I have a "fixer upper" Allied SX-190 receiver and matching speaker for auction on eBay.

The URL is

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330875739574

and the description is

This auction is for an Allied SX-190 solid-state double-conversion Shortwave Communications Receiver and matching speaker both in excellent cosmetic condition. The speaker has a small nearly-invisible crease in the grille, and the radio itself has a scratch on the top of the bezel and a "rub mark" on one of the smaller knobs. I have tried to show these minute defects in the pictures; otherwise there are no cosmetic faults. The tuning is super smooth and is a pleasure to operate. I had one of these previously that was working perfectly and stupidly sold it -- it is a great radio that is very sensitive and provides wonderful short wave listening.

Now the bad news:

I bought this at a hamfest a few years ago with the caveat that it "is seriously out of alignment", and indeed it appears not to receive on any band. The seller told me that he bought it new but the calibration was off, so he tried to align it and totally messed it up so that now it doesn't receive at all. It powers up, the lights come on, and I can hear static when the AF gain control is rotated (more on that later), so I believe that at least the audio stages are working. The AF gain control doesn't feel right, and loud static is heard when you rotate it, so some sort of work will need to be done with that control.

The pictures seem to show some discoloration on the main-tuning knob but that is just dust which I wiped off -- the knob is perfect.

I will also include the excellent SX-190 CD produced by Greg (KI6IUJ) which has every bit of available information on this radio compiled in one place.. He has taken the "original" schematic, cleaned it up, and added things like voltage readings and so on that are not in the factory version of the schematic. He also added a huge troubleshooting section, many great pictures and disassembly instructions for the mechanical (tuning) mechanism, and much more. Also on the CD are reprints of various net articles on the repair and modification of this fine radio, as well as product reviews from ham magazines and other literature. I was intending to fix this myself but I have way too many projects so I'll pass this on to someone who is technically skilled and who wants a truly great receiver at a bargain price.

If you're not familiar with this radio, the SX-190 is unlike a typical general coverage receiver, in that the SWL bands-only design of this receiver allows each shortwave broadcast band to be spread out in 500 kHz segments for easy tuning. This provides plenty of bandspread for separating stations in a crowded band. Do a search on the net and you'll find many raves about this radio, as well as some videos that show how it operates.

The coverage includes the most popular broadcast bands suitable for daytime and nighttime reception with a modest antenna. These include:

80 meter band 3.5 to 4.0mHz
49 meter band 5.7 to 6.2mHz
40 meter band 7.0 to 7.5mHz
31 meter band 9.5 to 10.0mHz (WWV)
25 meter band 11.5 to 12.0mHz
20 meter band 14.0 to 14.5mHz
19 meter band 15.0 to 15.5mHz (WWV)
16 meter band17.5 to 18.0mHz
11 meter band 27.0 to 27.5mHz

Two additional crystal positions are included so you can add 500kHz portions of additional coverage (for example ham bands) at your discretion. A wide range preselector allows for precise peaking on the desired listening frequency, and a Q-multiplier enhances the selectivity and reduces adjacent channel interference and heterodynes when listening to crowded bands. It has a crystal filter and 25kHz and 100kHz marker crystal calibrator oscillators.

Closes March 3, 2013, at 5:00 PST.

Thank you.