[Elecraft] Collins S-Line Comparison

[Phil Kane]

On 4/10/2015 6:46 AM, WA8JXM wrote:

> I recently put my Drake R4a back on line.   It was one of the top of the
> line receivers when I bought it in 1967. 

As far as receivers go, my "first" was a one-tube super-regen that I
built form plans in Boys Life magazine in 1948.  No dial.  HS radio club
had a Hallicrafters S20R.  In college I had a used HRO Jr.  After
college I had a Hallicrafters SX101A - the one with the full-size linear
dial and the built-in 2-meter converter that I used most of the time.
Took a vacation from HF for a while, but came back with a Kenwood R-7000
that I bought used from HRO 30 years ago and is still in use today
monitoring non-ham HF circuits.

At work we had the following installed in mobile units over time:
Collins 51S-1, National HRO-500,  Drake R4C, and finally a series of
Watkins-Johnson rack-mounted receivers.

Current Elecraft is K2.  If the Kenwood dies, I will need to replace it
with an equal or better receiver.  The 8 MHz "filter hole" in K3
coverage would not work for me because of a need to monitor 8416.5 MHz
and 8433.0 MHz (Marine Safety SITOR broadcasts).  Perhaps by that time a
decent HF RX would be available at a reasonable price.  :)   I have a
pair of Ten-Tec RX320D computer-controlled  synthesized HF receivers but
they were intended for MF and HF broadcast reception and lack squelch
and high sensitivity.

So goes 63+ years of Ham Radio.....   :)


73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402

>From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon