Heathkit GR-43A and Realistic DX-300

[DanTana]

Hey,

I just picked these up for $5.00 each, both seem to work fine. Anyone with info on either of these? Especially the Heathkit, not much info on the web.

[tgunner]

Wow, great deals. The realistic is a very powerful and rugged shortwave reciever, and the heathkit looks so beautiful, like a clone of the Zenith Royal-3000.

[Ultra-Hog]

I can't help you with the Heathkit, and I really can't be of much help with the DX-300 for that matter. I probably can come up with a catalog page scan of the 300 if you would like to have it. I have had a DX-302 for many years and I like it a lot. I bet that you will find quite a bit of information about both if you Google the model numbers. I do seem to recall that the 300 had a problem with a diode failure that would cause it to stop receiving. I bet that the fix is floating around on that internet thing somewhere.

Great find by the way! Enjoy them.

[DanTana]

The Heathkit is built like a tank, it weighs more than the Realistic does. It picks up stations really well and sounds better than the Realistic. I would appreciate any info you can forward to me. I was able to find the service manual and owners manual online, that preselector thing had me confused at first. I wish the Realistic had wide/normal/narrow for the IF instead of the audio. Sensitivity seems good, but selectivity could be a little better, it's not bad, but I'd like narrower filters.

[KB9KXH]

The DX300 was radio shacks first digital shortwave receiver,unfortunately they put the bandwidth selection in the wrong stage lol i had one many years ago just after my DX160A, i think it was around 1975 or so.

[Jeffhs]

The Heathkit GR-43A, IIRC, was Heath's answer to Zenith's solid-state Trans-Oceanic receivers. The GR-43 looks almost exactly like the Zenith T/O Royal 3000 series except, of course, for the branding. I read in one of these threads that the GR-43 looked so much like the Zenith Royal 3000's that Zenith at one point actually ordered Heathkit to stop marketing them, immediately. Don't know what the problem was, but if I were a betting man (I'm not), I'd bet the issue was patent infringement.

As to the RS DX-300, I've heard they are good radios. The former president of the ham radio club I belong to has one of these (one of the '300 series, don't recall offhand if it's actually a 300 or one of the newer models), and it's worked very well for him. He still has it, I think. His has the direct-access keypad for frequency entry and an LCD frequency display. Again, I don't recall which of the DX-300 series radios, if any, had these features. I believe the DX-400 and later models had both.