[Hallicrafters] What is the going rate for an SX-88 these days?

[Rodger]

Bill,

The market price for one now is probably anywhere from $3,000 to perhaps 
$6,500 but there are not enough changing hands for a definitive market 
price to exist.  Certainly someone may drive by a yard sale and see one 
for $100 and someone else may pay $10,000 for one on ebay as part of a 
feeding frenzy.  By definition, the price of collectible gear is based 
on many things besides performance and you can exceed the performance of 
an SX-88 for a lot less.  The question is really how much the "fun 
factor" is worth to you.

I picked up my SX-88 last year and I first became aware of this model 
when I was studying for my novice ticket in 1975 and came across the 
double page ad for one in an old magazine.  My SX-88 was in excellent 
cosmetic shape and was one of four originally owned by Bob Denniston.  
However, like any over 50 year old receiver that has been sitting in a 
box for 25 years it had a lot of out of spec components and was filled 
with "black beauty" capacitors.  I spent several days going through it 
including removing and re-capping the painful to access 2'nd converter 
sub-chassis (you have to unsolder multiple nearly hidden leads from the 
selectivity switch to remove this part).  The selectivity switch itself 
is also festooned with capacitors that will need replacement.  After 
replacing all of these and a few out of spec resistors I gave it a 
complete alignment and found one final problem, a wire to one of the RF 
coils that had been passed through the eyelet of the coil and marked 
with a dot of red inspection paint but never soldered.  The receiver 
would work well except for a sudden burst of noise on the range 
including 15 meters.  So one more repair and the SX-88 is now working as 
it should.

As for performance, it is a pretty darn good vintage receiver.  I have a 
lot of vintage receivers including some of the "higher end" stuff from 
the era (R-390A, NC-400, Super Pro's and HRO's from across the era, 
etc.)  For CW it is excellent and the 250 cycle selectivity works 
incredibly well.  The audio section sounds very nice on AM, particularly 
when it can be opened up to the full 10 Kc bandpass.  Stability is fine 
and the tuning feel is very good.  So it is unquestionably a competent 
receiver and it is what is currently paired with my Ranger/Desk Kilowatt 
station.  But....  the SX-101 and SX-115 which were used with this 
station previously handled QRM on AM far more easily.  With the later 
members of this family (SX-96, 100, 101, 115, etc.) the 2'nd converter 
chassis was set up to provide selectable sideband so on AM you just zero 
beat the signal and chose which sideband presents the least 
interference.  You can do the same thing with the SX-88 by choosing a 
narrow IF bandwidth and then offsetting the carrier to near one side of 
the passband or the other but it isn't as convenient as the later 
models.  Of course the shape factor is a bit better with the SX-88 
because of the higher Q final IF transformers and so properly tuned it 
does an excellent job of rejecting QRM.  I do miss having the Halli T 
notch filter that appeared in their later receivers and I have an Autek 
QF-1A nearby when this function is necessary.

The SX-88 is certainly not the best vintage receiver ever made but it is 
a pretty good example of what Hallicrafters could do when cost wasn't 
the overriding design consideration.  Component quality is very good and 
besides the missed solder connection the build quality was also quite 
good.  I am glad I finally got an SX-88 and I really enjoy using it, it 
has a special look and feel.  Most of my vintage activity is either 
using the Ranger/Desk KW/ SX-88 setup or a Viking 500/ Pierson KP-81 
setup.  I bought the Desk KW several years ago and during that time it 
has been used with an HRO-50 (as was pictured in the Johnson ads), an 
SX-115, an SX-101A, and now the SX-88. I don't plan on changing station 
receivers any time soon!

Rodger WQ9E

Bill Kirkland wrote:
> Aside from Ebay, what is a reasonable price for an SX-88 in good to 
> excellent condition?
> It comes with the SX-42 bass reflex speaker (think I got the right model 
> number here, it is
> the darth vader looking one.)
>
> Thanks
> Bill, ve3jhu
>
>
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