[Hallicrafters] SX-88

[Carl]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Knoppow" <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>
To: <WA1KBQ at aol.com>; <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2011 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] SX-88


>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <WA1KBQ at aol.com>
> To: <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2011 5:17 PM
> Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] SX-88
>
>
>> If you do it purely for your own enjoyment it matters not
>> whether  you get
>> approval from others. If the economic side gets to  be
>> important then the
>> opinion of others starts to be important  also. Very
>> generally speaking this
>> means in order to get the maximum  benefit or enjoy the
>> equipment to its
>> maximum advantage most prewar stuff should  be maintained
>> as factory original as
>> possible but most post  war stuff should be restored to
>> proper working
>> order. The prewar stuff has very  little to offer when
>> working and the postwar
>> stuff has very little to  offer unless it does work. Most
>> prewar stuff is
>> historically significant  while very little postwar stuff
>> changed history to
>> any great degree  other than perhaps the Collins R-388.
>> Every communications
>> receiver the  various manufacturers offered right up to
>> the Collins R-388 is
>> essentially the RME-9 circuit in a different looking box.
>> The RME-9 was the
>> father of the communications receiver as we know it but
>> the Collins R-388
>> changed everything.
>>
>> Regards, Greg
>>
>
>    I would not give the R-388 this honor because it was
> relatively late in the Collins line. The real changer was
> the 75A-1. That was the first ham or commercial receiver
> with a PTO and with the Collins system of fixed, crystal
> controlled first conversion and a tunable second conversion
> L.O. The stability and calibration of the 75A was superior
> to any other receiver made at the time plus it had very good
> rejection of images and other spurs. The first of the
> general coverage Collins receivers was the 51J which came
> out about a year or two after the 75A. The 51J-1 offered
> similar performance. The later 51J receivers, including the
> R-388, which is essentially identical to the 51J-3, had some
> improvements and just changes to the original but all
> offered similar performance. Later versions of the 75A RX
> increased the coverage frequencies and offered some other
> improvements right up to the 75A-4 with its mechanical
> filters and tunable I.F. It was the first receiver to offer
> the I.F. tuning and also the first to replace the simple
> single crystal filter with a notch filter.
>     Collins ham transmitters, beginning with the 32V-1,
> 30K-1, and the 310 series of exciters, offered the same
> frequency control method as used in the receivers for
> transmitting.
>     Collins was expensive so they didn't exactly blow
> everyone else out of the water but they raised the expected
> performance of both receivers and transmitters to the point
> that the established ham manufacturers had to scramble.
> Eventually, it was not one of the "big three" that caught up
> with them but some smaller, independant, companies like
> Drake, Cosmophone, and for transmitters Central Electronics
> with their broad-band system. This is now common but was
> unique in the late 1950's.  Of course, Collins also can take
> credit for the first ham transceiver, the KWM-1. Whatever
> its faults (and there are still plenty on the air) it was,
> again, a unique box and others had to play catch-up.
>     Now, I certainly agree that most receivers from about
> the mid-thirties until late 1940s were essentially the same
> thing in different packages although there was enormous
> variation in quality and performance due to being aimed at
> different markets. The best of the bunch were probably the
> Hammarlund Super-Pro and National HRO, which were also the
> most expensive.
>
>
> --
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles
> WB6KBL
> dickburk at ix.netcom.com


According to Collins there is no 51J and others claim there was no J1. The 
J2 to J4 were real(-;

The J-1 and J-2 had the first generation PTO and none of the J series were 
very good general communications radios. Three models were introduced 
between 1949-51 with the first two not even lasting a year and with low 
production of 120, 1000, and 1800. Many never left lab enviroments until the 
first 1951 R-388 contract was built and 10,400 left the factory. OTOH the 
51J4 (9000 built) and its military R-388A (qty unknown) had long production 
life.

The RME-9 was a dog rushed to market with only 50 produced, the remainder 
were converted to the 9D. Most of the design was already in QST thanks to 
Ross Hull and others, RME simply packaged it....rather poorly.

Meanwhile James Millen and crew were already doing design work in 1933 on 
the HRO which didnt get released to production until March 1935 when Millen 
was happy. The rest is history. National wasnt satisfied with the 
shortcomings of bandswitching until 1945-46 when the coil turret cost went 
sky high with postwar inflation. The NC-173 and 183 were the best examples.

Lloyd Hammarlund, with Oskar watching, was another who took his time until 
his masterpiece was released in March 1936 and it also started in 1933.

RME continued to build crap until they finally faded away.

One of my favorite 30's receivers is the SX-17 which I use often on 80-20M.

Carl
KM1H