Aircastle Model 162F51H 8-band

[Shortwave2200]

Just bought this on ebay.

Does anyone have any info on this radio? I know it is made by Allied but there is not really too much info on the web about it.

Thanks

Jim

 

[Shortwave2200]

More picts

 

[ratboy]

I had one years ago, with a different name on it. I can't remember if it was Lloyd's, or it was something else, too long ago. It was ok for it's time and price range, nothing great of course. Decent sound quality. Kind of surprised to see the ALLIED logo on the bottom rear though. Other than the name, it was exactly the same radio, inside and out. I know the cheaper one I had was definitely Lloyd's. There were a bunch of similar radios with many other brand names. The cheaper one was sold under Lloyd's, Realistic, Allied, Philco, and several other names.

 

[Shortwave2200]

Ratboy, thanks for the response.

Well you MIGHT of seen some of my other postings in the past of some of my "Shortwave radio scores" of buying and selling equipment, some of them not cheap, but in this day of scanners getting encrypted even some mil comms getting encrypted on sw I don't feel the need to buy a sw receiver that is expensive or really good.

Hence the Aircastle radio I just bought, it Is simple single conversion with ps bands and aircraft bands, with the other SW sets I'm had with SSB, I really never used ssb.

It got kind of boring listening to hams chatter about the weather and stuff like that.

For milcoms on SSB, I could never hear them, some with the sat800, Eton e1 but few and far between. I guess I didn't search hard enough but BC SW and AM BC DX'ing is what I did so selling the Eton E5 (bought it for 54.00 sold it for 120.00 on fleabay) was logical as to not to spend that much money.

I just wanted an older vintage SW basic set, I love the vintage radios a lot better than the newer ones. Something about them. I only paid 37.00 for the Aircastle on fleabay.

so the basic SW and the pluses are : aircraft band I can stil monitor and if I pickup something on the ps bands as well as AM BC DX'ing is fine with me.

But what attracted me to this particular model was the vertical arrangement, the bands, and the general look of it down to the lighted (sounds stupid but I like them) band modes.

and it is a "NON-IC" setup no intergrated circuit chips. Retro? maybe I'm feeling nostalgic a simpler time and we still back then could pull in signals with a simple sw receiver without the bells and whistles of today.

Below is a picture of the "Lighted" radio, I have yet to receive my radio, just bought it Sat on fleabay.

I did buy a Realistic Jetstream AM/Air radio that was made in 1967 on fleabay as well, I want to restore that one, paint and all.

BTW this is the Allied, same radio as the Aircastle, I just found it... The Radio is from 1969. The price was 89.99 in 1969. So I wonder what that equates to 2013?

Solid State Eight Band 2682 Radio Allied Radio Corp.
Herculodge: Angelo's Allied 2682 Multi-Band Radio

Popular Mechanics - Google Books

Popular Mechanics - Google Books

Antique Radio Forums • View topic - Allied 2682 -- 19 transistor, 8 band -- service info?

And youtube vids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU_wenMfoEw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIx-eNU0slo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQFf4LXnsBQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mGNngtXJs4

Ok so there it is , I answered my own question, well in case others need info it is here.

ok, sorry for my rant.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[Shortwave2200]

So since the price for the radio was 89.99 in 1969 inflation adjusted 4X's, it would be 359.96 in 2013 dollars?

OK, I again answered my own question from above:

*Inflation Calculator

The Changing Value of a Dollar

$89.99 in 1969 had the same buying power as $582.02 in 2013.

Annual inflation over this period was 4.33%.*


Off-topic, this Aircastle made in S. Africa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfFX1sI1wuE

 

[Shortwave2200]

SSB on Aircastle Shortwave radio

Since I do not use SSB that much I do have the option of using another small AM radio, setting it close to the Aircastle using the small radio as a BFO.

I forgot about that... just remembered.

 

[Shortwave2200]

Finally got it!!!

I just my Aircastle today.

With a little clean up and used some cleaner for the pcb boards, it looks mint.

it gets good reception not like a 1K radio, it's not.

Now to play all night.

 

[Boombox]

Cool looking old multibander you got there. Thanks for sharing the pics with us.

 

[Jimru]

So since the price for the radio was 89.99 in 1969 inflation adjusted 4X's, it would be 359.96 in 2013 dollars?

OK, I again answered my own question from above:

*Inflation Calculator

The Changing Value of a Dollar

$89.99 in 1969 had the same buying power as $582.02 in 2013.

Annual inflation over this period was 4.33%.*


Off-topic, this Aircastle made in S. Africa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfFX1sI1wuE

Here is the place to go, guys, for these kinds of calculations:

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=89.99&year1=1969&year2=2013

So, $89.99=$570.77 in 2013 dollars!

 

[Shortwave2200]

Thanks! I'm enjoying this radio a lot.

 

[nanZor]

Looks like it takes either 4 C or D cells. I spot a switch in the battery compartment, so looks like it might be able to charge batteries - so be careful just in case you pop in alkalines and it tries to charge them. If you do use batteries, I'd exercise that switch a few times but find out exactly what it does first.

Obviously on a classic like this, don't charge in the radio!

 

[Shortwave2200]

it takes 4 "D" batteries, no charging circuit in the radio.

The switches are : Dx/local on one side the other side has a momentary switch for the lights and a AC/DC switch to change from batteries to the mains.

hertzian I do have a question for you:

these older radio's do not have a pre amp for the receiver not like the newer ones, a long wire is a must on this radio it does have a external antenna Motorola plug, would a 10 ft be sufficient?

Also In the 30-50 Public Service bands I do hear FM radio, do you know what is causing that? The other bands are fine.

Thanks

 

[Shortwave2200]

THE Pictures of my radio

These are the real pictures of the radio I just took today, after my cleaning and detailing of it.

 

[Shortwave2200]

And one more picture

one more

 

[nanZor]

Ok, looks like what I thought was a switch might just be the plug for the battery pack.

Not sure if you are just having overload conditions, or are picking up an image of the fm broadcasters in vhf low. Not sure if this set is a single or dual conversion unit that has an IF up/down conversion scheme that puts fm images into the vhf low band on strong signals. Just a guess since I'm not familiar with the unit.

10 foot wire - sure, but perhaps even longer would be better. I don't know how easily that radio overloads so it would be a matter of trial and error. There are many antenna options, but yeah, run a 10 foot wire and see if you have problems.

 

[Shortwave2200]

I'm 100% sure this set is a single conversion.

Going to see if I have a 20 ft speaker wire that I can use.

on SW and Air it doesn't seem that sensitive, my Realistic Jetstream Aircraft handheld seems like it is more sensitive, with that radio I pick up a lot of comms from the airport.

but when I plug in the Aircastle the sensitivity gets better but then I put my hand on the antenna it's even better.

AM BC is fine, FM BC is fine.

I think the problem is with imaging on the VHF low, I may be wrong.

 

[Jimru]

I'm 100% sure this set is a single conversion.

Going to see if I have a 20 ft speaker wire that I can use.

on SW and Air it doesn't seem that sensitive, my Realistic Jetstream Aircraft handheld seems like it is more sensitive, with that radio I pick up a lot of comms from the airport.

but when I plug in the Aircastle the sensitivity gets better but then I put my hand on the antenna it's even better.

AM BC is fine, FM BC is fine.

I think the problem is with imaging on the VHF low, I may be wrong.

Shortwave, the only things that matter with that radio is that:

1) It works
2) You own it and,
3) It's way cool!!

Congratulations!

 

[Shortwave2200]

Thanks JimRU, I appreciate it!!!

got tired of the Chinese stuff of late, I always like the "Classic" radio's, granted they are do not have all the bells and whistles of the new radio's but I could live with that.

The classics have a "personality" if you will, might be me.....

 

[Boombox]

it takes 4 "D" batteries, no charging circuit in the radio.

The switches are : Dx/local on one side the other side has a momentary switch for the lights and a AC/DC switch to change from batteries to the mains.

hertzian I do have a question for you:

these older radio's do not have a pre amp for the receiver not like the newer ones, a long wire is a must on this radio it does have a external antenna Motorola plug, would a 10 ft be sufficient?

Also In the 30-50 Public Service bands I do hear FM radio, do you know what is causing that? The other bands are fine.

Thanks

I don't have that particular radio but I have used similar multibanders from that era. One of them was my first SW radio, a Japanese made AM-FM-SW radio, dating from around 1970.

From my experience, you can run as long as antenna as you want. 10 ft. will work, but 20-50 will work even better.

When I was a kid I had a radio with probably similar circuitry to yours and I ran my radio through a 60 ft. antenna and it worked fine -- I was able to receive R. Australia, and R. RSA from my location in the Northwestern US. You may have images below the 31 and 49 meter bands. I know I did on these radios. But in the SW bands themselves, I always had pretty good reception.

My guess on the VHF low -- and this is just a guess -- would be overload images.

 

[Shortwave2200]

I'm assuming since the front end of this kind of radio is not as sensitive then a long wire makes sense.

The newer radio's have a preamp for the internal antenna, the older ones do not, correct me if I am wrong.

so in that case a long wire makes total sense, for the units that have the preamp a long wire produces overload in those radio's.

The older radios do not have a FET front end, again correct me if I am wrong.