The Hallicrafters S-38D was a broadcast and shortwave band receiver that shared parts with typical 455 kHz IF radios, so the selectivity bandwidth was the same as all popular AM radios in the 1950s. It had a BFO switch and I only listened to my Dad's Novice station in the very early mornings when the band was quiet. I suppose it would have been a cacophony of signals in the evenings. Recent information is that it cost $50 in the 1950s, which today would be over $500, for a radio with no power transformer so the 5 tube filament voltages added up to 120 volts AC or DC. It's strange to think some areas of the country would still be on DC power.
On Mon, Mar 10, 2025, 9:09 PM Tom Hammond W8MK via <thammond=
[email protected]> wrote:
What was the bandwidth, Mike? When you listened to the CW portion on the band, were you hearing a sea of signals with different tones? Good pileup training to focus your ears on one tone and ignore the rest.?
Tom
On Mar 10, 2025, at 6:22?PM, Mike WB8DTT via <jeromehowell626=[email protected]> wrote:
?
My first shortwave experiences were foreign broadcast stations with a Hallicrafters S-38D, and then years later to my Dad's Novice station when I was in college. The entire 80 meter band was less than an inch on the dial but I found him (3733 kHz) using the bandspread control and was careful not to touch any knob after that. It had a BFO for receiving CW so I thankfully did not need to adjust a regenerative control up to the point of oscillation to beat with a signal.
On Thu, Mar 6, 2025, 11:30 AM Tom Hammond W8MK via <thammond=
[email protected]> wrote:
For those of us who have no experience with a regenerative
receiver, can you describe how it sounded and how it was operated
so we can understand the challenges of that era? Maybe we can find
a YouTube video of an operational regenerative receiver.
My first station was a Heathkit HR-10 and a Gonset GSB-100
transmitter. That was before my QMN days, though. By the time I
first QNI'd, I was using a Kenwood TS-520 transceiver with a 500Hz
filter.
Tom
On 3/6/2025 11:02 AM, Mike WB8DTT via
wrote:
Thanks, Tom
Don's article was great and refreshed my memory
about where 3663 finally came from. It's hard to imagine how
they worked crystal-controlled split frequency full break-in
with the primitive equipment of that era. Finding the other
station on a regenerative receiver?
So moving to a single frequency net was an
astounding idea!
W8JTQ introduced me to QMN in 1969 and when I
visited him in Flint, he said he had started in 1919 with a
spark gap transmitter. But getting a vacuum tube and building
a continuous wave transmitter made him a believer.
Of course we all know that CW is the "ultimate
speech processor" modulation.?
Mike WB8DTT