Tag Archives: Ben-Gal

Video: Russian numbers station on the 19 meter band

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Moshe, for sharing the following video:

I uploaded this video I made in a rush, holding our baby in one hand and my smartphone in the other one…

The receiver is my Ben-Gal Verdi.

I caught the station by accident, while tuning to VOA 15580kHz to listen to Boarder Crossings.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Fantastic catch, Moshe! Thank you for sharing. I can’t tell you how many times in the past I played radio while also holding a baby in my arms. Always a challenge!

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Moshe restores a Ben-Gal “Duet-Stereo”

Ben-Gal-Duet-Stereo-Full

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Moshe, who writes:

About 2 weeks ago, a very good friend called me and exclaimed, “you just have to see this radio…I’m keeping it for you!”–so, I drove to his aunt’s house and saw this beauty.

After hauling the radio to my place, I started to check it out, to see what would be needed for restoration; it was working, with bad contacts, poor frequency response and low output.

I took hi-res pictures of this radio, some during restoration. Now the radio sounds great. It has been recapped, a couple of bad resistors and bad wires replaced, contacts have been cleaned, and some good cleaning for the chassis as well.

Ben-Gal-Duet-Stereo-Board3

Ben-Gal-Duet-Stereo-Rear2

Ben-Gal-Duet-Stereo-Front-Detached

As I wanted to keep the original appearance of the chassis, I kept the original filter capacitors on board, but disconnected them from the circuit, added terminal strips and new capacitors from underneath.

Ben-Gal-Duet-Stereo-Board2 Ben-Gal-Duet-Stereo-Board1

The radio uses an EF85 tube as the RF stage. With the addition of a grounding connection and random wire antenna, it’s very sensitive on shortwave.

Ben-Gal-Duet-Stereo-FrontPanel

About the Ben-Gal Duet-Stereo:

It was made in Israel by Ben-Gal, a label inside shows it was made at 12th of December, 1965.

It is a console model with record player. As the model name suggests, the amplifier and record player are stereo (though the tuner is not…).

The radio has longwave (marked in meters), mediumwave (marked in meters) and 3 shortwave bands (with megacycle and meter band marks).

The shortwave bands overlaps with each other, so cover is continuous:

  • SW3 2.3MHz to 6MHz,
  • SW2 5.5MHz to 15.5MHz,
  • and SW1 14.5MHz to 23MHz.

Ben-Gal-Duet-Stereo-Open

Many thanks, Moshe, for sharing photos and this description of this beautiful Ben-Gal Duet-Stereo. I bet the audio fidelity is amazing. My father has a 1960’s console–with a similar configuration–made by Admiral, though it was limited to mediumwave and FM reception. Some day, I will try to restore it to its former glory!

Thanks for the inspiration, Moshe!

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Moshe’s listening post at the office

SWLing Post contributor, Moshe, writes:

In the attached photos my Sangean receives Elliniki Radiophonia at 9420kHz at my working post. Note the amount of computers, screens and the fact that the radio sits on top of an HP printer.

Moshe_Office

Still audio is clear and clear reception with only telescopic antenna.

Sangean

The other radio is my beloved Ben-Gal 1958 tube radio (Israeli made). It looks very much like German radios of the time.

[The Ben-Gal] is in daily use. Anyone seeing this radio loves it, especially when I turn it on!”

Ben-Gal-Front

Ben-Gal-Back

Many thanks for sharing these photos, Moshe! Your reception of Elliniki Radiophonia must be exceptional in Israel to overcome all of that office RFI.

The Ben-Gal must produce some rich audio; I bet it’s a champ on medium wave with that large internal ferrite bar! Beautiful set! Thanks again for sharing!

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