Owned a couple SRR-13 sets before and after you get over the display system it’s a ok receiver, tends to drift and the sub assembly construction makes it a bear to work on.  They did have a steal cam arm assembly that replaces the pot meatal one and although I did have some at one time they went with the box of spares when I sold that radio. The Hallicrafters sets are so -so and have never been a big fan of the ARR-41, that certain to piss off the Collins people.

Think the biggest issue is the days of Short Wave Broadcasting are thru and all that left is religious broadcasters for the most part so classic AM is not what it use to be.  You did ask opinion and what follows is my opinion. Think if I were going to do a list of my favorite vintage radios a couple make the top of the short list, it’s a toss up between a restored BC-348Q with AC power supply. Sorry to all the dynamotor  crowd out there but I don’t need the motor generator experience or my  RAS rack. Think nothing beats the classic HRO, HRO-5, and the HRO-MX  as far as looks and feal of the silky smooth tuning and ease of maintenance, availability of components including tubes and overall performance considering that family of radios is equal to if not exceeds noise figures and sensitivity of many of the radios built during the war and for years after.

The old HRO still performs well in the CW Sub bands on forty and eighty meters and sounds great when used on AM

As long as we are discussing opinion lets look at radios that don’t make the list. Top of the list, a radio everyone love but I think is so-so at best. The ARC-5 Command sets, receivers are as broad as barn doors, tuning ratio not good for CW work and they are low power and chirp. TCS sets, same issues with the receiver and transmitter is way under powered and if you have the original AC power supply its larger and heavier then both radios put together. Remember we are talking opinions here. The TCS like the TBX transceiver may suck as a house or band cruiser but they are a lot of fun to use in the field or out at reenactor events.

Attached s a picture of the RAS set up as my CW station, note the ARC-5 transmitter for 80 meters!

Ray F/KA3EKH

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Hubert Miller
Sent: Sunday, June 1, 2025 7:29 PM
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: [Milsurplus] Opinions on comm receivers ?

I have a bunch of old classic receivers, all need some restoration. I would appreciate your opinion on:

How difficult to work on, restore ?

Fun of operating ?

Note that i am NOT asking about how wonderful the selectivity, stability and so on, is. If i needed the state of art specs, i would acquire a machine capable of doing that.

These are hobby type radios.  I am not going to keep all of the radios named below.

SRR-13   I REALLY like the visual freq display ( that i have seen on videos )

ARR-41

SX-117  Hallicrafters

SX- 146 Hallicrafters

Also, i have some HROs:  RAS, couple HRO-5s, a German KST and a Japanse Chi Ichi.  I do not like the plug in coils that are stored separately.  
The only exception i might make is, i have a USCG R-460.

Is this an HRO-50 or the improved selectivity HRO-50-1  ?

I tend to like it, ‘cuz  “real radios have handles on front” . Honestly, that attracts me more than do a couple of the rarer HRO models named above.

Your opinion is valued.

-Hue Miller