[Hallicrafters] Adding Preamp toTired Receivers

[Bill Gerhold]

This may be seen as sacrilegious to some on this forum but bear with me.  I
decided to experiment adding an outboard solid state preamp to a tired old
SX-111 receiver.  While the receiver performs well as is, it never would
receive as well as a current state of the art transceiver such as an ICOM756
or a Yaesu FT type radio.  Those radios always come with a preamp or two
built in for weak signals.  No matter how much tweaking of the internal
coils was performed, nothing would bring the SX-111 on par with these newer
radios.

So, I ordered a 20db receive only preamp from Advanced Receiver Research.
This preamp is a stock item and runs on 12vdc and just hooks up to the
receive coax line.  Well made with a mounting flange and various connectors
on request, it is about 2" square and about 1/2" high.  It is designed to
operate from 1-30 mhz.  I got mine with RCA phono connectors which allowed
me to use common shielded audio cables to hook it up to the receiver.

Hooking this to the SX-111, made it come to life especially on the higher
bands, 15 and 10 meters.  It is now equal to a 756pro receive capability.
Like I said, some of you probably believe the receiver should be used as is
and work with its shortcomings.  I am, but giving it a little kick in the
pants.  What a difference a preamp makes.  This old SX-111 will now continue
to provide me with endless listening pleasure.  Price for the preamp about
$ 42.00 shipped.

................... Bill (K2WH) ..........................