[Boatanchors] What! Making a SX-110 Better?

[Carl]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <w8au at sssnet.com>
To: <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2011 2:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] What! Making a SX-110 Better?


> At 01:42 PM 3/10/2011, RJ Mattson wrote:
>>The SX-110 was my novice receiver.
>>It was the bottom of the sunspot cycle in 1962.
>>Worked all states on 80/40/15m
>>Got the KH6 on the dead 15m band plus KP4,KG4, PY4, LU6 etc.
>>Guess I didn't know it was a bad used RX buy back then :-(
>
> Bad receivers made good operators!!  Nothing like a 1939 Halli
> S-19R with no RF stage, mechanically unstable, wide as a barndoor,
> full of images, to require one to learn to cultivate "mental selectivity."
>
> Being a kid with no money can be a blessing! :-)
>
> This was great training that allowed one to hear the weak signal
> thru a lot of crud even though it wasn't comfortable to do so.
>
> Even though "later years and bigger pocketbooks" afford much
> better receivers, one initially trained "on the cheap" is not
> dependent on 200 Hz or narrower selectivity to keep a contact going.
>
> My xyl, who was licensed later in life, can't understand why I
> can tolerate noise, QRN or QRM.
>
> So I'm grateful my parents didn't give me a Collins 75A4 when I
> started... (sounds like heresy, doesn't it?) ;-)
>
> Perry  w8au


Thats for sure!

I started with a HB regen, then a BC454 and 455 before moving up to a real 
radio, a HQ-129X which soon received help from a QF-1 and BC-453. Even at 16 
I wasnt afraid to dig in and work on stuff.

Friends had their dads buy them S-38's, S-53A, S-40 or similar junk and they 
soon lost interest and never upgraded to General. Not everyone could learn 
to copy CW with a 20-30KHz bandwidth IF.

I didnt get a 75A4 until 1965 but I still have it.

Carl
KM1H