[ARC5] 1940 Light Aircraft Radio Prices

[Mike Morrow]

Neil wrote:

>Electrically, except for the addition of a BFO,
>the circuit diagram of the SCR-274-N receiver
>is no more sophisticated than that of the 6-tube
>household radios sold from the 30's to the 60's.

That's stretching it a bit, I think.  I've been a 1930s and later AM/SW BCB radio junk collector for decades.  A six-tube 1930s set would use one up for the rectifier, and very likely use another tube for the electric tuning eye that was such a marketing plus.  Using two tubes in the AF output was also common.  Relatively few had an RF stage, or more than one IF stage.  Even today I'll jump at an old AM/SW table radio that has a three-section tuning cap...usually a sure sign that an RF stage is present.  I'm proud of having found an early 1960s plastic AA-5 type (except that it had six tubes) AM BCB table radio that had a real RF stage in it.  So rare, and so lovely to see the glow of those filaments!

Overall, I can think of very very few BCB radios from 1935 onward whose RF design compared well in any particular detail to that of the ARA/SCR-274-N receiver.  That was really a decent electrical and mechanical design.

Mike / KK5F