How many radio's are enough?

[datainmotion]

Perhaps he's just very lucky.

Well...there's that...

 

[ratboy]

Well, I'm not the right person to answer this, as I have a lot of radios and just bought 4 more. At one point, I had 4 base scanners: Pro 2004, 2005, BC-9000XLT, and an old Bearcat 210. The handhelds were in the three DOZEN range, I think I had 40 working ones at one point. Now I have the PSR-500, the PSR-800, Pro-106 and 197, The Uniden HP-1, the Pro-2004 and 2005, and about a half dozen dead handhelds, waiting for "organ donations" to bring them back from the dead. If something big comes down, like a big fire or hazmat involved truck or train wreck, a lot of scanners is the way to go.

Then there are the HF radios. At present I have The Kenwood TS-850AT, JRC NRD525 (The 515 had to go, sniff!) an Allied SX-190, a Hammarlund HQ-100. Arriving on Friday was an old Robyn tube CB to play with, and two Yaesu FRG-7's are coming on Monday. One looks new, one not so new, both are supposed to work. There will probably be an SDR coming soon, and maybe a R71A or something of that vintage.

 

[RadioDaze]

"Hi. My name is Ratboy and I'm a radioholic."

Group, in unison, "Hi Ratboy."

 

[OemUser]

When the NSA (or some other alphabet agency) shows up on your doorstep wanting to either borrow or take away your radios......you have too many.

 

[zz0468]

When the NSA (or some other alphabet agency) shows up on your doorstep wanting to either borrow or take away your radios......you have too many.

In that case, just take your lithium when they knock on the door, and they'll eventually just go away.

 

[edro3111]

Too many radios?

Next time you have a chance show your friend this link on YouTube. I'm still stunned to see this guy's shack and the number of radios and you will be too:

Just do a YouTube search for "Welcome to my shack."

I have only one radio and it's enough. Guess it's according to what your monitoring habits are.

Regards,
Eddie

KF4HEB

 

[Sol100]

The million dollar question.

In short as many as....
you can afford.
fit into your space.
your Mrs, Miss or Ms allows.....

I dont have a huge inventory, enough to cover the spectrum. Oh and keep it a hobby not an obsession
Winradio G303i
Winradio Excalibur
Yaesu FRG-100
Icom PCR-1500
Uniden UBC9000-XLT
GE A3-5825B 27MHz CB
Uniden VHF CB
Two PC's Win7-64 and XP

I must say the Excalibur put the skids on any desire for another HF radio. Does just about everything that I could ask for. If I ever win the lottery my next aquisition would be the WiNRADiO WR-G39DDC 'EXCELSIOR'. Check it out on the web!. Covers it all.

I think Token would be in contention for the award for most radios, in this forum anyway.
His other half must be very understanding or has just given up

My boy calls me Spock, the daughter rushes her friends passed my room and the wife turns up the TV.
The one friend I have is the cat, it doesn't mind the squeeks and chirps, just wish it wouldn't try to catch the cursor on the screen.

All good fun!

Sol

 

[zz0468]

...Oh and keep it a hobby not an obsession

Well... that counts me out.

I think Token would be in contention for the award for most radios, in this forum anyway.

I don't know... I don't talk about my radios much here, but I could give him a run for his money. We have about 50 antiques radios dating back to about 1919, many of which still work, and about 40 of them displayed in the house. 9 radios in the rack next to the bench that cover 10 KHz to 900 MHz, 2 vehicles with (each) HF, 2 440's, 800 and 900, the x-band 10 GHz rig, about 50 Motorola Spectras, Maxtracs, and Syntors in the garage waiting for cleanup. Oh, and the stacks of microwave radios awaiting conversion for ham use.

Never mind the test bench. The test equipment is an obsession unto itself. But basically the test capability tops out at about 40 GHz.

And I'm not done yet. I'm not sure if I win or if I lose. It's never enough.

His other half must be very understanding or has just given up

Amen to that. My wife is a saint to put up with what she has to put up with! But then, I buy her toys too. =)

 

[ratboy]

"Hi. My name is Ratboy and I'm a radioholic."

Group, in unison, "Hi Ratboy."

"Hello!"

"It all started when I was about 5, and we went to see a friend of my dad who was a ham....".

That was about 50 years ago.

I very nearly got out, but something pulled me back in! I was about to sell almost all my stuff, but I didn't and now it looks like I've got it bad again!

 

[Sol100]

To ZZ0468
I just went and told the wife that other people have radios, lots of radios! Got a "thats nice dear".
Theres some thing about the old stuff, huge plates and caps not to mention valves that could heat the house. When I was young a lot of the family friends used to give me their old radios to play with I ended up with huge box of bits (I mean treasure). There was even a collection of valves which were labeled and wrapped in paper, sadly my fathers cleaning lady decided to get rid of my junk after I left home and threw it out. Arghhhh!!!
I'm glad you and Token are doing your bit, once their gone thats it, lost forever.
You play with black magic! It's a totally different world (and equipment) at those giggle herts
Myself I've never ventured beyond the 400MHz CB band. Don't have the knowledge or the $ to get the gear to play in that region. I'm happy with HF and VHF.

Yes, and I have had do a deal or two get an aquisition.

Have a good day.

Sol

 

[Turbo68]

This tread has been very intresting i think the more radios u have better off u are can be used to monitor bands individidually this is what i have at the moment plus another 40 receivers at dads place where we share a massive radio room...

Regards Lino.

ALINCO DJ-X11,ALINCO DJ-X2000,ALINCO DX-R8 (2)
AOR-8200MK3,AOR-8600MK2
FUNCUBE DONGLE PRO
GRE-PSR400,GRE-PSR500
GRUNDIG SATELLIT-750
ICOM-PCR1000,ICOM-PCR1500,ICOM-R3,ICOM-R20,ICOM-R71,ICOM-R75 (2),ICOM-R2500,ICOM-R7100
ICOM-R8500,ICOM-RX7
PALSTAR-R30A
REALISTIC-PRO2035
TEN TEC-320D
UNIDEN-BCT15,UNIDEN-245,UNIDEN-396,UNIDEN-780
YAESU-VR500

 

[car55]

I'm into shortwave radio for a long time. I just bought a Eton E1 XM & Eton E1 off of ebay, I have a sat 800 & Grundig G3 and a tecsun pl660.

I don't feel I have alot of radio but I enjoy my hobbie, a couple of friends who are not into sw hobbie thinks im nuts for buying 2 eton e1's.

I love the Eton E1 (I bought 1 with a later serial # 7300 and the non xm is a 899 serial number but it was checked by universal radio 2 years ago when the dude purchased it new and he furnished the paperwork from universal radio)

I really do not care what people think, I enjoy my hobbie but when do you say enough?

How many shortwave radios does everyone else have?

I have alot of radios but I'm not like other people that have 4 or 8 radios all on at same time .

Most 90% of the time I have only one radio on at time and only 10% I have both.

I never have many on like some here do or the tow truck guys that have radio for every talkgroup do to not want to miscommunication.

I live in a smaller city too so the call and radio traffic is much lower hear .

 

[jonny290]

I have a healthy stack, but the wife has put the kibosh on the wall of audio.

When she's around or in the room, she politely asks me to keep it to one radio on at a time.

She can take a scanner or Radio Habana over the TV, but if I start firing up the sat station and listening to the local cops at the same time I'm setting my watch to WWV she gives me the hairy eyeball.

Oh, and also, interestingly enough - when we go to sleep I always keep the scanner on the local authorities and she asks me to not keep it TOO quiet, as she gets distracted from falling asleep straining to hear the calls if it's turned down too low

 

[Fast1eddie]

There is never enough! Remember it's the antenna that's key and not the radio. My favorites are gently used late model 70's and 80's Icom and Kenwood models. Problem is some only see slight use, have two shacks-one outside in my garage-it's actually my shop but too cold for me to use steadily during the winter. That's my spring/summer and fall shack. The other is in the house on the second floor and that is where I hang pretty much all the time aside from work.

Lots of neat older stuff that works well and may just need a alignment check with a minor repair. Just got my R71A back from the shop, performs right up there with my AOR 5k, some ways actually a tad better. I have gotten some excellent equipment from folks on this site. My personal preference is to avoid e-bay because the pricing is too high and some sellers are simply passing along junk. Would much rather prefer to cruise the classifieds here and act on what interests me. I have a background in RF and have some modest test equipment so I can do some maintenance work.

Good Signals,

Ed

 

[KMG54]

When the NSA (or some other alphabet agency) shows up on your doorstep wanting to either borrow or take away your radios......you have too many.

I worry about that, but not for the radios. In my yard I have 2 twelve foot C-Band dishes,1 ten foot dish, 1 six foot dish, 2 four foot dishes,1 scantenna2, 1 RS discone, a 400 foot wire antenna and 2 8bay chanell master antennas. And all dishes are motorized and moving regulary!

 

[Shortwave2200]

WOW! I thought I had alot of radio's!!!! Now I do not feel bad!!!!!

 

[Token]

I don't know... I don't talk about my radios much here, but I could give him a run for his money. We have about 50 antiques radios dating back to about 1919, many of which still work, and about 40 of them displayed in the house. 9 radios in the rack next to the bench that cover 10 KHz to 900 MHz, 2 vehicles with (each) HF, 2 440's, 800 and 900, the x-band 10 GHz rig, about 50 Motorola Spectras, Maxtracs, and Syntors in the garage waiting for cleanup. Oh, and the stacks of microwave radios awaiting conversion for ham use.

Never mind the test bench. The test equipment is an obsession unto itself. But basically the test capability tops out at about 40 GHz.

Don’t make me start counting!

I don’t have the Motorola gear you have. Well, there are a few around here, the odd Motrac and Sabre, but not stacks and generally not the newer stuff, but the rest sounds pretty similar.

Yeah, every vehicle has radios, and here also two vehicles are from HF up, in this case HF to 1.2 GHz (minus 33 cm) as the Blazer and the Bronco each have a TS-2000x with RC-2000 control head, the other vehicles have fewer bands (typically 6M/2M/70cm + wideband RX), although the Miata is 10/6/2/70cm + wideband scanner.

900 MHz is a hole here, nothing on the TX side and only a few things on the RX side.

But on the antique side I probably have a few more, from consoles (mostly Philco, but the odd Zenith and RCA) to table tops and communications receivers. None of mine quite back to your 1919, I think 1921 is my oldest complete and working radio, although I have a few pieces/parts from WW I military gear I would like to one day complete. I have never really counted all of the radios here for a total but in the living room are more than 20 on display (all working), the Den has another 15+ (again all working), the radio room has at least another 30 (most working), and the shop probably has over 50 (maybe 50% operational). I have a storage shed with on the order of 75 “future projects” I have gathered over the years.

Is there much microwave activity in your area? I see you list 10 GHz and other microwave. I have built transverters/PAs for 13/9/6/3cm, and 24 GHz, and have dishes and feeds for all of them, but really only used each a few times, mostly hill-topping.

Test gear here is fairly complete but more basic, doesn’t go quite as high as yours, HP 8562E is my top end and only does up to 13 GHz, although I guess the 8481A and 8481H power sensors would go above that freq. At work though I have whatever I need, literally from DC to light, so have never felt the need to expand at home

Amen to that. My wife is a saint to put up with what she has to put up with! But then, I buy her toys too. =)

My wife is fairly active in my radio stuff and has been for the 30+ years we have been together, I would say she has located maybe 15% of the old gear I have collected. And she often calls me from a garage sale or rummage sale with “hey, they got one of these here, you want I should bring it home?” She has developed a pretty good eye for junk vs potential good stuff. One time she called from a garage sale that had the majority (carriage, pedestal, dish) of an MPQ-10 radar set at it…lol She originally wanted to tow it home as a surprise but the tires would not hold air for long so she had to tell me so I could bring the compressor and tow it home.

And yeah, the way to keep her happy is she gets the toys she wants also, we are in the middle of a home remodel now, and she just got a new rifle (6.5 Grendel, but I will also enjoy that one) last week

T!

 

[fxdscon]

Some of you may have seen this before, but.....

Is this enough radios??

Be sure to scroll down through all the pics.

QRZ.COM Callsign W9EVT

 

[Sol100]

W9EVT ?
How many?
I'm speechless..........

Sol

 

[mtindor]

You can never have enough radios and when your dead all your friends will scam your spouse and get them real cheap.
prcguy

Sounds like you might have some experience ? You did hit the nail on the head.

Mike