Tag Archives: Radio Shack DX-440

I picked the wrong time to “thin the herd”

I had a nice phone chat with SWLing Post contributor and good friend Robert Gulley this week and discovered that, like me, he’s in the process of selling a few radios in his collection.

Robert is thinning his radio herd in order to help fund another hobby: photography. I’m minimizing my collection, on the other hand, to make room in my radio shack for a dedicated soldering station/work bench.

Other than units to evaluate and review for the Post, I’ve vowed not to acquire any more radios for the rest of this year. I’m trying to go “cold turkey” until January 1, 2019.

Turns out good ole Robert, of all people, is putting my prohibition to the test. I just found out he’s selling two radios I’ve kept in my search list.

One is the GE Super Radio II:

Robert is selling an excellent specimen. The Super Radio II is a choice model for AM DXers which is why I’ve kept an eye out for one. I’ve found a number of Super Radio I and III models locally, but not a II.

Another classic he’s selling is the RadioShack DX-440 (a.k.a. Sangean 803A):

If you’re a long-time reader of the Post you might recall that the ‘440 was my first digital portable. It was my travel companion when I lived in France during university, so I have a lot of nostalgia for this particular set. Of course, it had room-filling audio and great sensitivity and would operate for ages on batteries.

I’m going to try to look the other way, though. I hate to fall off the wagon so close to the end of the year!

Thanks a lot, Robert!!! (Ha ha!)

[If interested, here are links to Robert’s DX-440 and Super Radio II on eBay.]

Post readers: Do you have any particular radio models on your search list? Please comment!

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Ed gives this Realistic DX-440 a bath!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Edward Ganshirt, who shares the following:
I found this critter [a Realistic DX-440–see photo above] at a flea market. At first I pondered as to when I had my last tetanus shot before handling it, then again it had something that I see rarely in these portable radios … a BFO..!

I always said that a shortwave radio without a BFO is like a Harley-Davidson with a top speed of 25 mph, so I bought it. On the way home I could smell a barnyard aroma. I ruled out chicken and hog but I think it could have been sheep or goat. So I decided to see how well it works. It took a little bumping around with loose connections to get it working. But first since it was going to be taken apart to service the case and knobs would get a nice hot bath in a sudsy ammonia citrus cleaner with a bristle brush. Also the PCB’s would get brushed down with a mixture of denatured alcohol and acetone.

Now for the hard part: finding the rickety connections. This turned out to be simple, just inspect each wire at attachment point. I found 3 broken wires that were re soldered. Now it is together I am looking for a 9 inch antenna. The one here is not original it extends 66 inches.

As to it’s performance, This Hogg can go up to 75mph now that I have the plug wires on. The user interface speaks to me as a lab instrument more than a daily listener which I think will become its role.

Absolutely amazing transformation, Ed!

I’m especially pleased to see you’ve given this level of TLC to a Realistic DX-440. I regret having ever sold mine as it accompanied me across the ocean when I studied in Grenoble, France, for a year just after high school.

The DX-440 and I did a lot of travel and a lot DXing together! I hope your DX-440 takes you across the globe, Ed!

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Eric remembers SWLing while deployed in Abu Dhabi

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In an email last week, my good friend Eric McFadden (WD8RIF), mentioned the shortwave radio set-up he used while deployed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates back in the early 1990’s. I asked Eric for permission to post his email notes–not only did he agree, but he also found photos he took at the time.

Eric notes:

[F]or the Desert Shield/Storm, aka the First Gulf War, I took my Sangean ATS-803A with a doublet fashioned from two Radio Shack audio cables. The doublet was an audio cable with an RCA on one end and lugs on the other; I split the conductors all the way down to the RCA connector and it was almost the right length for a proper 31m dipole.

The feedline was an audio extension (+/- 25′) with a male RCA on one end and a female on the other end. The ‘803A had a proper RCA antenna connector instead of a silly phone connector. I hung the doublet between the peaks of two of our 10-man tents, the front of our tent and the back of our neighbors’. When the UAE winds ultimately broke the doublet at the RCA connector, I stripped the ends and made a random-length end-fed wire out of it.

Our tents had AC-power (and A/C cooling and heat-pump heat) and I’m pretty sure I powered the ‘803A from the “mains” instead of stuffing D-cells into the radio. D-cells were available in the little BX on the base, of course.

The three photos [above] are of my installation in our tent-city at Al Dhafra Airbase near Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. I did deploy my 31m dipole here. These photos were from before the dipole broke and was replaced by an end-fed wire build from the pieces of the broken dipole.

[This photo] was from inside our “hooch” on the Lockheed Compound near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Click to enlarge)

That ATS-803A was a great receiver. It’s only real flaw was its size and weight. The size, of course, allowed for a really fine speaker. I traded the ‘803A in at UAR when I bought the ‘7600G and the little active [AN-LP1 loop] antenna when we thought we were to be deployed to Kosovo[.]

Here’s text from my journal I wrote shortly after returning stateside:

“I found many interesting and exotic stations on my shortwave radio, a Sangean ATS-803A and a simple dipole antenna, but as the war progressed,
I settled on the BBC for their award-winning news coverage.”

Many thanks, Eric! I’m happy to hear such a good report of the Sangean ATS-803A–there are still many 803A’s on the used market (click here to search eBay).

Indeed, I just realized that while you were deployed in the UAE, I used the Radio Shack branded version of the ATS-803A: the Radio Shack DX-440 while studying French and living in Grenoble, France. The DX-440 delivered my daily dose of the Voice of America (the only English language news I allowed myself to listen to at the time). Since the VOA broadcast often coincided with meal time at the Université Stendhal cafeteria, I left my voice-activated Micro Cassette recorder in front of the DX-440 which was, in turn, set to turn on one minute prior to the VOA broadcast. It was an amazingly reliable arrangement. (Hard to believe that was over 20 years ago!)

Come to think of it, I’ll have to dig up those micro cassettes and see if I still happen to have one with a recorded broadcast.

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