Tag Archives: Vintage Radio

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ron, who shares a link to Jack Berg Sales–a company specializing in New In Box (NIB) vintage electronics.

Ron points to one radio example in the Berg inventory, the Americana 10 Transistor AM Portable Pocket Radio:

The price is a very reasonable at $35.00 US plus $8.00 shipping and handling. Click here to view.

Jack Berg has dozens of other radios and electronics, though. It’s like walking through a vintage vault.

As Ron points out, Berg would probably make much more profit posting these vintage gems on eBay, but fortunately for us they do not.

It doesn’t appear Jack Berg does online ordering, which could make purchasing from outside the US quite complicated. In fact, they request a money order or cashier’s check sent to their office in El Paso, Texas.

(Side note: I honestly can’t think of the last time I purchased something from a company by sending in a money order or cashiers check.)

I suppose it would make sense to contact Jack Berg via email or phone (915-532-4519) to make sure your order can be fulfilled.

Additionally, there is no warranty of any sort.

These are NIB units and are untested. There’s a decent chance some radios may not function without replacing a capacitor or two and using a little DeOxit on switches and pots. For me, it’s worth the risk.

Click here to browse Jack Berg Sales full radio inventory.

Post readers: please comment if you’ve ever purchased from Jack Berg. How was your experience? See any particularly amazing models in the inventory? I bet many of the AM radios have decent ferrite bars inside!

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A photo tour of the 2017 Shelby Hamfest

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My Labor Day weekend was free of travel again this year, so I was able to make another pilgrimage to the Shelby (North Carolina) hamfest with my good buddy, Vlado (N3CZ).

The Shelby Hamfest–referred to, locally, as “The Grand-Daddy of them All”–has long been regarded as one of the largest hamfests in the southeast US. This is the third year I’ve made a concerted effort to publish a photo tour of the event.

I sold both my Hammarlund SP-600 and Hallicrafters SX-99.

Like last year, we set up a table in the flea market to sell a few items along with other good friends from the NCDXCC. In other words, once again, I was in selling mode, not buying mode, as I need to downsize some of my collection and use the money to offset costs of review radios, and some of the conferences I’m attending this year (including the Radio Preservation Task Force Meeting in Washington DC on behalf of our Shortwave Radio Audio Archive).

Overall turnout was a little less than last year, I believe. No doubt, this was due to the possibility of rain that never materialized. By lunch time the sun was out and the foot traffic increased.

Shelby Photo Gallery

Click on the thumbnails below to enlarge or comment on the photos:

Note that if you’re viewing this post via our email newsletter, the embedded gallery (above) might not be viewable. Click here to view via web browser.

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Mike spots the RCA AR-88 in series “Prime Suspect: Tennison”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike Hansgen (K8RAT), who adds the following to our growing archive of radios in film. Mike writes:

Near the end of the current episode of “Prime Suspect: Tennison” [the radio operator mentions] he was listening on “the RCA 88”.

“Tennison” is set around the early ’70’s.

Great catch, Mike (and thanks to Eric WD8RIF for the screen cap).

According to the Crypto Museum:

The AR-88 was a valve-based shortwave general coverage communications receiver, developed and built by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in the early 1940s. Although the receiver was initially intended as the successor to the AR-77 amateur receiver, the outbreak of WWII made it evolve into a professional high-end military-grade receiver for which cost was no object.

The AR-88 is a 14-valve (tube) receiver, which covers a frequency range of 535 kHz to 32 MHz. Unlike the National HRO receiver, which had pluggable coil packs for each frequency band, the AR-88 uses a six-position band selector. A special version of the receiver, the AR-88LF, was suitable for LF and MF, covering 70 to 550 kHz (continuously) and 1.5 to 30 MHz (continuously).

Continue reading at the Crypto Museum online…

The Crypto Museum photo of the AR-88 jogged my memory…

Last year, I visited the Musée de la Défense Aérienne at the Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Bagotville (a museum I wholeheartedly recommend, by the way).

I snapped this shot of this display:

I’m sure I actually have a close up of this receiver somewhere. It also appears to be an RCA AR-88 based on dial and control configuration, though I certainly could be wrong.

Do any SWLing Post readers have an AR-88? Please comment!

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Circa 1924 Parisian radio stockings

The Yaesu FRG-7700 in TV series iZombie

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Hirst, who adds the following to our growing archive of radios in film.

Mark writes:

Another radio spotted in a TV show, this time in the Netflix show iZombie.

Having been gifted a Yaesu FRG-7700 recently, it was an easy spot.

Click to enlarge

This FRG-7700 appears to be a ‘special’ model however, with a microphone plugged into the headphone socket and able to act as a transceiver!!

You have sharp eyes, Mark! Yes, indeed, it looks like they’ve turned that ‘7700 into a transceiver by plugging a mic into the headphone jack. Now why didn’t we think of that?!? 🙂

Thanks again for sharing!

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