Back in the late '60's and early '70's, during
the height of the Cold War, I did alot of shortwave listening on a Knight Star Roamer kit
I assembled, and later on a Hallicrafters SX62. Besides pulling in hundreds of AM stations
from most of the US, I picked up quite a few foreign counties on shortwave. A few I sent
reception reports to and in response, I received the colorful and collectable QSL cards
listed below.
Click here to hear how to broadcast
band DX!
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Stats from 1972, Receiving Location - Upstate NY:
COUNTRIES RECEIVED - 62
AM BROCADCAST BAND - STATES = 28, CITIES = 133, STATIONS = 220
Stats as of 3/2011, Receiving Location - Downstate NY:
COUNTRIES RECEIVED - 29
AM BROCADCAST BAND - STATES = 31, CITIES = 242, STATIONS = 353, CANADIAN
= 36
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My original Knight kit Star Roamer. I think
it cost about $39 in 1968. Took a lot of hours to build but was one of the most enjoyable
things I have every done. I picked up more stations on this little radio than I did on my
expensive, commercial built Hallicrafters. |
They
don't built them like this anymore! This was before the printed circuit came out. All
point to point wiring. Each wire, each resistor, each capacitor had to be cut to a certain
length. Now you know why it took days to build. Today all this comes on one IC. |
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Close up view of the detector section. After
finishing, remarkably, I had only one or two errors. |
Next I bought this used Hallicrafters. SX-62
in the 70's for $160. It weighed a ton, had alot of tubes and I used it for a few years.
Sold to a ham after that. |
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Next in the early 90's I bought this used
ICOM R71A. Kept for a couple of years and then sold. |
The Drake R8B. Bought new for about $1200.
Kept for 2 years and sold to someone in Texas for $900. When it was shipped, UPS destroyed
it. I had it insured for $1100 so I made $200 on the deal! |
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Then I had this Icom R75 bought new. I
connected to the computer and used it to receive weather faxes, RTTY and CW. Then II sold
to buy the used radio to the right. |
My old Icom 745 HF transceiver, had for 2
years and then sold it on Ebay. |
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My new Icom 746Pro Transceiver does
everything from 30 khz to 170 mhz! |
My Drake R8. |
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My QSL Collection
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