Some time ago a wrote to this group asking about
replacement parts for the S-36 dial drive. The reason was
that the small spur gear which is on the main tuning shaft
split. The split was such as to lock up the whole mechanism.
No parts were available alghough one fellow suggested a
place that might make one. After investigating the dial
mechanism I decided to see if I could repair the gear in
place. It seemed worth a try since the receiver is
constructed in such a way that removing the dial drive
requires substantial disassembly. Well, I was successful! I
was able to move the spur gear on its shaft and get some
slow curing epoxy resin on the knurled part of the shaft
where the gear was originally press fitted. I used a long
nosed Vise-Grip plier to clamp the gear in place and also
compress it so as to close the split. The split occured
along one of the teeth. This all took some careful alignment
of the parts in order than the gear was in the right place
for the dial stop mechanism to operate properly. The gear
seems to be working fine and the RX is back in business.
Since I removed it from its case I've taken the opportunity
to do a careful cleaning and will make sure there are no bad
caps hiding away, etc. While these are not wonderful
receivers from a performance standpoint they are still
interesting and are decorative if not terribly useful:-)
Unfortunately, the neither the IF or FM detector bandwidth
is wide enough for modern FM broadcast stations although it
doesn't sound too bad.
I have somewhere the original manual for this thing but
its in a box somewhere and I can't find it. I was able to
find manuals on the web but I am curious as to how the
RBK-13 version differs from the RBK-12. There is also an
RBK-15 but that has an additional, RF stage, untuned, to
reduce oscillator leakage.
My main point in posting this is to show that sometimes
makeshift repairs do work and not to give up when you run
across some antique that _looks_ unrepairable, it may not
be.


--
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Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Hello Richard:

Repair of a radio, using what is available and by a method not envisioned by
the designers grants you a free pass to call yourself a true ham for one
more year.

You get a special award of merit for applying that much effort to a radio
that is not good for much, other than to get it running as intended then
putting it back on the shelf.

I hope I can one day apply that much energy into my WERS transceiver, which
transceives on 112 mc, more or less.

Good work.

Colin K7FM

"COLIN LAMB" wrote in message
m...
Hello Richard:

Repair of a radio, using what is available and by a method
not envisioned by the designers grants you a free pass to
call yourself a true ham for one more year.

You get a special award of merit for applying that much
effort to a radio that is not good for much, other than to
get it running as intended then putting it back on the
shelf.

I hope I can one day apply that much energy into my WERS
transceiver, which transceives on 112 mc, more or less.

Good work.

Colin K7FM
Thanks for the complement :-)
I'm not really a collector and like things to work
rather than be just display items. It was also a challenge.
Hallicrafters stuff is always interesting. They were
good at meeting market needs, sometimes quite innovative but
mostly quite conventional in design, rarely best of class
but very often very good values. The one outstanding area is
styling: mostly quite sexy looking, maybe the reason one
sees H equipment so often as props in old movies.


--
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Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

I have always wondered if Hallicrafters was responsible for much more than
we give it credit for. Originally, SX meant that it was a Hallicrafters
with a crystal filter, which was the deluxe model.

I think Hallicrafters became the model for manufacturers in Japan, and some
of the early Japanese radio successes used X in their model number. Then,
when cars came out, many had X or SX in the name. Perhaps these model
numbers can be traced back to the success of the Hallicrafters line?

73, Colin K7FM Newberg, Oregon

"COLIN LAMB" wrote in message
...
I have always wondered if Hallicrafters was responsible for
much more than we give it credit for. Originally, SX meant
that it was a Hallicrafters with a crystal filter, which
was the deluxe model.

I think Hallicrafters became the model for manufacturers
in Japan, and some of the early Japanese radio successes
used X in their model number. Then, when cars came out,
many had X or SX in the name. Perhaps these model numbers
can be traced back to the success of the Hallicrafters
line?

73, Colin K7FM Newberg, Oregon
Well, Kodak also liked X in names, usually indicating
an improvement. An example is the developer Microdol-X.
Originally called just Microdol an anti silvering agent was
added to prevent a sort of fog common in very fine grain
developers and the X added to the name. RCA did rather the
same thing, examples are the 77-D and 44-B microphones
released in improved models with an X added.
I think Hallicrafters was a master of marketing. Bill
Halligan found a niche in making affordable equipment for
hams and SWLs. The stuff always looked well styled.
Originally he used names like Skyrider. That's what the S in
the model numbers means. The SX-28 was a Super-Skyrider with
crystal filter. Hallicrafters also used some advanced
technology in a couple of places like the Lamb noise blanker
in the SX-28. Unfortunately, it didn't work very well in
that embodyment although similar noise blankers with
separate noise antennas did work well in other applications,
for instance the blanker supplied for the Collins KWM-2
transceiver.
Hallicrafters was also one of the first companies to
produce single side band equipment for the amateur.
I think sometimes features got ahead of performance. I
have somewhere (I wish I could find it) a WW-2 vintage
military communications technical manual which has a survey
of some available receivers in it. There are charts showing
spurious responses of three or four receivers. Among them
are the SX-28 in its military guise and the SPX-200
Super-Pro. The Super Pro chart has perhaps two spurs, namely
the expected image responses while the SX-28 chart looks
like a cornfield. Of course the Super-Pro cost almost twice
as much as the SX-28. BTW, the X in SPX also means it had a
crystal filter, which was optional although I've never seen
a Super-Pro without one.
BTW, I wonder if anyone out there has had experience
with the Hallicrafters version of the SP-600? I am curious
how its performance compares with the original.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

BTW, I wonder if anyone out there has had experience
with the Hallicrafters version of the SP-600? I am curious
how its performance compares with the original.


If my info infers what I believe it does, the R-274 (nee SX-73) was the
first of the line. The Hammarlund SP-600/R-274( ) came later as they
beat out Hallicrafters for the follow-on contracts. I have both
receivers but prefer the Hallicrafters. Tuning is much smoother and the
SX-73 has all the normal features of a general coverage receiver. I do
not, however, have a clue as how they stack up regarding responses. I
have heard rumors that there was a Hallicrafters R-274 "B" version of
but the contract number is the same as the "original" R-274. I suspect
this was merely a simple production change of a couple of components
(capacitors) rather that a substantive design change.
de K3HVG