. Nothing so far except one new fuse.