There is the same sort of nostalgia associated with old radios as there is with antique cars. There's a reason Steampunk is popular. My best radio fun was when I was 10, and knew nothing about RF, but had traded my bicycle for a 2 transistor radio at the dawn of the transistor age, and I wrapped a long piece of wire around its ferrite bar antenna and listened to AM radio stations from 1000 miles away. I even heard one in French from Quebec, and a couple in Spanish from Mexico. It was the first time in my life I'd ever heard people speaking and singingsongs in a foreign language as an ongoing practice, and I found it fascinating that while I couldn't understand the words, I could understand the feeling and the meaning. I'd love to be somewhere like your location with your little cabin, huge area to put up antennas, and such a low noise floor. I miss the smell of dust slowly cooking on hot tubes, the yellow glow of the little incandescent dial and meter lights, and the big, booming, paper-coned speakers. That sound is good for the soul. Now I'm in a first-floor apartment on an alley downtown in a city, with heavy AC power-lines and transformers loaded on a pole 5 feet away from my living-room window. My S-meter hovers around S-8 with RF hash, and goes higher with regularity. I live less than 70 miles from WWV in Colorado, USA but can only hear it intermittently and only on a couple of its various frequencies. I'm building a high-Q, small mag-loop antenna I can both rotate and lean, along with a tunable preamp to run with an SDR and digital narrow-band noise reduction filters, going as high-tech as I can in the hopes of improving radio reception, or even just hearing something. No nostalgic radio for me for a while till I move away from here. Enjoy your quiet little cabin with its window on the world. It sounds like Heaven to me.

Matt, I've been a SWL since the age of five and a ham since adulthood, (many decades now - where does the time go?) and I agree with you. I do have a couple SDRs, including the RTL, and they do have their uses, but for enjoyment I still prefer my older rigs. If you look at the specs, you will not find much difference between old and new. The newer ones are (slightly) more selective, but the sensitivity is about the same. BTW, if you get a chance, try a regen receiver. Signals POP out of an almost noiseless background.

@@mikesmith-po8nd, yep on the regens. But there are good ones and bad ones. You want to get one (or build one) with good control of the feedback. Some are so touchy that by the time you hear anything it goes into oscillation.

Boy, you got that right.

Exactly. 👍

I was naughty when I was young and built push-pull FM transmitters on bread boards 😆🙈 I went to school listening to my own FM radio station it had a 2 mile radius 🙈

@@MattinLapland the TV factory said no radios. So took old ear phones from the funeral home and put tiny tuner in them so when the basket ball games came i sold them all hi hi. And when the mayor and her Gestapo came closed down our partys. I issued tiny receiver. And head phones we danced and ate in total quiet. The judge laffed her out of court...yes radio folks can be tricky hi hi PS" hi hi" is a telegraph laff enjoy.

@@Steven-re7xt Great commentary

This was the case for so many of us back then. Radio was so important as a gateway to the rest of the world

When I was young I delivered newspapers and saved my money. When I was 13 I bought a used Hallicrafters S-38E. I listened to everything on that radio. Now I'm 70 and I still use an old CB radio and I recently got a Yaesu FT-707 for very little money. I'm almost ready to take the test for a ham license. Oh, and I made the antenna from stuff I already had. I think this is what makes it interesting. And I have never heard any station that far away on MW. Very good!

A lot of us who were brought up in the age of shortwave radio learnt lots about the world. It also shaped my life as I moved away from my country of birth. Back in 1987 when the great storms hit the UK I was in Köln and I heard what had happened as I could receive some English stations on MW in Germany. Radio was a great companion. My favourite radio program was ‘Sweden calling DX-ers’ from Radio Sweden. Walking as a child from school I had a portable radio and in the winter could get radio Sweden on the way home in the early evening. The interval tune is etched into memory with fond regard. So sad that it’s no longer there on 1179 kHz. Enjoy listening!

I did too...listening to baseball games

Damn , I also use the exact same receivers, my Icom is a 71e model, also use an old Sanyo RP8880 receiver that could pick up practically anything on a bit of damp string, a big chunky old school set that makes the Icom look like a pocket radio.

Wolfman Jack " American Graffiti "

X-E-R-B

Nothing modern has that Wonderful full warm sound of a tube! Not seen it or heard it from anything modern and believe I never will, not in this lifetime. Vacuum tubes, or valves have something of a soul, they bring out a sound that is just hard to explain to those who have their heads stuck in the sand. I have a room full of Analog gear and SDR stuff, but none of the SDR stuff has that truly unique sound of the Analog equipment. Something to note, as a hobby, I started doing repairs on radios, tube amps as a kid. I learned some electronics and I see radios built in the 1950's still being used by 100's of people. Even older sets ranging way back into the 1920's are brought out. Betcha apples and oranges unless something changes in build quality today, these great SDR's will not be repaired in homes and by regular folks. Now the greed level is so bad they will not even provide schematics! I saw a recent SDR and the chips had the ID's removed so even if you had any chance of repairing it, the part can't be had. LONG LIVE VACUUM TUBES AND ANALOG GEAR!

Exactly, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

@@london19657 " From Acorns do Great Oaks grow "

@@london19657 I simply had to find out how a radio station in Germany and Russia could be picked up by me thousands of miles away... so I started studying engineering, physics...

Radio and reception of radio waves is a black art, been tinkering with various home made antennas for nearly 40 years and have yet to make a perfect antenna.

At age 74 I look back and realize that I was an experimental physicist at age 5, playing with magnets, staring into the swirling rainbows of oil spilled on mud-puddles, lying on the merry-go-round as it turned slowly around and I moved my finger back and forth in the dirt below, and when I got back to where I'd started I saw my first sine wave, playing with magnifying glasses, then springs and pulleys, learning about pry-bars and hammers, hatchets and such. Then bicycles, rockets, hi-fi, radio, antennas, telescopes, cars, sailboats, and computers. Physics has been my life since I was old enough to think and be fascinated with my surroundings.

I loved the RCA AR88D from 1943 it was one great set, I used it for decades. I think some of the old radios are exceptional.

Exactly it’s all about that atmosphere! 73

Sorry I stepped on your comment which I found after posting mine. You however express things more concisely. Magic, what you don't hear is not there !. 73's G8WOF Wirral UK Ps, 198kHZ is closing down !. Please sign the petition ' keeplongwave ' The BBC is destroying our radio infrastructure

It was great when as a child I got Radio New Zealand for the first time on Christmas day back when they only had low power (7.5kW). Yes that excitement still carries through even today. A few days ago I heard Mozambique on the MW band and it was amazing. Keep listening and thanks from Finland!

I will setup a Kiwi SDR here at some point with a 1km wire but just finding the right place and direction for it.

The best vintage radio I owned was a RCA AR 88D. It was due for a complete overhaul and recapping. But it still worked exceptionally well for it's age. Don't have it now, I gave it to a friend who was just starting out in the hobby. David M0DUU

Would love a Drake but they still command a price tag of around 1000e here. It’s interesting trying out all these old radios in todays times

I have a McMichael portable 4 1930’s, Klosters pup and a few other old receivers. 2 AR88’s D and LF and a boxed R1155 in totally original condition with all the jones plugs. I used to repair valve radios but I was no expert! Hoping to go for my licence this year so that will be something to add to the hobby. 73

@@MattinLapland Nice! Might meet you on air one day. G4GHB.

Thankyou so much!

The 525 is great, a bit slow on the tuning but I would never sell mine now, it’s a really good receiver.

Exactly one of the reasons I listen is to go back and find out what these radios were like to listen to. Many of us knew about them but could not afford them. I’ve owned hundreds of radios over my lifetime from 1930’s sets to things like the RCA AR88D of 1943 but these 80’s/90’s sets were far beyond what I could afford at the time.

Greetings! I hope to get my licence this year. I do hear Romania easily here on ham bands and broadcast bands.

@emillupu8790, one of my favorite SW stations is Radio Romania. Friendly folks and always a good signal here in the US.

I did listen to some reggae on WMR on 15700 kHz it felt a bit warmer 😆 Thanks have a good day

There’s one here for sale I was looking at it. The CRT screen is ok but you can buy a kit to replace it with LCD. Interesting radio!

6:07 It was a fantastic radio , yes I've seen the replacement screens the crt worked perfectly in mine it was a super sensitive radio, at the time I sold it it was not being used due to business commitments, I've retired now so more time for radio.

I will try an SDR sometime, there’s a few old radios in the line first though 🙈😆

@@MattinLapland sdr has its own place simply because you can see a whole section of the band your monitoring also there’s all kind of projects you can do with them.. But for sensitivity you can’t beat a dedicated radio..

The Luxembourg fades were a bit extreme at times!

Hi The fading was caused by the D layer no longer absorbing medium wave sigs as nighttime approaches allowing sigs from Europe to reach us in Uk. As the D layer changed, then sigs would phase in and out. I believe this was known as “skying”

Ha ha , I had the same radio. Made by Vidor I think . I also listened to Luxembourg Sunday night pop show under the sheets ! Great memories ;

I remember horror movies were the radio scanner was pumping out atmospheric disturbances and it was just brilliant.. still applicable in any modern si-if or horror

I’d also note that static atmospheric pulses are currently being monitored by high tech computers and the feed show high level atmospheric meteorite strikes.. Simply radio is still affording us cutting edge technological advances, even through the static…lol

Greetings from Finland, thanks so much.

I had thought about this as MW signals are not horizontally polarised. We have some really big trees here and maybe I could try this. I rely mostly on the early evening somewhat sporadic layers that seem to give amazing DX. It tends go back to normal later in the night. It’s like right now I can get Thailand, Korea and China on MW but they will be gone later in the evening.

And you could try something that has both vert. and hor. components, like a sloper or inverted L. Wire antennas are cheap and easy. If you don't like it then take it down and use the wire for a different one.

I deleted the comments. It’s manageable on a small channel so not too bad. I may go down the SDR route with a Kiwi at some point!

Hi ​@MattinLapland I bought the R2000 brand new, cost about £600 to £695 around 1986 and loved the radio. Sadly our shortwave bands have been destroyed by so much pollution from our electrical homes. My interest is ham radio and hold the call mm0sgq. I've recently moved home and have not set up any antennas so I am missing out on the good conditions. Have fun with your radio. Steve..

Yes the second radio is a JRC NRD-525 they are still one of the best receivers especially for the money now.

I think I got the Seychelles on 1368 khz the other night but sadly could not confirm it.

@@MattinLapland That's great. I remember picking up a radio amateur CW guy on Pago Pago in the Pacific and also a descendant of Fletcher Christian on Pitcairn Island. It's an art picking up weak signals out of the ether and takes dedication. I'm in the UK. That was using a Marconi CR300

Well it may not be old but I’ve had decades using valve equipment (RCA AR88D) so if it’s ok I’ll enjoy something a bit more modern for a change…..

@@MattinLapland I used to listen to SW on 1939-era Hallicrafters S20 and SX15 receivers.

I used to repair valve radios years ago. I kept my RCA AR88D going for decades. I’m hoping to take my licence this year but yes some of the radios seem overly complicated! I’ll look for something that’s easy to manage. 73

No I sold some things to buy these radios and I paid much less than current auction prices. Not wealthy in the slightest!