Just got this radio, all restored, recapped, etc. Four tubes and a
selenium rectifier. Great sensitivity on the BCB, pulling in tons of
East Coast/Mid-Atlantic Stations from here in South Florida. Never knew
a cheapie could be so fun! Of course, my first radio was a
Hallicrafter's S-120, a real dog, not even as good as this Knight radio.
About the same as my S-38C in performance. Retro-listening is where it's
at.

"sctvguy1" wrote in message
...
Just got this radio, all restored, recapped, etc. Four
tubes and a
selenium rectifier. Great sensitivity on the BCB, pulling
in tons of
East Coast/Mid-Atlantic Stations from here in South
Florida. Never knew
a cheapie could be so fun! Of course, my first radio was
a
Hallicrafter's S-120, a real dog, not even as good as this
Knight radio.
About the same as my S-38C in performance.
Retro-listening is where it's
at.

What sort of antenna did you use on the Hallicrafters
receivers. The Star Roamer has a built in loop and may well
have done better than a short wire antenna on the others.


--

--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL

On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:48:13 -0800, Richard Knoppow wrote:

"sctvguy1" wrote in message
...
Just got this radio, all restored, recapped, etc. Four tubes and a
selenium rectifier. Great sensitivity on the BCB, pulling in tons of
East Coast/Mid-Atlantic Stations from here in South Florida. Never
knew
a cheapie could be so fun! Of course, my first radio was a
Hallicrafter's S-120, a real dog, not even as good as this Knight
radio.
About the same as my S-38C in performance. Retro-listening is where
it's
at.

What sort of antenna did you use on the Hallicrafters
receivers. The Star Roamer has a built in loop and may well have done
better than a short wire antenna on the others.

When I got the S-120, I made my mother mad by climbing on her shake-
shingle roof and installing a long wire, from one peak to the next, about
50 feet, and about 15 feet up. This was in the mid 60s when I was in
high school. You are right, the Knight has the built in loop on the
cardboard back, and I use a Select-Tenna to help it out. The S-120 could
barely pull in the "big" players back in the day, BBC, Radio China, Radio
Moscow, DW, etc. On BCB, an old 5 tube AM table radio could beat it
out! My long wire, then, ran NW/SE. My wire now, that I have connected
to the Knight and my other boatanchors, is about 20 feet and runs NE/SW,
I am only one mile from the Atlantic here in South Florida.

sctvguy1 wrote:

When I got the S-120, I made my mother mad by climbing on her shake-
shingle roof and installing a long wire, from one peak to the next, about
50 feet, and about 15 feet up. This was in the mid 60s when I was in
high school. You are right, the Knight has the built in loop on the
cardboard back, and I use a Select-Tenna to help it out. The S-120 could
barely pull in the "big" players back in the day, BBC, Radio China, Radio
Moscow, DW, etc. On BCB, an old 5 tube AM table radio could beat it
out! My long wire, then, ran NW/SE. My wire now, that I have connected
to the Knight and my other boatanchors, is about 20 feet and runs NE/SW,
I am only one mile from the Atlantic here in South Florida.

My Collins is working great too. It's the ionosphere that's broken.
What's UP with that?
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On Sat, 5 Dec 2009, sctvguy1 wrote:

On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:48:13 -0800, Richard Knoppow wrote:

"sctvguy1" wrote in message
...
Just got this radio, all restored, recapped, etc. Four tubes and a
selenium rectifier. Great sensitivity on the BCB, pulling in tons of
East Coast/Mid-Atlantic Stations from here in South Florida. Never
knew
a cheapie could be so fun! Of course, my first radio was a
Hallicrafter's S-120, a real dog, not even as good as this Knight
radio.
About the same as my S-38C in performance. Retro-listening is where
it's
at.

What sort of antenna did you use on the Hallicrafters
receivers. The Star Roamer has a built in loop and may well have done
better than a short wire antenna on the others.

When I got the S-120, I made my mother mad by climbing on her shake-
shingle roof and installing a long wire, from one peak to the next, about
50 feet, and about 15 feet up. This was in the mid 60s when I was in
high school. You are right, the Knight has the built in loop on the
cardboard back, and I use a Select-Tenna to help it out. The S-120 could
barely pull in the "big" players back in the day, BBC, Radio China, Radio
Moscow, DW, etc. On BCB, an old 5 tube AM table radio could beat it
out! My long wire, then, ran NW/SE. My wire now, that I have connected
to the Knight and my other boatanchors, is about 20 feet and runs NE/SW,
I am only one mile from the Atlantic here in South Florida.

I got a Hallicrafters S-120A, which was transistorized, in the summer of
1971 when I was 11. How horrible that radio was.

But the next year, when I got the use of an SP-600, my first thought
was "boy is that noisy". I was too young to realize that it wasn't that
the S-120A was "quiet", but that it was pretty much lacking in gain,
and that's why there was no real noise coming out of the receiver.

I paid $80 or $90 Canadian for it then, the cheapest new receiver
I could get, and really pretty useless (as I've said before, it
had all the disadvantages of the low end tube receivers, plus
all the faults of a badly designed solid state receiver).

I got a Grundig G4000 (a Yachtboy 400 under a different model number)
for a hundred dollars in October, and got a free windup radio as a bonus.
An actual frequency readout that means something, double conversion, a
decent BFO (I can actually receive SSB signals with it, I couldn't on
the S-120A unless I drastically attenuated the incoming signals), surely
better selectivity, and so much more sensitivity. No tuning knob, though.

Michael VE2BVW

The Star Roamer is the same basic configuration as the S-38 series and the
S-120. There is no good reason why the Star Roamer should be significantly
better than either.

For minimalists, I like the regenerative sets. Super-gainers (super-het
with regenerative if stage) can be quite good, altough there are not many
examples - and a few that were sold were cheaply made.

Simple rigs can be fun to use.

One note - using a simple receiver with one tuned stage, a long antenna can
allow the receiver to overload badly, especially by broadcast stations. In
that case, a short Hi-Q antenna (a loopstic), can significantly improve
reception.

Congratulations on restoring the receiver.

73, Colin

On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:34:37 -0800, COLIN LAMB wrote:

The Star Roamer is the same basic configuration as the S-38 series and
the S-120. There is no good reason why the Star Roamer should be
significantly better than either.

For minimalists, I like the regenerative sets. Super-gainers (super-het
with regenerative if stage) can be quite good, altough there are not
many examples - and a few that were sold were cheaply made.

Simple rigs can be fun to use.

One note - using a simple receiver with one tuned stage, a long antenna
can allow the receiver to overload badly, especially by broadcast
stations. In that case, a short Hi-Q antenna (a loopstic), can
significantly improve reception.

Congratulations on restoring the receiver.

73, Colin

For some reason the old S-38 and the Knight are more sensitive than the
S-120 was. I have never heard any good things from people who had the
S-120, most said it was deaf as a post! My mother got it from Sears on
layaway(does that date me?). I think it was $69.95, or some such. What
did I know then? I do know that it was very inaccurate, not very
sensitive nor selective, and basically a dog. My dad in the AF later got
me a surplus R-390 from a comm squadron that was scrapping them, and then
I found out what SW/BCB was really like! Unfortunately, it was an
aircraft model, that required a 28 volt power supply to go along with the
radio. When I turned it on, the lights in the house dimmed!

sctvguy1 wrote:
On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:34:37 -0800, COLIN LAMB wrote:

The Star Roamer is the same basic configuration as the S-38 series and
the S-120. There is no good reason why the Star Roamer should be
significantly better than either.

For minimalists, I like the regenerative sets. Super-gainers (super-het
with regenerative if stage) can be quite good, altough there are not
many examples - and a few that were sold were cheaply made.

Simple rigs can be fun to use.

One note - using a simple receiver with one tuned stage, a long antenna
can allow the receiver to overload badly, especially by broadcast
stations. In that case, a short Hi-Q antenna (a loopstic), can
significantly improve reception.

Congratulations on restoring the receiver.

73, Colin

For some reason the old S-38 and the Knight are more sensitive than the
S-120 was. I have never heard any good things from people who had the
S-120, most said it was deaf as a post! My mother got it from Sears on
layaway(does that date me?). I think it was $69.95, or some such. What
did I know then? I do know that it was very inaccurate, not very
sensitive nor selective, and basically a dog. My dad in the AF later got
me a surplus R-390 from a comm squadron that was scrapping them, and then
I found out what SW/BCB was really like! Unfortunately, it was an
aircraft model, that required a 28 volt power supply to go along with the
radio. When I turned it on, the lights in the house dimmed!
I had a Heath GR-54, which was a bit better design than the Star Roamer.
It worked ok on the lower bands, but on the highest frequency band
it didn't get much besides TV birdies.
I almost bought an SP600 when a surplus store on Canal Street in
lower Manhattan got a truck load of them in and was selling them cheap.
The major reason I didn't buy one was that it was too heavy to carry
home on the subway. (Now if I had thought ahead and brought a hand
truck with me.... assuming I would have been allowed to bring one on the
subway). Then again I wonder how hard those things are to restore.

"Kenneth Scharf" wrote in message
...
sctvguy1 wrote:
On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:34:37 -0800, COLIN LAMB wrote:

The Star Roamer is the same basic configuration as the
S-38 series and
the S-120. There is no good reason why the Star Roamer
should be
significantly better than either.

For minimalists, I like the regenerative sets.
Super-gainers (super-het
with regenerative if stage) can be quite good, altough
there are not
many examples - and a few that were sold were cheaply
made.

Simple rigs can be fun to use.

One note - using a simple receiver with one tuned stage,
a long antenna
can allow the receiver to overload badly, especially by
broadcast
stations. In that case, a short Hi-Q antenna (a
loopstic), can
significantly improve reception.

Congratulations on restoring the receiver.

73, Colin

For some reason the old S-38 and the Knight are more
sensitive than the S-120 was. I have never heard any
good things from people who had the S-120, most said it
was deaf as a post! My mother got it from Sears on
layaway(does that date me?). I think it was $69.95, or
some such. What did I know then? I do know that it was
very inaccurate, not very sensitive nor selective, and
basically a dog. My dad in the AF later got me a surplus
R-390 from a comm squadron that was scrapping them, and
then I found out what SW/BCB was really like!
Unfortunately, it was an aircraft model, that required a
28 volt power supply to go along with the radio. When I
turned it on, the lights in the house dimmed!
I had a Heath GR-54, which was a bit better design than
the Star Roamer. It worked ok on the lower bands, but on
the highest frequency band it didn't get much besides TV
birdies.
I almost bought an SP600 when a surplus store on Canal
Street in lower Manhattan got a truck load of them in and
was selling them cheap. The major reason I didn't buy one
was that it was too heavy to carry home on the subway.
(Now if I had thought ahead and brought a hand truck with
me.... assuming I would have been allowed to bring one on
the subway). Then again I wonder how hard those things
are to restore.


SP-600s are, in general. not too hard to work on and
use mostly standard parts. There are some difficult areas,
for instance if you have to take the tuning unit apart but
this is mostly not necessary. There are a lot of parts
because something like twenty five thousand of them were
built. They worked very well when new and can be brought
back to this performance. I have come to the conclusion that
there are a lot of SP-600ds which work but are really sick.
I read complaints of poor RF tracking, poor dial
calibration, etc, all signs of misalignment or tampering
such as plate bending on the tuning capacitor.



--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL

sctvguy1 wrote:
My dad in the AF later got
me a surplus R-390 from a comm squadron that was scrapping them, and then
I found out what SW/BCB was really like! Unfortunately, it was an
aircraft model, that required a 28 volt power supply to go along with the
radio. When I turned it on, the lights in the house dimmed!

That sounds like an R-392, which is a great radio but different than
the R-390.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."