So I collect vintage radios...

[orangecrush]

Not the tube stuff, but 50's through 70's solid state analog, interesting historic sets, some capable of incredibly high performance.

It is helping keep me sane.

When I simply cannot take any more Trump shitshow news, I disconnect from the internet for a while, tune in an hour before dawn or at dusk when long distance reception is at it's peak, make a nice cup of interesting coffee, preferably exotic international (this week is Phillipines Barak),
set the band selector for a.m. (great fun listening to other parts of the U.S. and Canada) or the shortwave bands, take a bite of a donut, and hear news from around the globe....

oh shit.

[Chin music]

1. That's so cool.

Why is the reception the best at those times? Does bandwith from the atmosphere work the same way as internet? Do you think activity of human beings ruins the signal or is it atmospheric? Whats the furthest away you've picked up?
Happy Memorial Day.

[orangecrush]

9. It's atmospherics

Last edited Mon May 27, 2019, 07:00 PM - Edit history (1)

It has to do with the way the sun affects layers in the earth's atmosphere.

Internet is not affected as much, but can be during solar storms.

Have a great Memorial Day!

[Chin music]

12. Very interesting.

How far away was the furthest channel you picked up?

[orangecrush]

13. on shortwave

Australia, China, Japan, Russia, Vietnam and many others!


On a.m., my longest was Louisville, Ky., over 800 miles from my location.

[aka-chmeee]

2. I do collect and restore the older tube radios, but only those with Shortwave capabilities.

And, I still do some shortwave listening. It used to be a lot more engaging, with exotic stations in remote countries, numbers, etc. It seems now to be largely christian radio ministries. I wouldn't even want a QSL card from one of those. Still catch the occasional numbers station tho. When I can't sleep, I hit the shack and listen for an hour or so and can then get back to sleep.

[orangecrush]

11. Brother Stair

is a pox on shortwave.

Almost all the greats are gone.

BBC, etc.

We still have the mighty KBC putting down some rock and roll.

But the,alternative news sources are sorely missed.

I do have a Motorola Ranger style a.m. set with mini tubes!

[Brother Buzz]

3. CONELRAD, baby!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONELRAD

[orangecrush]

14. BEAUTIFUL!

Let me raise your defcon level, with a set that actually had parts made for WW3 -

This set actually has a "Tinkertoy" module!



https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/project-tinkertoythe-forgotten-machine-built-from-early-steve-leibson

[RKP5637]

39. Wow!!! Beautiful!!! I love the rotor antenna, a great feature. Too funny, sometimes on those

where you have to move the whole radio to peak the reception you, of course, end up with the speaker in totally the wrong direction!

[orangecrush]

40. I love it

Thanks!
The case is real blue leather, and the faceplate is brass!

See if you can find that at bestbuy!

[AllaN01Bear]

4. cq cq cq de kf6uxj here . i have a old 1960s alied radio shack non tube but almost as old as i am,

havent listened to it in years . i live in a apartment and the electrical noise is sometimes unbearable. used to love listening to dx or far away stations on the rig even though its set up for ham use ( i didnt mod it , somone else did) but i can recive the 40 meter band and had lots of fun doing that . le sigh. happy dx. 73 de kf6uxj/kae4466, and to all vets and service members who are silent key.

[aka-chmeee]

18. I know how he feels,

I work part time at school as tech serviceman. Use my license to track high altitude balloons via APRS and the kids are interested during that activity but can't seem to pull their faces out of their damned phones long enough to check out all the options with an amateur radio ticket. Best 73 to hubby! Tell him to hang in there. By the time Trump is through, Hams might be the only way to send a message more than shouting distance.

[orangecrush]

19. ....

[RKP5637]

41. You know, I often think of that, there are so many potential points of failure with modern

reception/cell/internet, etc. Will we all end up back on AM/FM radio and ham post-tRump. I still have tube gear, prepared for a EMP of sorts ... well, sort of.

[orangecrush]

45. Same here!

[orangecrush]

15. 73!

You obviously have web access.

You CAN listen to shortwave!


You will love this...


https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/project-tinkertoythe-forgotten-machine-built-from-early-steve-leibson


Hope you have fun!

[orangecrush]

22. memories....

[bobbieinok]

5. I used to listen to the radio late at nite in the summer (50s) when I was in jr high

From Tulsa I could hear Denver, NOLA, Chicago, sometime Detroit, Memphis, Nashville

And always the stations over the border in Mexico.

I kept records, trying to get as far away as possible.

I had a little plastic radio my dad gave me.

[rurallib]

6. I did the same in the 50s and 60s

one of the great pleasures of summer was stay up late into the night and trying to pick up stations around the country.
From Iowa we could get about anything east of the Rockies. KOMA in Oklahoma was a favorite.

Got Boston, NYC, Philly, MSP, Atlanta, Chicago of course, St. Louis, Denver, Montreal......

[RKP5637]

8. Radio Moscow was really cool to listen to. I read an article in Popular Science or Mechanics

in the 50's about how to convert an AM radio to pickup some sw. My father let me convert one of the family radios. I took it to my bedroom and used to pickup all sorts of neat stuff at night.

[orangecrush]

23. Fond memories of Radio Moscow...

Always fun and interesting, always propaganda (just like VOA) and sometimes transparently sending coded messages to spies!

[dumbcat]

16. Seems it was quite popular for kids in the '50's

I had a Hallicrafters receiver in the 50’s, and listened to the usual Radio Moscow, BBC, and even Sputnik in 1957. I learned Morse code and got my first ham radio license in 1961 at age 12. That led to a life long career in communications and electronics. Now retired and still a very active ham.

[orangecrush]

24. Had a 1957 Hallicrafter boat anchor

(very heavy large radio, for those who wondered... )

I worked fir two aerospace contractors as QC.

It was fun and interesting to be able to use what I learned.

Always happy to have a DU ham friend!

[orangecrush]

20. My eyes are still red

from staying up last night!





There is a lot more electronic interference these days.

You got to do it in the golden age!

[RKP5637]

7. Similar here except with tube gear. I miss the days when sw was very popular. I guess it was

our internet of sorts back then. Very often I listen at night. Although religious, the station up in TN plays some really good rock music at night, sometimes, with no mention of religion. I have one of the great old Zenith Trans-Oceanics, fully restored, and in really mint condition. I've also put in all solid state tubes. There are a number of sources for solid state radios tubes. It's a lot of fun.

[Liberal In Texas]

17. Still have my Sony ICF 2010. One of the finest radios ever made.

and sadly out of production for many years now.

[RKP5637]

21. That is a great radio! I sold mine a couple of years ago in mint condition for way more

than I paid for it originally. I had put in some of the upgrades. I've seen them over $1K on eBay for a new one someone had found someplace, original box and all. Fantastic radios!!!

[Liberal In Texas]

26. Looked it up, in production from 1985-2003

Saw the one on ebay in an unopened box sold for $982. That's crazy that one would still be around unused after all these years.

I still use it now and then to listen to aircraft traffic.

[blm]

28. Not really surprised. Habitat for Humanity gets a lot of donations from estates

and downsizers where there are plenty of Christmas and birthday gifts that were never used....many still in boxes.

[Liberal In Texas]

29. And I suppose some lucky person might run across one at an estate sale.

There's a forum with folks who have these radios where they trade advice on keeping them in repair and stories about how they were able to find used ones in thrift shops etc.
https://groups.io/g/SonyICF20102001Dusergroup

Interesting factoid: The ICF 2001 was exactly the same radio as the 2010 but without the aircraft band. They were produced for sale in countries that forbid listening to aircraft traffic...like Great Britain.

[orangecrush]

25. I saw an analog Sony today

Looked similar, with double conversion!


That is one great radio!

[ramblin_dave]

33. Thers one on ebay for $185 plus $15 shipping

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-ICF-2010-Shortwave-Radio-Receiver-AM-FM-Air/133064996816?hash=item1efb4ab7d0:g:W-kAAOSw~8lc6sj7

[Liberal In Texas]

34. Could be a good price, depends a lot on the condition.

And hard to tell on an internet posting. Looks pretty good, but a little worn.

[orangecrush]

35. It was an ICF-SW20 I saw

I almost got burnt!

The seller was in Bulgaria, I scanned the comments on Etsy and saw that someone else had retirned the radio as defective!

[USALiberal]

27. Do you have a TR1? nt

[orangecrush]

31. The Vanguard...

or the Regency pocket?

And, no.

Nice radios though!

[USALiberal]

38. I meant Regency. I wonder if they still work. Capacitors fail I hear mostly. nt

[orangecrush]

42. The great news

is these radios can be recapped at a reasonal cost, and once done, are good for another 70 years and will play like you remember them!

[RKP5637]

53. Pricey! There's one on eBay now for US $1,100.00. Seems just a a tiny bit way high!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/First-Gen-Regency-tr1-transistor-radio-w-original-leather-case-great-conditiOn/122881913272?hash=item1c9c5531b8:g:Ur0AAOSwc2FaNsPS

[orangecrush]

57. Just saw one for $90

That looked nice!

Unused in the box shoots the price way up!

[elleng]

30. Try listening to MY station:

https://weta.org/listen-live

24/7 MUSIC, PBS NewsHour @ 7 p.m.

[orangecrush]

32. WQLN, Erie Pa. NPR

Listening now!

[elleng]

36. Good, and LATER:

https://weta.org/fm/playlists

7:58 pm
Symphony #1 in E Major, Op. 5 "Slavic"
Alexander Glazunov
Royal Scottish National Orchestra | José Serebrier (conductor)

8:34 pm
Brandenburg Concerto #5
Johann Sebastian Bach
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | Sir Neville Marriner (conductor) >>>>

[orangecrush]

43. wonderful classical music!

Enjoy!

[Bavorskoami]

37. My SW radios

My first experiences with searching the radio bands were in the Army using big old R-390A's and other military equipment while sitting in a Quonset hut on a mountain top along the Iron Curtain.

Over 40 years ago I bought a Panasonic RF1150 and used it a lot to listen to Radio Luxembourg in the 49 meter band - which I enjoyed overseas. Also I would try to find transmissions focusing on ships a sea and German or Czech language stations, but it was set to Radio Lux most of the time. The Panasonic had replaced radios I had overseas made by Nordmende or Telfunken For a while I took Radio Shack DX-399 with me on trips. That one you could even call a pocket-sized radio. It got pretty beat up so a couple of years ago I got a Tecsun PL-880. It's OK, but the disappointing thing nowadays is that there do not seem to be many good SW broadcasters left and I can find streaming internet stations from all of the world on my smartphone.

So those old pastimes of searching the airwaves are long gone for me.

[orangecrush]

44. Did your RF-1150 look like this?

[url=https://ibb.co/HrFNhdT][img][/img][/url]
[url=https://imgbb.com/]image uploader free[/url]


Thanks for your service!

I love this radio.

It has a military ruggedness about it, as do most of the Panasonic "Cougar" series!

Thanks for sharing the story!

Was watching a youtube vid, a guy IN Siberia with a Sony ICF-SW20, got about 2 signals on the thing!

[Bavorskoami]

46. RF-1150

Yes, that's exactly the model. I bought it a Lafayette Radio store - remember those?

[orangecrush]

58. There was no Lafayette store in my area

but I read about them.

Unbuilt kits from them go for big money.

They were kind of an early Radio Shack.

Oh, and that is my rf-1150!

Great radio!

[Dave Starsky]

52. SW is a dried-up toilet anymore.

Gone are the days when it was a treasure trove of international splendor... fascinating music, news, and commentary from around the world. Now it's almost 100% religious kooks, ads for prepper products, and, of course, good old Radio Havana, which will never give up.

My beloved SW radio, which I'd had for decades, finally bit the dust a few years ago. I didn't replace it.

[Tribalceltic]

47. This was the Hook that get me into Ham Radio

de KF2MH

[orangecrush]

50. Nice!

Built like a battleship!

[Poiuyt]

48. Did anyone used to listen to that rock station in Little Rock late at night back in the 60s?

[orangecrush]

49. Out of my area

but sounds interesting.

[Poiuyt]

55. It was out of my area too--I'm in Wisconsin

But late at night, after all the other stations would go off the air, you could hear it.

I used to keep a log of all the stations I heard at night. Great fun!

[orangecrush]

56. It is fun!

I keep a log too!

[yardwork]

51. Bookmark

[orangecrush]

59. Thanks!

[Elwood P Dowd]

54. My Drake shortwave got killed by a lightening strike a few years ago

and I later gave my old Zenith Transoceanic (1950s tube type) to a relative. Shortwave is now mostly right wing nuts, preachers, etc. so I rarely listen to the only one I have left.

My parents didn't have a TV back when I was a kid until the late 1950s, so I grew up listening to tube type radios. Got a transistor radio for Christmas around 1960. It didn't sound as good as the older (and much bigger) tube radios, but I could carry that thing everywhere and listen to WLS Chicago, WLAC Nashville, and other distant stations at night.

[orangecrush]

60. A moment of silence for the Drake

A wonderful radio, cut down in it's prime.




The five tubers that were in nearly every American house sounded better than most transistors. There were a few exceptions.

The early 70's were a wonderland for f.m. radio in my area. The stereo coming from some of them could blow your socks off. The high fidelity transmitters that produced quality stereo were also expensive to run, what you hear from most f.m. stations today is low fi crap.

[Elwood P Dowd]

63. You are right about the early 1970s.

Beautiful receivers and FM tuners from Kenwood, Pioneer, Sansui, Harman Kardon, Sony, Sherwood, and others back then. I had a Kenwood receiver, Dual turntable, and AR speakers around 1971-72. Later moved up to separate power amp-preamp-tuner with bigger JBL speakers around 1974. A nice Thorens manual replaced the Dual which was moved to the bedroom system. Later got the audiophile bug and moved to Dahlquist DQ-10s, Audio Research, Linn Sondek, and other goodies.

[orangecrush]

64. What happened?

I used to put the big headphones on my girlfriends perfectly domestic console Magnavox, not the ones with the Chinese 3/8 dinky jack, but the big one... and the stereo seperation sounded like Pink Floyd "Dark Side" was moving a hundred feet in each direction back and forth!

What the hell happened?

[ReformedGOPer]

61. I've been in the hospital for 9 days, and for the first 5 of them I was

unable and unwilling to look at anything in the news. Now I'm back and realize what a relief it was to take a break.

[orangecrush]

62. Understand completely

and I'm lad you are on track to good health and recovery!