K9WG
Member
Seeing the glow of the tubes. Selecting the band. Tuning the bandspread. Adjusting the antenna trimmer…. And hearing….
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A little Shortwave Nostalgia
- Thread starter K9WG
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Lobstah_Guy
Member
Takes me back to the mid 60's when I had my Hallicrafters S-120
K9WG
Member
Mine was a SX-99. Paid $60 for it and sold it for $50 many years later.
N8GXZ
Member
Ahhh yes ! I had an old SX-96 in 74 , Lisened for hours. Paid $50.00 Dont remember what I sold it for. Those were the days my friend
k9rzz
Member
Alright. Good to see that website back up and running again. Thanks for the heads up.
DJ-SirDuke
Member
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2011
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- 2
Reminds me of my Halicrafters S-53
Hi Yes I had an old radio Haicrafters S-53 that a jealous relative destroyed for me. I almost cried seeing it all smashed up, very sad. I added a 6BA6 tube to it as a RF amplifier with a RF amplifier circuit I fournd in a ARRL Radio Handbook can't remember which edition it was tho. BUT the 8 tube radio became 9 tubes, lol. But then I decided to replace The 5Y3 or aka 5U4 rectifier tube with a full wave solid state rectifier 4 diodes. Worked great. I spent many Hours listening to that radio. I remember going to Radio Shack & complaining about the selectivity of it, their solution was to bury the old Halicrafters & buy a new Radio Shack Reciever which I finally decided to do when they came out with that first digital electronic tuning reciever. What a mistake that was, my old Halicrafters had it beat except for one thing the electronic tuning. BUT The selectivity & sensitivity on that Radio Shack Radio was a lot worse than my old Halicrafters. Then That Halicrafters would have probably lasted till the end of time, if it had not been smashed to pieces & that Radio Shack Radio first of all didn't make it thru the waranty period without a major repair then the whole radio died just a couple of years later. I still prefer the old tube type radios cause they are a lot more rugged & will withstand a lot more abuse that the solid state radios except for the COOL electronic PLL tuning accuracy of Solid state radios. I do love that PLL controled electronic tuning. Also those old tube radios feel so nice & warm on a good winter's night not to mention the pretty glow in the tubes. I can still remember all the tube numbers of that old Halicrafters I think? Starting at the front end of it had that 6BA6 I added for a RF amplifier, then it had a triode what was it's number? I think it was a 6C4 as a Oscilator tube it had 4 IF transformers first one & second one was before the 1st IF amplifier tube 6BA6 then 3rd IF transformer 2nd IF amplifier tube 4th IF transformer then 2nd IF amplifier tube also a 6BA6 geez I'm not sure about this it might of had 5 IF tranformers somebody want to help me remember what this radio had in it? A 6H6 was detector & Noise limiter then a 6AV6 or a 6AT6 was a AVC tube 5Y3 or 5U4 was the full wave rectifier tube Then wow it's been too long lol, Had a push pull audio aplifier stage in it using 2 tubes I think which were 2 6SQ7 I think? I can't believe I've forgotten this much about that Radio I knew like the back of my hand. I even replaced the speaker in the radio lid with a bigger 4 or 5 inch x 6 inch speaker it came with a lot smaller speaker. Anyway I sure do miss that old Radio. Was a lot cooler that that POS Radio Shack expensive radio . Anybody know of a S-53 Halicrafters for sale let me know. Thanks
Hi Yes I had an old radio Haicrafters S-53 that a jealous relative destroyed for me. I almost cried seeing it all smashed up, very sad. I added a 6BA6 tube to it as a RF amplifier with a RF amplifier circuit I fournd in a ARRL Radio Handbook can't remember which edition it was tho. BUT the 8 tube radio became 9 tubes, lol. But then I decided to replace The 5Y3 or aka 5U4 rectifier tube with a full wave solid state rectifier 4 diodes. Worked great. I spent many Hours listening to that radio. I remember going to Radio Shack & complaining about the selectivity of it, their solution was to bury the old Halicrafters & buy a new Radio Shack Reciever which I finally decided to do when they came out with that first digital electronic tuning reciever. What a mistake that was, my old Halicrafters had it beat except for one thing the electronic tuning. BUT The selectivity & sensitivity on that Radio Shack Radio was a lot worse than my old Halicrafters. Then That Halicrafters would have probably lasted till the end of time, if it had not been smashed to pieces & that Radio Shack Radio first of all didn't make it thru the waranty period without a major repair then the whole radio died just a couple of years later. I still prefer the old tube type radios cause they are a lot more rugged & will withstand a lot more abuse that the solid state radios except for the COOL electronic PLL tuning accuracy of Solid state radios. I do love that PLL controled electronic tuning. Also those old tube radios feel so nice & warm on a good winter's night not to mention the pretty glow in the tubes. I can still remember all the tube numbers of that old Halicrafters I think? Starting at the front end of it had that 6BA6 I added for a RF amplifier, then it had a triode what was it's number? I think it was a 6C4 as a Oscilator tube it had 4 IF transformers first one & second one was before the 1st IF amplifier tube 6BA6 then 3rd IF transformer 2nd IF amplifier tube 4th IF transformer then 2nd IF amplifier tube also a 6BA6 geez I'm not sure about this it might of had 5 IF tranformers somebody want to help me remember what this radio had in it? A 6H6 was detector & Noise limiter then a 6AV6 or a 6AT6 was a AVC tube 5Y3 or 5U4 was the full wave rectifier tube Then wow it's been too long lol, Had a push pull audio aplifier stage in it using 2 tubes I think which were 2 6SQ7 I think? I can't believe I've forgotten this much about that Radio I knew like the back of my hand. I even replaced the speaker in the radio lid with a bigger 4 or 5 inch x 6 inch speaker it came with a lot smaller speaker. Anyway I sure do miss that old Radio. Was a lot cooler that that POS Radio Shack expensive radio . Anybody know of a S-53 Halicrafters for sale let me know. Thanks
majoco
Stirrer
See if you can lay your hands on a Racal RA17L - there's a serious tube radio - keep you warm with all those bottles - 23 of them from memory - and a frequency display that's just as good today as it was in the 1960's - 32 feet of filmstrip for 1Mhz! The original Wadley Loop for great stability!
ridgescan
Member
Guys I gotta get this baby running soon! I wish I knew a radio restorer near here
My first was a Grundig, I used to marvel at WWV. As a child I used to wondered how someone would sit there for hours telling what time it was. I had no idea it was all computerized. Shortwave was my first real eye opener and understanding of the art of propaganda. Years later when KLM 007 was shot down, my shortwave radio was on for days.
Mine was an SX-107 modified with an S-Meter in the lower center where I believe the tone control was. I got it in 1966. It was in mint condition. I could also listen to low-band public safety, which meant the CHP most Orange County agencies, L.A. County Sheriff, LAFD, and others.
We don't want to forget the ww2 surplus. I had an old BC-348H which was fairl and it helped keep the room warm.
902
Member
I know it was posted months ago, but that SX-88 is beautiful. Thirty years ago I had the HT-32B transmitter which would have looked very sharp next to it, but being a kid, I sold or traded it for something stupid. I wouldn't know where to start in tuning the transmitter anymore. Hope ridgescan has her hp and running by now. I have an SX-110 that I gave my son to mess around with. I think I'll repo it and set it up in my shack.
ridgescan
Member
Thanks 902 not running yet but I am working on it. Meantime she's safe and cozy in the closet wrapped in linen
not running yet but I am working on it. Meantime she's safe and cozy in the closet wrapped in linen
k9rzz
Member
Thanks 902
Don't work on it too hard.
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
I restored a SX110 from a near-strike and had it working for a couple of years while I was still in college. Very hot receiver! My next one, which I kept alongside the 110, was a Drake R4B - one of the best of the early Drakes, in my not so humble opinion. Bill Frost was still working at Drake, and he and I worked on it for a number of years thereafter.
Once that blasted dial cord on the 110 went, that was pretty much it's death knell. I couldn't restring the cord around all those gears and keep the tension taunt. Kept slipping off the gears and became too much of a pain to repair.
Those were the days...best regards..Mike
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zl2taw
Member
It even has New Zealands 1st pirate radio station
Radio Hauraki 1480khz then changed to 1476khz when the 9khz allocation came in.
Oh I love it
w2xq
Mentor
Oops. Posted twice.
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w2xq
Mentor
Some day I'll have to dig out my audio reel-to-real tapes and see what's there.
First radio was a used 1943 S-38. Then came a Magnovox RCU-2. A full size console made of mahognany wood, it had a record player within. The radio tuned up to 18 Mc. Once used on board USN ships dating back to WW2, it was very well shielded to prevent oscillator radiation that could otherwise be detected by the enemy. The audio output: two 6L6's to two 12" electromagnetic speakers. Cranked up, it would shake stuff off the shelves and with open windows be heard heard a half-mile away. The manual was still classified. Magnavox told me to write the USN in DC. The USN told me to write to the Library of Congress. No go there, back to Magnavox. The company didn't have the manual but an employee did. A photocopy finally arrived.
Other receivers followed. More or less in order, a HQ-150, HQ-140, HQ-129 and HQ-180. The HQ-150 was the prime receiver into the mid-1970s; a B&W SSB receiving adaptor, a Heathkit SB-620 panadaptor and FMS-3 crystal calibrator enabled me to interpolate frequencies to a half kc at the minimum. Remember the ARRL frequency measuring tests? Results were published in QST two months later. On the AM band, about 1400 stations in 90 countries on 5 continents (no Australia) went into the log. Using an added audio tap ahead of the volume control, a tape recorder usually ran while listening.
Somewhere in that group was an SX-28A and BC-348. I heard for the first time LW broadcasts on Algeria-153 and France-162 kc with a 135-foot inverted-L on the-348. T'was a fall afternoon, about an hour before sunset; signals rose out the noise to very strong levels. Tilting ionospheric layers, and the E-layer was dissolving. The year had to be 1965 or 1966.
A Drake SPR-4, JRC NRD-525 and NRD-535 via Gilfer Shortwave and WW2PT (thanks, Paul!), RS DX-150, ICOM R-71A, Kenwood R-2000 and R-5000, and Lowe HF-150 led me developing dBase programs to control a number of receiver control programs. I wrote a number of receiver reviews for Radio Netherlands' Media Network. One was on a WinRadio, some portables; I can't remember the others.
Now an NRD-525 remains. I opted to keep a -525 over the -535 because of less digital display noise in the LW band to 10 kc and I like to listen to the European and African broadcasters.
I kinda miss the warmth and glow of the tubes. The digital stuff is cold and uninviting by comparison but at least there is no drifting. But the tube audio is the best.. sigh...
pjtnascar
Member
I have a nice Hallicrafters S-38 that I got in a flea market for five bucks 10 or so years ago. I am too young to have grown up with tube stuff, but somehow, I just love how the tubes light, how the old radios feel, and how they smell. People can't understand why some of us are in love with old radios and tubes, but I can't understand people who aren't. My gtandfather was a TV repairman after he served in WWII, so maybe the love of tubes is in my blood.
Nothing sounds better than an AM broadcast on an old tube receiver.
Nothing sounds better than an AM broadcast on an old tube receiver.
ridgescan
Member
You remind me of my grade school days and my very first clock radio which was an ivory Zenith tube radio with the circular tuning dial, volume and tone knobs. It lulled me to sleep despite my stressing out over tomorrow's math test, with the warmth, glow and soft hum of the tubes-and its flawless delivery of WNUS Chicago known as "the quiet oasis" with its super soft music format.
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