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admin - Friday, January 13, 2012 at 16:35:47
Star SR-200. Vintage 1967 - 1970. Hybrid design (valve & transistor). Single conversion s/het., I.F. 1650 KHz + crystal filter, amplified AGC.

I owned one of these from new in 1968: cost = £75, which for me was a lot of money in those days. Purchased from Lowe Electronics. The resolution of SSB is very good, as is the tuning rate and the smoothness of the tuning. Every other aspect of this receiver is mediocre to poor. Unfortunately, my acquisition of this receiver turned out to be a complete and total disaster! This was due to a high-power ship-to-shore transmitter that was 1 mile away from me and radiating on 1650 kHz A.M.: this very set's I.F.! (Obviously, if I had known that in advance, I wouldn't have bought it). On all bands, that station's transmissions were 5 & 9 + 20 dB (or more!). I was using a random wire aerial of 130 feet length plus an ATU. I even added a wave-trap for 1650 kHz, but when you have a receiver that has a sensitivity of about 1 uV, what protection do you need against IF breakthrough that is arriving at the aerial in the order of volts? Since Lowe Electronics categorically refused to entertain a return & refund, I sold it to someone well away from the coast, having explained my reason for the sale. I heard no more about this receiver having done that.

Al. (Skywave) / Jan. 13, 2012 //
admin - Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 19:47:29
Plessey PR1553. Vintage: 1970's.
Aimed at the professional market. Derived from the earlier PR155.
Double conversion s/het. using frequency synthesis. Freq. coverage: 15 KHz - 30 MHz. The spec. for this receiver is quite amazing: e.g. the freq. reset accuracy is 250 Hz; the freq. stability after warm-up is claimed to be better than ± 30 Hz or ± 5 Hz short-term.

In the early '70's I was fortunate to have some time operating one of these - and the performance was truly remarkable. For example, I found I could tune in an SSB station for perfect speech resolution, switch the whole set off, go and have a cup of coffee, come back in 15 minutes, switch the set on to where I had left it tuned - and the SSB station was bang on channel! No adjustment required at all.
Occasionally, in a neighbouring room, an AmRad HF contest would be running. The kit was Collins gear running the legal limit via a linear to a Tri-bander HF beam. I was using the PR1553 on 80 m. connected to a 80 m. dipole whose centre support was right beneath that beam! I experienced no evidence of cross-modulation at all. Subsequent tests back in the lab. indicated that this receiver's 'front end' was linear up to at least 6 volts RMS input level at its aerial socket!
admin - Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 19:14:18
Eddystone model 770S.
Freq. coverage: 500 → 1,000 MHz.

► Collector's notes.
Quite a rare item from the Eddystone 770X VHF / UHF range of receivers.
admin - Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 19:39:16
Refer to the accompanying 'Main' photo for description.
admin - Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 19:39:04
Refer to the accompanying 'Main' photo for description.
admin - Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 19:36:10
General coverage single conversion s/het., 550 kHz - 30 MHz, 455 kHz I.F.
Germanium transistors & diodes. A.C. mains or battery operation.

I owned one of this many, many years ago during my keen Amateur Radio VHF days. I used to transport it up to the North Downs with a transistor 2m. converter, a small 'home-brew' low-power battery-powered transistor A.M. transmitter and a quarter-wave whip antenna to 'work' France - all of 17 miles away. On a clear day, you could see the French cliffs. I sometimes used to think "Why am I carrying all this stuff up here when with a loud-hailer I could do this so much easier?" But then the half the fun wouldn't be there, would it?
Halcyon & pioneering days - all sadly gone now, of course.
Al.
admin - Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 19:01:40
Hallicrafters model S-36A.
Coverage: 30 → 143 MHz. Single conversion s/het.
admin - Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 14:47:43
Stunning receiver Al, I WANT IT :razz:

Tedzed1.
admin - Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 14:32:28
All Eddystone radios with prefix 'EB' are broadcast radios: 'EB' = Eddystone Broadcast. Look in the section 'Transistor Radio' for these models.

Skywave / Gallery Administrator / Jan. 10th., 2011 //
member - Saturday, January 7, 2012 at 07:48:00
Forgot to say that the tuning lock is missing on this receiver.

Lawrence 7/1/2012