Dale Parfitt wrote:

"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


Hi Lenny,
Put the Drake R-4 line on your list ( R-4/R-4B/R-4C). Five nice advantages
of the Drake 4 line over the Hallicrafters and Hammarlund:
1. Calibration/resolution is the same on each band- easy to resolve 1 KHz.
On the Hally and Hammarlund, they have decent enough resolution on the 80
(maybe each 5KHz) , but by the time you get to 15 and 10M, it's a
guesstimate.
2. The ultimate in passband tuning
3. Multiple crystal filter options
4. An optional NB that actually works.
5. They're small compared to many of the true boatanchors
73,

Dale W4OP

Downside is you will have to buy xtals for the SW bands you want to listen
to

I really wouldn't recommend the R-4C for SWBC use, the R-4B would be the
preferred of the three. And, the R-4 and R-4B DO NOT have a choice in crystal
filter options, also, the noise blanker is standard in the R-4 and R4-B.

dxAce
Michigan
USA