On Sun, 07 Jan 2007 08:49:06 -0500, K3HVG wrote:

What's not been said is what you really want
to do with the gear. Is it simple short-wave listening or serious
collecting?

Good evening, Jeep.

Technically, it's neither, but it's more the former than the latter.

I need something that can be used on certain military HF networks outside
the amateur bands. I have been told that (for some goofball reason) I'm
not allowed to say exactly which networks, but it isn't anything that
would be particularly hard to guess if anyone cared to give it a few
minutes of thought. :-)

The main reason I want old and all tubes and etc. is something I hesitate
to mention, because every time I do, I get ridiculed as a Chicken Little
and a paranoid (though, as we all know, it ain't paranoia if the
sonsabitches really are out to get you!).

I firmly believe, in my heart of hearts, that sooner rather than later the
United States (which, to answer your other question, is the side of the
pond I'm on) will receive one or more nuclear attacks.

It could be a 10-kiloton device that gets smuggled into downtown
Washington in the back of an SUV, or it could be a Jericho-style
widespread attack, or anything in between.

When that happens, much of the solid state gear (radios, computers, cell
phones, the Internet, packet BBSs, etc.) within a fairly large radius of
ground zero will be reduced to doorstops and paperweights.

Assuming I'm still around after the attack, and since I'm within
reasonable EMP distance of a few large cities, I would like to have set up
at least a basic communications capability that has a chance of surviving
that. A really good receiver is a first step that, as you all have noted,
shouldn't cost too much.

Of course, that begs the question of how I'm going to power the damn thing
if commercial power is down, but I guess I'll have to, as they say, jump
off of that bridge when I come to it.

Anyway, I really do like the old gear, and though I'll almost certainly
never be a serious collector, I wouldn't mind having, up and running, a
few quality pieces from back in the day.