[Hallicrafters] S-38

[Paul Galpin]

A Happy 2008 to all!

Can anyone help me identify the  S38 that followed me home from an auction?

1. It is painted smooth black, with light green lettering.
2. It has the S38 6 valve circuit
3. It has the S-38A set of trimmer caps; i.e. no double capacitor for C10
and C11. The S38A alignment method seems to work.
4. The "do not remove this cover" cardboard bottom cover is
"rectangular-with-a-corner cut off", 31-338/S38 printed lower LH corner
5. No label on rear of chassis, no protective back cover! But there is a
number "66E280" stamped into the rear top flange, would this be the serial
number, and if so, what can it tell us?.

Two more queries
1. although the BFO is clearly oscillating (several volts of RF on the
grid), I don't seem to get any  decent sort of beat note. Is there a clever
way of setting this up?
2. The lamp circuit across one half of the 35Z5 heater drops the heater
volts - one half has the full 17.5 V, and the other about 5V. This is
confirmed by the voltage table in the S38 documents! As this occurs in the
A, B, and later versions, then what would be the thinking behind this?


Paul Galpin
ZS2PG