[Hallicrafters] My "Great Find" Story

[Robert Nickels]

I'm not sure how long this can of worms will remain open, so I'll drop my
"buy of the lifetime" story in while it is...

It happened about 10 years ago, heading to the Grayslake IL hamfest early on
Saturday morning the wx turned from pea soup fog to drizzling rain.  Swell,
me and my buddy without any rain gear.   When we got there, the sellers were
mostly huddling inside the fairgrounds buildings where we found one
enterprising chap doing land-office business selling old army ponchos for
ten bucks each.  I think we bought the last two and headed out to see if we
could salvage the day after a 100 mile trip.

Like most hamfests, I'm sure many of you can remember when the line of
tailgaters used to stretch well beyond where they end today.  Since there
weren't many tables out due to the rain, I just headed off behind the main
building where a few trunks seemed to be open.   And that's where if found
"it".

Two kids, no more than 17 or 18 years old, were shivering around the trunk
of a ratty old Ford.  Inside was a Hallicrafters radio, no mistaking those
two dials.  The cabinet was off, probably under the theory that its rusty
appearance would detract from a possible sale.  There was a worse for wear
Heath DX-60 transmitter too.

The kid-in-charge said he wanted to sell this "junk" because he wasn't
interested in radio anymore and "needed money for equipment for his band".
He wanted forty bucks apiece, saying that he knew they didn't work - he
tried to use the audio stage of the receiver for a guitar amp and said it
had a lot of hum.   They were tickled when I handed them a hundred and an
extra twenty "for gas", and no sooner than I'd unloaded the trunks did the
kids head out,  presumably for the music store.

And that's how I fround my SX-88 prototype one rainy morning.  It's a
hand-made model with an extra tube,  a warped bezel, missing one knob,
needed repair, and the cabinet turned out to be the wrong size, but hey, I'm
not complaining!  And I hope those kids became big rock stars, too.

73, Bob W9RAN