[Premium-Rx] WJ Rcvrs

[Terry O'Laughlin]

I have to disagree with John Reed.  I've owned a couple dozen CEI, WJ and 
LTV (repackaged CEI) receivers.  The older stuff is wonderful, the pinnacle 
of engineering for its time.  They solved problems with finesse rather than 
clobbering problems with hordes of mechanical engineers (ala Collins).  But 
I don't believe the older stuff was better.

Side by side, the 340A is much quieter and more sensitive than the 
357.  For filtering, you need to compare apples to apples.  The 340A came 
with many different combinations of filters, most with good shape 
factors.  There were many options, including ones with wider bandwidths 
(like 20/50/100/300 kHz).   Maybe the following versions would be more 
palatable:

340A-4     0.15/1/3/30kHz
340A-6     0.15/1/20/75kHz
340A-7     0.4/1/2/5/10kHz
340A-8     0.3/1/3/20/50kHz

I had a -7, which had great filters.

The construction quality is also the same, but it changed to reflect the 
changing nature of the technologies.  The 357 needed all that precision, 
mass based construction because air variable capacitor tuning requires it 
for stability.  My 340A was more stable than either of the 357s I owned, 
especially within 30 minutes of power up.  Perhaps John's 340A had power 
supply regulation problems.

The 357 is loaded with germanium transistors.  They get leaky.  They get 
noisy.  Replacements are hard to come by.  And heaven help you if one of 
the little gold flat-pack Fairchild ICs in the counter goes to meet it's 
maker.  It is a nice receiver, but I'll take a 340A over a 357 any day.

Terry O'