How would you feel about converting a Hammerlund SP-600 to solid state of it meant better bcb sensitivity?

I enjoy both of these radios for AM. Cool video.

I enjoy your videos. They're very informational for tube receivers. I've never recapped any radio. And from what I'm seeing even my 430 and 930 could be due. But what I was looking for was information about silver mica disease. And you pretty much answered that for me. I'm still on the fence about the domino caps being affected because they are encapsulated. But I saw where one guy took on apart and verified that it was possible. And you have stated the the caps of the IF cams in the sx-42 were leaky. I did not to go there when I recap the sx-32 and sx-101. But at least I'm aware that I may well have to do that based on your videos.

I looked at the specs for my ts-430 and ts-930. They have pretty poor specs for the am broadcast band. But that doesn't disappoint me at all. I'm glad that they are general coverage rx. And the specs are good from 1.8 to 30 mhz. But I'm a ham first and foremost.

A good choice for testing radio sensitivity would be an HP 8656 or 8657. These generators have a range of 100 khz ( 10 khz under range) to 1000 mhz . Personally I'll be using a Motorola R2002 service monitor because it can test transmitters as well with a range of 10 khz to 1000 mhz with a variable rf output.

Yes, that estate sale was fucking epic-too much.

Nice radio. I looked into this model a bit more and learned it was made by Trio (Kenwood). Has an IF gain control as opposed to an RF gain control. I think it was kinda sneaky to make it appear like an S-38 but the strategy probably worked. Would not mind owning that model as I am a big Kenwood fan.

Thanks for sharing. Which Huff 'n Puff circuit did you use ?

You could monitzie your channel and youtube would promote your vids more. Ther is another channel I watch ever now and then (i.e., F165) and he makes about 360 dollars a month for doing really poor vids.

Hey, your Hellicrafters is pretty dam cool. Is there any tube radio that is even cooler. If one whated to be a show off dandy, what would one get?

Great video.

Oh, this is so 'spot-on', totally true.

Nothing wrong with having intetests.

Hallicrafters was a huge success in its day and had a big part in radio history during WWII. Give them some credit.

Why do you trash talk Hallicrafters so much? You put your blood sweat and tears in that SX-42 and I'm sure you are proud of your accomplishments with it.

That " Mouse trap" is there to prevent an accidental electric shock. When you used the 5000 ohm tap were you using a 5000 ohm speaker?

Nostalgia Tax on boat anchors? Try old broadcast studio electronics, including tape recorders. Ridiculous boutique pricing

In other words it’s a boat anchor 😂😂😂

Phill collins 😂😂

What's a good price to buy a working Hallicrafter SX42?

I have a linearity problem with my halicrafters sx-25 and i have a halicrafters sp-44 panadaptor hooked up to it, and I could see the station as it comes on the screen before i here it and it looks strong about 1/4 way to the center and as it reaches the center where i would here it i could see the signal getting smaller , I could also see grass on the trace representing static over where the signal was highest. So I adjusted the oscillator and the pad so that the grass was in the center of the screen the hole way down the dial for that band. But then the band is stretched and docent line up with dial. I feel like its a capacitance problem, Im using a frequency counter like yours now and it is eazyer to read way more accurate and cooler looking

A lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth once somebody tries to adjust the capacitors by bending plates. It can be done but be careful

Simple fix, people tend to overthink this stuff waaaaay too much. If the radio is picking up a signal, then it's basically working, if you know you're listening to station XYZ but the needle is pointing somewhere else, the needle's LYING :D

"This is an old unit" but I bought it 2 years ago......My gut feeling is there was a firmware update on your WIFI unit and because it's ONLY 2 years old, the thing broke! Am I right? This unnerves me too! I remember the day when appliances would work 10-15 years. Now, if I get 5 years out a fridge, I am happy. This is the decline of Western Civ.

Wonderful story about you joshing the cop about you being in Nam! Keep the stories coming!

Nice one, thanks, Scott M0KJZ

Whilst on holiday, a soldered connection came lose, I straightened out a coat hanger, heated it on a gas ring and re did the solder joint. Worked a treat, a few more days of RUSH on my shoebox tape player.

Had a 69 cutlass s back in high school "first car" and the entire exhaust from front to back was held up by coat hangers , we did what we had to do back then.

Plastic had taken over coat hangers, vehicles, guns, and Nancy Pelosi’s face.

Sometimes coathangers resemble a lack of childhood 😐

Can anyone think of a replacment for the wire of the coat hanger? I can't find anything even close to the stiffness of the steel with the the same diametter. I use them for so many things I ask people I know for them but fewer and fewer people have any of them.

Great idea John! Wow, I would have never thought of using a thin piece of copper wire as a tooth on a gear!

Why did you change your intro from "maggots" to "fellow travelers"? I miss the maggots! ...I know the whiners are on here and if they get upset, they may report you. God bless you John. Keep up the great work!

Coat hangers make good car radio aerials when the telescoping one broke off. It was considered traditional to bend them into the shape of Australia, dunno if any other countries did that.

A coat hanger is also a good toy to get people interested in surgery! Turns out to be quite good birth control too

Newspaper bundling wire one of my favorite's!

4:38 LOL

I'm not a maggot >:(

So, in the end, the size (and quantity) is the final determining factor. As a bioinformatics student, I know perfluoroalkyl substances are all around us-in the water we drink, the food we eat, the cleaning products we use, and more than we previously thought. We can't escape them. We messed up by using substances we didn't fully understand. By messing around with them, we found out the hard way. It was unpredictable, and even more so due to some bad decisions by some retarded monkeys in the past (im one of them)

The best amplifier puts out the exact same wave put into it with more voltage and current and without distortion. A lot of people don't realize that some songs are recorded with crappy microphones and stuff. Garbage sound in is going to be garbage out. If an old tube amplifier makes it sound better, its generally because the distortion it puts on the music that it is fed helps it sound better. Its not the amplifier is bettter, its that the distortion created by the amplifier smooths out the crappy music that you are putting into it. If the origional recording was better, it would sound better on a transistor /mosfet amplifier than it would on a tube type. But trying to explain this to people is like trying to convince a flat earther that the world is a globe or visa versa.

That was a brilliant rant mate! Hearing loss with age and exposure to loud industrial noise...and music is real. Is the noise in my head bothering you? Modulating the lights with the amplifier current induced voltage drop, that's pretty cool. I've never seen that. I've seen smoke from diesel generators at an outdoor concert puffing in time with a drum kit being tested. They like their music loud here. Give them what they want. It was the running joke way back when car audio was a new big deal, that you spend thousands to get perfect sound and then spoil it by starting the engine and driving. A good tune is a good tune regardless of what it's played through. The music is in your head.

very intriguing

I can do 148db at 24hz and set off car alarms 200ft away and I have amazing hearing

Who can resist a video that starts with: "All right you magots, listen up!"?

Thanks for the tip on how to fix the old power adapters!!!

I once read that the diode symbol isn't an arrow; the bar is a cathode plate with electrons spraying off it.

As no one else is going to comment I will, DC is easy to work out and AC is complicated- voltage and current out of phase-power factor and all sorts of weirdness. One thing that has always tickled me has been capacitive coupling. Have a great day.

Huh. I knew about the phase thing, but an actual stereo speaker is an new one.

You got a new follower. With an age gap of 50yo, i feel more connected with you way of explaining things and expressing yourself, fully raw and direct to the point with an acid but placid humor :) than many many people around me... I do have ASD so that might have something to do with it... you'll be seeing me in your comment section asking dumb but essential questions (for me atleast). Right now im experimenting with tubes amplifiers and high voltage power supplies but its kind hard getting equipment with todays prices and nasty hoarding of "mojo" or old components... Whatever, really nice channel and explanations, keep on going please.

I'd never even heard of Xylene until now, so I know nothing about that substance. The thing you need about needing to cover open cups with your hand to prevent mercury getting into your drink is just so scary, no wonder people don't want to deal with mercury now. Highly dangerous substance, and to think you was used in medical thermometers.