[Boatanchors] RE: Boatanchor Purchase Suggestions

[RKofler@aol.com]

Hi Chris!

I suggest that you explore your reasons for wanting a Boatanchor Receiver. Is 
it the history or the looks, or the opportunity to plug in your soldering 
iron and get your hands inside a real radio? All of those things are important to 
me.

I like to compare my affinity for Boatanchors to the person who restores a 
Model A Ford. If he wants to get somewhere in a hurry on the freeway, he doesn't 
take the Model A, he takes his modern automobile.

With some exceptions, very few Boatanchors are going to tune the Ham Bands 
with anywhere near the performance of modern equipment. You have to remember 
that when most Boatanchors were made, SSB wasn't yet in use, and there weren't 
nearly as many stations on the air.

For foreign broadcast, a restored Boatanchor is excellent, and will give you 
many hours of enjoyment, often with superior audio quality.

The Hallicrafters Co. made receivers of just about every level of complexity 
you can think of. If you are learning to restore AM Broadcast radios, Why not 
keep most of that 1000 cocanuts in your pocket for the time being, and buy a 
radio that is only a small step up from what you are doing now? 

Why not learn to recap and align vacuum tube radios? Why not buy a signal 
generator and a tube tester and a VOM and get the whole experience? 

Then you will learn how to take a dusty old doorstop of a radio, and make it 
perform the way it did 50 or 60 years ago. It's not difficult, that's why I do 
it. 

If my ICOM or Kenwood stops working, they need to go to the factory. If my EH 
Scott or National or Minerva Tropicmaster stops working I can figure out why. 
So can you.

Just my thoughts.

Good Luck
Roger K7DDG