Well, the hallicrafters (small h) I can tell you about. Mid to late 1930's
technology, quite nice for the time. Heavy, of course. The main dial was
usually within 20 to 50 kc (kHz) and it had what would now be considered an
unacceptable amount of drift. The drill was to use the bandspread to zero
beat the main dial against your crystal reference oscillator.
Which transferred the error to the bandspread dial so you said to yourself
"Self,
there's 14.200, and QST sez I'm supposed to listen for the AC4 (Tibet) on
14.225 so turn the bandspread up 25 kc and he should be around here
somewhere." Hmmm.
The simple diode detector did not/does not really shine on SSB. And the
crystal filter is another item that would not pass muster these days. BUT for
it's day it was about as good as it gets. Just like a '39 Lincoln Zephyr.
And just like with cars, the post WWII recievers such as the SX88, SX96, and
SX99 were much better, cost less, and could be moved without giving the
movers a hernia.
73 Pete Allen AC5E
|