[Hallicrafters] SX-88 Testing Results from Jay, W1VD

[WA1KBQ at aol.com]

Many thanks to Jay for his diligence in finding and obtaining  a suitable 
candidate to restore and test and for posting the story of his  particular 
receiver, his observations about it and the results of his  testing. In 
typical as-found condition SX-88 receivers generally don't  work very well because 
they were originally built with around 50 of  the worst offending paper 
capacitors ever made (outside of Micamolds) that  have seriously degraded over 
the years to the point of splitting open and  leaking oil all over 
everything not to mention the dozens of resistors  that have drifted higher. It is 
common to find SX-88's with some of the easy to  get to parts replaced but the 
difficult ones are often not addressed  while the owner hopes the receiver 
will at least be a little  better. 
 
Maybe the SX-88 is similar to the old Corvette  syndrome where it is common 
to find junkers that sell for far too much  and good ones which sell below 
their true value. Perhaps SX-88's  should not be multi-kilobuck items but 
the receiver presents a bit of a paradox  and if you want one what other 
choice do you have but either buy a good one  someone else has restored or build 
one for yourself? Unless you have gone down  that road you can not really 
know what a good SX-88 truly is.  That is until now, thanks to Jay's 
commendable work.
 
What would you say is the value of Jay's receiver? What value would you  
place on his time when you consider the amount of effort it took to achieve  
those results? Not every SX-88 has been brought back to the standards of  
Jay's receiver.
 
Regards, Greg

 
 
In a message dated 4/13/2012 2:39:17 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
ka1kaq at gmail.com writes:

There  has been more than a little talk over the years of what an  
incredibly
amazing receiver the Hallicrafters SX-88 is, perhaps to justify  the high
collector pricing more than anything. Any user I ever spoke with  said sure,
it's a nice receiver, well made, nice fidelity, etc. - just not  a
multi-kilobuck receiver.

Now you can judge for yourself. Jay  Musgrove/W1VD has taken the time in
recent years to review, restore, and  test a number of receivers from the
boatanchor end of the spectrum. A few  months back he picked up a nice SX-88
and gave it a complete going through  including a proper alignment, before
putting it through its  paces.

His results can be found  here:

http://www.w1vd.com/HallicraftersSX-88.html

For  comparisons to other receivers of the time as well as an explanation of
the  measurements, procedures, and test set up used, look  here:

http://www.w1vd.com/BAreceivertest.html

Very informative,  it should be very enlightening to those interested in the
'go' in addition  to or instead of the 'show' aspect of numerous receivers
from days of  yore.

TNX to Jay for the effort he puts into his work and for sharing  it with us.
Truly a labor of love.

~ Todd,   KA1KAQ/4
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