Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor (and rare radio aficionado), Dan Robinson, who shares a link to this eBay listing.
Dan notes:
“The SS-1R is almost as rare as the SS-IBS which was the SWBC version of the receiver.”
Thanks for sharing this, Dan. Seems the seller is also accepting offers (asking price is $999.99 US). Any serious buyers should read the seller notes. The unit looks incredibly clean cosmetically, but would likely need a good electrical going-over and possible alignment.
Even if, like me, it’s not in your budget to purchase a rare radio, I think we can all appreciate the photos:
Thanks again for sharing, Dan!
But at those prices, it’s a collector’s item. When it came out about 1963, it was cutting edge. Squires wrote a couple of articles about it for QST. It helped make the 7360 The mixer tube for good receivers, for not quite a decade. But I think people misunderstood. It was a daring receiver connecting the antenna into the mixer. It had an RF Q-multiplier to reduce images, but since the IF was 1 or 2MHz, images were less than the average receiver with a 455KHz IF.
But it’s limited. Ham bands only, and no WARC bands. The SW version, if they existed, I think covered a handful of 500MHz segments. I don’t know if anything else was different between the two, or if you could recrystal one as the other.
There are better receivers,and a decade good solid state receivers started coming along.