Well folks if you invested $595 back in the 50's at 8% interest compounded
annualy it would now be about -- yep you guessed it $10,000.

Or you could have bought an SX-88 and enjoyed the radio for 30+ years.

Tongue in cheek of course


"Frank Dresser" wrote in message
...

"Dale Parfitt" wrote in message
...



Highest price I have seen paid was $10,000 on EBay last year. I have one
I am currently restoring- I fail to see the fascination with this radio.
New they sold for $595.

Dale W4OP


I suppose advertising has much to do with the fascination. The SX 88 was
featured prominently in most of the Hallicrafters advertising at the time,
back when thousands of kids couldn't even afford the S-38. I think the 88
was the Allied cover radio and probably other catalogs. Now, I suppose a
few dozen of those kids can now afford not only several S-38s, but the
dream
radio, too.

Frank Dresser

" The SX-88 is the holy grail of Hallicrafters communications
receivers. It
is the rarest, and most desirable to collectors, and there are a great many
" just how rare is this?
Pete
KQ5I

Other receivers just as rare but not nearly as expensive. The
wonderful Icom R9000 will run circles around the SX88 in every
parameter used and only costs $3000- 3500 on the used market and 2500
were made, selling new for $7000+. Buy the Mosley Receiver that used
all the same tubes, rare, produced only 1 1/2 years but a dud on
receive. So, anyone buying this has an expensive rare receiver and
pays for it to just sit there. The SX73 was just as good. I have one
SX88 that I paid $1500 for about 2 years ago and it is excellent. The
SX115 is bringing $2000-2500 and is ham band only with same basic
design plan. Go figure. Bottom line, if you have always wanted an SX88
and will at least plug it in and use it some, knowing that it will
remain rare, $4000 seems reasonable. But, note the reserve has been
met, far below the $4000 figure. I wud buy 2 Drake R8Bs and 2 JRC
535Ds with money to spare and hear a lot more!
My SX88 sits, not plugged in. Looks a lot better than the one on eBay
but NOT for sale.. San

In article ,
(Dbowey) writes:

It may be a re-engineered SX-100 ....
No similarity of design at all. I owned a SX-100 new.

Well, I now have an SX-100 and I do regard it as a "poor ham's SX-88". Dual
conversion, metal dials, similar bandwidth adjustments, etc. But the SX-88 has
two RF stages and 6 bands like a good Hammarlund, and really is a fine design.
I got to tune around with one for a few minutes at an IARC Radiofest at Elgin,
IL one year when they were running a BA shack as part of the Fest.

In the same way, I regard my SX-117 as a poor man's 115. Very similar
architectures, though totally different appearnace and dial.

Whatever you think, the SX-100 and 117 are good bangs for the buck. 73, Mike
K. AA1UK

Oscar loves trash, but hates Spam! Delete him to reply to me.

Was it Harry Blessy's old unit? I remember him making a trad of sorts for a
Racal 6790/GM.

Pete

Mike Knudsen wrote in message
...
In article ,
(Dbowey) writes:

It may be a re-engineered SX-100 ....
No similarity of design at all. I owned a SX-100 new.

Well, I now have an SX-100 and I do regard it as a "poor ham's SX-88".
Dual
conversion, metal dials, similar bandwidth adjustments, etc. But the
SX-88 has
two RF stages and 6 bands like a good Hammarlund, and really is a fine
design.
I got to tune around with one for a few minutes at an IARC Radiofest at
Elgin,
IL one year when they were running a BA shack as part of the Fest.

In the same way, I regard my SX-117 as a poor man's 115. Very similar
architectures, though totally different appearnace and dial.

Whatever you think, the SX-100 and 117 are good bangs for the buck. 73,
Mike
K. AA1UK

Oscar loves trash, but hates Spam! Delete him to reply to me.

That was a good receiver, but the rarest one I've seen was the Collins
451S-1. Basically, it was the receive section of a KWM-380, except that it
used an SRA-3H mixer, instead of the SRA-1H mixer that the '380 used. Thise
brought the low end down to about 40kHz. It was advertised in an older
edition of WRTH, but it never got past the engineering prototype stage; this
was about when Collins decided to pull out of the amateur market. There were
only about 5 or 6 of them made, and the only two that I had seen belonged to
Collins employees; as a matter of fact, one of the fellows just has it
idling along on the 20 Meter band all day, just to look good. There was one
other Collins receiver that never made it big; this was the S-1. It was a
solid state, general coverage receiver that would tune either by using
rotary switches, or it could also be computer controlled. I am not sure how
many of these were made. There was one other cool receiver that I remember;
this was the 851S-1. It was an HF8050 receiver, but with an optical encoder
for tuning, and an LCD for the frequency readout, vs. the thumbwheel
switches and the LED readout. The 8050 is a very good receiver, capable of
withstanding 100V of RF at the antenna input, whether the receiver is
powered on of off. Last time I checked, Murphy's Surplus was selling this
receiver for around 3500. Lots of fun stuff out there!

Pete

Clay Nicolsen wrote in message
...
So you drop the bomb in your last sentence: "My SX88 sits, not plugged
in.
Looks a lot better than the one on eBay but NOT for sale.. "

You're right, there are plenty of better performing receivers for much
less
money. I've got a Kenwood R-5000 that I will keep forever, and a mint
Hammarlund HQ-180C, and I'll put the pair up against just about anything.
As a matter of fact, my FRG-7 that I bought brand new in the '70's is
without question still, imho, for the money, the best value
triple-conversion receiver ever made. And great audio, too.

The only folks who'll pay what the 88 will bring are diehard Halli guys
who
want it for their "centerpiece". I've been watching this one (no, it's
WAY
out of my league!) and it passed the reserve at around $3,500 or so. Not
sure I'll buy this, though: "Other receivers just as rare..." I'm not an
experienced Halli collector, but I've read in more than one article that
as
few as 60 may have been sold. You'd have to get into some very
sophisticated military gear or practically one-off receivers to get close
to
that rarified number. Even if the 60 number is wrong, and no one knows
for
sure, the actual number can't be much more than the low hundreds.

Oh, well, it's still fun to watch! Gotta be less insane, even at $5,000+,
than that catalin that fetched $27,000 two weeks ago!!

Clay

hamman wrote:

" The SX-88 is the holy grail of Hallicrafters communications
receivers. It
is the rarest, and most desirable to collectors, and there are a great many
" just how rare is this?
Pete
KQ5I

Other receivers just as rare but not nearly as expensive. The
wonderful Icom R9000 will run circles around the SX88 in every
parameter used and only costs $3000- 3500 on the used market and 2500
were made, selling new for $7000+. Buy the Mosley Receiver that used
all the same tubes, rare, produced only 1 1/2 years but a dud on
receive.

I have a mint Mosley CM-1/CMS-1 and have restored 4 others for friends. Hardly
consider it a dud on receive. Unlike many of its more expensive counterparts, the
CM-1 has the same calibration on 10M as 80M- not all bunched up as in most RX of
that era. I am, as I said in an earlier post, completely resotring an 88 and find
it to be a clunky uninteresting receiver. For my $$, the 115 is far "sexier" and
more interesting. In the end, I play with my little CM-1 more than any other here
except perhaps the 2B/2BQ.

Dale W4OP

"Clay Nicolsen" wrote in message ...
So you drop the bomb in your last sentence: "My SX88 sits, not plugged in.
Looks a lot better than the one on eBay but NOT for sale.. "

Clay : I was hit by lightning in 1995, taking out 15 radios, all of
which were plugged in without antennas connected (storm coming). The
path of damage went thru the neutral, fusing all the AC cords to the
wall socket! So, I always unplug AND disconnect coax from unused rigs.
hi hi That's the answer to that. The reason it is not for sale is that
it was bought from a friend's estate and I promised the widow I wud
not resell it until she passed away. She is 75 yrs old and healthy,
and I shall pass before her! hi
The Collins 451S1 is indeed rare. I have seen one, understand 8
are out there and know of 2 owners. Others are keeping quiet. I agree
the HQ180C is very nice for the vintage, as is the SP600JX series and
the R390A. I doubt the SX88 will touch the latter two. Low numbers and
being the "flagship" at the time does NOT make it a good receiver (nor
the flagship either) when production ceases with less than 100 made.
Just makes it rare and, correctly, desireable to Hall. collector
mainly. I won't be bidding. hi
San 73

"Elmer E Ing" wrote in message
news:4JdWa.18542$ff.8472@fed1read01...
Well folks if you invested $595 back in the 50's at 8% interest compounded
annualy it would now be about -- yep you guessed it $10,000.

Or you could have bought an SX-88 and enjoyed the radio for 30+ years.

Tongue in cheek of course


But would it be a good investment over the next 50 years? I don't think so.

Frank Dresser

hamman wrote:

Dale Parfitt wrote in message ...
hamman wrote:

" The SX-88 is the holy grail of Hallicrafters communications
receivers. It
is the rarest, and most desirable to collectors, and there are a great

Dale: sold last CM-1 4 yrs ago for $200. I disagree, it is a horrible
receiver with no provisions for rejection or notch and the $200
INCLUDED the rare speaker which alone is worth $150 if you can find
one, sorta like the Drake 1AS speaker for the 1A. Bottom line is
something is worth what you are willing to pay. As we get older, the
things we want decreases in number because it only produces a problem
for our wives to sell when we die. So I am down from 65 pieces to 26
at this time in the past 3 years. Glad we bough up this thread, sorta
nostalgic.... San

Hi San,

I admit it is no 2B, but very stable and mine is hot at least through 20M- don't
recall using it above there. I also have the CMS-1- not many around.
Wierdest problem I ever saw was in the last one I restored- it would randomly go deaf-
sometimes toucjing the antenna to the SO239 would bring it back. No amount of knocking
around would though. I finally ended up in the VFO/Mixer compartment with a GDO and
found out the mixer stages were not peaking. Turned out to be a screw mounting the VFO
cap was protruding by a thousandths or less onto the stator plates. Placing a
lockwasher under the head cured it. But I was ready to call it a parts radio! Most
common problem I have seen is the S meter coil opening. Have a few spares here still-
just in case.
BTW, Collins S line gray is a near perfect match for the Mosley grey.
Dale W4OP

"Clay Nicolsen" wrote in message
...
The SX-88 is the holy grail of Hallicrafters communications receivers.
It
is the rarest, and most desirable to collectors, and there are a great
many
enthusiastic collectors of Hallicrafters radios. While it is absolutely
not
in the same class, performance-wise, as an R-390a, it is a very fine 20
tube
double conversion receiver. And, there were what...30,000+ R-390a's
made?
As was mentioned in a previous reply, it is extremely scarce. I have
read
that only 60 were (if memory serves) sold. $595 was a boatload of money
in
1954, and this radio was only available for two years. There were
approximately 1,000 Hammarlund Pro-310's sold, and one of those in good
condition will fetch near $2,000. I have seen a junk 88 parts radio
bring
over $1,000. I will be very, very surprised indeed if this one doesn't
go
well north of $5,000.

Clay

It may be a vintage set, but anyone who'd pay
$5000 for a 50 YO radio, let alone $2000 should
be put into a rubber room IMHO - grin ; )