[Hammarlund] Collins or Hammarlund?

[Todd Bigelow - PS]

Roy Morgan wrote:

> I pass along the old advice:
>
> If you want to know WHERE they are, get a Collins.
> If you want to HEAR them, get a Hammarlund. 

Bah. Not true. Amusing old saying, sure - but not true. Just looking at 
the differences in sensitivity/selectivity/noise figures and the rest, 
it's pretty clear that the Collins gear is tough to beat. The main 
difference being that Collins gear was produced more with 
"communications quality" audio in mind, not Hi Fi audio. But even 
comparing between the crystal and mechanical filtering of, say - the 
51J-3 and 'J-4, the audio of the J-3 is much more appealing to the ears 
than the J-4's tinny/ringing mechanical filters. Same thing applies to 
the R-390 and later 'A' model. Mechanical filtering is much better for 
crowded/noisy conditions though, so (making a case for more radios) it's 
always good to have one of each. Mechanical-filtered radios don't sound 
bad, mind you - just not as good as others in broad audio terms.

As far as the statement about SP-600 being "too drifty", this is just 
another old wives' tale. Would the government really have procured that 
many if it was really THAT bad? Not likely. Keep in mind, this was 
before the day of $600 toilet seats and $100 hammers. It's most 
generally a case of the user not know what they are doing with the 
radio. Case in point: My SP-600 drifted all over hell and back. I'd 
heard the same stories as some are spewing here and believed them. Why? 
I didn't know any better. Then through the kindness and knowledge of 
someone who had owned many SP-600s (Les Locklear), I was told about the 
power input taps on the transformer. Les told me to check the tap, see 
which one was being used, and that it would likely need to be moved to 
the next-higher voltage tap. So I gave it a try. Lo and behold - it 
worked. No more drift (well, beyond normal warm up and what one would 
expect from a radio of this age, Collins or otherwise). I said "most 
generally" above because it's possible the radio could have other issues 
as well like weak/bad tubes or components which would need to be 
addressed as well. That doesn't make the SP-600 a bad radio though, it 
makes it a broken radio that needs fixing. So for me, the stability of 
the SP-600 is not opinion, it is fact. It was also a fact that it did 
drift when not operated properly.

Craig, if you're still with us at this point I'd add the following: some 
people state their opinion as fact and forget that it's an opinion, so 
don't put too much thought into any one 'statement'. Take them 
collectively and sift out the chaff. R-390(*) receivers are much more 
complex maintenance-wise than the SP-600 but the modular design lets you 
service one section at a time, more easily. More to do, but easier 
overall IMHO. SP-600 is a more typical layout and easier to service in 
that respect, but the band turret is a bear to work on, which makes the 
overall job more difficult IMHO. I've seen some people absolutely bash 
Hallicrafters gear, yet I love the SX-28A I own as well as the SX-115 
and SX-62B. As Bill Marx touched on, they're all the 'best' in some way, 
at some time, to someone. If you want excellent audio, get one of the 
Hallicrafters models with push/pull 6V6s and pump it into a decent older 
Jensen speaker. If you want a band cruiser that is easy to tune and has 
respectable performance and specifications, get an SP-600. Want 
something rock-solid-stable to pull out stations in crowded or noisey 
band conditions? Get any of the Collins models with a PTO and mechanical 
filtering. What about a radio that tunes as smoothly as the SP-600 and 
is as quiet and sensitive as, say....an R-390A?  Yes, such a beast 
exists: It's called the RACAL RA-17 or 117. Very novel dial set up, 
too.  Roy has my RA-17UC now, silly me for letting it go!

So... is a 51S-1 'as good as' the R-390A? No, but it wasn't meant to be. 
For what it was designed to do (compact, table top receiver with 
excellent stability, very good sensitivity, simple to operate), nothing 
holds a candle to it in an 'apples to apples' comparison of that 
timeframe. Is the SX-28 as good as the SX-88 feature-for-feature? Nope, 
but it's from another time and is still an awfully lot of fun to listen 
to and use. SP-600 and R-390 are pretty much contemporaries, and each is 
better than the other is some ways.

The easy answer? Buy as many different models and types as you can, keep 
what you like, get rid of the rest. There's a reason Roy and others have 
'both types, in numbers'. Those who know the radios know why having some 
of each is best. I'll have another RACAL one day, it's a great receiver. 
Didn't have the time to fix the intermittent in one of the tube sockets 
(they aren't what you'd call 'easy' to work on) and Roy really needed 
another project. He was just jumping up and down saying "I need more 
projects!". I heard him way up north here.

Not sure if the water is more clear or more muddy now, but there it is. 
Good luck and enjoy -

de Todd/'Boomer'  KA1KAQ