[Hallicrafters] SX-42 Pedestal?

[mac]

Remember my mouth watering as a kid in the late 1940's looking at the  
SX-42 listing in the Allied Radio catalog.  Finally go my first one  
and restored it a few years ago after many years of owing/using  
Collins National, RCA (AR-88), RME, military, etc. receivers.  Having  
said all that, guess I found the old -42, ah...,   disappointing.   
Great looking radio IMHO, but Hallicrafters tried to stuff too much  
into one box.  Lousy SSB performance in stock form (adding a product  
detector and some upgrades to the AGC made a BIG difference).  FM  
works OK but nothing special and mono, of course.  Also, the use of a  
single knob with a mechanical switch-over between general coverage and  
bandspread quickly gets tiresome.  Separate knobs like on the -43 a  
better idea.

Glad I have it though.

Dennis D. W7QHO
Glendale, CA



On Jul 13, 2010, at 4:00 PM, Bob Macklin wrote:

> What's so special about SX-42s? They are not exactly good looking  
> units.