Hi Jim – I do not know if Walt is an SK or not. When he got married later in life, he fell off the face of the earth it seems. We were pretty close and I knew him well when I also lived in VA. Another friend did the same thing, haven’t heard from him either since. 73 – Mike

Mike B. Feher, N4FS

89 Arnold Blvd.

Howell NJ 07731

908-902-3831

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Jim Whartenby via Milsurplus
Sent: Monday, June 2, 2025 1:27 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Opinions on comm receivers ?

I am of the same opinion as Glenn, they are fine receivers. I have worked on several of the FRR-23 and SRR-13 general coverage versions. I have perhaps been lucky in that I have never replaced a bad subminiature tube nor found a bad lever arm. I have found several bad coils in the antenna and RF modules. It seems that these coils do not tolerate high power RF!

I attended the auction of Dr. James Blackmon, K5VZ (SK) radio holdings back in October, 2012. It was a fast moving auction with about 450 lots. I bought perhaps a dozen of the FRR / SRR receivers. Most were in a decent physical state, a few had been through a fire and had smoke or heat damage and other fire related residue. The examples with the most damage were scrapped and the hardware and modules saved. It is not obvious but the SRR and FRR receivers although similar, are not identical. The Antenna and RF modules are completely different. It appears that all of the other modules are interchangeable but I am not 100% certain about this.

The biggest problem in restoration was replacing the tank coils in the antenna and RF modules. Instead of rewinding the coils, I just replaced them with similar coils form the second module in the lineup. I did not find any bad or weak subminiature tubes. Perhaps they are the most reliable tubes ever mass produced? In all of the KWT-6 and FRR/SRR modules repaired, I have only found one bad subminiature tube. It was in a KWT-6 TGC module. It was easy to find since it had an open heater. It seems that in the KWT-6, the mechanical filters are the biggest problem, not the subminiature tubes.

Walt Hutchens, KJ4KV (SK?) wrote an article back in 1991 on these receives. His experiences are vastly different then mine. I feel that the receiver he repaired must have been either dropped or badly damaged by the dreaded previous owner since he even ventured into the solder sealed main tuning capacitor!

Jim