Reflections on tube communications receivers

(CIDX Articles from the Archives #2)

by Jos Matthews

Remember the steam locomotives? These mechanical monsters were seen and heard everywhere you had tracks. The sight of one brings instant memories. Hobbies are around to bring back those days with model trains. Small fortunes are spent re-creating miniature 3-D scenes from the past.

What's all this got to do with old receivers? A lot. You can't park a locomotive in the driveway, but even the largest communications receiver from the 1950s can fit on a (sturdy) table. So in our hobby, we can have a piece of technical history right under our nose. Once restored, the performance would surprise the latter day listeners who swear only by the microprocessor induced gizmology.

Radio was a big thing in the thirties, similar to computers today. Thousands of young men got started by listening to distant stations between the regulars on the BC or AM band, or medium wave in DX lingo. This was done on a the family radio, or even on a home built one since radio construction was the rage then. As time went on, these radio types discovered that performance machines were out there -- at a cost. Brand names like Hallicrafters, National and Hammarlund could bring distant lands right into the shack. Distance had a meaning, continents were on another planet in those days. Only the well off could afford to travel. Ham radio could bridge those distances via shortwave and specialized communications receivers were the electronic ears.

Post-war receivers were more or less carbon copies of equipment produced in the thirties. Only in the 1950s did the designers incorporate new technology in their equipment. That period saw the best tube receivers put out by the Americans. The 60s spelled the end of those massive receivers produced by Hallicrafters and National, such as the SX-101 and NC-300, both ham band receivers. They were quite expensive and advertised as a status symbol.

For a young adult in the early sixties, surplus was the cheap way into radio. You needed technical savvy to get these things to work outside a bomber. That's how I got acquainted with the R-1155 and a string of various military radios. Now, 35 years later, its nice to look back and see what happened to all that equipment. I assume most of it got scrapped and the rest went to flea markets. Almost anyone can recognize an old domestic radio for what it is. We can safely bet that not one person in a thousand can identify an old communications receiver for what it is.

For reasons I can't figure out, tube hi-fi has acquired a cult status, not to be questioned. Their members pay incredible amounts for tube amplifiers whose design was set aside decades ago. That situation has not happened to communications receivers. Those left are in the hands of a few dedicated collectors and restorers. Restoring these radios is a much more complex undertaking than fixing up a 5-tube table radio. For example, lab type generators are required along with monastic patience to realign these antiques for top performance.

Not all the old receivers lie dormant in private collections and museums. Some are actively used by medium-wave DXers as their performance is second to none. To get the equivalent today, you would have to fork out anything between $2000 and $3000.The Hammarlund HQ-180 is a case in point, this top of the line radio, once well restored is well prized as a DX machine. The same would apply to flagship receivers produced by National, Collins or Hallicrafters.

A very nice book just appeared on the market: Shortwave Receivers, Past and Present by Fred Osterman, covering communications receivers from 1945 to 1996.

Editor's note: This article was first published in the CIDX Messenger in 1997. Reproduced with the kind permission of the author.

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