"Edward Knobloch" wrote in message
...
On 3/13/2012 3:08 AM, coffelt2 wrote:
snip Some Gentleman in the
Midwest is selling capacitor (condensers, really) kits,
which I have. (for three years)
Rome was not built in a day.

Old Chief Lynn, W7LTQ

Hi,

You're probably thinking of "Hayseed Hamfest":
http://www.hayseedhamfest.com/capaci...rafters_1.html

I've only heard heard good things about him, but I'm not
yet a customer.

73,
Ed Knobloch

I've gotten several can capacitors from Tom, excellent
parts. These are brand new, not re-stuffed old cans and not
old stock.
FWIW, the S-38B is essentially a five-tube wonder
adapted to short wave. My first receiver was an S-38B which
I still have. Its performance is certainly limited but it
works well for what it is. It _will_ receive SSB with
careful tuning and if the signal is not too strong. The RF
gain is not adjustable. The S-38B and later versions uses a
patented feedback arrangement for the BFO where the IF stage
is made to oscillate. The BFO frequency is approximately
centered on the IF frequency and is not adjustable.
The original S-38 used a different circuit with a
separate BFO tube, it also had a noise limiter.
Hallicrafters had a target price of around $50 but the
rather rapid inflation of the time required re-design and
simplification to maintain the price. National's
competition was the SW-54. I've never had one so can't
compare the two. The SW-54 used miniature tubes but the
tubes in the S-38B were the latest octals so there might not
have been any advantage. A lot of the performance would be
determined by the quality of the coils and general
construction. The SW-54 was also an AC/DC rig. Part of this
was simply to save the cost of a power transformer but also
some parts of some cities still had DC current supplied to
homes and especially industrial areas.
My S-38B was a good friend for a long time.


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Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL