[Hammarlund] Fair deal from Fair Radio?

[Edward Kusalik]

I thought I would add some input on this subject about Fair Radio Sales 
in Lima, Ohio.

Back in 1975, my wife and I  visited my relatives in Van Wert, Ohio, 
which is about hour's drive west of Lima. So as my wife went shopping 
with my cousins, I had the great  fortunate to visit Fair's Showroom, 
but was  warned not to spend to much.....
Being in the market for a truly reliable communications receiver, I 
spied a pile of R-388/URR-51J3's. There had to be a least twenty of 
them. I asked the sale person the cost, which was a tidied sum of 
$350.oo US. (Remember this was 1975) for the "checked".

As to the condition..well his reply.".well..that pile is "Used 
Repairable" and that pile is  "Checked" Okay, what's "checked' ..Oh just 
that they work..at least the tubes light up was his answer  So I grabbed 
the first one that looked half decent..I plugged into a wall socket, the 
tubes lit up and with a short piece of wire, I was able to pick up the 
local Radio station. As far as I was concern..it was a done sale. Now, 
my next problem was an explanation to my wife on just what I brought for 
$350 dollars.

After brief explanation( and I mean 'brief') to my wife..who eyed this 
piece of 'junk' as she referred to it, it only needed to be placed into 
a convent spot in the trunk, for the journey back to Ontario.
Bring it home, I checked the whole unit out..replaced  only one 
tube(6AK5 in the RF stage) which was bad.. And then plugged in, hocked 
up a 200 foot long wire..and  'voila"  .....DX..was rowing in. That day 
alone, I logged over 17 new stations  and five new countries on the 
short wave bands.

Over the years, other then some cosmetic repairs( built a solid mahogany 
cabinet for it) and a few tubes, the receiver out performed any thing at 
that time which I had, with out any  major  tune-ups or over haul of the 
VFO. Absolute nothing done to it......

This receiver, Collins R-388/URR-51J3 was prime DX receiver from 1975 to 
1990, after which I sold it to a gentleman in Toronto, who wanted a 
communications receiver with good audio.

In my opinion, one of the best DX machine's I ever had.

So, if you ask me, if I would venture into that showroom and look at 
that pile of receivers and pick out another one, I sure 
would........only this time I would come home with more then one.....

Edward Kusalik
VE6EFK
DX'er since 1965