Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares a rare Eddystone 40A find on eBay. Dan notes:
What is interesting also about this is the similarity to the Drake SW8 — notably the
carrying handle.
40A s are rarely seen on the used market, and in line with other older Eddystone
equipment, they are built like a tank.
I agree, Dan! This receiver is built like a tank! It would be a seriously fun (though relatively heavy) field radio–I love how even the chassis corners are rounded and the entire radio can be protected for transport. Obviously, these were designed with durability and stability in mind. Great find and thanks for sharing!
I have one in great condition for sale!
Reminds me of a frequency selective levelmeter, a.k.a. frequency selective voltmeter, which can also be found on Ebay. They can be re-purposed as receivers but usually don’t cover the entire HF band and lack certain features found with hobbyist-type receivers. They perform well as LW, AM BCB and SW receivers.
What I find strange is that it has a highly nonlinear analog scale. The range shown on the photograph is 7-12MHz. Look at the difference between the leftmost part (7-7.5MHz) and the rightmost part (11-12MHz).
I could understand this if it was a receiver optimized for the ham bands. You can accurately tune in the 40m ham band and you do have coverage of the 31m and 25m broadcast bands, but with much less dial accuracy. But it is not a ham receiver, so I don’t understand why they made the dial scale so nonlinear.
I used to own one. Be aware that it is a Noise Measuring Set (what we would call an EMC Receiver nowadays) rather than a normal communications receiver. For example it does not have AGC.
Having said that it is extremely sensitive and could make a very good LW and MW receiver where fading is not as much of a problem as on HF.
I’m sorry I got rid of mine.