[Boatanchors] Eddystone 730/4 ? Good?

[Brian Clarke]

Hello Eugene,

I had one of these radios virtually new in the original packaging when I 
lived in the UK. The case has nicely rounded edges and corners, a 
well-finished battleship grey finish, and that huge slide-rule tuning dial 
is just so impressive. The audio was pretty good, too. I liked it so much 
that I got the baby Eddystone ship's cabin radio as our kitchen radio - 
lovely little set, lovely to listen to, easy to maintain (now gone because 
SWMBO got a Sony DAB set).

For short-wave listening, when there were 'international gentleman's 
agreements' about channel spacing, it was superb. However, the selectivity 
for resolving stations in the ham bands was not good, getting progressively 
worse as you went higher in frequency. I can't recall how it handled SSB 
signals. Bottom line? If you want a radio that others will go "Ooohh" and 
"Aahhh" over, and you can afford the freight, get it.

Eventually, I traded my 730/4 for a Racal RA-17L, which had excellent 
selectivity and stability all the way up to 30 MHz. However, the audio was 
awful (like my Collins R-390A). To resolve SSB signals, I got the external 
Racal SSB adapter (still have it if anyone wants to buy??). Now, I have the 
all-solid-state Racal RA-6790, which has 1 Hz carrier selection, variable 
selectivity, variable AGC, variable sensitivity, variable BFO, plus choice 
of USB / LSB / AM, all at the press of a button.

73 de Brian, VK2GCE.

On Wednesday, July 16, 2014 11:09 AM, you asked:


> Saw one of these on ebay uk (old, sold item) and it really is a very 
> beautiful radio. Are they rare? Are they good/bad performers for their 
> era? Are they around on this side of the pond?
>
> 73 Eugene W2HX