KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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My father-in-laws S-52

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 11:48 AM PST
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu...m_medium=email


Although my father-in-law, Alfonso Ruiz,Â*was born in the United States, he
wasÂ*of Mexican descent, and for a while lived in Guadalajara, where he met
and married my mother-in-law. He served as a Seaman Signalman in the U.S.
Navy during World War II (the photo at right shows him aboard ship in
1944), and after the war, he and my mother-in-law moved to Detroit. Detroit
was booming then. Jobs were plentiful, and his sister already lived here.

In 1950, he purchased a Hallicrafters S-52 shortwaveÂ*radio so that he and
my mother-in-law could listen to shortwave broadcasts from Mexico. He gave
that radio to me about 15 years ago.

The S-52 is a single conversion general coverage receiver, and isÂ*the AC-DC
marine version of the S-40 First built in 1948, the set covers 4 bands from
AM broadcast to 44 MHz. It uses nineÂ*tubes, including a plug-in ballast
that was selected for either 120 volt or for 240 volt operation. The 1948
price was $99.50 (about $1,000 today).

My father-in-law passed away five years ago. He was very proud ofÂ*his
service in the Navy, and we were happy that we could bury him in the Great
Lakes National Cemetery.

My mother-in-law passed away a little over a month ago, and in going
through the house that they lived in for more than 60 years, my
brother-in-law found the bill of sale for the radio:



He also found the service bulletin for the radio:
Email me if youd like to get the complete PDF. Its more than 20 Mbytes, so
I didnt want to post it here.

It includes alignment instructions, a complete parts list, and schematic.
On the parts list, my father-in-law calculated the costÂ*of a set of
replacement tubes:



They would certainly cost more than $5 today.

I havent turned it on for a while, but Ill do so this holiday season.Â*HF
Underground lists a few Mexican shortwave stations that might still be on
the air, although Im not sure how successful Ill be. Even if I dont hear
anything, it will bring back memories of my in-laws and how this radio
helped them keep in touch with their homeland.

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