{"id":22615,"date":"2016-12-04T10:34:38","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T14:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=22615"},"modified":"2016-12-04T10:34:38","modified_gmt":"2016-12-04T14:34:38","slug":"guest-post-the-story-and-restoration-of-my-hallicrafters-sx-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/guest-post-the-story-and-restoration-of-my-hallicrafters-sx-42\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: The Story And Restoration Of My Hallicrafters SX-42"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"halllicrafters-sx-42-front-panel\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor,\u00a0Arthur Smith, who shares the following guest post:<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The Story And Restoration Of My Hallicrafters SX-42<\/h2>\n

by Arthur Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a junior high student way back in 1978, I had a natural interest in radios. My dad was a ham radio operator, electronics engineer, and designer. We always had cool, exotic radios and electronic gadgetry around the house. He was also in the Korean War, in the US Army Corps of Engineers, with access to a wide variety of equipment. He often told me the story of how he became interested in radio at an early age, and how he saved up for expensive radio gear, with a little help from my grandparents. Back in 1946, Hallicrafters was THE brand to own, and their postwar designs from Raymond Loewy, were catching the eye of many enthusiasts. The SX-42 was being hyped up in Hallicrafters ads as the ultimate radio to own, one that could tune the shortwave and ham bands, and beyond. I don\u2019t know the complete story, but prior to acquiring his SX-42, my dad also purchased an S-38 and S-40. Never satisfied with \u201cgood and better\u201d, my father wanted \u201cthe best\u201d. All 15 tubes and 50-plus pounds of boatanchor.<\/p>\n

Always ambitious and industrious, he mowed lawns, repaired motorcycles, and did odd jobs for neighbors in his suburban Boston neighborhood. He worked smart, and worked hard. And that fall, bought his SX-42.<\/p>\n

\"halllicrafters-sx-42-front2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The radio, we think, was about $279, which would make it the equivalent of almost $3500 in today\u2019s dollars. He heard the start of the Cold War, and the Soviet Union\u2019s Sputnik. And the birth of Rock and Roll on FM! He graduated high school, went away to the Korean War, serving two Tours of Duty. He came back home, and became an electronics engineer. And a licensed ham radio operator.<\/p>\n

Moving ahead to 1978, and yours truly had the radio bug, in the worst way. Not as ambitious or as savvy as my father, a classmate, who was also a ham radio operator, told me about a National HRO he had, with some coils, and maybe needing some work. My Dad came home from work, and I just had to tell him about this great opportunity, which of course, would require his financial backing. At this point, the SX-42 and his other two Hallicrafters were seeing \u201cbackup\u201d duty, having long since gone solid state in his post. \u201cHey, I\u2019ve got an idea!\u201d When a Dad says that, a son usually wants to run. Not in this case. \u201cHow about we give you my SX-42?!\u201d Gee, twist my arm. I had loved watching those mesmerizing green back lit dials, S meter, and geared tuning knobs. Unfortunately for my classmate, he had to keep his National. Fortunate for me, I had my father\u2019s SX-42!<\/p>\n

That radio logged my first 100 countries, including QSL cards from countries and stations no longer in existence. It heard the fall of the Berlin Wall. And, it was at the heart of my school Science Project, which made Science Fair, featuring an experiment on longwire shortwave radio reception.<\/p>\n

\"halllicrafters-sx-42-open\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"halllicrafters-sx-42-tubes\"<\/a> Years later, the focus became family, a child, and a house. The SX-42 and siblings came with me, but this time, in boxes. After having seen a WW2 vintage Hallicrafters S-20R at a consignment shop a couple of summers ago, I thought how cool it might be to have Dad\u2019s radios electronically and cosmetically restored.<\/p>\n

The S-38 and S40 were in a box in my damp basement. While intact, they had a considerable amount of rust. Luckily, I was able to find a gentleman with great electronic and mechanical skills. He brought the S38 back to life, working and looking beautiful. And is working still on the S-40. As for the SX-42, that was upstairs in a box in my son\u2019s closet. Dry and somewhat preserved, but with some corrosion on the control panel. And sadly, that iconic lock knob that switches between main tuning and brandspread tuning, had been lost in the move. I had to find someone who could take this project on.<\/p>\n

After an extensive search, I found my man. An engineer with his own business, who was moving into retirement, and shutting his business down. He had restored an SX-42 a few years back, with amazing results. I had to lure him out of retirement! Which I did after a few emails back and forth. And, he was within driving distance! First warning was \u201cdo not power the radio back up under any circumstance- you\u2019ll fry the wafers on the bandswitch!\u201d I resisted temptation, as I had read online that these were notorious for failure, usually to some original capacitors that leak over the decades.<\/p>\n

After 13 months replacing every capacitor, virtually every resistor, and vacuum tube, the iconic radio was coming back to life, in a great way. The transmission and gears in the tuning was re-lubricated. During the restoration process, a date was found stamped on the chassis of October 25th, 1946. Could it be?<\/p>\n

\"img_7367-02-12-16-06-57-1\"<\/a>Hallicrafters had advertised in the Oct, 1946 issue of Radio News that \u201cThe first hundred are always the hardest to build.\u201d This, coupled with the fact that none of the chassis circuit had been modified, lead my restorer to believe that my radio was one of the first 100 SX-42\u2019s that Hallicrafters had built!<\/p>\n

The front panel was stripped and treated, professionally painted and silkscreened. The cabinet and apron bead blasted, repainted, and clear coated. It came back home with me last month. A month after it turned 70.<\/p>\n

\"halllicrafters-sx-42\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As you can see here, the radio looks stunning. And, with all the Hallicrafters Service Bulletin mods implemented, sounds and performs better than I remember. Maybe more importantly, we were able to locate a replacement brake lock knob for the tuning shaft, even with the \u201cLock\u201d decal and arrow showing to rotate it counterclockwise. It just would not have felt complete without that little knob- and, it works!<\/p>\n

\"halllicrafters-sx-42-front\"<\/a>Engaging a set of what essentially are brake pads, you rotate it once to disengage the main tuning and engage the bandspread tuning. Again, and you\u2019re back to main tuning.<\/p>\n

\"halllicrafters-sx-42-ad\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This radio will always remain a truly cherished family heirloom, and will be my son\u2019s someday. Complete with the original owner\u2019s manual, and Darth Vader-like R42 Reproducer (speaker).<\/p>\n

\"halllicrafters-sx-42-front-panel\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hopefully to live on for another 70-plus years, and hear more history along the way.<\/p>\n

-Arthur Smith Worcester, MA<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Wow–! \u00a0Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, Arthur. No doubt, your SX-42 will certainly outlive all of us and will hopefully continue to be passed down through your family. What a wonderful story.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor,\u00a0Arthur Smith, who shares the following guest post: The Story And Restoration Of My Hallicrafters SX-42 by Arthur Smith As a junior high student way back in 1978, I had a natural interest in radios. My dad was a ham radio operator, electronics engineer, and designer. We always had cool, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,1271,3194,3,288,139,26,43,4796],"tags":[5681,1146,1255,5680,4132,681],"class_list":["post-22615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-boat-anchors-2","category-guest-posts","category-news","category-radio-history","category-radio-modifications","category-radios","category-shortwave-radio","category-vintage-radio","tag-arthur-smith","tag-boat-anchors","tag-hallicrafters","tag-hallicrafters-sx-42","tag-radio-restoration","tag-vintage-radio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-5SL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16644,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/avengers-age-of-ultron-scene-is-that-a-hallicrafters-receiver\/","url_meta":{"origin":22615,"position":0},"title":"Avengers ‘Age of Ultron’ scene: is that a Hallicrafters receiver?","author":"Thomas","date":"January 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"With the recent posts about shortwave radio in films (Star Wars and Star Trek),\u00a0I remembered a scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron where I thought I spotted a vintage Hallicrafters receiver. In the scene, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is using an \"old school spy method\" to find the whereabouts of Black\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/art-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Avengers-Ultron-Hallicrafters-Radios-1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Avengers-Ultron-Hallicrafters-Radios-1-1024x432.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Avengers-Ultron-Hallicrafters-Radios-1-1024x432.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Avengers-Ultron-Hallicrafters-Radios-1-1024x432.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9629,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/dayton-hamvention-flea-market-a-few-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":22615,"position":1},"title":"Dayton Hamvention flea market: a few photos","author":"Thomas","date":"May 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I had a little over one hour to check out the Dayton Hamvention flea market yesterday morning before manning our inside exhibitor's table for Ears To Our World. Here are a few radios that caught my attention: I actually purchased the Hallicrafters SX-24 in this photo (above) for $60. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Boat Anchors"","block_context":{"text":"Boat Anchors","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/boat-anchors-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"CollinsRadios","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/CollinsRadios.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/CollinsRadios.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/CollinsRadios.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":33423,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/boat-anchors-at-voice-of-aladdin-arc-columbus-hamfest\/","url_meta":{"origin":22615,"position":2},"title":"Boat Anchors at Voice of Aladdin ARC Columbus Hamfest","author":"Eric","date":"August 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A guest post by Eric McFadden, WD8RIF I had the pleasure of attending the annual Voice of Aladdin Amateur Radio Club's Columbus Hamfest this past weekend, on Saturday, August 4, 2018. The Columbus Hamfest is a smaller, local or regional hamfest but every year when I attend I'm pleasantly surprised\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Boat Anchors"","block_context":{"text":"Boat Anchors","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/boat-anchors-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"1966 Chevrolet pickup-truck (it was for sale)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ColumbusHamfest2018_17.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ColumbusHamfest2018_17.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ColumbusHamfest2018_17.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ColumbusHamfest2018_17.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16737,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/mike-ids-a-hallicrafters-skyrider-in-avengers-scene\/","url_meta":{"origin":22615,"position":3},"title":"Mike IDs a Hallicrafters Skyrider in Avengers scene","author":"Thomas Witherspoon","date":"January 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In response to my post about finding a glowing Hallicrafters radio in a scene from the Avengers: Age of Ultron, SWLing Post reader, Mike (AC4NS) writes: \"I put the pic in Lightroom and pulled it out of the shadows. It is definitely a Skyrider and not an SX-28.\" Wow--I'm amazed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/art-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Avengers-Ultron-Hallicrafters-Radios","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Avengers-Ultron-Hallicrafters-Radios-1024x429.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Avengers-Ultron-Hallicrafters-Radios-1024x429.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Avengers-Ultron-Hallicrafters-Radios-1024x429.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4093,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/jeffrey-revives-an-old-friend-his-hallicrafters-sx-110\/","url_meta":{"origin":22615,"position":4},"title":"Jeffrey revives an old friend, his Hallicrafters SX-110","author":"Thomas","date":"August 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"SWLing Post reader, Jeffrey Fritz, sent me the following message and has kindly allowed me to share it with other readers. I'mthoroughly inspired! As a teenager in the 1960s I spent a considerable amount of time SWLing on a Hallicrafters SX-110 communications receiver. I collected QSL cards from all over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/SX-110-Restoration-1-300x178.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":33257,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/boat-anchor-tuesday-hallicrafters-s-40b-and-sx-100\/","url_meta":{"origin":22615,"position":5},"title":"Boat Anchor Tuesday: Hallicrafters S-40B and SX-100","author":"Thomas","date":"July 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0contributor, Chris Peters, who shares the above photo for\u00a0Boat Anchor Tuesday\u00a0and 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Boat Anchors"","block_context":{"text":"Boat Anchors","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/boat-anchors-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Boat-Anchors-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Boat-Anchors-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Boat-Anchors-1024x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}