[Hallicrafters] SX-96? (SX-88)

[WA1KBQ at aol.com]

I see the SX-88 as having more of a family resemblance to the SX-28 than  the 
SX-96 or SX-100. The SX-88 was clearly a pinnacle of achievement for  
Hallicrafters in 1954 which gave the company another image enhancer and a  product 
engineering benchmark same as SX-28 was the pinnacle of achievement to  the rest 
of the Hallicrafters line in its day. Actually if you examine and  compare 
features, component layout and mechanical construction of both SX-28 and  SX-88 
you may begin to see the close resemblance. I think the SX-88  was originally 
intended to carry on the SX-28 tradition by  becoming an extension or 
continuation of Hallicrafters premium receiver  design which was targeted to reach the 
same premium market met years  earlier by the SX-28. The SX-88 was actually 
an extensively  revised modern refinement of the basic SX-28 design and  
incorporated more recent engineering advances and added a few  more modern features 
to better appeal to more current premium receiver  market demands. One 
particular noteworthy feature is model SX-88 was  the first commercial communications 
receiver to have an SSB function marked on  its front panel. This was very 
early SSB technology in its infancy and  SX-88 did not incorporate a product 
detector with switch selectable side  bands and instead relied on amplified BFO 
technology for enhanced SSB  reception. While SX-88 has an extremely selective 
50KC 2nd IF  amplifier it actually differs quite a bit from all other 
Hallicrafters  models with 50KC 2nd IF amplifiers and comparison to them is not really 
 possible. The SX-88 incorporates special Litz wound 50KC IF  transformers 
having an extremely  hiqh "Q"  of around 180  which no other Hallicrafters model 
comes close. If you closely examine 2nd  IF transformers from any of the 
SX-76, SX-96, SX-100, SX-101 and SX-122  receivers you won't find high "Q" Litz 
wound coils and you will also  see the familiar threaded brass adjustment screw. 
Single strand wound IF  coils and brass adjusters do nothing but spoil "Q" 
but they are cheap.  SX-88 is the only Hallicrafters receiver to ever 
incorporate such high "Q" Litz  wound IF transformers with threaded ferrite instead of 
brass adjustment  screws. There is nothing quite like cruising the bands with a 
well aligned  and properly working SX-88 and you get no familiar ringing from 
a crystal filter  either. Start out with a 10KC wide passband and when you 
encounter a pileup  just start cutting bandwidth in steps; 5, 2.5, 1.25, .5, or 
.25 until you  can copy the signal you want. When the passband can be run wide 
open, the  10 watts audio available from those push-pull 6V6's sounds 
fabulous. There  is no one receiver ever conceived nor ever made that was able  to 
finally sign off to be the end of all things in communications receiver  design. 
They all have their good points or that one special feature and they  will no 
doubt have things about them you wish had been designed differently. I  think 
this was the original impetus for Raymond S Moore in  researching and 
authoring his four volumes of "Communications Receivers of  the Vacuum Tube Era" when 
he decided to try to identify who produced the  best commercially built 
superhet communications receiver between 1932 and  1981. After must exhaustive 
study and research into the question of who  built the best he summarized the 
results of his extensive research with this  answer: it all depends on what you 
are looking for due to compromises  which must be met.
 
73, Greg

In a message dated 8/16/2008 11:03:16 P.M. Atlantic  Standard Time, 
wq9e at dtnspeed.net writes:
Another major SX-88 difference is it  doesn't use the dual first IF 
frequency for sideband selection like the  SX-96/100 and later 
101/115/117 series radios.  Although the SX-88 does  have 2 different 
first IF frequencies for it they are used to provide  continuous coverage 
without the issue of the receiver tuning through its own  IF range. 

The SX-88 is an interesting receiver in its own right and the  
performance using its 250 cycle selectivity position is quite impressive  
for its vintage.

Rodger WQ9E

Mike Everette  wrote:
>   
>> The SX-88, 96 and 100 are all closely  related. They also
>> share the 
>> distinction of being  severely overpriced for what you get.
>>      
>
> A case could probably be made for the same being true of  numerous 
so-called "modern" Ikensu etc radios.  (The big problem with ham  radio today, is 
there's no real basic, inexpensive entry level  gear.)
>
> The SX-100, and indeed the SX-96, does a lot of things  well.  If I had to 
choose to have only one Halli receiver, it would  probably be my SX-100.  
Though I must say, I have a 96 sitting right next  to the 100 and sometimes I 
actually think the 96 does a tad better... hmm, may  be nostalgia; see below.
>
> The SX-88 is something I have never  seen, much less operated; but I have 
studied upon it (via the online manual) and  strictly as a radio, I don't think 
it's actually worth near the price it  brings.  But "it's gotta AURA."
>
> An SX-96 was my first  receiver, back in the late medieval and early 
Renaissance period.  It was a  good one.  If it'd had a calibrator it would have 
been much better, but a  Navy LM freq meter sort of made up for that.  The only 
thing the SX-96  didn't do so well was RTTY.  The rumble of the old Model 15 
was transmitted  through the floor, and the table, to the receiver.  Constant 
application of  "manual AFC" was essential to keep the scope centered.
>
>  73
>
> Mike
>  WA4DLF
>
>
>        




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