Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes:
This is only the second Squires-Sanders rig that has appeared on the used market in decades, though it’s the amateur receiver.
The SS-IBS, the receiver pictured in a 1970s Communications Handbook in the shack of Richard Wood, the well-known SWL and linguist, is even rarer:
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Luke Perry, who writes:
Hi Thomas, I thought I would share with the people on the SWLing Post my new radio purchase.
I needed a receiver with a noise blanker as you might (or might not) recall my issue that I was having with electrical noise at my listening location. So I saw this on the local Craigslist for $50 and called right away and I was lucky to be the first one to respond.
The seller was the original owner and he had bought it back in the 80’s after coming back from Saudi Arabia so he could listen to the BBC. It was fully working but when I got home I noticed that tuning dial was not working and this set does not have direct frequency input for some reason.
I went online and scoured the internet for a possible fix and found a old posting that said to adjust the pots on the encoder board behind the main tuning knob. I found a service manual online and located the position of the board and thankfully that was the fix. But for some reason the position that they both were in was not the correct position so I don’t know if someone had been in there before but I doubt it.
Anyway, I am very happy with the purchase and the noise blanker seems to really work as I could not listen to any frequencies above 5 MHz on my old radio due to RFI. Also, the R-2000 seems to be very sensitive just from the small wire antenna that I have been using so I plan to get a better antenna and I am hoping to get some good DX catches.
Anyway, I thought I would share the news of my new purchase and hopefully the fix for the tuning knob might be of some use to others down the road.
I’m so glad you found the fix for the encoder function, Luke. Thank you for sharing because, no doubt, others will be searching for this solution. Sounds like it was a simple enough fix and certainly did the trick. If you ever need to re-cap the R-2000, you can find kits like this one to make the process easier. If you don’t want to do the work yourself, my friend Vlado recaps radios for a very reasonable price.
I’m sure you know you really snagged a deal grabbing that R-2000 for $50! Wow!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Chris Peters, who shares the above photo for Boat Anchor Tuesday and writes:
I was lucky enough to recently pick up both these familiar faces for $150.
Hallicrafters S-40B and SX-100
Both are in decent shape but are due for a recap and alignment.
Wow–both of these are classic sets, Chris! After a recap and alignment, I think you’ll especially be impressed with the performance that SX-100 delivers! Thank you for sharing!
Post readers: If you’d like to share a photo of your boat anchor on Boat Anchor Tuesday, simply send me an email with the photo and a short description. I’ll put it in the pipeline to publish!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Price Kagey, who shares the following photo for Boat Anchor Tuesday and writes:
“My wonderful HRO-50T. I have replaced all tubes and now need to start on capacitors and resistors.”
What a beautiful radio, Price! Once you’ve re-capped and replaced the resistors in this girl, you’ll have a phenomenal receiver. I’m a sucker for those HRO dials! Thank you for sharing!
Post readers: If you’d like to share a photo of your boat anchor on Boat Anchor Tuesday, simply send me an email with the photo and a short description. I’ll put it in the pipeline to publish!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kris Partridge, who shares the following comment regarding John Harper’s recent post:
The receiver which featured in Same Sky is of Italian manufacture, it’s from Geloso but I’m not able to identify which model.
Here is a link to a very interest and comprehensive page, by Tony I0JX, about John Geloso the founder of the company. Scroll down, but read enroute, and there are pictures of the receivers and transmitters bearing the Geloso name.
http://www.qsl.net/i0jx/geloso.html
Yes, you will agree it’s a Geloso in the film.
It must be fifty plus years since I was allowed to touch one. As a teenager one of the ‘Elmers’ at the local amateur radio club in Torbay had a complete Geloso station.
What a beautiful receiver! Thanks for the follow-up, and links to this company’s history Kris!
This project was a winner in the Maker Share Mission May contest. While not strictly shortwave, of course, many of SWLing Blog readers enjoy, as I do, all things radio, and especially creative and new expressions of radio. Here is a brief excerpt from the MakerShare posting:
Vintage radios are fascinating. At one point the radio was the main method for mass communication of news and entertainment and was manufactured in a variety of styles to be prominently displayed in a home. Unfortunately, many vintage radios that have been physically preserved no longer function and it is impractical for them to be repaired. Described is the design and implementation of the Raspberry Pi Radio (RPiRadio), a device that bypasses the analog electronics of a vintage radio and digitally recreates the behavior of a vintage radio that is able to be tuned to vintage radio programming.
The whole posting may be found here, with extensive details on the building of the radio and how it was programmed for sound replicating the vintage radio era.
While I love tinkering with old radios and trying to bring them back to life, some radios are just beyond reasonable repair. This can bring old radios back to life in a way which seeks to honor their past – a very cool idea indeed!
Robert Gulley, AK3Q, is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Robert also blogs at All Things Radio.
Many thanks to a number of SWLing Post contributors who’ve shared a link to this excellent article by Denny Sanders in Radio World Magazine about the history of the Zenith Transoceanic:
Zenith Trans-Oceanic Radio in War and Peace
This iconic portable receiver was known for durability and quality
They say necessity is the mother of invention. Nothing proves this more than the story of how the iconic Zenith Trans-Oceanic portable radio receiver came into existence.
Commander Eugene McDonald (1886–1958), the founder of Zenith Radio, was a stickler for quality and insisted that any Zenith product represented cutting edge technology and design integrity.
He was also an accomplished yachtsman. During his many ocean voyages, he constantly was frustrated with the inability of any portable commercial radio set to perform reliably at sea. In about 1939, he ordered the Zenith R&D department to come up with a rock-solid, portable AM receiver sensitive enough to pull in signals from great distances. He insisted that the radio be a multi-band unit including shortwave, marine and aircraft bands.
The Zenith crew came up with a gem: the Trans-Oceanic, a gorgeous piece of engineering housed in a robust and dramatic cabinet designed by the brilliant Zenith industrial designer Robert Davol Budlong.[…]
Continue reading the full article at Radio World Magazine online.
