On Sep 27, 4:47 am, "Unrevealed Source"
wrote:
Well said. We all have our "first radio" that spurred our interest in those
early days. Those that could afford, or maybe had a father that could, a
higher-end Hallicrafters or Hammarlund, were lucky and got spoiled. A lot
of us though had to save up our paper-route money to buy our own radio, and
these were still expensive for a 13-year kid.

I think you're giving the radio itself a bit of a short sell. These are
really very good radios. They are extremely sensitive, and (contrary to one
poster) have great image rejection which nearly cancels out the disadvantage
of single-conversion. They are very quiet with a low noise floor, and the
audio is pretty good. Put up a good outside longwire and you get excellent
results. And because they'll pull just about anything out there, they are a
lot of fun to cruise the bands with.

These are indeed "real radios" that were on par with some of the entry-level
Hallicrafters or similar, and thus (I believe) deserve some discussion of
variants and differences. A lot of people love these radios, and it's not
all nostalgia.



Roadie wrote:

This series of radios was, indeed, entry level. Some would say they were
below that. At the time, they were relatively inexpensive, reasonably well
made, and when you turned them on, they made a sound. For a lot of
hobbyists, that was enough. And for them, this series of radios was a
benchmark of performance. Truth is, for most people who bought these
radios, they were the most radio they'd ever owned. And pinnacles of
serious listening hardware.

Just as some models are, today.

Then there were the hot rodders, who could modify them enough to make
them sing and dance with some of the mid level Hallicrafters.

For those of us who grew up on S-40's, the RS DX series was a nice step
laterally. Better cosmetics. Smaller footprint. Often more features. And
this alone was enough to think of them as a step-up.

But for those raised on HQ's and their like, these were nice rigs to
give beginners with the hopes that they would spark an interest in the
hobby, and an interest in better radios.

Which, they did.

The DX series were those radios that everyone remembers, and everyone
has an opinion of. And most everyone left behind fairly early on. They
served their purpose by putting reliable, working radios in the hands of
beginners at a price point.

To those who went on and left them behind, the debate over the rise and
decline of the line is almost surreal.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Gee - My Dear Old Dad won't buy me a Shortwave Radio
or allow be to buy one myself. However, he did buy me
a HeathKit GR-64 General Coverage Shortwave Receiver
http://www.rigpix.com/heathkit/gr64.htm
followed by a QF-1 "Q" Multiplier
http://www.heathkit-museum.com/ham/hvmqf-1.shtml

Later on I bought and built my own GC-1A "Mohican"
General Coverage Receiver by HeathKit because I
wanted a 'Transistorized' Radio.
http://www.rigpix.com/heathkit/gc1.htm

~ RHF