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In Reply to: RE: Does anyone here at the Vintage Asylum listen to Shortwave? posted by Brian McGowan on July 01, 2009 at 14:08:34
on 40 meters and 75 meters AM phone..My call is N8TPI and you can hear us in nightly QSOs many times on 3.880 mhz AM and 7.250mhz..I also talk slop bucket ( lower side band) on ocassion when I feel like talking to Idiots but thats usually to piss them off because us AMers are using more band space and they keep whining.
Your R8a is one nice receiver.If you want to sell it,let me know as you have a buyer..I have the drake twins R4b and Tx4b and I have an R4c..I also have a Drake TR3 which is a total POS but it does receive well when the bands are open.
If the power supply waveform isn't pretty,neither is the sound in most cases.
Edits: 07/01/09 07/01/09 07/01/09
Johnson 500 or Globe King? Collins R390A or 51J4?
Neff
You got the 390a right and I am using a Johnson Viking Valliant..I also use a Hallicrafters Ht44 and a Heathkit Apache that I plate modulated.
I would love a Globe king and I almost had a KW1 collins.
If the power supply waveform isn't pretty,neither is the sound in most cases.
Johnson Valiant is a bargain. I believe three 6146 modulated by two 6146 or is that 807s? 150 watt plate modulated carrier- sweet.
R390A- simply a serious 'machine' for AM. The R390 with five stages of I.F. using 6BJ6s(no mechanical filters) produces wonderful sounding AM receive. I have built PP 6AK5 amp right in the stock audio module for these Collins- looked factory stock.
Drake R7A is a serious receiver for AM & shortwave listening too. Have a ball..............
Neff
You know your gear.It is the pair of 6146s driving the trice of 6146s..The viking two is the 807s driving a pair of 6146s..I want to crank my viking 2 up..I want to get my bc610d up and running..Its so dam heavy but at least its upstairs in my heated garage.
If the power supply waveform isn't pretty,neither is the sound in most cases.
I would own a Johnson 500 & Hallicrafters SX 88. I used to listen to the 3898 group years ago on SSB and AMers in the 1960s. I owned a BC-348 at age 11.
Boy, I haven't been on the air with AM in years...not since too very long after Ozona Bob, W5PYT, and Sulphur John passed away...there was a whole bunch of us here in Texas that used to populate 3880...now, all the old timers I knew are all SK's...I wonder whatever happened to Astabula Bill and Boraxo John...and what about Otis...Ah well, I still have the Barker and Williamson built 1951 BC-610-I and Collins 32V-2 as transmitters and a rack with a 51S-1, 51J-4, R390/URR, and R390A/URR with Hammarlund SPC-10 sideband slicer, and an HQ-180A sitting just to the side of the rack, all hooked up to a Westinghouse KM-2 antenna mutlicoupler (FILLED with Amperex 6922's!) and a Johnson automatic turnover switch...using either the 610 or the 32V mutes all the receivers, so I can use whatever I want whenever I want...
The two other facts of Hamming that I really enjoyed were the Molniya orbit satellites AO-10 and AO-13...still have the Yaesu FT-736R and AZ-EL antennas set up for them...too bad they're gone...that and RTTY, ran in the RTTY Roundup a few times just to run it and not really score...used my FT-990 and Alpha 76P...
But I used to listen to SW a LOT, I even have a Sony SW-77 and ICF-2010 sitting in the bottom dresser drawer in the bedroom...I'm an insomniac and used to listen every night to drift off to sleep...sometimes to my Ham buddies, sometimes to the Beeb...but most of what I used to listen to is no longer there...Radio Tirana...the big Soviet propaganda stations...Swiss Radio international...Deutsch Welle....now I have to listen to them over the Internet if I want to hear them...I guess I started in about 1964 or 65, back when there were really a lot of things on SW to listen to...now, with the costs associated with running megawatts of ERP, most broadcasters have either ceased operation or moved to other venues, like the Internet...
Oh well...things change....
And, the Drake R-8A is a great receiver...I have a Universal Radio tweaked R-7A hooked up with a TR-7A, a "C" Line, and a TR-4, more pieces of any brand of radio gear I have excepting Collins...always wanted an R-8, but ended up with an Icom R-71A instead...
DE KI5SL
Edits: 07/02/09
Rick
you have lots of nice vintage AM gear also..I didnt know Barker built BC610s..I thought that contract was to Hallicrafters exclusively..One of my R390a's was built by motorola.I see you have the portable versions of the 390as..I have a BC610 and I have ai all set to go.I cant do 10M on it but I don't care as I find plenty of frequencies to 20mhz that it does do..Anyway in the last sunspot cycle,10m never seemed to open up.
If you want to dump your 32v-2,let me know.
If the power supply waveform isn't pretty,neither is the sound in most cases.
Hey, Michael,
Now, the R390/URR is just what's on the nomenclature tag, it's the "real deal" Collins built 390 with the LC filters vs. the mechanical filters in my R390A/URR built by EAC...plus, I have another 390 and another 390A out in the garage along with a Hallicrafters R274 and a Collins R388...
That's just the AM specific stuff...SSB includes Omni V; FT-990; two Alphas, one 76P and one 76A; TR-7A/R-7A/RV-7; T-4XC/R-4C; 32-S3/75S-3; KWM-2 w/30L-1 & remote VFO...HF-380...
Plus I have 4 KWM-2A's that need restoration (one is a Rockwell, two are Round Emblem, one Wing Emblem), three 75A-4's, a couple of 75A-3's...HRO-60T, NC-183D...a National RCP...
And yes, Barker and Williamson did build 610's...the big difference is that the paint finish on the B&W is black wrinkle vs. that plain flat black on Hallicrafters built 610's...mine was actually gone over by John Mohn, W5MEU now SK, before I bought it to re-tune the output of the transmitter to 50 Ohms allowing coax to be used with it...and it has never, ever missed a beat, it in as near mint condition as anything nearly 60 years old can be...I have a Hallicrafters HA-10 VFO hooked up to it so that I can tune where I want to be...but, I have never used it on any band by 75...the 32V-2 is much easier to use on the higher bands...and, I don't know if I can find my coil/tuning sets for 20m anyway....been so long...trouble is that the big bottles in that rig, and all the tubes in any of the receivers along with the antenna multicoupler can easily over-ride my home's AC unit on even a moderately warm day (and here in Texas we call that Winter) and I really only feel like firing them up in the dead of winter when it will keep the central heat from having to come on!
I have lusted over the original Hallicrafters HT-4's Art Deco style, but I believe that the G and later versions of the 610 are actually more friendly to maintain due to the more modular nature of their chassis assemblies...which is why John advised me to take the I model and not the E model he also had...
I got the 32V-2 as a replacement for a Heathkit Apache...it is a much better radio than the Heathkit ever thought about being...
I did used to be really active in AM'ing, but it's been over 10 years since I fired the things up and got on with them...and as I said, most of the fellows I used to hang around with are now SK's...and heck, I'm not THAT old, 57, but I sure have lost a lot of buddies along the way...
Man, I gotta get rid of some of these boatanchors!!!
Hi,Michael Samra! I was hoping you would responsed! I remember you saying you are a Ham operator! I have been listening to Shortwave and Ham radio for years on my Zenith Transoceanonic from 1973 and I later bought a
Radio Shack DX 375 cause the price was right and it had digital tuning.I do not plan to ever sell it but could use some advice on either building or buying an Indoor Antenna for it!Also do you think I'll need to use an external speaker?I have several vintage headphones that I use with my other 2 Shortwave radios and have found out that when listening to faint distant signals nothing beats a good set of headphones!Thanks again for responding so quick!Brian
... in snagging any available signals, Brian. Just remember there's a lot of digital rfi nowadaze, which this qth suffers from in over-abundance. You can plug your Drake R8B into your hi-fi rig, & enjoy enticin' fidelity from those stations who still maintain their transmitters. Have done so for three-plus decades(currently utilizing a Carver MXR-130 Receiver, which gets astounding audio from ICOM R-75 & Sony ICF-2010, though both are rumoured to deliver less-than-stellar sonics), & you'll be amazed by how good some of Michael Samra's angel music(as SoCal'r K(W?)6LGL calls amplitude modulation) brethren sound. Some use modded Collins transmitters from back in radio's hey day. Since today's the first Wednesday of the month, if you park on 3.880 Mhz, you should be able to listen to the monthly Collins A.M. Net from coast-to-coast, propogation permitting.
Thanks for all the info!I read on the Internet that some people have had good luck using an old 300 ohm FM Dipole antenna like I'm using now on my Fisher for FM for an indoor Shortwave antenna.Also thank you for reminding me about the Rabbit Ears as back in the mid 70's Sony's Color Trintron TV's had an interesting
set of Rabbit ears that came with them sets.I used a set of those years back on different portable Shortwave radios I had and it worked very well on most shortwave Bands where as other rabbit ears did not do as good!Go figure!I'll have to look in my storage bin to see if I still have them or if I gave them away.
Edits: 07/01/09
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