Any Shortwave lovers here?

[jt1stcav]

My dad's been into radio ever since he repaired his first bakelite table model in the early '50s as a kid! He's always had this knack for tinkering with tube electronics, and now his hobby has turned into a lucrative part time business restoring antique radios in Vernon-Rockville, CT.

As a kid in the late '60s, he built me a tiny cyrstal radio inside a candy tin...I'd fall asleep at night listening to the nearest AM station with an earphone stuck in my ear! Later he built me my first shortwave radio from old parts lying around in our garage, and I enjoyed that radio right up to the day I enlisted in the Army in '81. While I was away, it was lost during a move, and I missed it for awhile until I lost interest in radio.

It wasn't until '99 that my dad regained his love affair with vintage tube radios and began his little restoration business. In the process, he built me another tube shortwave radio, using used, NOS, and new parts throughout. It looks great, and works perfectly, and I've started listening late at night all over again!

[jt1stcav]

This is a 4-tube multi-band regenerative receiver with a 6SD7GT broadband untuned RF amplifier, 6SK7GT regenerative detector followed by a 6F5G high gain AF amplifier resistance coupled to a 6K6G power amp to drive the panel-mounted 4" PM speaker. The transformer power supply section provides line isolation and supplies B+ voltage by a full-wave silicone bridge rectifier. (the only solid-state item) Multi-band operation is accomplished by use of plug-in coils. Niceties include: bandspread tuning, coarse and fine screen-grid voltage controls provide smooth regeneration control. A 1/4" headphone jack, tone control and pilot light resides on the front panel. The base is mahogany trimmed with black painted pine. The front panel is heavy-gauge natural finished aluminum with chrome rack handles. Surface wiring with vintage-style cotton-covered colored wire is used throughout.

[jt1stcav]

Nice and neat...

[Reel 2 Reel]

I used to be a HAM..but I wanted voice privilges on HF bands ,and I couldn't pass the 13 words /min Morse code required for the General class licence.. ..thank the older generation who used that as a buffer to keep out "undesireables"....I lost interest...there was nothing in the 6 meter and 10 meter bands, and 2 metre just sucked anyway so I ran SSB in the grey band between 27.405 and 28.000mhz and eventually just got out of it

now I hear that you dont need a general class ticket to do voice on HF..but it's too late....I didn't renew my licence..and I not starting over from scratch...formerly N8NBF...

[Jeffhs]

Gary,

While it is true that one does not need a General class license just to get voice privileges on HF, it is important to remember that the Technician-plus license conveys only very limited HF phone privileges, and then only on 10 meters (28 MHz). To get full voice and CW privileges on both HF and VHF, one needs at least a General ticket. The Advanced license has been abolished.

You need not pass a 13-wpm code exam for the General ticket, as in earlier times (the code requirement is now just 5 wpm for Technician plus, General and the Amateur Extra Class license; there is a move afoot to abolish the code requirement altogether for all three grades of ham licenses). However, the written test is 55 questions in length. You must score 74 percent or more (at least 41 questions answered correctly) to pass.

I held a Technician (later Technician plus) license from 1975 until 1985. In '85 I upgraded to General, the class I hold today. I had to take the code test twice for my Novice (1972-74) before I passed it; the same for the General. But I stuck with it, and I am so glad I did. I live in an apartment, so am not as active as I once was on the ham bands (I must use indoor antennas due to lease restrictions), but I still get on 2 meter FM from time to time (I am a member of the local radio club and ARRL) and occasionally on 40 meters HF CW and SSB.

Again, I am very sorry that you have decided to leave ham radio. All its faults notwithstanding, this is a great hobby, as I have found in my 31 years in it. (I've also been interested in electronics nearly all my life, which is what eventually led to my becoming a licensed radio amateur in June 1972.) My license will be due for renewal soon; you can be sure I will renew as soon as I can do so, as I enjoy this hobby far too much to let it drop.

Good luck and 73,

Jeff, WB8NHV

Member, ARRL
Member, Lake County (Ohio) Amateur Radio Association

[jt1stcav]

All NOS tubes from (L to R) Tung-Sol, Raytheon, Sylvania, and RCA Victor...

[jt1stcav]

It's a treat to own a one-of-a-kind shortwave radio such as this!

[merrylander]

Very nice Jim, did your Dad ever work in the Telco? I see that the lacing is done properly, not many people know that method.

Rob

[Reel 2 Reel]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jeffhs
[B]Gary,

You need not pass a 13-wpm code exam for the General ticket, as in earlier times (the code requirement is now just 5 wpm for Technician plus, General and the Amateur Extra Class license; there is a move afoot to abolish the code requirement altogether for all three grades of ham licenses). However, the written test is 55 questions in length. You must score 74 percent or more (at least 41 questions answered correctly) to pass.


response....


When I took my tests...I passed the General exam and only missed 1 question...and it was one of those trick questions....and didn't miss any on the Advanced exam......But ...when it came to the code portion...I hit that 10 w/m plateau...and through the pencil acrosed the room. That was That.....and was only a Tech Plus....

[jt1stcav]

Originally posted by merrylander
Very nice Jim, did your Dad ever work in the Telco? I see that the lacing is done properly, not many people know that method.

Rob

Kinda...from '59 to '68 he was in the Signal Corps. with the US Army specializing in microwave communications. After Vietnam, he worked for 14 years as a field service tech/regional service mngr. for American Sign & Indicator Corp. (specializing in design, building, and maintaining scoreboards and time & temperature signs for banks and civic auditoriums, etc.)...now he maintains and services pipe organs throughout New England, NY, and NJ...go figure!

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by RickB
I've been a Ham about 13 years, but I guess that I started listening to SW radio in the early sixties...been interested in it a loooong time and have had all kinds of stuff filter thru the shack here, but my favorites are Collins rigs because even as old as they are now, they just keep on chuggin! That and the 1KHz dial resolution makes finding stations a lot easier than bandspread type rigs like my HQ-180A, SX-100, HRO-60, NC-183D, or SX-16. The Drakes aren't bad either and I just sold my SR-400A on ebay....

That being said, though, hooking the NC-183D up to a Klipsch Heresy speaker is a revelation! There's an old saying,"Find them with a Collins, listen to 'em with a National!"

Unfortunately, SW broadcasting just ain't what it used to be! At the height of the cold war there was all kinds of stuff to listen to and get a laugh out of, Radio Moscow, Radio Tirana Albania, etc., had such a twisted view on world affairs that it was a great education listening to the "enemy"! I'm also an insomniac and I used to fall asleep listening thru an earphone to the BBC on my Sony 2010 or SW-77 on the nightstand next to the bed....but the BBC has reduced or killed its transmissions to the Americas, so it's usually "Coast to Coast AM" from WOAI that I fall asleep to now.....



That's just some of the newer stuff, I just don't have a good pic of the 51S-1/51J-4/R-390/R-390A/SPC-10 rack or the BC-610-I in the closet!

Rick,

I just looked at your web page, and am very impressed. I recognize a lot of your old ham gear from the '60s, etc., Collins, Drake and the like. They don't make them like that anymore, believe me, though the Icom rigs are still great performers (I have an IC-725 I won in a hamfest ticket drawing 13 years ago and which is my main, and as I will explain later my only, rig at this time). BTW, what is your call sign?

I had a Heathkit DX40 transmitter, Hallicrafters SX101A Mark III receiver (with 10 MHz WWV--all seven dial scales lit up when the WWV receiver was operating--wow, what an effect!) and a 25' loaded vertical antenna when I was first licensed as Novice in 1972. Didn't make many contacts in those early days for a couple of reasons: one, I was in high school at the time and didn't have nearly the time to devote to the hobby as I do now (nearly had my entire station impounded in 1973 by my dad when my grades went down), and two, my transmitter had only one crystal (3.75 MHz, which in the early '70s was the top end of the 80-meter Novice band). I made exactly one out-of-state contact as a Novice, with W9PQO, J. Harold Gibson of Yorba Linda, California (in the '70s, when I contacted him, he was in South Bend, Indiana), now a Silent Key.

As I noted in my previous post, I have had several rigs since my Novice days. I don't have any of that gear anymore, having donated my Kenwood TS-530 to an amateur radio club in New York City shortly after moving to my present residence, and the rest of the gear having been disposed of by my dad's third wife (now his widow) after his death in late March 1998. She knows nothing about radio, amateur or otherwise, so every bit of my old stuff, including a Henry Radio Tempo/one 240-watt AM/CW/SSB transceiver, my Novice rig, and everything else but my Kenwood 530 went out with the trash! !!!!!!!

Oh well. I wouldn't have had room for any of my old gear in my apartment anyhow, so maybe it was just as well, although it would have been much better if my Novice gear and the Tempo rig had been donated to a local ham club (if I had still been in my hometown when the gear was being disposed of, I would have seen to it that such action would have been taken--again, oh well. No use crying over spilt milk, I suppose. I had already moved by that time, so really did not see what was going on and did not learn of my gear having been disposed of until it was too late.)

My station now occupies a small space in my bedroom, with my computer and related gear in the main part of my apartment. I have a Barker & Williamson AP-10A apartment-portable antenna for HF, which works after a fashion for local 40-meter SSB contacts, but I have yet to find out how well it works for DX. Cannot use outdoor antennas due to lease restrictions.

My favorite mode is CW, but I cannot operate high power since my rig's 100-watt signals trip the GFCIs in my apartment. Guess I'll just have to try lower power or even QRP on one of the WARC expansion bands (12 or 17 meters; I think my AP10A antenna, even with the loading coil, is far too short for 30 [the whip is only some 51 inches long], although I made many contacts on that band with a 70' all-band dipole at my former residence in the mid-'80s through 1997).

I also operate 2-meter FM using an Icom IC-T22a 1.5-watt HT, with an MFJ 3/8-wave whip as an antenna.

That's my ham radio story in the smallest of nutshells, Rick. Good luck and DX, and all the best to you and yours. If I get my rig working (as I'm sure I will, eventually--it's only a matter of getting the antenna tuned up properly), I'll look for you on one of the HF bands.

73,

Jeff, WB8NHV
Licensed since 1972
Member ARRL
Member Lake County, Ohio, Amateur Radio Association (LCARA)

How did I miss this post?
If I had voice in the "general" class bands I would still be active! I am a grandfathered "Tech."
Talking on the radio is in no way like doing this internet thing. I miss hearing live voices, skip and the watery sound of CW coming off the north pole.

[crooner]

I was a shortwave freak before I was seriously into audio. Unfortunately being a kid in the 1980s I could not afford a serious rig. I listened on Japanese radio cassette recorders with several SW bands.

I then came by my first Hallicrafters in 1989, a gift from my aunt. It was a 1960s vintage S-120. After that came a plethora of models, including a S-38B, S-40B and a very nice SX-100 that I wished I had today.

But, the set that I really wanted was a 1939 S-19R Sky Buddy. I was reading the "Antique Radio" column that Marc Ellis had on Popular Electronics mag, specially the "Sky Buddy Saga" so I just had to have one!

Many years later my dream came true. I found a very early S-19R without the external battery pack connector. Did not need much restoration. It sits on my shelf and I fire her ocassionally. The rig that sits on top of the Halli, is a first generation Hitachi DA-1000 CD player.


Kind regards,
crooner

I still have a Sony "sports" radio that recieves SW. Every once in a while I power it up and check out what's going on. The thing about shortwave is that many countries without TV, cable or the internet, still rely on the radio to hear the news.

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by crooner
I was a shortwave freak before I was seriously into audio. Unfortunately being a kid in the 1980s I could not afford a serious rig. I listened on Japanese radio cassette recorders with several SW bands.

I then came by my first Hallicrafters in 1989, a gift from my aunt. It was a 1960s vintage S-120. After that came a plethora of models, including a S-38B, S-40B and a very nice SX-100 that I wished I had today.

But, the set that I really wanted was a 1939 S-19R Sky Buddy. I was reading the "Antique Radio" column that Marc Ellis had on Popular Electronics mag, specially the "Sky Buddy Saga" so I just had to have one!

Many years later my dream came true. I found a very early S-19R without the external battery pack connector. Did not need much restoration. It sits on my shelf and I fire her ocassionally. The rig that sits on top of the Halli, is a first generation Hitachi DA-1000 CD player.


Kind regards,
crooner

The pic of your S-19R brought back memories for me. I had one in the '60s, my first shortwave set. I didn't realize, however, that there was a version of the S19R which could be operated from batteries--I always thought this receiver was AC only, with the type 80 rectifier tube. (I remember there was an octal socket on the rear apron of the set, as there was on mine, but I was never sure what it was used for--in fact, I never even thought of it until now.)

The one thing I did not like about the S-19 series was the lousy sensitivity on band 4. I couldn't hear a thing on mine above about, IIRC, 10 MHz or so, even though I eventually put up a wire antenna outside my bedroom window (the first of many SW and ham antennas to be installed out there over the next 35 years).

I had read, in QST or some other radio magazine years ago, that this particular Hallicrafters model was simply a broadcast receiver with a few extra coils and a bandswitch (not to mention bandspread) installed for coverage of frequencies above 1500 KHz (1.5 MHz). The bandspread tuning on mine gave up in the mid-'60s (dial cord broke), as did the main tuning, but a piece of string threaded around the pulleys (that radio had a very simple dial drive) fixed the latter quickly.

A lot has happened since then. My S19R is long gone, and I've had several different SW receivers and ham rigs between then (35 years ago) and now. My present ham setup is, as I mentioned in my last post, an Icom IC-725 9-band 100-watt transceiver driving an indoor antenna (I live in an apartment, so cannot erect any kind of outdoor HF ham antenna system). It works, kinda, but not nearly as well as a setup I had where I used to live (my previous post has all the details of that). Oh well. I guess that's one drawback of living in an apartment building, but I'm glad I can at least experiment with different configurations of my indoor antenna. I am reminded of the story, told in a cartoon in an old issue of, IIRC, Popular Electronics, in which a beginning radio ham was trying to make his first contact with a low-power rig and a jury-rigged antenna. After about six hours of fiddling with this setup, he finally makes contact with someone some miles away, but his wife is bugging him to come to bed. "Okay, so it's four a. m.!" the man snapped, indignantly. "Leave me alone--I think I've made contact across the state line this time."


These indoor systems don't work too well for 2 meters (144 MHz), either. I have an Icom IC-T22A hand-held 2m rig with an MFJ 3/8-wave telescoping whip; it does not work well even through the so-called "local" repeater, some five miles from my apartment. I can use the repeater, but I have to be in a certain spot in my bedroom, holding the HT a certain way, to get any kind of decent results. I think this may be because the second story of the apartment building in which I live (I am on the first floor) has aluminum siding around it; that and the fact that my hand-held only puts out some 1.5 watts with a 7.2-volt NiMH battery pack. (I have a Yaesu FT-207R, 3.3 watts, but the results are the same with it and the 3/8-wave whip as with the other rig.)

Oh well. I'll keep trying. One of these days I'm bound to get things going as they should. That's the amateur spirit anyhow, to experiment with different techniques until the desired results are obtained. After all, if it were not for those early hams back in the 1920s experimenting with their station, 8XK in Pittsburgh, KDKA may never have made it on the air until many years later, if at all.

73 (best of regards),