[Spooks] equipment

[Milspec390 at aol.com]

Amen to that. Started as kid, 1963, tube-type Zenith Transoceanic. Next,  
Nova-Tech Pilot II, ca. 1965. This had Beacon, Broadcast, and 'Marine Band'. You 
still could hear police calls between about 1800 and 1900 KHZ. Also had VHF 
Aero band - Wow!! They're on E-bay to this day. Dynamic range not great, but it 
is a TRF. Has DF bar atop receiver body, can DF on Aero band also. 
Calibration? About what you'd expect on a slide-rule scale. Stability? OK for AM, no BFO, 
too drifty. Yet this set provided years of fine listening, and it still does. 
Have several examples of this and its relative,  Bendix Navigator 400. Run 
forever on 4 AA penlights. Good disaster/emerg receiver.  Wrap a few turns of 
wire around DF bar, toss out window or screw to your sliding door frame, ground 
other end. You'll get Saskatchewan.  Not a great radio by current standards,  
but with all black gloss plastic cabinet and semi-mil look, it's 'cool', an 
asset in every shack. 
   Heard my first spook station on it, late one evening, in Nassau, Bahamas, 
about a mile west of East End Lighthouse, and two miles north of the RAF HF 
COMMSTA,  in March of 1969, EE four-digit groups,  around four megs. Used to 
beat local oscillator of another receiver against this set, to pull SSB. Crude & 
effective, by 1969 standards.
  One can get into this hobby for a couple dollars,  it's all fun.

  Oh, first receiver, a 'crystal set', using 1N34 diode, turns of wire around 
toilet paper tube, as outlined in World Book Encyclopedia,  1960 edition. 
Cost? About fifty cents. Thought I'd died and went to heaven. Sat up all night 
listening to the Mighty Twelve-Ninety, WICE, Providence, RI, as they played The 
Cookies, "Don't say nothing (Bad about my baby),  three times during the Jack 
Burns show. Set also tuned into 160 meter amateur band, heard first hams on 
'phone'.  It's about fun, one needn't spend much. 

                                                                              
     Amateurishly,

                                                                              
    Paul V. Zecchino

Englewood, FL