{"id":25521,"date":"2017-05-07T07:52:24","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T11:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=25521"},"modified":"2017-05-07T07:52:53","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T11:52:53","slug":"soviet-union-era-radio-dennis-reviews-the-shoroh-r-326-receiver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/soviet-union-era-radio-dennis-reviews-the-shoroh-r-326-receiver\/","title":{"rendered":"Soviet Era Radio: Dennis reviews the Shoroh R-326 receiver"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many thanks to SWLing Post<\/em> contributor,\u00a0Dennis Kalinichenko, who shares the following review:<\/p>\n

\n

The\u00a0Shoroh R-326 military radio<\/h2>\n

by\u00a0Dennis Kalinichenko<\/strong><\/p>\n

I believe the piece of Soviet military equipment I recently bought to my collection would be interesting to all readers and contributors.<\/p>\n

This is the R-326 “Shoroh” (“Rustle”) general coverage military tube shortwave radio receiver. These were produced decades ago, back in 1963. These portable receivers were in active military use in the Soviet Army until the early 2000s, when the R-326 was finally discontinued\u00a0. Today, this set is no more a spy secret, but a great collector’s item and also a good receiver for home use.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My set cost me about $150 US, which is rather expensive for this radio. The R-326 was plentiful\u00a0in the local market in 90-s, right after the fall of the Soviet Union, very cheap and popular between radio amateurs, but nowadays this radio has become more and more rare, so the price rises up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My R-326\u00a0arrived from Khabarovsk city, the Russian Far East, where, I believe, for many years it was on duty in some of the Soviet radio intelligence and defense forces division.
\nThe set includes the radio itself, original military 100 ohm headphones, original rectifier box for 2,5 V output, 12 meter long wire antenna on a reel, the 1,5 meter famous “Kulikov” mini-whip antenna, the isolator for placing it on top of the radio and some minor accessories.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally, the R-326 radio came with two batteries–1,25 V each–for field use, but mine are totally drained and need to be serviced, so I haven’t\u00a0used them so far.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The radio is a light-weight, only 33 lbs, which is a real minimum for Soviet military equipment–the famous R-250 radio’s weight is up to 220 lbs–so, in comparison, this unit is really portable. You can easily put it in your car using the attached leather handle and take it with you on a weekend trip. No other military radio can be so “travel-friendly”; this is one of the reasons it was so popular in the ham radio and SWL\u00a0communities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The case is made out of steel and looks so solid you may want to use it as a nutcracker. And you can!<\/em> In no way could you harm the box constructed to resist nuclear attacks. It is waterproof and sealed–so I can be confident that no previous owner has ever tried to solder something in the guts.<\/p>\n

The radio is a super heterodyne containing 19 (!) special mini tubes and covering 6 SW bands, from 1 to 20 MHz. It works in both AM and SSB (CW) modes, having an on-board adjustable bandwidth control from 300 Hz to 6 kHz.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On the front panel, there are two scales: one is rough\/coarse, and above is the precise one, a so-called photoscale, which may be adjusted to match real radio-frequency using the four screws near the sun protection visor. With this scale, you don’t actually need a digital readout. It also has a BFO control with a zero setting, adjustable AGC levels for AM and CW, and adjusting screw for matching the antenna input, as marked for 12 m long wire, 1,5 m and 4 m whip.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The radio has no built-in speaker. Instead, there are two output sockets on the front panel, for 100 ohm headphones and 600 ohm line-out.<\/p>\n

The power consumption is very low for s tube radio, the rig needs only 1,4 A at 2.5 volts DC (including the lightscale). I use the original power transformer (transistor rectifier) and therefore switch the unit into the 220 AC outlet.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The sensitivity of the radio is extremely high and equals some modern transceivers. The selectivity is also impressive. No doubt it was really great for 1960s. But there’s negative side as well: the radio easily overloads even from the outdoor long wire antennas. The best fit is the “Kulikov” mini-whip that you can see in the photos.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When you switch on the radio, you hear noise, the level of which seems high, so you lower the volume down. Yes, the radio is sensitive and a bit noisy. But thanks to the tubes it sounds really amazing in the headphones. The SSB ham operator’s voice is warm and very clear.
\nThe tuning is very smooth, being actually 2-speed: outer wheel is for fast tuning, inner wheel for precise tune.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s\u00a0absolutely obvious that nowadays a simple Degen or Tecsun may be more useful than this old and heavy unit with big and tough knobs and switches. But what a pleasure sitting in front of this perfect tube radio at night, with the headphones on, turning the huge tuning wheels, looking into the moving dim scale, listening into distant voices and rustles, feeling yourself a Cold War times operator near the rig.<\/p>\n

Isn’t this experience priceless?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed the experience is<\/em> priceless, Dennis! Better yet, your R-326 now has an owner that will keep it in working order and enjoy it on a regular basis. I personally believe keeping these vintage rigs on the air is one way to preserve, and experience first hand, a little of our collective radio history.<\/p>\n

Thank you so much for sharing your review and excellent photos of the R-326!<\/p>\n

Post<\/em> readers:<\/strong> If, like Dennis, you have a vintage radio you would like to showcase\/review here on the SWLing Post,<\/em> please consider submitting your story and photos<\/a>. Being a huge fan of vintage radio, I truly enjoy reading through and publishing your\u00a0reviews. \u00a0I know many other readers feel the same!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor,\u00a0Dennis Kalinichenko, who shares the following review: The\u00a0Shoroh R-326 military radio by\u00a0Dennis Kalinichenko I believe the piece of Soviet military equipment I recently bought to my collection would be interesting to all readers and contributors. This is the R-326 “Shoroh” (“Rustle”) general coverage military tube shortwave radio receiver. These were […]<\/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":[3194,545,3,305,288,26,129,43,154,4796],"tags":[752,3067,6179,6181,155,6180,6182,4289,681],"class_list":["post-25521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-posts","category-ham-radio","category-news","category-nostalgia","category-radio-history","category-radios","category-reviews","category-shortwave-radio","category-shortwave-radio-reviews","category-vintage-radio","tag-cold-war","tag-cold-war-radio","tag-dennis-kalinichenko","tag-r-326","tag-radio-reviews","tag-shoroh-r-326","tag-shoroh-r-326-military-radio","tag-soviet-union","tag-vintage-radio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-6DD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25656,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/the-r-902-xe-2prd-eds-flea-market-mystery-radio\/","url_meta":{"origin":25521,"position":0},"title":"The R-902 (XE-2)\/PRD: Ed’s flea market mystery radio","author":"Thomas","date":"May 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor,\u00a0Edward Ganshirt, who writes: This radio followed me home from a flea market and I am trying to find out what it's mission was. I think it is a surveillance radio from the Vietnam era because of it's low serial number #7 R-902 (XE-2)\/PRD. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/DSC_0116-1-1024x571.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/DSC_0116-1-1024x571.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/DSC_0116-1-1024x571.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12056,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/shortwave-radio-recordings-radio-vilnius-1990-1991\/","url_meta":{"origin":25521,"position":1},"title":"Shortwave Radio Recordings: Radio Vilnius 1990-1991","author":"Thomas","date":"January 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Richard Langley, has digitized another set of historic off-air recordings--this time, documenting the independence of Lithuania through Radio Vilinus. Many thanks to Richard for the following guest post and archived audio: Radio Vilnius 1990-1991 On 11 March 1990, Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Broadcasting"","block_context":{"text":"International Broadcasting","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/international-broadcasting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cathedral in Vilnius, seen in 1912 - Source: Public Domain via WikiMedia Commons","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/1024px-Wilno_katedra-1024x515.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/1024px-Wilno_katedra-1024x515.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/1024px-Wilno_katedra-1024x515.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":34480,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/any-favorite-soviet-era-radios\/","url_meta":{"origin":25521,"position":2},"title":"Any favorite Soviet era radios?","author":"Thomas","date":"October 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I was just chatting with my buddy Dave Cripe (NM0S) who recently snagged a cool Soviet-era vintage portable radio at ShopGoodwill.com.\u00a0 It's a beauty: I've always been fascinated with Soviet and Eastern European designs from the 60s, 70s and 80s, but I'll be the first to admit that I know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Soviet-Radio-Dial-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Soviet-Radio-Dial-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Soviet-Radio-Dial-1024x576.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35423,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/de1dgk-reviews-the-affordable-tecsun-r-9012\/","url_meta":{"origin":25521,"position":3},"title":"DE1DGK reviews the affordable Tecsun R-9012","author":"Thomas","date":"January 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor,\u00a0DE1DGK, who shares the following mini review of the Tecsun R-9012: I also have the Tecsun-R-9012, the little analog brother of the R-920c with digital display, and like to tune over the given bands with it. The sound is loud and clear and speaker-quality seems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FM"","block_context":{"text":"FM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/fm\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Tecsun-R9012.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12857,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/dave-reviews-the-kenwood-r-1000\/","url_meta":{"origin":25521,"position":4},"title":"Dave reviews the Kenwood R-1000","author":"Thomas","date":"April 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"My buddy, Dave Zantow (N9EWO), has apprised me of a new review he has published of the classic Kenwood R-1000\u00a0receiver. Dave comments that\u00a0he doesn't normally review\u00a0discontinued sets anymore, but he made an exception for\u00a0the R-1000 as it\u00a0\"was so unique\/good and still is to this day.\" Click here to read Dave's\u00a0full\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kenwood R-1000 (Source: Universal Radio)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Kenwood-r-1000-Universal-Radio.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Kenwood-r-1000-Universal-Radio.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Kenwood-r-1000-Universal-Radio.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54898,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2022\/12\/rob-spots-a-rare-hy-gain-galaxy-r-1530-shortwave-receiver-on-ebay\/","url_meta":{"origin":25521,"position":5},"title":"Rob spots a rare Hy-Gain Galaxy R-1530 shortwave receiver on eBay","author":"Thomas","date":"December 3, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Rob, who shares a link to this Hy-Gain Galaxy R-1530 listed on eBay and notes: \"A radio that might be of interest to your readers.\" Click here to view this listing on eBay. It is a beauty for sure. The seller also has a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Hy-gain-Galaxy-R-1530.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Hy-gain-Galaxy-R-1530.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Hy-gain-Galaxy-R-1530.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Hy-gain-Galaxy-R-1530.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Hy-gain-Galaxy-R-1530.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25521","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=25521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}