The following are receivers I have used for DX-ing over the past fifty-plus years. The entries are not meant to be reviews of the receivers, but more of a record of what has been used to put over 300 countries in my logbook over that period of time.
1. Remco Crystal Set—totally passive
receiver, no power supply, received standard broadcast only. Used
with 175 foot long wire antenna on Orchard Lane in Waco, Texas. Best
DX, WOAI in San Antonio, Texas. Used from 1956 to 1958.
2. Knight Kit regenerative receiver,
part of the Knight Kit 12-in-one lab kit. Single tube ( 12K5)
regenerative receiver of breadboard design with no dial calibration.
Used to log standard broadcast stations with 15 foot wire antenna on
West First Street in Coleman, Texas and 70 foot longwire at 20 feet
on Harrison Street in Waco, Texas. Best DX-KTWO in Casper, Wyoming. Used from 1958 to 1960.
3.. Watterson table top radio—five-tube
standard broadcast with coverage up through the old medium wave
police band—approximately 540-1900 kHz with modifications. Used
with 150 foot long wire under eaves of house and 70 foot longwire at
20 feet on Harrison Street in Waco, Texas. Logged broadcast stations
from U-S, Mexico, Canada, Belize and Cuba,mostly the larger clear
channel stations and a few smaller regional stations, plus police
dispatch from several states, 160 meter amateur stations from the US
Midwest on AM phone and several mediumwave air beacons between
1600-1800 kHz. Receiver had one IF stage and no RF stage, All
American Five design. Best DX-Cuba on several frequencies and Radio
Belize. Used from 1956 to 1963.
4. Silvertone Console radio- six-tube
AM receiver with phonograph and internal loop antenna used for medium
wave reception only on Harrison Street in Waco, Texas. Logged
broadcast stations from U-s, Mexico, Canada and Cuba, mostly the
larger clear-channel type stations. Receiver had one RF and one IF
stage. Best DX-CBK, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, KNX Los Angeles,
and several Cubans. Used from 1954-1971.
5. Homebuilt/ training course kit
receiver. Seven-tube dual conversion receiver. Superhet for the
broadcast band with one RF and one IF stage, plus single tube
converter for tuning HF frequencies from approximately 6.5 to 15.1
mHz. The HF converter had no RF stage. Used IF regeneration to copy
cw and tighten selectivity. Logged major standard broadcast band
stations, shortwave stations in 31, 25 and 19 meter bands, some
utility stations and amateur stations in the 40 and 20 meter band.
Very broad selectivity, poor stability, poor image rejection Logged
about thirty countries. Best DX-amateur stations in Argentina, Radio
Australia 10 kw outlet, various utility stations in South America and
Europe. Used from 1959 to 1963.
5. National SW-54 five tube, single
conversion receiver tuning from 540 kHz to 30 mHz in four bands. It
had one IF and no RF stage. Used IF regeneration for cw reception.
Had moderate selectivity and fair sensitivity up through about 15
mHz. Fair stability on the two lower bands, poor stability and poor
image rejection on the upper two bands. It was my first general
coverage receiver and its shortcomings were not immediately
recognized because it was such a step up from what I had been using.
It was used on 175 foot long wire under the eaves of the house and
70 foot longwire at twenty feet on Harrison Street in Waco, Texas.
Best DX Radio Peking on SWBC ( not easy in 1961!) amateur stations in
Rhodesia, Ghana, South Africa and Tanganyika, Utility stations in
Greece, South Africa and Macao. No S-meter. Used from 1961 to 1962.
7. National NC-88 nine tube single
conversion receiver tuning 540 kHz to 40 mHz in four bands. No
crystal selectivity or S-meter. Fairly stable on all but the upper
end of the fourth band. Selectivity pretty fair on AM ( about 10 kHz
on strong signals-not always adequate on standard broadcast or among
strong signals on 49 meters), fair on SSB and cw. Very basic noise
limiter and the receiver was vulnerable to power line and other noise
interference. Some image response on the highest band. Sensitivity
good on lower three bands, fair on the fourth band up to 15 mHz,
dropping to poor on ten meters. Somewhat sensitive to strong signal
overload and audio microphonics when using the internal speaker. This
was such a vast improvement over what I had been using that I was
very pleased with it from 1962-1967. It was not too good on SSB
which is mainly what led to its replacement. It did not have a
product detector. Best DX Australia on 40 meter amateur band, Japan
on 80 meter amateur band, Pitcairn Island on 10 meter amateur band,
Tahiti and Solomon Islands on shortwave broadcast, Mauritius, China,
Indonesia,and Timor on cw utility bands. All of the “common”
SWBC stations logged previously easily received. A large number of
tropical band stations logged on 60, 90 and 120 meters along with a
large number of utility cw marine shore stations logged. Used from 1962 to 1967.
8. Drake 2B- triple conversion amateur
band receiver with auxillary crystal positions for receiving 500 kHz
wide bands between 3.5 and 30 mHz, initially crystaled for 80-10
meter amateur bands and the 49, 31, 25 and 19 meter shortwave bands.
Also had crystals for 6, 8, 12,16, 18, and 22 mHz utility bands that
could be manually plugged in for use. Used at Harrison Street in
Waco, Texas with various antennas including 250 foot long wire
peaking 30 feet high, also used on Forest Drive in Port Arthur,
Texas, and on Lark Drive in Waco, Texas on inverted L's, verticals
and ground planes. Later added 2BQ Q-multiplier. Very sensitive and
selective. Logged just under 300 countries on amateur bands, over 100
countries on utility bands and shortwave broadcast. My first really
high grade receiver. Used at Harrison Street from 1967-1971, Port
Arthur from 1975-1980 and Waco from 1991 to present. Excellant
receiver for narrow band cw work on amateur and utility bands and on
ssb amateur and utility work. Very stable. Very selective for use on
AM signals in shortwave broadcast bands with the Q-multiplier giving
variable selectivity. Allows use in SSB mode for enhanced AM
reception. Can be left for days on a utility SSB frequency without
need for retuning. Hissing sound on cw with use of the Q-multiplier
can be fatiguing after long hours of amateur contest work. Also
crystalled for 17 and 30 meter amateur bands. Sensitivity not great
on ten meters. Had S-meter, product detector and selectable AVC
speeds. Lowest IF is 50 kHz. Tuneable IF from 3.5-4.1 mHz with
crystal controlled conversion for other bands. Tuneable pre selector.
Have never heard and image signal or spurious product with this
receiver. Best DX is hard to choose because the receiver is regularly
used and consistently pulls out great stuff. The first truly good DX
was Qatar on the 20 meter amateur band in 1967. Other than the
Q-multiplier hiss, this receiver still can compete with the best of
the new gear after fifty years. With the crystal calibrator and
excellent dial calibration, frequency read out to 1 kHz is easy. I
have used it on the amateur bands alongside stand alone transmitters
and it has been a great performer in DX contests, outperforming
receivers in the Icom 701 and 720 transceivers and the Kenwood TS-130
and Yaesu FT-757 transceivers it has been used with. I only wish it
would tune the bands below 3.5 mHz! Used from 1967 to date. It is still in use!
9. Hallicrafters SX-99, single
conversion 9 tube receiver with one RF and two IF stages and
s-meter. Tuned from 540 to 30 mHz and had an IF crystal filter with
phasing control. Used from 1971 to 1973 at the University of Houston,
barracks at Arlington Hall Station in Virginia and barracks at Kagnew
Station in Asmara, Ethiopia. I sold it while overseas when I got
access to a better receiver, but wish I had kept it. I used it for
Broadcast Band DX while at U of H with a 2-1/2 foot loop antenna and
for general DX work at Arlington Hall with a 100 foot long wire and
at Asmara with a 150 foot longwire fifteen feet above the roof of a
three story barracks building. Selectivity was pretty good on AM with
the crystal filter and very useable on cw and SSB when the crystal
phasing was properly adjusted ( a bit of an art to setting up for
single signal cw reception) With the 10 kHz crystal calibrator,
frequency could be determined very well with the calibrated
bandspread on the amateur bands. By careful counting of carriers,
frequency determination can be pretty good on the shortwave broadcast
bands. Best DX, on the loop from Houston on standard broadcast,
several Canadians, YSS from El Salvador on 655, Belize, many Cubans,
Guatemala and Nicaragua. From Arlington, on standard broadcast many
Canadians, the usual high powered Mexicans, Cubans, the Bahamas,
Bonaire ( PJB) plus many European and African amateurs on 40 and 20
meters. From Asmara, standard broadcast stations from all over Europe
including some lower powered BBC stations, stations from all over
Africa and Middle East, and China. Also WBAP and WBT from the US.
Daylight BCB stations from Kuwait, Muscat ( big BBC relay), Saudi
Arabia, Somalia, Djibouti and Omdurman in the Sudan. SWBC DX from
world wide. This was an excellent DX location in an area of very low
noise and on top of a 7200 foot mountain. Utility DX included
stateside stations like WCC, WLO, KPH, KLB, KLC and WPA. Amateur
stations were logged from over 150 countries, including several from
the US on 40 meters. Used from 1971-1973.
10. Collins R-390. I list this one
because I had the chance to use several of these to use while off
duty at work in Asmara , Ethiopia. This was an amazing receiver for
shortwave broadcast and standard broadcast work. This was a massive
(literally!) receiver that tuned 500 kHz to 32 mhz with over thirty
tubes. It generated a large amount of heat. I think it had a crystal
heater in it. It also had a mechanical digital readout with
indications down to 1 Khz. It had a separate knob for selecting mHz
bands, meaning when you changed bands, you remained on the same
frequency except for the mHz prefix.The receiver was bullet proof in
more ways than one. The case was unbelievable heavy duty. The front
end could withstand huge amounts of RF without overload or spurious
responses. The radio was designed to operate with a transmitter
operating full time right next to it. There were three that I could
use during limited hours that were connected to a 100 foot longwire
that was one hundred feet high. There were two R-390's and one
R-390A in the receiver rack at the American Forces Radio and TV
station newsroom in Asmara. The “A” model I believe had Collins
filters and was noticeably better than the other two. Stations heard
on these receivers were all really good DX, but they were not readily
useable for more than an hour or so at a time and often not at
optimum DX times. The receivers were used at time to receive feeds
from AFRTS transmitters in the U-S to supply news broadcasts and
occasional ball game broadcasts for retransmission over the local
AFRTS station. Best DX heard from Asmara on one of the R-390's in the
AFRTS newsroom was a group of Novices on 40 meter cw and several
stations from Texas involved in what they thought was a semi-local
QSO on 80 meters. Used 1972 through 1973.
11. Collins R-388. I had the
opportunity to use one of these fine receivers for a time in Asmara.
It was on loan from a friend who had bought it through a property
disposal sale not working and somehow got it fixed. The plan was
that I was going to buy it from him and ship it home, and that led to
the sale of my SX-99. But he changed his mind about selling it after
a couple of months, leaving me in a bit of a DX lurch for a time.
This receiver is a real boat anchor. It does not weigh as much as the
R-390, but not by much! It tunes from 500 kHz to 30 mHz in 500 kHz
bands. The calibration is quite good for an analog receiver, and
with use of the crystal calibrator, read out to 1 kHz can be reliably
made. In the time I had this receiver, I literally filled a logbook
with stations on the standard broadcast band. It was used on a 150
foot longwire on the roof of the three story barracks building.
Stations from all over Africa, including some 1 and 5 kw stations
were logged on the standard broadcast band, along with many in Europe
and Asia. Using this receiver in this location was a DX-er's dream.
Even a few US broadcast stations were received ( WBAP, WBT, WABC,
WNBC, WBZ). It would be impossible to pick out the best DX with this
receiver and location. The R-388 used there was excellent with regard
to stability, frequency readout, selectivity and sensitivity up
through 25 mHz. The total time I had available for DX-ing was
somewhat limited because of military duties and that was divided
among time spent SWL-ing and operating the amateur radio club station
ET3USA, and some socialization at the time. Looking back, I am sure
I could have spent more time wringing signals out of the ether in
that prime DX location! Used 1972 to mid 1973.
12. Zenith Transoceanic—solid state
version. When the R-388 went back to its owner, I found myself with
several months left in Asmara before going back to the States or my
next assignment without a radio. A visit to the on post hobby shop
that also sold stereo equipment revealed they had a solid state
version of the Zenith Transoceanic for sale. It had apparently been
there a long time as a display item and they no longer had the box
or the paperwork that went with it and it was marked down for quick
sale. After a little haggling, that quick sale price came down a
little more and I walked away with it for only $75.00 ! Of course I
had already fired it up and made sure it was working properly. This
was the earliest model of the “new” Transoceanic design with
plug in transistors. The radio was pretty good for its time and while
nothing like the R-388 or even the SX-99, it was certainly useable
for DX-ing. It had reasonable selectivity, a beat frequency
oscillator for copying cw and SSB signals and several bands with
reasonable bandspread. It was not a full, general coverage receiver,
but had several ranges including the major shortwave broadcast bands,
as well as FM broadcast and a VHF range that included the “new”
VHF weather frequencies. When tied to the 150 foot longwire on the
roof of the barracks building, I found that in all but the toughest,
low power stations I had logged with the other receivers, I could
find most on the Zenith. It also had something the other receivers
had lacked: a Longwave band. Without a broadcast band full of strong
local signals ( our local AFRTS outlet was 1 kilowatt with the
transmitter about six miles away and the local Ethiopian Broadcasting
Service station while 50 kilowatts, had their transmitter 35 km away
and did not operate all night) the radio did not have the overload
problems that make use of that band all but impossible here. This
allowed logging of Nondirectional Beacons from several locations
throughout Africa and the Middle East and Longwave broadcast stations
from throughout Europe and Asia, include many hours of enjoyable
listening to Radio Luxemburg. Reception of Radio Lux was not
possible on medium wave except in the small hours of the morning
because of co channel interference from a Russian station.The radio
also has rather pleasant audio and allowed casual listening to a
number of European stations with good quality, including the Top 40
programming from pirate station Radio Nordsea, which was readily
audible in Asmara on 6210 kHz in 1973. Best DX was probably the
longwave stations of the BBC local stations. When used as my initial
primary receiver when reassigned to Fort Polk, Lousiana in 1974, it
performed well for medium wave DX-ing with the internal loop antenna
and later with a 125 foot long wire between the barracks buildings.
Using the long wire on FM also allowed pretty good long distance
reception, though once again with no strong local FM signals ( the
closest 3 kw FM station was over 25 miles away) In a metro area it
does not do so well handling strong local signals. Back in areas with
strong local broadcast stations, the radio's performance on the low
frequency or long wave band is very poor with many artifacts from the
medium wave stations and seemingly poor sensitivity. I still have the
radio forty years later and it still works, though it suffers the
same problem as the old tube type Transoceanics—the bandswitch has
become very noisy and somewhat intermittent, requiring frequent
spraying and sometimes a bit of “ working” back and forth to get
it seated properly. It has been used mostly just for listening to
local AM and FM stations for the past several years. Used mid 1973 to date. Still in use.
13.National NC-190. While at Ft Polk,
my qualification for proficiency pay finally caught up with me and I
got seven months back additional pay at one time. With that money
burning a serious hole in my pocket, I made a weekend trip to Houston
to visit friends and make a foray through two radio stores that in
the seventies still carried used equipment. I was looking for a good
general coverage receiver to replace the SX-99 I had let get away in
Asmara. In Long's Electronics I found a real treasure: a near mint
condition National NC-190. This was a dual conversion receiver that
tuned from 540 kHz to 30 mHz with ferrite filters that claimed 0.5
kHz selectivity ( though probably at 6 db down and with broad skirts)
and had something rather unique. It had calibrated bandspread not
only for the amateur bands, but also for several of the regular
shortwave broadcast bands. By turning a dial between detents, the
operator could choose which bandspread one wanted to use. The
receiver also had a S-meter and with a 1650 kHz first IF, relative
freedom from image response. When used both at Ft Polk and at my
first civilian shack in Port Arthur a year later, the receiver
proved a solid performer, probably superior to the SX-99. With a
little alignment touch up with a signal generator the calibration of
both the main and bandspread dials were very close to right. While
it did not offer the 1 kHz readout of the R-388, it was certainly
close enough to provide a lot of help in identifying stations. The
selectivity was very good, easily allowing separation of 5 kHz
stations on both shortwave and standard broadcast bands. This allowed
reception of numerous Caribbean, Central, and South American
broadcast stations on “split “ frequencies. When used with a two
foot diameter loop antenna wound on a cardboard box, the receiver
easily pulled in medium wave stations from South America. It also
worked very well on the amateur bands, though not with the
selectivity of my Drake 2B. Best DX with the NC-190 would be the
Ethiopian Broadcast Service received in Port Arthur along with
numerous utility stations from Israel, Greece, Indonesia, Australia,
East Timor, Shanghai and Macao, many on a day to day, very regular
basis. The receiver did all of this in
Port Arthur while within two miles of a 1 kw broadcast station and
about four miles away from Coast Station WPA operating with 10 kw on
several HF frequencies. The receiver ended up being given to a
neighbor in Port Arthur who had developed an interest in shortwave
listening back in 1980. I do miss it from time to time, but know
that it went to a good home. Used mid 1973-1980.
14. Collins 75A1. This receiver was
given to me by a long time local ham who also owned the Motorola MSS
operation where I worked for a time in 1979. He was “cleaning out”
and needed to find a new home for it and a National HRO-7 that I will
tell about separately. The 75A1 was the predecessor to the truly
legendary 75A4. It contained pretty good crystal filters and was a
great performer on 80, 40 and 20 meters, though on higher frequencies
suffered a lower sensitivity than the newer designs. I did not use
it very long, but did find it an excellent cw receiver particularly
among strong crowded conditions on 80 and 40 meters. Using this
receiver, it became a regular thing to hear the Russian amateur
stations almost at will every night. This receiver went to a young
man in one of my ham radio classes being taught at the time who could
not afford to buy a rig, though he had great interest in operating
cw. I passed along this receiver knowing it would be several steps
above what might otherwise have been his first receiver. It was
paired with a Viking I transmitter for his first rig.
Used 1978-1980.
15. National HRO-7. This receiver was
also a pass along from Art Kay, W5APX. This receiver had two RF and
two IF stages along with crystal phasing and used plug in coil
drawers for band changing. It, like the other National receivers in
the HRO series, used the National “BN” dial that had small
windows around the periphery of a large tuning dial that changed as
the dial was rotated, giving an effective twelve feet of band spread.
By changing jumpers on the coil drawer, you could select whether the
coil would cover a wide range of frequencies ( for example 3-10 mHz)
or bandspread to spread the 40 meter band over almost the entire
range of the dial. There was no direct frequency calibration for the
dial, but a graph/chart on the front of the plug in assembly that
would allow interpolation of frequencies amazingly closely. The
receiver only came with two coil assemblies...ones for forty and
twenty meters, though the eighty meter band could be covered in the
general coverage mode of the forty meter coil. The receiver was amazingly stable and
sensitive on the bands for which I had the coils and was excellent
for AM and CW reception. In the narrowest position, CW reception was
amazing, slicing signals out of heavy interference quite nicely. The
BN dial gave great bandspreading action.The receiver came with the
matching speaker and when set in the widest bandwidth position would
give great quality sound on broadcast stations. Over a period of
time, I created my own frequency conversion charts with enough
reference points that allowed very good frequency determination. The
receiver was particularly good in pulling out weak signals in the 60
and 90 meter tropical bands and the crowded 49 meter shortwave
broadcast band. It was with this receiver than I was able to log a
great number of African stations and stations from Papua New Guinea
and Indonesia in the 60 and 90 meter bands for the first time. It
was most often used in Port Arthur on a 200 foot flat top long wire
fifty feet high that ran across two city lots. Later, during a
period of time when I found myself living in apartments with rather
limited antenna possibilities, the HRO-7 continued to be a great
asset in pulling out signals that were weak or buried in the noise. Used 1978 though 1999.
16. Hallicrafters SX-62. This is one my
all time favorite receivers, not just because it was a great DX
machine, but because it is just, plain classy. I was given this
receiver not working. It was another deal from an older ham radio
friend who was cleaning out and downsizing. The radio was deaf to
RF. It made noise that indicated at least the IF's and audio were
working, but it was not picking anything up. Troubleshooting
indicated the 7F8 mixer/converter tube was not working. This is a
very rare tube and I was having trouble finding it. I carted the
receiver around through a move out to Kerrville in West Texas ( not
an easy thing, since the radio is BIG and weighs about fifty pounds!)
but I did not want to turn it loose. Its a classic Hallicrafters
design with a huge slide rule dial. It covers 540 kHz to 108 mHz with
both AM and FM detectors. The huge dial has markings on it for
individual stations...a good bit of it covered with dots with country
names next them. It has two RF and two IF stages and a crystal
filter but the phasing control is not on the front panel, but beneath
the chassis and must be just preset during alignment. I was lucky enough that one of the
students in the ham class I taught out at Kerrville had 2 (!) 7F8's
in his junk box and both worked! The radio came alive. After a
careful alignment, it worked great with the exception of the upper
VHF band...never figured out what was going on with it. It took a
little spraying of contact cleaner on the band switch and on the
wiper contacts on the variable capacitors to get rid of the
“crackles” but the radio worked very well. On a good external
speaker, the audio is superb. With selectable bandwidths, the audio
is great for casual listening or it can tighten down for digging out
weak stuff or stations on a crowded band. For an older receiver it
is reasonably stable for copying cw and SSB though it does not have a
product detector. This quickly became my “living room” radio for
listening to BBC news broadcasts, music from Croatia when during
their wars the HF stations relayed the local FM networks and the
Voice of Greece, again for great music. There is no bandspread, but
the long dial and geared down tuning make it tuneable without it. It
is also a great performer for medium wave DX. This was the radio I
used to look at in the Wards catalog and drool over as a kid back
when Wards and Sears still sold such things in the fifties! One
really neat thing about the receiver is that when the bandswitch is
turned, dial lights switch to light up the specific row that is
selected on the huge slide rule dial. Used 1980 though 1999.
17. BC-342 ( military surplus) I came
upon this radio in a trade with another ham who needed a high voltage
transformer I had. I had just moved to Kerrville and did not have
the SX-62 fixed yet and did not have another general coverage
receiver with me. The BC-342 I have tunes from 1500 kHz to 18 mHz.
It has two RF stages and two IF stages and a crystal filter with
front panel phasing control. It also has an interesting noise
fighting feature. There is a second “ Noise Antenna” input which
I believe is fed into the input coupling circuit in such a way as to
be out of phase with the main input. You put an antenna connection
there that has a wire in the noise source area but not necessarily
out where it can receive the signals you really want. It is somewhat
effective. This idea has been put into these noise cancelling
devices that are being sold these days for a lot of money, probably
with the concept developed to a higher level. This idea was
apparently conceived back in the 1930's! There were several versions
of the BC-342 and BC-348 which were similar except for frequency
ranges and whether an internal AC power supply was included. The
receiver does not have bandspread, but the tuning rate is quite slow
and the calibration is good. The tuning across each band is pretty
linear also. The oscillator is enclosed in a shielded box, including
the section of the variable capacitor that tunes that stage. The idea
behind this was to reduce the radiation of the local oscillator to
avoid detection by the enemy! The other unusual aspect of the design
is that the volume control controls the gain of both the audio stage
and the RF stages. The AGC is defeatable, which helps in copying cw
with this receiver. It is actually quite good for short wave
listening, other than the frequency readout. But for those of us who
entered the hobby well before the digital age, this is not a problem
because there are all kinds of peripheral ways to telling where in
the band you are if you know your way around! I have also used this
receiver as a backup, for amateur use on the 160 meter and 30 meter
bands and as a WWV monitor. The selectivity is more than adequate for
dealing with the crowded 49 meter band and sensitivity is excellent
up through 18 mHz. Stability is good after a half hour warmup. It
will stay properly tuned onto WWV at 10 mHz for days and days without
touchup. With an external speaker, the audio quality is pleasant.
And while the controls have gotten a little scratchy in recent years,
it still works amazingly well for an almost 75 year old radio!
Strong signals will never overload it!! Used 1980 to date. Still in use.
18. Collins 75S-3.I obtained this
receiver from a fellow ham in Kerrville in 1980. It was an amateur
bands only receiver, but by putting crystals in the various amateur
band slots in place of the originals, it could be made to tune
virtually any 200 kHz wide frequency range between about 3 and 30
mHz. It had a tuneable preselector and a 200 Hz cw filter with very
steep skirts. The filters in the radio were not really appropriate
for AM reception, though it was possible to do so by disabling the
Beat Frequency Oscillator. AM was best received in the SSB mode.
This receiver was the absolute state of the art when it was built and
to this day is excellent for CW and SSB. It is very quiet, almost
frequency monitor stable and extremely selective. I found very few
birdies even when using odd crystals at the edges of the ranges,
usually only in the segments near its tuneable IF. I used this
receiver mostly in the amateur bands where it was a star performer in
digging out weak cw signals in very crowded pileups on DX stations or
in contests. It was also the absolute best in tuning utility stations
on SSB and CW. Even when used in an apartment with indoor antennas or
short window antennas, it would pull in great DX. There was
absolutely no overload or spurious responses and frequency readout on
the analog dial was easily accomplished down to 1 kHz. The only
negative was the limited tuning range and availability of crystals
for all of the ranges I wanted to tune. It was possible to set this
receiver up on aviation route frequencies or Coast Guard frequencies
on SSB and leave it there for weeks at a time with no noticeable
drift. This was the best receiver I ever had for such listening,
after all, this is what it was designed to do: tune and hold SSB
signals in the best possible way! On the ham bands, I often used
this receiver paired with an HT-37 transmitter or Icom 701 and Icom
720 transceivers. It would totally outperform the receivers in any
of the Icoms or in a Kenwood TS-130 or Yaesu FT-757 transceivers I
was to use while I had it. It was the only receiver I have had that
would give the Drake 2B a run for its money. Used 1981-2007.
19. Icom 701. I
hesitated at first to list this among my receivers, because in
actuality, it is an amateur band transceiver. But, since some my DX
listening does involve logging amateur stations, and such loggings
often accompany making ham contacts, I guess it fits. It did put
many stations in my “heard” logs that did not make it into my “
worked” logs anyway. It also allowed tuning the 41 meter shortwave
broadcast band and part of the 19 meter band above the 15 mHz WWV.
In fact, it did a pretty good job of pulling out some serious
broadcast DX on those bands. It also pulled a few stations out that
resided in the 75/80 meter band. It was a first generation fully
solid state radio and as such, did have some overload issues. It did
not have really narrow cw filters, but did OK. It was certainly
sensitive. When operating mobile during my traveling engineer days
it would do a great job with small antennas. I did not always work
all that I heard, but there were many JA's and VK's heard on 40
meters with the Hustler whip on the back of my Chevy S-10 pickup.
There was even one morning early when it pulled in an Indonesian (
YB) station on 40 on the mobile whip. Pulling out Russians on 20
meter SSB on the mobile antenna was also a common event. On 80 and
160 meters, the front end shortcomings became more noticeable, with
noise and intermod showing up. While using it as a ham rig, I would
often use a second, separate receiver with it. It held up amazingly
well. I believe it was built in the early seventies. I know a
fellow ham had one in Port Arthur in 1975. I used it as a working
rig until it started failing in 2012. That's at least 37 years that
particular radio worked well. About ten years much of that time was
running mobile in a pickup truck. I think I got my money's worth out
of it. Best DX on it would include Pitcairn Island on several bands,
Hong Kong, China, Willis Island, Chatham Island, Christmas Island,
and hearing Israel on 80 meters. Oh and lest I forget, several
Hawaiians and the Galapagos on 160 meters. Used 1981-2012.
20. Icom 720. After putting the '701
on this list, I simply could not leave off the Icom 720 that joined
its older brother in the mid 90's. It not only had the WARC amateur
bands on it, but also included a general coverage receiver. I picked
it up for only $250 at a hamfest and think I got a great deal for the
use I got out of it. With the 500 Hz cw filter it had, it did really
well on the amateur bands, though it had the same shortcomings on 160
meters as did the '701. It was plenty sensitive and I heard plenty of
DX even on that band ( including some Europeans and Japanese on 160
meter cw) but it was susceptible to noise and overload, and I often
found myself using another receiver ( usually the BC-342 or a
Hammurland HQ-170, but I get ahead of myself). It was pretty good
for utility DX, and while not as good as the 75S-3, was much more
convenient to use because there was no need to open the case and
change crystals to change bands. When used with some tall verticals
and an 80 meter Windom a bit over 40 feet high it did a great job on
the higher utility bands, snagging some great CW signals in the 18
and 22 mHz bands. It was also handy for utility SSB work with really
good filters. Some of the better things logged included Coast Guard
stations in Alaska working vessels up there in the 6 and 4 mHz bands.
There were many evenings when I was working on repairing a piece of
gear or working on a building project that I would just leave it on,
tuned to one of the USCG frequencies and listen to the search and
rescue work. While the receiver did cover all
frequencies from 500 kHz to 30 mHz, it was not so good for broadcast
stations. Even listening in the SSB mode zero beat with the AM
carriers, the audio quality was not so good and the bandwidth a
little too narrow. That was a bit of a disappointment because that
was one of the reasons I wanted the rig in the first place. I had
wanted a good general coverage receiver with direct frequency readout
ever since using the R-390's and the R-388 in Asmara. The '720 would
pull out weak stations and they could be identified, but it was not
really pleasant listening. The audio quality even on an external
speaker or headphones was not nearly as good as the older '701. I am not sure what year the '720 was
made, but it did not survive much past the demise of the '701. It
also faded away in a cloud of instability, low transmitter output,
and general noisy controls and bandswitch malaise in 2012. It was
probably at least 30 years old, maybe more. The thing about the
“newer” generation of gear is that it is just not as repairable
as the older tube boat anchors. There reaches a time when its just
time to let them go. I did pull the IF filters out to save for
possible future projects. Used 1996-2013
21. Radio Shack/Sangean DX-440. This
receiver appears a bit out of order simply because for some reason I
wanted to put the Icoms together. I bought this little radio new
during a period of time when I was living in apartments and could not
have big antennas or transmit at all except mobile. I actually
bought it on impulse. I had been using the SX-62, my BC-342 and Icom
701 to listen in my apartment in San Marcos with indoor wire antennas
and one short wire dropping from a second story window down to a
fence enclosing my ( ha!) back yard : a ten foot by ten foot area of
concrete pad and grass. I saw it in the store when I went to buy more
wire to try to extend my antenna. At first I was not impressed, but I
tuned around a bit and even with the whip pulled in WWV on several
frequencies inside the noisy store. I noticed it had a “bandwidth”
switch marked “wide” and “narrow” and remember thinking, “
this can't be much”. But when I tried it on the local broadcast
station where I worked that was only a mile from the store ( I was
really giving the radio a break!) I noticed that in the “narrow”
position it cut quite a bit of the high frequencies off the audio.
Hmmm. That would mean at least 5kHz selectivity since I knew our
station had pretty good high frequency capability. On a whim, I
bought the little radio on the spot, digging deep into my social life
money ( most of it was spent at a place called The Green Parrott on
the square in San Marcos on nachos and cold beers anyway so spending
it on the radio was probably an improvement). I was not to be disappointed in my
investment. The little radio proved a great performer, not just for
the money but overall. It was very sensitive and did well on the
short apartment antennas and did not overload when I did get a decent
longer and higher wire up. The performance on the long wave band was
much better than the Transoceanic had been. In fact, it lit the fire
under my desire to start logging non directional beacons. Even with
the internal loop it did well, with at least one station logged on
every possible NDB frequency within six months. The directionality of
the internal loop allowed as many as three to be picked out on some
frequencies. It also did pretty well on the broadcast band. On the shortwave bands, it did have
some spurious response issues on the wire antennas, but the use of
an MFJ antenna tuner used at times for tuning the mobile antenna for
ham use seemed to take care of that. I am not sure if it was the
increased selectivity or the impedance matching or just the isolation
of any detuning effects of the external antenna, but it took care of
almost all the problems on the HF bands. Later when my dad and I built a large
tuned loop antenna for use on the broadcast band and low frequencies,
the radio really came alive. The three foot diameter loop had a
really high Q and had very deep nulls, but the sensitivity of the
DX-440 was good enough even with the smaller aperture of the loop
compared to the longer wires did well in pulling in good DX,
especially after a little MFJ tuneable preamp was added to the mix.
Best NDB DX on the '440 on long wave included ZBB from Bimini in the
Bahamas, several Cubans, Venezuela and a few Canadians. The best
overall DX was Algeria on long wave broadcast using the 50 foot high
windom and a home made tuned antenna coupler later in Waco. Oddly, I
was never able to hear the French or Luxembourg high power long wave
stations. The little radio also did very well
logging cw signals in the maritime bands. All of the “regulars”
were easy, and there were many loggings of Shanghai, Macao,
Indonesia, Israel and others. Among the broadcast stations, the best
DX included VL8A, VL8T, and VL8K from Australia in the 120 meter
band, logged on several occasions, along with a huge list of
Chinese, Indonesian and Papua New Guinea tropical band stations. It
survived twenty years of daily hard use not only as a DX machine but
as an alarm clock and met its end when the “ lock” switch on the
front got broken in a fall from a night stand. Of course it failed in
the “locked” position and since the radio was off, it cannot be
turned on. I've kept it in hopes that perhaps I will run into
someone with younger, steadier hands that might be able to fix it. Used 1988-2009.
22. Potomac FIM-21. This is another
non-receiver used as a receiver. The FIM-21 is actually a piece of
test equipment. It is a portable, calibrated Field Intensity Meter
used to measure signal strength for setting up and maintaining AM
directional broadcast stations. It is very sensitive, selective and
has a highly directional loop antenna. This made it a very desirable
AM DX receiver as well. It was designed to detect and measure signals
down to a fraction of a millivolt in strength, and with its extremely
directional loop having particularly deep nulls, its great for
eliminating even local strength signals to allow distant signals from
another direction to be heard. Its other attribute is being able to
do this within very high RF fields. This device actually belonged to
the radio stations I maintained and built and was used primarily for
DX-ing while on transmitter watch inside a transmitter building.
There were many times I found myself on such duty with the job of
watching meters to make sure the transmitter and directional system
was operating withing tolerance and logging meter readings. There
were times in Laredo, Texas where the FIM-21 allowed me to log some
really good DX while in the same room with an operating 10 kw
transmitter! Used 1988-1991.
23. Yaesu FT-757-GX. This is another
amateur transceiver that also features a general coverage receiver.
It tunes from 500 kHz to 30 mHz with fairly sharp SSB filters and a
300 Hz cw filter. It offers AM detection, but the audio quality is
not really that great. Like with the Icoms, listening for DX on the
broadcast bands is often best done in the SSB mode by zero beating
the carrier of the stations listened to. The 2.8 kHz SSB filters
allow easy split frequency reception in the Medium Wave bands though
its noise limiter is not the greatest. Sensitivity seems to drop
below about 1000 kHz for some reason. Perhaps the RF amplifier stage
does not work below that point. While used primarily on the amateur
bands, this has been a really good backup receiver for shortwave and
medium wave DX-ing and an excellent receiver for utility DX work.
The one interesting feature is the squelch control which also
operates in the SSB mode. I have often set the receiver up on one of
the aircraft enroute frequencies on HF and set the squelch up to
block the general background noise, thus not being disturbed while
doing something else unless an aircraft or ground station was
actually transmitting. Admittedly this does not work nearly as well
as on a VHF scanner because signal strengths vary so wildly and noise
bursts can tend to open the receiver at time, but at times it would
allow monitoring one of the aircraft frequencies while using another
receiver to tune other bands. Used 1998 to date. Still in use.
24. Hallicrafters SX-96. This is a
dual conversion receiver that tunes from 540 khZ through 30 mHz. I
have had this receiver almost twenty years and actually have used it
very little. I obtained it in a trade for some equipment an elderly
other ham wanted for parts and used it mostly in an apartment as a
casual listening receiver. It is really quite good. Its very similar
to the SX-100 in that it is dual conversion and has selectable
sideband reception along with a crystal filter. I have used it for
general listening on indoor antennas and found it very selective and
more stable than the SX-99 I had owned years before. I had planned
to take it out of semi retirement and use it for more serious DX-ing
when I obtained an Icom R-75 and it still sits on the shelf. It is
very stable on SSB and CW signals and has excellent audio quality
when used on an external speaker. It also has the classic
Hallicrafters look to it that is pleasant with a large S-meter
between the two half moon dials. Used 1992 to date. Still in use.
25. Mackay 3001. This is a shipboard
receiver that is actually a highly developed regenerative design with
an RF stage that tunes from about 15 kHz to 600 kHz It was designed
and used aboard ship for long wave reception. I found it at a hamfest
in Dallas in the outdoor flea market. Someone had fully restored it
and it was in excellent condition, but the person selling it was
probably not the person who did the work because he let it go for
$40.00!! I am guessing he probably got it as part of an estate sale
deal and since it was not for use on the amateur bands did not see
its real value. This radio even had on it the identification plate
for the ship that it served on with the ships call letters ( KCNX )
still on it! It was also obvious what its actual duty had been aboard
ship because the dial face had a “shadow “ burned into it all
across the dial except in one spot: right across 500 kHz. You can
actually see the shape of the dial pointer across that frequency. In
those days, shipboard operators were required to maintain a watch on
500 kHz which was the international distress frequency. There was to
be a silent period once an hour to allow weak signals to be heard
there. The little radio has a history! It also is a great performer on these
bands. It appears to have double tuned RF stages and the renerative
detector. At least it has a four gang variable capacitor. I have used
this receiver for a great deal of DX-ing of non-directional beacons
and it has been excellent for that. Also in the days before the end
of the use of cw by ships, it was used to log much cw activity in the
long wave band between 400 and 500 kHz. It was probably the final
state of the art design for regenerative receivers and is useful
today for such things. It has also allowed reception of some pretty
good DX on the small slice of the standard broadcast band that it
covers! Used 1994 to date. Still in use
