[Hallicrafters] SX-62 62A

[Barry H]

Well, there's a bit of an inconsistency.  Built on the same chassis as the SX-42, it has a crystal calibrator, which the -42 lacks, but no S-meter.

For casual SWL'ing one might not care -- if the signal isn't good enough to be "listenable", then move on to another one.

There's a big blank spot where the bandspread cap would be in an SX-42.  However, it has one of the biggest and most elaborate sliderule glass dials of any receiver ever made.  In addition, there is that little knob to the left of it to adjust the dial using the calibrator.  I forget how many turns of the tuning knob it takes to go from end to end.  There is a flywheel and some gearing, so it's not just dial cord and pulleys.

There's the inconsistency. A fairly elaborate gimmick to adjust a dial string type sliderule dial to the calibrator blips, but no S-meter.  In addition to frequency accuracy, a serious SWL'er would want an S-meter to report relative signal strength.  Someone did mention that an outboard S-meter was available, but I suspect they were rarely purchased.  

Could be, after designing that huge dial, there was no room left for an S-meter -- not even edgewise.  I suppose they could have put it behind the glass dial somewhere, but that would mean leaving off some city names, heh heh.  Also, it would't be so easy because there is that big light baffle behind the dial and ten or twelve dial lights that light up the band in use.  Might have had a record for dial bulbs also.  

The other odd thing is that the SX-62(x) was in production for quite a few more years than the SX-42.  I guess the -62 had some parlor appeal.  I seem to recall seeing an ad which looked very cosmopolitan, with a martini or something similar as a prop.  In addition to getting stations from around the world, you were also probably first on your block to get FM with some very high falutin' music and classy DJ's. 

I was only a couple years old when they came out, so not exactly in the right demographic.  However, I have made up for that in later years.

Barry





 

















-- "TC Dailey" <daileyservices at qwest.net> wrote:
The '62 was marketed as a high-end SWL receiver.  There was never any plan
to make it into a "communications" type radio, and I suspect that's why you
didn't get whistles-n-bells like an S-meter.  Coupled with a "Reproducer"
speaker, it sounds like a concert hall - hardly what you'd want in a
"receiver".  Frankly, I never thought much of S-meters, anyway.

Tom - WØEAJ

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