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Quit fibbin' you bought that new Ironbender! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Les

Vacuum tubes are still made in some factories in Eastern Europe. If you cruise the web, you can find them. Or, borrow a copy of QST. They are frequently advertised there.

The Transoceanic is a classic.

That was THE radio to own in it's day. That was very popular when I was a kid. I rmember dreaming about owning one; never did.
I built an all band radio during the 1950's. Used it till it stopped working.

Don

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Good thing you were there so you could remind me! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I reently picked up a Grundig mini 300 at Radio shack. It's only about the size of a pack if cigarettes. Here in SW Montana I can pick up Seattle, California, Minnesota, B.C, Alberta, Denver in AM. In SW I can get decent signals too. Saturday night I listened to Radio New Zealand for awhile.

For $30 it's not going to be anything like one of the higher priced units but it's small size makes it very handy for travel. A very decent little unit.

He..he.. Les

Bender, that's a AWESOME (pre-80's, true definintion) looking radio! Even if it didn't run as well as some newer circuitboard stuff, it would decorate a gun room with style. Being new to this arena, what should I consider a good deal if I can find one used and running? I'm definitely going to watch for one.

I've got a big Zenith cabinet model about four feet high with beautiful veneer and nary a mark on it. I've been using it as a great piece of decor, and family heirloom, but now I want to fire it up. The cord is so old the insulation is brittle, but I can fix that. Just this week since getting interested in HF stuff, I've learned that there's an old man here in town that's fixed the old tube radios for years. Unfortunately for everyone, he's getting so old that he's essentially done with repairs. I feel kinda dumb, because for years I thought my big Zenith was "just an AM," and didn't look closer at the fine print, so to speak.

Don, that's the same radio I think I'm going to order. I've read all the reviews about it that I could, and it seems to hold it's own very well against all competition. The whole 7600 series looks good actually, but the GR model is easiest to find since it's the current production.

I hope you enjoy the 7600. I sure do. Mine's on all day.
I power it with "AA" rechargables that I rotate when they quit. It runs on 4, while the dead 4 are charging.

Don

The pic I posted is the same as mine, just not an actual pic of my actual radio - they just look the same!

No idea what the value of one would be. Maybe I should call the Antique Roadshow!

My radio has more sentimental value than anything. I remember listening to ship-to-shore radio with Pop-Pop more than 40 years ago!

here's one

From the description, I'd bet that it has a couple of weak tubes that need to be replaced.

That's a lot rearlier than just pre-80's.I have a Zenith 1000 Trans-Oceanic which I bought new when I graduated from High School.....that was 1962.Mine was the first "All Transistor" Trans Oceanic. Unfortunately,for the last ten years I've lived in one of those rare " Radio Dead Spots."Even police and other emergency radios don't work in the immediate vicinity.Commercial radios work,but the signals always seem to drift in and out.

Couple of comments to help you with your search:

One of the key things to look for in a radio is the ability to hit the desired frequency. Modern synthesized designs do this quite well. Some of the old knob tuning designs did it quite well also, but rather many did not. A pretty good general target is to try for something that you can read within a couple of KHz if looking at the non-synthesized jobs. You have to tune SSB within better than .1 KHz for decent intelligibility. Most of the less expensive radios fail this test.

Another good thing to look for is selectivity. Many of the bands are crowded. If you can't sort out one signal from another, you're going to be frustrated. You probably need about 6-7 KHz for AM, and about 2.5-3 KHz for SSB. If there isn't at least a wide/narrow switch, you probably don't have enough selectivity. You're almost surely not going to be listening to Morse, which is another notch tighter in selectivity, so don't worry about that.

With modern solid state devices, it is very easy to get enough sensitivity. Still, tune to a frequency on the upper end of the available range, like just below 30 MHz. The noise in the receiver should come up noticeably when you attach a 10 foot piece of wire for an antenna. If it doesn't, you don't have enough sensitivity to hear the weak signals.

Look for something with decent stability. Again, the synthesized receivers tend to do well here. If you're trying to listen to shortwave AM broadcast, it's not such a huge issue. But if you're trying to copy SSB, it's huge.

The BFO function is to allow you to hear SSB and Morse signals. This may simply be marked SSB, or it may be marked BFO. If you're only interested in foreign broadcast, don't worry about getting something with this feature.

The other specifications are more subtle, and often not prominently published. I'd look for something with at least 50-60 dB of image and IF rejection.

One of the key things you need is a decent external antenna. It doesn't have to be too fancy. A 30 ft piece of wire slung up in a tree, and brought in through a window casing will probably be good enough, unless you get really serious.

There is still a lot of shortwave broadcasting, some of it pretty decent. A lot of it is propaganda, or religious broadcasting. I used to wonder why they kept it up, since there are so few listeners. It turns out that the broadcast is just a front. The phase of the carrier is switched to provide a digital transmission that cannot be detected by a standard AM or SSB radio. It's how governments send instructions to their operatives.

In the daytime, try the frequencies as high as 15 MHz. By evening, those around 7 MHz are popping. At night, you'll year a lot at the frequencies below 5 MHz.

I've never been too wild about the longwave stuff, below the AM broadcast band. There are guys that really enjoy the challenge, though.

Denton, thanks for the good nuts and bolts specifics to work with. At this point I think I'm going with the Sony 7600 but depending on how bad the bug bites me, I might start haunting the HAM meets and Ebay for vintage treasures.

Steve, sorry for the confusion with "pre-80's." I was referring to the use of the word "Awesome"---------before Frank Zappa's daughter lead the Valley Girls in a crusade to destroy the English language.
222Rem

I think you'll enjoy the 7600. If I remember the model correctly, it meets everything I outlined.

BTW, there is no longer a Morse requirement for a ham ticket. Just answer about 50-60 questions, about half of which are rules and regs. Then you can splurge and get an HF transceiver with a general coverage receiver built in. Those tend to be very decent receivers.

Yep, how right you are as my IC-746, IC-706 MKII, & IC-7000 do a remarkable job of transmitting too, as I've made contacts into the Marshal Islands, Hawaii, Japan, and Europe on the 746 and the 706 all on six mtrs.

And now that the FCC has dropped CW all you have to do after you pass the 35 Question Element II Tech Exam is pass the 35 Question Element III General Exam you can also talk on those HF Bands.........

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There are a number of things you can do with that ham ticket...

*Reliably talk to stations all over the US on the lower bands.

*Fairly often talk across the ocean on some of the higher HF bands.

*Use handy-talkies that beat the pants off the FRS stuff... repeaters, phone patches, etc.

*Build and operate your own equipment.

*Talk via ham satellites.

*Do TV.

W7ACT, what did I leave out?

de W7DB, formerly K7OWJ. I have one of those 706 MkII's, and a Heath SB1400. Haven't lit a fire in my 3-500 for years, though. Got some QRP equipment that I built, and used to have a blast with.

Denton

You just scratched the surface there so many facets to Ham Radio that it would be hard to list all the areas Amateur Radio covers, you mentioned talk via ham satellites let's carry that one step further you can even talk to the astronauts on the International Space Station as many of the astronauts from this country and other countries are Ham Radio Operators and they communicate with other hams around the world as there is a ham station on board the Space Station. All you need is a Technicians License and you can talk with them on 2mtrs with a little hand held and a rubber duckie antenna and 5 watts power.

Do ham radio operators still send each other contact cards? I remember seeing one my uncle had from Yuri Gagarin. He was a ham in CT.

On a side note; why is it called "ham" radio?

Ah yes, QSL cards. Yes, they are still very much in use. There are also web based alternatives. I have quite a pile of them, going back many years.

Nobody knows why we're called hams. There are a couple of different theories. One is that some of the early guys apparently didn't sent Morse very well, and some listeners thought they sounded like they were hitting the key with a ham, or a fist like a ham. Another theory is that a lot of the early construction articles for receivers and transmitters came from a magazine called Home Amateur Mechanic, or H.A.M. I kind of favor the second theory.

When we lived in Michigan, I was spending a lot of time in Taiwan. Both my sons were licensed, so I left the station set up, and the beam turned toward there. I was able to get on the air from there, and talk with the boys. Never did get a QSL card from them... Longest distance per watt was the day I talked to a station in New Zealand on 5 watts. Possibly the most fun was taking my homebrew portable rig with me as an adult volunteer at Boy Scout camp. As the shadows got long in the evening, I'd be lounging up against the base of a tree, exchanging dits and dots with guys all over the country.