Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Rob Gray, who writes:
Hello Thomas.
If interested, the link below is to an extremely rare SW receiver:
Click here to view this listing on eBay.
[note: this is an eBay partnership link]
The latest Radio Receivers Past/Present book shows this model as a Japanese manufactured, commercial-maritime receiver. The Rarity is “Typically Unavailable”, and lists prices at $5,700 New, $800-1600 Used.
73,
Rob
Wow, Rob. I’ve never seen this receiver before. Perhaps one of our commercial receiver experts (*cough* Dan Robinson *cough*) might be able to shed some light on this model!
Is this book “Radio Receivers Past/Present” available somewhere?
That’s a great video Dan, thanks for sharing!
I noticed the radio for sale is located in Bangladesh. I suspect that Bangladesh has a large-ship demolition industry like India (National Geographic once did a piece ‘Where Ships Go To Die’). It’s difficult and dangerous work (forget about personal protection equipment), and I wonder if someone pulled this radio out of a ship tear-down. If true, that would make a somewhat interesting story to go with the rig!
Rob
Ship teardowns are now probably the biggest source of classic receivers. But the sellers in Bangladesh and other locations often don’t pack well. A few years ago I obtained two Furuno receivers that were terribly packed, with moisture inside the boxes. Luckily I was able to return the items. Unfortunately, the block that the Buyee site placed on U.S. and other country buyers has reduced the ability we had to obtain classic receivers like this.
I had one (sold a few years ago). It was inferior to my other receivers (Plessey, Racal), so I sold it. I received £850 for it at the time, and the new owner is delighted with its performance. I found that it had a significantly higher noise floor than my other receivers, and didn’t handle large signals well. It also had some issues with image reception. That said, it was a beautifully built receiver (as nicely constructed as my Anritsu Spectrum Analyser), and its performance on most bands was reasonably good.
Indeed, these are now harder to obtain since the Japanese government started making it more difficult to purchase these and other receivers via the Japan Yahoo site. I demonstrated mine in this video a few years back…https://youtu.be/DH85Tn_1VaE?si=hCPERg2cp5VamNOG