When I was 12 or 13 in 1962 I helped my next-door neighbor, who had a TV repair shop in his garage. I cleaned cabinets, vaccumed out inside chassis, tested tubes, swept the floor, etc. I did it just for fun because I found radio fascinating. After helping him on and off for a month or so he gave me a used Hallicrafters SX-25 that he got on a trade-in on a new TV. It weighed almost as much as I did. I took it home in my little sister's wagon. I was so elated I thought I'd explode. A 12 tube Hallicrafters shortwave for a poor, rural 12 year-old kid! I cut down and trimmed the limbs from 3 young trees from the woods and dragged them up to the house, dug some holes, and put a north/south and an east/west wire antenna up at 15 feet all the way from the edge of the yard to my bedroom, about 100 feet. From my home in rural Michigan I quite literally heard the world on that rig. The BBC, Radio Moscow, Radio Peking, South America, the Canary Islands, everywhere. I heard a ham in Aachen, Germany who was running a 40 mW 2 transistor AM transmitter. I listened to the SX-25 every single night until I graduated from HS and left for college, selling it for what I could get to add to my tuition money. Now I listen to AM or SW on an old Hammarlund HQ-150. But the bands are no longer the treasure trove of interesting stations they once were to a 12 to 17 year old kid back in the 1960's. I don't think I ever even mentioned my shortwave to the other kids at school. They were all interested in football and hunting. But I'll never forget when I was on top of the world with a battleship gray Hallicrafters SX-25 in my little sister's American-Flyer wagon, pulling it home down a country road.

I miss the shortwave bands of the 1970s and early 80s. So many interesting things to hear, so much intriguing propaganda!

My dad built me the Heathkit GR-91. As a recall, it required a long antenna to be effective. We had a flat roof, so he strung a wire between two pieces of wood and nailed them to either side of the house at about two feet above roof line. Another wire was connected to the “antenna “ which hung down the side of the house into my bedroom window where it was connected to the radio. Spent many hours listening to the BBC and English language broadcasts from eastern bloc countries and Radio Moscow. Every once and awhile the radio would give out a long honking sound but a good slap to the side fixed it. My Dad never figured out what caused it.

Back in 1965, I built a Knight-Kit Star Roamer. That little radio gave me years of listening enjoyment and I still have it to this day. I gave it a well deserved restoration a few years back and it now sits proudly within my vintage radio collection.

Being an SWL listener in the 40's to the 70's must have been amazing.

Great video. Shortwave is still there but definitely not my glory days of the late 70's, 80's, and 90's.

My Dad built the Knight Kit Star Roamer. I started using it in 1965. I used a wire out my bedroom window. Got me started! I still have a number of QSL cards I received at that time.

Wow, I mowed lawns and did odd jobs around my neighborhood to buy that Knight Kit Star Roamer radio. Spent many hours listening to that radio. Most kids today won't get off the couch and work for anything. They just expect it to be given to them.

Here in the UK my first 'serious' receiver was the Codar CR70A. I bought it used from Derwent Radio our local amateur radio shop owned by Des Wood G3HKO. As a 14 year old school kid in 1971 I was working on Saturdays in a barbers shop sweeping up and generally keeping things tidy getting paid £1. The receiver cost £19 and Des very kindly agreed for me to pay him weekly. I had great fun with that set and so did my Dad! He was an ex Navy radio man and could stiil copy CW and one day about 18 months later he came home with a Trio 9R59DS. I was in heaven!

Perfect. Started DXing 1970 as a kid. Drooled over all those. Wound up with a DX160. Loved it

That was me. When I was about 15 in the early 70s, I built a regen aircraft band receiver. Worked good. Listened to the airlines at O'Hare.

8:54 Yeah! The Heathkit GR-64! This radio was a gift to my Dad in the mid-60s from a close friend, a priest who was an avid shortwave enthusiast. For years it was our living room radio and for fun we kids would attach a long wire to the antenna terminals and see what we could pick up. It ended up in my hands and a few years ago and I had it repaired as a gift for my older brother. Happy memories!

Ahhh, the flashbacks! That Sears shortwave (Unelco 1914) was my first shortwave radio in 1970. I delivered many newspapers to buy a used National 60 special! It has a BFO and I was in heaven. I added a Hallicrafters S-40B shortly after, which was gifted to me by a local ham.

I bought a Lafayette AM and SW communications grade receiver in 1965 at age 15. I think it cost around $50, which was a lot then for a teenager. Metal case and vacuum tubes. Uses external speaker and antenna. I still have it in storage if anyone is interested in it.

I started SWL in 1971 with a domestic Ekco Receiver of 1950's vintage that covered 16M - 49M. Finally bought a Realistic DX150 Comms Receiver in around 1978. I still have both

The 1970s and early 1980s C band analog satellite dish those big 12-footers, back when there was no scrambling were absolutely incredible and I had a c/ku band dish and different analog and digital receivers right up until 2015 when I moved They were amazing

Just came across your video on receiver kits. As a kid I dreamed and drooled over the Knightkit Star Roamer. Years later I found one on eBay and it now sits proudly on my bench in the shack.

One of my fondest memories from listening to my Star Roamer was when I discovered WWV. That was the coolest thing I'd ever heard.

I had it soooo good in the 70's. I went from the Sears Plug-In Coil unit, to a Halicrafters S-40B in the 60's. Then got ridiculously lucky when I was offered a Collins R-388 for $150. Finally sold it on ebay around 2005. Should have kept it. What an incredible receiver.

Collins 51j-4 in my living room 🤗 works as beautifully as the day I bought it in 1991. Love that old boat anchor!

I had the Lafayette KT-135 as a kid. I also had an ARC-5 receiver

I was a kid and my dad bought me the Collins 75S-3C radio in the 60's. People were shocked that a kid would be given a radio that cost $800, which was a huge sum of money back then. I had a lot of fun with it. Probably the best designed tube radios ever made. So many brilliant innovations, and attention to ergonomics. Collins was a genius; in 1959 he tried to sell the Air Force on his nuclear war proof communication system, based on message passing, where it would route the signal through different nodes. A forerunner of the internet! poor guy went bankrupt because nobody in the govt could understand his system.

This is a fantastic video! Thank you for taking the time to do this!

Thanks for hitting the nail on the head for me. I'm from the same era and dreamed many dreams of shortwave receivers. Loved your video. One of the best for me!

God that took me back! I was a kid in the 60's and loved building and tinkering with radios. I used to love the forces surplus store down a back street in my town where I used to buy old navy and army receivers. Very happy days! Sadly with the Internet short wave seems to be dying certainly in the west but It's very popular in China. With being such a huge country and Chinese radios being cheap. I have a Chinese Suntec for general listening. I've just got back into SW as a hobby as my main interest moved to hifi. I recently dug out a huge Ham International base station which I'm recapping. That was one of my grails which I managed to get in the very early 80s. I miss those days.

This is a very nice presentation. Thank You

I built the Knight-Kit Space Spanner, Ocean Hopper and Span Master radios in the early 60's and used the super regenative oscillator to communicate next door to a friend. A carbon microphone between the antenna terminal and the antenna gives one amplitude modulation on whatever frequency that is tuned in.

Love the history and your knowledge.

My older brother had the Heathkit Mohican GC-1A. It was a really nice radio, both main and bandspread tuning had a flywheel, making tuning a real pleasure. Thanks for showing a great selection of early radios.

Thanks for this. I always enjoy learning about pre-1970s radio equipment.

great video good to see all the older receivers

I was a swl before my first ham ticket in 1967. Went from a home brew regen set to the slick looking but pretty poor performing (on cw anyway) Hallicrafters S-120. With this, I made my first ham QSO's on 40 meters. I talked my dad in to going half and half on a new Heath SB-301 kit, including the accessory CW filter. I used the Heath SB series 301/401/220 for many years. Decades later I rekindled my interest in Boatanchors, aka old tube radios, and was prone to raiding every hamfest within 3 hours of central Illinois. Fun to restore, use, and eventually just sit on shelves in a climate controlled storage building. I was adverse to shipping anything that weighted more than 20 lbs.

Mine was also Radio Shack DX150. I still have it and it still works.

When I was living and working in the Middle East in the 1970s the shortwave radio kept me in touch with the English speaking world. It was a Grundig. Still got it. It sits in the garage permanently tuned to Classic FM. It was always interesting to tune into the many stations available at that time now superseded by the internet. I've not listened to SW for years. Perhaps I should rig up an antenna and see what I can find.

Great job covering these receivers! I REALLY enjoy your coverage on these old radios. I have the SB300 which is the earlier version of the SB310 you show here. Thanks!

I remember going in an electronics shop in the 1980s. There was a very nice looking radio right on the top shelf. It had a digital display which I'd never seen before. You could type in any frequency from around 100kHz to 29,999 and it would go there instantly. It even did SSB. It was great for tuning in to Radio Moscow, Voice of America, etc etc. You could also tune into ship-to-shore telephone calls (not that interesting) as well as every amateur band below 29,999kHz. The airwaves were full to bursting back then. Last time I tuned through shortwave I seriously thought the radio was broken. Nothing but noises but nobody there at all at night and I only managed to get three radio stations during the day. Of course you can get pocket radios that will cover 100-29,999 nowadays but back in the day it seemed like a real luxury. PS I remember visiting elderly relatives when I was a kid. They tended to have radios with the actual station names printed on the dial, cities all throughout Europe, including Eastern Europe which was behind the Iron Curtain at the time: Belgrade, Berne, Sophia, Paris... Luxembourg, of course. That's what they had before satellite TV and the internet.

Awesome video. Such wonderful memories sir.

Knight Star Roamer was what started my interest in the hobby. No better birthday gift for a 10 year old in 1965.

Thanks for the fond memories!! I had built a Knight Kit Star-Roamer & the a Heathkit GR-64 as a kid. My dad & I had many fun nights listening to these radios. Thanks for making such a fine video.

FABULOUS! Thank you for the wonderful memories, OM. Now Subscribed. (I will probably watch this numerous times...)

Wow-oh-wow! A perfect job of capturing the excitement of my youth and a fascinating look back at the best of the best shortwave receiver kits. Still have my Heathkit GR-64 built as a summer project in 1970. Will watch your video again for my birthday to rekindle those special memories. Thanks so much!

Growing up we had a Hallicrafters SX-62 radio. We listened to it all the time, and my brother still has it to this day.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane. Brought back a lot of pleasant memories. Have a great weekend.

I’m 76 years old . Obtained my novice ticket in 1958. My first receiver was a BC348 army surplus receiver. I built a 15 watt Ameco kit transmitter with a 6L6 oscillator. ...plug in crystal 40 meters . I remember erecting a dipole over the garage. Big fun for a shy and awkward kid.

Thanks for the memories!

When I turned 10 years old, in 1978, my dad came home with a Trio 9r59de. I've been hooked ever since!! I find those radios more fun, because you have to work at it!! In fact I just jumped off listening with a Realistic DX 200, my cylinder dials are always spot on, and the 500hz calibration was ahead of its time.

I had forgotten about my old DX-150 receiver until I saw the pictures. Thanks for bringing it back to life. I had a college roommate with some old funky Lafeyette receiver, who only used a coiled up bundle of old wire for an antenna that got so many more stations than my DX-150, even with my fancy antenna. For a while we had strung up a 150 foot antenna between dorm towers up, 150 feet above ground level. What an experience that was! But it didn't last for long - some bad weather soon cut it down and we were afraid to restring it between two towers at Iowa State University. Those were the days!

Always a good, interesting video. Lots more please. I was given an R1155 to play with at age 11 & had lots of fun with that.

Thanks for the ride down memory lane.

loved this video ! It really took me back . I enjoy older radio so much . I had a Heathkit Mohican and at night I would turn off the lights anb let the dial light be my only light . it was a great way to DX. Thanks for the video .

Many years ago I went to a swap meet where someone was selling a Knight Star Roamer. He had the 1965 Allied Radio catalog next to it, open the the Star Roamer page. Nobody was interested in the radio, but lots of guys were offering to buy the catalog!

I still have all of my Knight Kit radios and manuals, plus the complete Heath SB line ham station. What memories. And yes, I worked hard at my paper route to save money so my parents could place my order with Allied Radio.

Thank you for the nostalgic look back in history. I had the Knight-kit star roamer and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish I hadn't given it away, but you can't keep them all. I also have an Ocean Hopper in the original (moldy) cardboard box with all the coils. I think I'll replace the caps and get it back on the air one of these days!

I still have two Hallicrafters an S40B an S38E and they still work perfectly.

My first shortwave receiver was homebrew, from a Practical Wireless article. The single transistor took all my pocket money! It was also an effective top-band transmitter! Still have a working CR70A!

Hi Mike, relly enjoyed this one so thanks. In my younger day a lot of these Radios were not available here in Australia and required importing. However we did have Tandy Electronics outlet's everywhere, so many DX-150's and more DX-160's made their way into our bedrooms. I always fancied the Racal RA-17 (Wadley Loop) and you flashed one up with that amusing "not on your life mate" comment. LOL..

Thanks! So many memories

Thanks from Portugal.

When I was about 14 my piano teachers’ husband had an SX-99. Loved the look of it. Finally ended up with two 99s, two 51J 3s , a 100, a 170 and a 180. Took me a while, but finally was able to get an AR-88. I can heat the house with them;-))

My first boat anchor was a National NC-183D that I bought at a yard sale. That beauty may be long gone but I still have my Telefunken Princess 5374MX that I warm up from time to time...

That was an awesome video! Thank you for taking the time too make and share with us!

My best radio ever was a soviet OKEAN 209 (or Selena as it was sold on the West market). It had MW, FM (OIRT band), LW and 5 SW bands. I listened many nights on SW with a long wire antenna; I received (from East Europe) radio stations from China, Australia, USA, West Europe, USSR and maybe more that I don`t remember now. However, it was built like a tank and worked very well, was very sensitive. Inside it was all transistors, Germanium mostly.

You struck so many chords with me that I guess we are pretty well contemporary. Here in the UK as a lad in my early teens I used to drool over the ads in "Practical Wireless" and "Short Wave Magazine", and once I was able to procure some second-hand back issues of "QST" I became familiar with the US market. Happy days! However what really thrilled me is that you (one of my favourite KZfaq channels) have used one of my photos - the Codar CR70A - this was a photo I took in my loft back in 2009 not long after I had acquired the set from eBay. This was always on my "teenage bucket list", but in the intervening years my expectations had moved on somewhat, and I remember being "underwhelmed" by its performance once I eventually owned one! Having said that, wasn't outrageously expensive even when new, though its performance in the advertisements of the time was somewhat hyped up. It is a very stylish set, and still is, in my opinion. I still have the radio, and it still works (I subsequently had to replace a cracked cathode resistor which had probably been mechanically overstressed since the radio was first manufactured), and it gets wheeled out occasionally to warm the shack a little! Some of these shenanigans are documented on my FlickR site. 73 Martin, G4FUI

My dad built the Knight Star Roamer and I had bought the Realistic DX-160 used. We had a lot of fun back when every developed country had a flagship SW station. I didn't get into Amateur Radio until much later.

Born in 1950. Wonderful Christmas present of a Hallicrafters S120 around 1962. I can still remember lying in bed at night, a young boy, dark bedroom, with the receiver on a table next to me, loudspeaker a foot away, listening to Sandy Koufax and the LA Dodgers, with Vin Scully calling the gameplay. EDIT: AMAZING! VIN SCULLY IS STILL ALIVE!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. A great video about the golden age of radio and electronics. There is just not the magic of those days anymore, and it's wonderful to look back in time. Cheers.

Wow ... you opened with a newer version of the Lafayette HE- 30 that I saved all of my allowance and got it when I was in the sixth grade. Thanks for taking me back to the start of my enjoyment of Ham Radio. 73 - KF6IF

I thoroughly enjoyed this video. I recall all of these radios and their cousins. I lived in the Allied Radio catalog in the late 1950's going over all the ones they sold. For Christmas 1960 I received a hallicrafters S38-E, a silver one. That really opened up the world of radio for me. Lots of AM still on the ham bands in those days. Got a kick out of Radio Moscow as it had the most incredible signal strength of all the shortwave stations and their audio had Wow factor. Speaking of Lafayette Radio. They had a store near me on Rt 17 in Paramus, NJ. They had a dedicated ham radio room as soon as one walked in the door. Spent lots of visits there. Back in those days, even Parts Unlimited, a local electronics supplier with multiple locations, carried a few ham radio lines. Over the years I have had countless receivers of all types, from furniture to desktops to mobiles. My first major ham receiver was the hallicrafters SX 101a that I purchased off a one armed ham at the West Paterson, NJ hamfest in '71 for a hundred bucks. It weighed a ton. Had it for many years. Getting older has by necessity required me to have lighter radios, Hi Hi. I have the latest radios that weigh around 10 pounds and that is heavy enough. I also have an SDR Uno RSP 1a and I can take it anywhere with my laptop and a cheap MLA 30 loop antenna. I tell my friends I no longer listen to radio. I watch it instead. Thank you for this great video.

SO GOOD!!!

Well done presentation! In the late fifties at age 15 I talked my Dad into a "father-son" hobby and upon being licensed started with a borrowed, single tube, 25 watt CW transmitter which was tuned with a small bulb on a loop of wire held over the coil feeding into a long wire antenna and listening with borrowed receivers until we found an used SX99 to buy. We skipped the AM equipment in favor of the new SSB revolution when we upgraded to General and in the late 1950's acquired an SX101 and HT32 driving a homebrew 300 watt grounded grid 6146's that my Dad (by then K5JWY) built. One night when I was operating about 2am I kept feeling an eerie glow behind me when I was transmitting but nothing when I turned around. Finally, I turned while talking and found I was lighting up a light in the hallway 20 feet away the RF was so strong from the amp, which had a front panel but no cabinet. Now, at 79 years old, I apparently suffered no ill effects but I will bet the neighbors TV's suffered but we never heard from them if so. Paul K5KMX

Mine was a Hallicrafters S-38E. I bought it from a neighbor when I was 13 in 1967. It cost me $40 that I earned from a paper route and mowing lawns. It was one of the best things I had in my teen years.

My Dad has an Eddystone EC10 (Mk 1, not a Mk 2 as in your video) from 1963. Still working perfectly to this day! Great video :)

Mike, this video is excellent! I felt like a kid again, looking at all these wonderful shortwave receivers. It was almost like flipping through a catalog! I fell in love with radio when I was a boy. I had an AM radio and I would just listen at night, as stations would start coming in from out of state. The magic of radio has lasted my whole life and I've been collecting radios of all kinds ever since. This was so entertaining and funny too. Well done!!!

I found a Knight Star Roamer at a Goodwill for 7 bucks and some change. That was before I knew anything about sw or before I had a real interest. I regret that I no longer have that radio. Thanks for the great video.

Loved it! Thanks...

What a superb video! I was one of those guys that drooled over electronics I could never afford into well later in life. Subscribed!

Great video. 📻🙂

My first ready made new receiver was the Codar CR70A. Paid for with my first wages in 1970 at the age of 15, working as an Apprentice Electrician. Had to save for weeks. Great memories. Thanks M0MBG 73s.

Wow, a great trip down memory lane! I collect vintage radios and have or have had many of the radios mentioned, including S-120, S-38, Star Roamer, Span Master, NC-60, SW-54, SX-122, HQ-170/180, etc. My first shortwave radio was a Span Master built a very young me! Thanks for the great vid!! 73 ES GUD DX DE K0CRX/WPE0CFK

Got my novice 'ticket' in 1969. As a novice I learned code and SWLed with a converted BC-348Q, moved up (15 meters) to a Hallicrafters S-40B with Heathkit QF-1 Q- multiplier, and eventually built the Heathkit SB-301 and SB-401 'poor man's S-Line." Thanks and 73s.

Thanks for the video. Timeline was just a little early for me and late for what we inherited from my grandfather in the 70s - a 1935 RCA console. I built one of the early 70s Radio Shack solid state regen kits, I think it was less than $30. Several factory built SW radios followed, one which I converted to a fuzz-box for my guitar and later used by our keyboard player... hobbies change. When I finally got my HAM license in '94 things had changed and I saved up for a Yaesu FT840 - the cheapest HF transceiver I could find but still a major purchase for me (I was a Radio Shack store manager at the time so it was half a months salary).

I had the loan of a Trio 9R59DS in the 1980s as my first "proper" RX. I could pick up plenty of DX on it but it drifted all over the place. I have a KW Electronics KW-202 in storage to refurb when I have more space. Eddystones go for very good money over here still! Great video.

Very cool - and thank you! I built the KnightKit R100A in 1967. Worked great for me as a novice and general.

I always wanted a DX160, as a kid I never managed to afford one and instead ended up inheriting my grandfathers FRG-7 which more than filled the bill in the early 80's. Then one day around 20 years ago I spotted a DX160 on the sidewalk atop a pile of rubbish for kerbside collection. Fast pacing back from the skid marks where I stopped, I rescued it on the spot, it was obviously calling out to me... I took it home to find it worked perfectly. I still have both and use them occasionally, and probably always will, but I also wonder at the mindless disposal of such a great radio, but thankfully they had the sense to place it with the front facing the road for me to see.

The electronics magazines of the '70s? That phrase.... it was like a thousand memories coming back. In the UK we had Electronics Today International. Glad to see someone of my vintage still alive an' kicking!

I was messing with a Radio Shack multi band radio and hit the shortwave band by accident. Heard the BBC and wondering what was going on. My brother explained, and the rest is history. My first radio was a Panasonic RF-4800.

In the late 1990s, I was given the use of a military tube receiver R-311, which had been produced in the USSR since the 1950s. Ever since then, I've been wanting to get one for myself. And it was recently given to me in excellent condition. Greetings from Belarus.

I started as a ham in 1967, age 14 and I remember many of these radios. My brother built the Heathkit AR-3 and Q multiplier that you show in the video. My first station was the Knight R55-A receiver and T-60 transmitter. I have a Realistic DX-160 which I plan to give to my grandson, and I have a GPR-90 in the basement. Thanks for the video!

I can totally relate to the first part (too) of this video; although the subject of my dreams at the age of 16 was a Fender Stratocaster, the passion and willingness to do anything for it was just as how you described :)

I built a Knight kit Star Roamer with the help of my brother around 1966 and had a wonderful time doing it.

There was a Hallicrafters SX-120 in the electronics shop in my high school. I remember listening in to a QSO between a couple of hams in the LA area in the early afternoon (must have been on 20 meters?). I was in Minnesota. Amazed that we heard them clearly, especially as one was mobile in his car.

I like these videos series you put out! I missed out on a good time dang it. I was just learning to walk in the early 70's! But I have a few now my Hammarlund SP-600 gets used daily With my 75A-2 running a close second . Thanks for sharing all the great info!

Love the sliderule dials, grew up with those shortwave radios , both me and my older brother had them during the 70,s now I have a Grundig satellite 750, with the digital dial, but I actually prefer the old sliderule dial, still check flea markets for one, I'm old fashioned on that kind of radio, thanks for posting this, loved it..

My best friend in high school had that receiver. It was great.

What a flashback. I grew up in the Chicago area so Allied Knight kit was a big part of my childhood. The Regen Ocean Hopper was my first SW receiver. One of my friend's dad had a WWII BC-348. In high school I graduated to a Lafayette HE80. After I got out of the military had a R-392 general coverage receiver and kludged up a Baudot to ASCII converter to print out RTTY messages.

Radio, The coziness you felt at home among the family and listening to the waves coming from kilometres away some times from the other side of the world, Wow,The new years gifts, the smell , the mysteries and magic that is happening before your eyes in your hand , The snow gathered outside your window and you see it reflected through the street lamp and the love you felt by combining all of these... You are someone with very active and beautiful inner child and you are bringing it up making it alive in other people who understand it on this planet. I live in Iran and yet I feel so close to you. Thank you. EP2ADC

Thanks for the stroll down memory lane. I had at least a dozen of the receivers you mentioned untill I got a Kenwood TS-440S/AT transceiver which had General Coverage receive.

I had an Hammarlund 129X I found in the dump. I repaired it, cleaned it and replaced the audio tube because of the echo wnen I hollered into the top. I really loved that boat anchor.

All of them old receivers I love them old tube radios⚡👍⚛

Brings back memories! Dad built a GR-64 in the sixties, and I helped! LOL About a decade later, I was able to assemble a GR-78, and enjoyed it for many years. Thanks for the video! 73 de Karl, VE3GUN