The SCORE Thread - (Old radio finally found and obtained)

[Omega-TI]

I've been on a "holy quest" since 1974 when my prized 9 transistor radio, a Sony 6F-19WA went missing. It was gifted to me in 1969 and I was heartbroken when it was taken. Well today I was driving home and saw a yard sale. First, I've not stopped at a yard sale since 1985, but something reflected the sun and it caught my attention in the split second I saw it. I thought to myself, "NO FREAKING WAY!" So I turned the car around and went back to confirm. Yep! I found my holy grail! It had a piece of masking tape on it that said, "$1.00". Hell yeah! I paid the buck, came home, took a pic and decided to share my good luck with everyone. Once I get it cleaned up I'll buy some batteries for it, cross my fingers and hope it works. For a 53 year old radio it looks to be in fairly good condition.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I was driving back from lunch one day and spotted a Drake TR7A in the corner of my eye. It was on a table outside a thrift shop. $60. It did need a thorough cleaning due to tobacco use, and some intense troubleshooting to find an intermittent short. But in the end it worked well.

 

[mbott]

Elgin R-1000 portable is my quest, but $42.70 is a bit more than I want to spend. Listed as "untested" on etsy, but just requires 4 AA batteries. I'm very leery about this one.

--
Mike

 

[Omega-TI]

Elgin R-1000 portable is my quest, but $42.70 is a bit more than I want to spend. Listed as "untested" on etsy, but just requires 4 AA batteries. I'm very leery about this one.

--
Mike

Oh yeah, listed as untested in many cases means broken. The last radio I'm on the hunt for is an old Zenith AM-FM transistor radio that came in a brown leather case. It had a round dial, was black in color, and took two AA batteries. I cannot remember the model number though.

The good news, I just dropped $12.00 for batteries on that $1.00 radio and... it works... sort of. It receives, but it's not very sensitive. I'll see how it does at night time. Now I must say, it's also half-deaf on FM as well. It's an odd radio as it only takes three C batteries, so I guess I'll have an extra battery hanging around who knows how long.

 

[mbott]

The R-1000 was my constant companion in the late 60s / early 70s. Pretty much always tuned to The Big 8, CLKW. Even had it stolen along with a WWII pair of sunglasses (Dad's aviators) and my HS class ring. All were recovered within 24 hours (stupid freshman). No blood was shed during the recovery, but there might have been the threat of some.

--
Mike

 

[Omega-TI]

After much looking, I found which radio it was, the Zenith Royal 50. It's from 1962 and my grandmother had one I used once or twice when visiting. IIRC it was fantastic at picking up signals. It's not much to look at, but it had it where it counted. I seriously doubt many survive with the leather case.

 

[mmckenna]

National HRO-60 pulled out of an e-waste bin with all but one band module.
While I was tempted to keep it, I had a ham friend that had been jonesing for one for a long time. I knew he would do better with the care and feeding than I would. Still running to this day in his ham shack.

 

[ratboy]

I went by a garage sale and they had a new looking Hammarlund HQ-180, sitting on a kid's wagon with the new looking speaker next to it, playing the BBC. I got out and looked it over and it was super nice, all the boxes, sales receipt, etc. They wanted $250! I tried to give them the $20 I had to hold it for me, but they said no. I went to the bank and got $260, and came back as fast as I could. Too late, it was being loaded up. The buyer dickered them down to $200. That was the closest I ever came to scoring a high end Hammarlund.

 

[mbott]

Truth be told, I'd also like to find the Emerson radio sitting behind the Elgin. My guess is early 1950s. Had space for a "wet" battery. As for the Star Roamer that's barely in the pic, I've got three at the moment.

--
Mike

 

[mmckenna]

As for the Star Roamer that's barely in the pic, I've got three at the moment.

Star Roamer was my first shortwave radio. My grandfather had built it. Had been sitting for a while, so replaced the caps and it worked well enough to get me hooked. Not sure what happened to it.

 

[mbott]

I assembled my first Star Roamer in 1967 and it was my start in shortwave, too.

--
Mike

 

[ratboy]

I had a Star Roamer that I bought from a ham neighbor of mine. I've never seen anything put together like he did that radio. Every lead of every part was tightly wrapped around the solder lugs, every screw had Loctite type locking stuff on it. I used it for a back up receiver mostly. It died about July 1978, blasted by a pretty much direct lightning strike that took out my CB antenna and the CB itself along with it. I gave it to a friend who found a Star Roamer that worked fine and looked bad, and he put the guts into my case and he still has it and it still works fine.

 

[Omega-TI]

Not sure what happened to it.

 

[mbott]

Dang this thread!

$14.99 on ebay. Internally it looks good with the exception of the AA 4-call battery holder. Sold as untested. New holder inbound.

--
Mike

 

[Omega-TI]

Dang this thread!

$14.99 on ebay. Internally it looks good with the exception of the AA 4-call battery holder. Sold as untested. New holder inbound.

--
Mike

View attachment 122742

The case is a different color, but it's a lot less expensive than that $42.00+ radio you were looking at a while back. Congratulations on your score!

 

[mbott]

The case is a different color, but it's a lot less expensive than that $42.00+ radio you were looking at a while back. Congratulations on your score!

Good catch, the case is not the beige of my original, but it's close enough ... until the right one comes along. I will continue the quest. It also was listed as "untested" and after seeing the condition of the AA 4-cell battery holder I can understand why. So, a replacement is inbound and due Saturday. If it doesn't work, it will be a place-holder.

There is a beige model currently on ebay, however it is $32.00 and without the battery holder. I'm always hesitant to pick one up without the holder because I've seen them listed as 9v which they are not. What's 3v among friends.

--
Mike

 

[Omega-TI]

I'm still keeping my eyes out for a couple of different radios myself. I have noticed one thing about Ebay though, other than the sometimes outlandish prices... you can get some really good quality photos of some classic items.

For example...

 

[mbott]

Dang this thread!

$14.99 on ebay. Internally it looks good with the exception of the AA 4-call battery holder. Sold as untested. New holder inbound.

Miracle of miracles, it works.

--
Mike

 

[Omega-TI]

Miracle of miracles, it works.

--
Mike

So... what's next on your list?

 

[mbott]

The Emerson would be neat, but I've never found even a picture of it other than the one I posted above.