[Boatanchors] Harvey Wells (?) Oddity on the Bay

[N4ch at aol.com]

Hello All........
 
I suspect Harvey Wells made a handful of these radios  (destined to be 
marketed by RCA), about the time H-W was making the transition  from the R9 to 
the R9A (main difference: the non-A was all point-to-point  construction, and 
the "A" version had most of the electronics wired by circuit  boards).   
All the H-W receivers I've seen are 5 band  (80-40-20-15-10), and the "RCA" 
version is 6 bands, general  coverage.   This is the third RCA iteration I 
know the existence  of.   About 20-25 years ago, a pretty nice one was at  
Dayton.   Back then, there was no internet, and not many cared about  buying 
something that neither worked nor was supported by  documentation.   After 
walking past it many times, I decided to buy  it.   It sat around in the shape 
it was purchased for several  years.   Finally, I decided to dig around and 
see if I could get it  working.   I've never seen a manual (and I doubt one 
was ever  produced), but comparing it to the R9 and R9A I had, I was able to 
get it  going.   Turns out it was probably assembled in the H-W facility,  
possibly shipped over to RCA, maybe shown at a few meetings, but never  
tested.   There were a few circuit board layout errors, and it would  have never 
worked unless those were manually corrected.   I did just  that, and other 
than doing this and replacing a couple bad caps it's in the  shape it was 
bought.   It works great (and the tuning is surprisingly  accurate).   It looks 
just like the one that's currently on eBay,  except the meter is 
smaller.........the one in my radio is the same size (and  same style) as what's in 
the "production" H-W R9/A radios; the one on eBay  appears to be a little 
larger than "original".   I suspect someone  changed it after the radio was 
built.
 
Besides the one I have and the one on eBay, I've seen just one  other "RCA" 
iteration..........and that was 5-10 years ago, and it was pretty  beat up, 
including someone's removing the meter (or maybe the large red RCA  
logo..........can't remember) entirely, and replacing it with a Japanese 0-100  
vernier dial (and a bandspread cap).   The one I have and the one I  saw both 
had the "H-W" logo marking on the chassis, so it's pretty obvious where  they 
originated.   I've yet to see if/when it was ever advertised as a  product 
for sale by RCA, and it's probable that it never got much past the  R&D 
development stages, and I doubt any were ever sold as finished  products.   
Anyway, my 2 cents worth.
 
73, Herman, N4CH.