[Hallicrafters] OLD OR VINTAGE OR ANTIQUE

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On 9/18/07, Dick Blaney <wb8mhe at bright.net> wrote:
> DEM'S FIGHTIN' WORDS, Sonny!!!! I'm a' callin' you out to the middle of Main
> Street at high noon.  We'll settle this matter with six  shooters.  Since
> 1946 I've owned at least one S-38, and now have six, including that original
> that I bought from Concord Radio in Chicago in 1946.  The only ones I've
> seen that were "junk" had been abused and misused by some jerk that didn't
> know what a Hallicrafter Radio was or represented, no matter what model
> number it carried.  Of course, you are entitled to your opinion, but I'm
> reminded that "Opinions are like hemorrhoids, only A.. Ho... have them
> Dick, WB8MHE

I think Carl was just using the more readily-accepted shortcut for the
term 'of low quality'. I agree completely with his assessments and
comparisons. Never was lucky *cough* enough to own the venerable S-38,
but my first SW receiver was a step or two higher: the S-40B. It
wasn't junk, just really cheap and marginal. I got hours of enjoyment
from it and never would've known what I was missing, had it not been
for that $5 National RAO I tripped over beneath a table at a garage
sale.

Don't get me wrong - I understand and fully appreciate the gap that
Halli, Heath, and WRL filled with some lower quality items. Obviously
there was a need and a market, or the stuff wouldn't still be so
prolific, endlessly surfacing on ebay, at hamfests, yard sales and so
on.

If you were to set a brand new S-38 next to an equally new SX-28 or
SX-88, you might think.....that dinky little radio looks like a piece
of junk! If you had nothing to compare it against, it might not look
so bad. Most of us were never lucky enough to have that exposure early
on, which is a blessing it disguise. It allowed us to develop an
appreciation, through experience.

Which is why I, too, cannot understand why anyone would pay so much
for an S-38 - ebay or otherwise. 'Nostalgia' does crazy things to
people.


~ Todd,  KA1KAQ