Opinions on Favorite Receivers

[TomLeiperSWL]

It's been a few years, so I thought it was high time this fight was resumed.

1. Smoothest, "hi-fi" broadcast audio I ever heard was from my AR-88, which I traded to a guy in Ohio fifteen years ago for...

2. My R-390 non "A" which is, in fact, the "best receiver ever made". Not a band cruiser for sure, but cannot be beaten for point to point or monitoring, and I listen to lots of aviation and oddball stuff. I use mine with a CV-157... lots of receive options and plenty of heat between the two of them in the winter.

3. R-390A is very good, but not as sensitive as the '390 and as others I find the ringing and passband ripple of the mechanical filters irritating. I only use it in heavy QRM, usually CW, or wide open for broadcast, primarily baseball games in the summer.

4. SP-600 - The best "band cruising" radio by far, and I used to use mine with the CV-157 before I moved it into my living room (photo attached). With the CV-157 feeding LSB and USB into a pair of stereo headphones you could "hear" signals to the "left" and "right" as you tuned that big, beautiful, balanced band spread knob and quickly lock in those intermittent clandestine and military signals. That was a great setup, but I decided to overhaul my old SP, give it a new paint job and install it in the cherry entertainment unit, and the CV-157 would have looked a bit out of place.

Anyway, those are my favorites, I still have the SP, 390 and 390A, and my instructions to my heirs are to have them melted down and cast into a lid for my coffin... yes, I am going to take them with me. Sorry.

[k9ing]

First rcvr I had was  a BC312, I was 13 and new novice in '57, loved it, then a Halli S40b, Drakes 1a & 2b, 75S3 for 35 years, now K3 xcvr which has a super rcvr in it. I also had an SX100 and NC300 on AM recently, just got a 75A4. I have loved them all because they all pulled signals from the sky, had most fun with 312 & S40; likely because I was a kid starting out at a fascinating time in ham radio. See you on 3885 es 73, Bob K9ING

[iw5ci]

I have some nice receivers and some opinions about them.
At first it is important to be shure that your receiver is in good mech/Electrical shape, because you cannot evaluate a receiver that is not aligned or restored with another that is.
For example my recapped sp-600 is a completely different receiver than before recapping, even if even before restoration it was perpecly working in all band and with a good sensibility.

Here are some impressions on my vintage receivers in AM MODE:

Hammarlund sp-600:
very sensitive, and with very good stability and selectivity. Stock Audio poor, but if i use the diode output to an amplifier the audio became astonishing.
It's my bandcruise receiver.

Hammarlund sp-200 superpro:
Great stock audio, less stable than sp-600, selectivity is continuously selectable, very good performer, nice for bandcruising but difficulty resectable
without frequency meter.

Collins 390:

Sensibility and selectivity even better that SP-600 , average stock audio, but incredible with an amplifier hoocked at the diode output. Stable as a rock , no problem in resetting the operating freq. without frequency meter. Maybe the best tube receiver ever. Not suitable for bandcruising.

RCA AR-88:

One of my favourite receivers. Stable , great stock audio, very good ssb reception even if has no product detector. Very professional.

HALLICRAFTERS SX-28:

the best looking vintage receiver. with very good stock audio, and incredible performance for it's age. it work good even in ssb . Filters are smooth but very effective. Quite stable .

if you get one of them , you will be satisfied.

Hammarlund HQ-180AC:

war mode receiver, good for crowded bands in ssb. in AM it's too narrow. Very good selectivity but not HIFI reception.

NATIONAL NC-303:

Good performer, some problems with intermodulation in 40 meters, very good am and ssb reception but only in ham bands.

BC-348H:

Broad as a barn door, but if the band is not crowded the reception is really good with flat response.


Drakes:

I have R2B/C R4/B/C and they the best receivers for ssb and CW. In am the performance is good but the selectivity at 4.8 khz is too narrow.

Hallicrafters SX-115 / SX-101

very different each other, the first is really one of the best SSB receivers for ham bands (even if drake 2B is quite the same in 1/3 of the weight).
Good audio but too narrow in AM. The second is too heavy and the reception in am is average. Nice in SSB.

i have 2 main am shacks. the first uses SP-600 and collins 390
the second AR-88 and superpro 200. the first is boosted by big hifi speakers and amplifier.

the second uses big speaker direcly drived but the tubes of the radio PA.

i like them both...

[W8ACR]

Has anybody ever used a Ten Tec RX-340? - $4K+                Wondering if'n it's worth it?

Ron

[Steve - K4HX]

I've used it. It's nice but you could spend $4k in a much more useful fashion in amateur radio and/or receivers.

Or, in other words, no.

[W2VW]

I've used it. It's nice but you could spend $4k in a much more useful fashion in amateur radio and/or receivers.

Or, in other words, no.

How can you be so sure?

[Steve - K4HX]

I've used one off and on for about the last 6-8 years.

[KL7OF]

I've used one off and on for about the last 6-8 years.

I like a user report......

[W1RC]

The receivers that have been discussed are ALL great iconic radios having owned them all at one point or another.  However, to answer the question I would have to say that for "just monitoring" around the HF bands my favourite receiver is my venerable Collins 51S-1 with the weighted tuning knob and the 55G-1 200-2000 kc preselector.  This judgement is based on the overall size of the footprint, weight of the radio simplicity of operations and the sound that comes out of the speaker. 

However for overall spectrum coverage my favourite is my ICOM R-2500 with the DSP and P25 digital mode modules computer controlled receiver.  It allows me to listen to just about everything from DC to daylight.  The R2500 comes with a detachable front panel so it doesn't require a computer to operate and can be taken and used anywhere as it requires only 12 VDC and the current drain is very minimal.

I understand that this particular piece of equipment goes beyond the scope of this Forum as it is the size of a hardcover book and weighs a couple of pounds.  However it offers the most versatility and flexibility and cost just under one kiloBuck including the P25 module.

73,

MrMike, W1RC

[WQ9E]

The RX-340 looks great but performs just OK.  I test drove one for a week a couple of years ago and decided it wasn't a keeper at the going price and I have a very difficult time saying no to equipment   Keep in mind this is now a 14 year old design and although most of us are heavily into vintage gear this is a new product that has fallen behind the state of the art but doesn't yet qualify as a vintage classic.  DSP hardware and software has made great leaps forward during this time period.

At the time I was testing the 340 I was just getting used to recently acquired Telefunken E-1501 and SRT CR-91 receivers and I quickly realized for higher end receivers I much preferred the sound and overall behavior of these earlier non-DSP mechanical filter based receivers. 

The Watkins Johnson WJ-8716 is also a nice higher end receiver with excellent AM audio.  For true vintage  my current favorites are the SX-88 and SX-73.  The SX-88 provides a nice combination of smooth tuning, good filtering via its high Q 50 Khz. IF, nice audio, and good looks.  The SX-73/R-274 also has a nice tuning system and although the selectivity doesn't compare with the SX-88 the 6 position selectivity allowing 3 choices with and without the simple crystal filter generally provides the needed level of selectivity although the shape factors aren't nearly as good as those of the SX-88.  My SX-73 had a 2 speed tuning knob added and although I originally planned to return it to stock the additional 6 to 1 ratio of the concentric slow speed knob provides silky smooth fine tuning for SSB and CW.

Favorites are always subject to change depending upon receiver wants and needs along with new discoveries

 

[Les Locklear]

R-390/URR, a real man's radio, shame that the R-390A/URR doesn't have the same quality components.

SP-600 Best flywheel tuning ever invented. Once you replace all the bad tubular caps it's one of the best band cruisers ever!

RCA CR-88A Superb audio, nice geared tuning heavy in the cabinet.

Racal RA.17C12 what can I say? This one has no Hunt's or Plessey capacitors lurking in any of the modules and virtually about 80% of the resistors have been replaced. Product detector and noise/audio filter circuitry added. This is a superb receiver and will be mine until I reach room temperature, (it's been spoken for). This is the main tube receiver in the shack now.

I've gone through close to 200 receivers in my one time quest for the "Holy Grail" of receivers..........a hint, it doesn't exist.

The most used receiver in the shack is a highly modified Icom IC-746 (not Pro), extra am filters, the troublesome backlit disply is gone along with associated circuitry and in it's place is a strip of 4 white leds. Microphone jack removed, a 4 position rotary switch added, attenuate, off, pre-amp 1, pre-amp 2. A 455 kHz if output added to use a Sherwood SE-3 Synchronous Detector. And, the resistor network that reduced the broadcast bands was removed. It tunes dc to daylight as well as 2 and 6 meters. Very quiet and a great receiver.

Regarding the Ten Tec RX-340, I owned one back in 2005-2006. Mixed thoughts, spectacular front panel layout, very impressive, sync detector is a joke, cannot use pass-band tuning in am (another joke), noise limiter useless...........but it does have 58 if bandwidths I owned another Ten Tec at the same time, the RX-350D, it had a much better noise reduction system, better sync detector, but, only 34 if filters . I sold the RX-340 and kept the RX-350D.

There were many others, but I no longer own them and one shouldn't speak ill of the departed.

I'm sure I'll hear from Carl on this one departing shot......National HRO-500, nice receiver ran cool, stable, looked cool, but they sure didn't have strong am signals in mind on that front end design. Good thing it had a good attenuator selector. It would overload on strong am signals like a cheap AA5 with no agc action. Yes, it was working properly. But, ssb worked great.

As usual, YMMV tax and title extra.

[W3RSW]

I've used one off and on for about the last 6-8 years.

 I like a user report......

...Really.
Using semiphore flags or keys;

Typically: http://www.eham.net/reviews/review/32351

Or a little more critically: http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?350152-Ten-Tec-RX-340-what-are-its-competitors

[Steve - K4HX]

You have to remember the RX-340 was Ten-Tec's competition/replacement for the WJ8716 and the WJ8711. This was when DSP in receivers was mostly in its infancy. Todays crop of SDRs are vastly superior (even the inexpensive ones).

The RX-340 combines the worst of knobs on the front panel and electronic menus. The audio is poor. Les covered some of the other weak points.

[W2VW]

I've used one off and on for about the last 6-8 years.

That is a satisfactory explanation.

[SM6OID]

Hi!

Well, I thinkt that there is not much to add, from my side, to what has been said.
I have the following receivers SP-600 JX-21, Teledyne R-390A/URR, 51J-4, SRT CR91, SRT CR90, SRT CR302A, RF-590 and a Russian R-326. Yes, not to forget BC312 and 348. I have a Sherwood SE-3 sync detector that I use together with one of my R-390A. Depending on the purpose of the listening, I use different receivers. I'm not sure I can point out a favourite, but the SRT stuff sure are good receivers.

I just have to add, The Russian R-326 is NOT the kind of receiver that you hook up to a big antenna.
It overloads very easily. It covers the range 1-20 MHz. Inside you will find 19 tubes and a few germanium transistors. (Transistors are used in the high voltage converter) Here comes the surprise(?);
READ THIS... The power consumption is approx 2.5 W! It is powered by two NiCd cells or by a main power supply, it draws slightly less than 1 A if the illumination is turned off, when it's on just above 1.0 A.
It is not really super rock solid, buy quite OK I must say, the drift is very low. (matter of definition)
SSB audio quality is, I must say, quite good.  

The "user inerface" of the SRT CR91 is superb, easy to understand and to use.    

[K5UJ]

There have been 2 or 3 of these Harris RF-590 rx auctioned off on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Harris-RF-590-Receiver-50016-349-/390563555411
someone must have bought up a few surplus.

Anyone have any experience with this thing?  Another RX340?  They've been going for around $1200, more than I want to spend by about $1000.

[WBear2GCR]

TomSWL,

Is that your own custom paint job on the SP-600? The tuning bezels are stock but polished?

Looks tremendous!

           

[KL7OF]

My favorite receiver is like my favorite motorcycle.....The one I'm using right now....

[Opcom]

It's been a few years, so I thought it was high time this fight was resumed.

1. Smoothest, "hi-fi" broadcast audio I ever heard was from my AR-88, which I traded to a guy in Ohio fifteen years ago for...

2. My R-390 non "A" which is, in fact, the "best receiver ever made".

3. R-390A is very good, but not as sensitive as the '390 and as others I find the ringing and passband ripple of the mechanical filters irritating.

4. SP-600 - The best "band cruising" radio by far

mostly agreeable but the SX-28 is my favorite for sound quality and SWL.

[KM1H]

Here are my choices based upon almost 60 years experience.They are some of the radios I own or have worked on at factory/depot level for general coverage and ham use:


SX-73/R-274 and 274D by Hallicrafters. An alternate to the SP-600 which is one of my least liked radios. I have a civilian SX-73 (pretty scarce) and a never installed R-274D; much better band cruisers than the 600 on small antennas but the front end overloads as built on big antennas as do many purpose built military radios; better single ended audio and less drift (A Hammarlund trademark) also. Single knob tuning with a great gear reduction drive and turret bandswitching for low loss.

SX-28/SX-32  still the ones to compare to and a few simple mods make them better on the higher bands. PP 6V6 audio.

SX-25 Classic 2 dialer looks and an adequate performer up thru 20M. PP 6F6.

SX-17 if you want that mid 30's look, rugged and almost as good as the SX-28. PP 6V6's.  Hallicrafters first set with 2 RF stages and a lot easier to work on.

SX-88  Overhyped, overpriced. A bit better than the NC-183D is about it. Great looking tho.

NC-183  A little weak on selectivity but quite sensitive and stable after a rebuild. The NBS-1 and NC-183R versions have a 3rd IF stage plus selectable IF selectivity. A decent battle radio when needed but also has full fidelity capability. All have PP 6V6's. I turned JN on to the NBS-1.

NC-183D  Double conversion and miniature tubes; lots of IF transformers so AM audio is not full bandwidth; some stagger tune or swamp the IF's. One of the best of the AM battle cruisers with prices climbing. PP 6V6 of course and the last of the NC family using them.

NC-400 (An updated NC-183D by committee and marketing idiots) Done up properly and with some front end mods it is hard to beat for digging out the weak ones on the highest bands. Seven band positions gives nice tuning on GC. It really needs the mechanical filter adapter, the IF selectivity selections are a bit funky for AM. So so audio out of a single 6AQ5. Real strange looking.

HRO to HRO-7 Superior sensitivity for the era but typical 2 IF plus single crystal filter selectivity
NC-200 and NC-240D bandswitching HRO's with the sliding turret plus PP 6V6's Often sleepers at fests and Fleabay

HRO-50  similar to the NC-183. PP 6V6

HRO-50-1 Another IF stage but no selectable IF selectivity

HRO-60 Similar to the NC-183D in many respects. W1VD rates it the highest in audio and its right there with the R-390A in sensitivity and overload handling. Getting very expensive considering loads were made from 1952-68. PP 6V6

HQ-180/A  Can be made into a great radio with some work. Ive stabilized them, eliminated the 6C4 crap out and rebuilt the audio for AM. Silver mica disease in the IF's is still a PITA. A modified Lamb Noise Silencer was optional and worth finding.

SP-200/military and SP-400. The 400 has HFO temperature compensation which can be applied to the earlier ones including the SP-100 which settles them right down. The ones that only go to 20mc can get away with the horrible front end tubes some of the time but the SP-400X that covers to 30mc that I use required some rework. There are loads of good mods on these plus some real junk. Still dirt cheap for the 200/400 and the SP-100 has reached collector status

HQ-120X/129X/140X  One of the best BCB DX radios built, fantastic dial readout.

51J4  Great on small antennas without mods. As with all Collins the mechanical filters are showing their age and often need new foam insulators inside. There were several R-388's built at depot level with the J4 filters for the military as the R-388A. A junker J4 can provide all that is needed as it was simply a kit from Collins.

R-390   A PITA to rebuild and keep running; not worth the time IMO.

R-390A other than aging mechanical filters creating distortion it is still the standard. Pick your favorite mods

R-725  Find one or clone your own  Ive an eye on an original. It is pretty much a 390A with a 390 IF chassis custom made for data and no phase delay.

51S1  A piece of overloading and birdy filled POS on a good antenna. Keep it in a lab.

GPR-90  Love it or hate it, still one of the best looking ever made.

RCA  USN RBB and RBC are in a class of their own. They seldom show and are gone fast. These radios define battle conditions in more ways than just on 75M!

Racal RA-17/117  A PITA to work on but when done the performance is pretty impressive and typical high end commercial grade. Covers .5 to 30mc with selectable bandwidths including 6.5 and 13 kc.

I dont care for the AR-88 and RME never built a good radio.



For ham bands only Im partial to:

75A4 highly modified to be a great radio

75A2 and A3, mods to improve the AGC for AM, they are pretty pathetic as is the earlier A2 front end.

NC-101X  Covers 160-10M ham bands (no 15M then) only, excellent sensitivity with the sliding turret and PP 6F6's. Debuted in 1937 and lasted to WW2. Somewhat a sleeper.

National NC-300/303   Great tuning and dial, very stable HFO, even on 10M. IF selections and crystal filter for battle conditions or a wide open band. Excellent adjustable noise limiter. Use modern components selected for 1% tolerance or less in the IF filters for steeper skirts, widen the AM passband if wanted. Simple fix to improve audio and crystal control the NC-300 2nd oscillator for stability on SSB/CW.

HQ-170/170A Similar to the HQ-180/A above.

Drake R4B  Poor mans R4C, very nice for semi tight AM conditions.

Drake R4C  Needs lots of mods to be world class, not really an AM radio

SX-115 great radio but no 160 and only one sideband on AM if you want some fidelity. Typical SSB era audio.

SX-117 scaled down SX-115 but gets the job done

SX-101/101A  Several versions, differing features. A real heavyweight but decent on all modes.

NCX-5  Dont laugh! With 2 RF and 3 IF stages plus one of the best AGC's built it is an AM battle conditions radio as well as can hear a pin drop on 10M. The advertised 2.8kc filter BW is more like 3kc + with a 2:1 shape factor. They can be found real cheap especially without the PS. Use a real transmitter with it or convert the finals to 6146B's and run 20-25W out on AM.

Carl

[TomLeiperSWL]

WBear - Yup... that radio was literally snatched from a mud hole next to the dumpster at RadaLab years ago when they shut down, and after hosing it out, baking it dry and then getting smoke every hour on the hour as yet another cap died I decided to replace EVERY SINGLE CAP in the whole damn radio, turret, cans and all, as well as a couple dozen resistors. I also had a complete NOS tuning gear set as well as knobs in stock, so by the time I got it all back together and running better than new I simply could not resist bringing the panel up to spec. It was an older, engraved, copper-plated steel panel, which makes the lettering a cinch for an amateur, so after stripping I decided I was going to move this rig out of the rack with all the military gray stuff and into the cherry entertainment unit in my living room. I also liked those chrome bezels, which I have seldom seen, and felt that something unusual should be done with the panel color to bring them out... thus I painted it with a half dozen coats of maroon automotive metallic lacquer followed by a couple clear coats, and there you have it. IMHO it is the prettiest SP-600 ever, and if not the prettiest radio in the world it is probably one of them... but I'm just the proud father.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I've had many receivers from the 40's through the 80's in the herd over the years and most of them are now gone.
My favorites and keepers:
Squires Sanders SS-1R: great amateur radio receiver; takes a little getting use to due to the lack of lots of background noise with no signals present but boy does it work well in pulling out weak signals. With the added speaker, noise silencer and video bandscanner, I get the urge to dress up when I'm using this receiver.

Hammarlund SP-600 JX-17: great all around general coverage receiver; love the tuning.

Hammarlund HQ-170A-VHF: great amateur band receiver; used it on AM but love it on SSB/CW.

Collins R-388/URR: another great general coverage receiver; modified with product detector so works well on SSB too.

National HRO-500: I've used this general coverage receiver for years and still like the way it performs. Got my first taste of this receiver while at Bell Labs in the late 60's listening to stuff below the broadcast band.

McKay Dymek DR-33C: This is got to be the coolest 70's style general coverage receiver with Collins mechanical filters. It's like a R-390 without all the racks, gears, cams, and other weird mechanical hardware.

Hallicrafters SX-88: Not what I'd call a great receiver, although it works well, it does have that rather cool look to it.

Kenwood TS-830s: The receiver in this thing is still hard to beat even up against some of today's receivers. The sensitivity and selectivity are phenomenal for SSB and CW operation.

Kenwood R599D: A real sleeper; doesn't look like much, but boy does it work great on AM, SSB, CW, and FM. Selectivity can be manually switched from 500 Hz to 25 KHz. Match this up with its companion transmitter, T-599D, and you have a great AM set up.

Of course, since I'm a "smug" guy, my Flex 5000A, and even the IC-756 PRO II, take a commanding role in my day-to-day AM operating and their receivers are very hard to beat. And, like Carl, I still hug my NCX-5 regularly. The receiver in this rig is very good.

[KM1H]

I didnt mention the HRO-500 since it is SS but Ive been using one along with the LF-10 LF preselector for over 20 years for mostly below the BCB. The lack of a noise limiter/blanker is annoying

I have 4 TS-830's with 3 used as the base for VHF to microwave transverters. The lack of phase noise and perfect audio (to my ears) along with the features you mentioned make it enjoyable for weak signal CW/SSB work. Wish I had a 830M to give a try on AM

The CE B Slicer makes a great addition to any 455-500kc IF receiver and it can also be fed back into the radio and use its audio if wanted.
Im using a HC-10 on the 390A and the other two get shifted around; got those when prices were very low

[K6JEK]

The key word is favorite not best performing. You will all laugh when I tell you what receiver I use the most now. Amidst such glorious examples as a near mint HRO-60 and a 75A-4 which Howard Mills worked over not to mention modern gear like a Flex radio and various Ten-Tec transcievers sits a lowly NC-125 with a CE slicer & RF analyzer. Whenever I can get away with it, that's the one I use.

[Steve - K4HX]

Very cool.