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Vintage Suggestions?
P.S.
I have also owned the military R-390/A. While an excellent receiver , I found cranking on the heavy tuning dial (which moves a complex Rube Goldberg mechanical assembly) too cumbersome for serious DXing. It's more of a "sittin'" receiver and not a "tune-in'" receiver. Smokey "Smokey" wrote in message ... Lenny, 7 years ago I got rid of all my newer "state of the art" stuff. You are right on the mark!---the lowly, maligned tube gear is a lot more fun to use. What I didn't know until I seriously started using 35 year old receivers was that performance was JUST AS GOOD as the newer stuff. As I see it, the only thing you lose is the digital readout of frequency and to anyone who ever learned how to use a slide rule in 7th grade, THAT should not be an issue. A few years back, in the IEEE Spectrum Magazine they ran a wonderful article titled, "Tubes Versus Transistors" in which, from an electrical engineering standpoint, clinically compared the two. The result? Tubes provided better audio. Anyway, there are several receivers I have bought and sold over the past 40 years. At one time I have just about owned every general coverage receiver made by Hallicrafters, Hammarlund, Collins, National, RME, newer companies like Drake and some of the kit companies like Heath, Knight and Lafayette (although Hallicrafters did produce kits on some of their products). The GENERAL COVERAGE receivers that I keep going back to and buying again a National NC-183 or NC-183D, Hallicrafters SX-42 and any Collins gear with the model number starting with "51" (51S1, 51J, 51J3). A very close second place is the Hammarlund HQ-180, HQ-180A or HQ-180AC and Hallicrafters SX-100. Obviously these are only my subjective opinions. Good luck! Smokey "Lenny" wrote in message news I'm thinking more and more about the beautiful vintage tube receivers of the past. I love the purposeful look, the glow of the tubes, and, of course, the performance. So, I'm looking for suggestions on some of the best tube SW receivers that are readily available on E Bay and elsewhere. Specifically, the Collins's, the Hammarlunds, and the Hallicrafters.(Please educate me on the other classic makes) My price limit is $500 give or take. Oh, and I know nothing about poking around the insides of these things so I need one in turnkey condition. Right now, I own an Icom R75 with all the Kiwa mods. Is it possible that some of the old receivers offer similar performance? I'm mainly interested in international broadcasts and to a lesser extent, ham and utility monitoring. So, start recommending. Thanks, and I hope this can be a fun topic. Lenny |
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