In high gear!

[Titan1a]

I got my venerable Philco 37-665B running on the second highest shortwave band listening to WBCQ in Maine. This is the way shortwave should sound: full bodied and CLEAN!

[zenith2134]

That's a beautiful set. I bet it does sound great. Can't go wrong with push pull output and a tube rectifier. Back when radios were art!

[Titan1a]

I supplanted my 37-665B with a 1936 116B-2 It's got a cool 15 watts of pure triode power. It has a large 10.5 inch speaker all in a baby-grand case.

[zenith2134]

Nice, that's a big boy for sure. I have been really enjoying my Hammarlund HQ-129X a lot. Its audio output is a single 6V6 but it receives so well after an RF alignment. The previous owner aligned the IF to its proper crystal freq specs.

As a hobby, I toy around with making impedance-specific speakers for the old 3.2 ohm-output radios.

I am lucky to own a very "hot" 100 foot attic antenna and a nice counterpoise I made from copper which I froze into a block of concrete.

A lot of fun.

[Titan1a]

I could only dream. Hammarlund is the bomb!

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Titan1a

I could only dream. Hammarlund is the bomb!

Those hamerlunds aren't unobtanium. In the last 5 years I bought one for $50 at an antique radio swapmeet, gave it some light maintenance and flipped it.... Mostly because I've got one of the last 2-3 National radios with the plug in band coil assemblies. Those are supposed to be better radios than the Hamerlund and I don't have infinite space so I prioritized quality.

While I was on vacation I found a Craigslist posting of someone who has like 8 different examples of those R-390 military radios that everyone is Gaga over...All in various states of incompleteness for $300 a piece. If I wasn't broke right now and traveling with people who hate side trips I'd have grabbed 2 and made a good set for me.

[zenith2134]

There are a number of these available on ebay and elsewhere. I have even had one shipped over 600 miles successfully.

The best way to do it, in my opinion, is to search out sets in excellent cosmetic shape but in need of work electronically. They go cheap and when you finish them, they're like new.

Hammarlund is a fine radio of its time; their later SS models from
the late sixties/early seventies are simply not in the same league, however.

These radios are less common than the Hallicrafters sets they competed with...And honestly I prefer them to Hcrafters. The few HC I own aren't as sensitive or nice-sounding. SX-110, S-38, SX-99.

The -110 had a slipping dial string that I never got right...the tuning shafts had that mirror-like wear on the brass and wouldn't grip even a new string. Tried "roughing up" the metal like someone suggested, with sandpaper, and also beeswax'd the path...

Still as useless and crotchety as President Joe Skeleton, failing to catch in most spots.