Bang For The Buck -- your most cherished AM DX radio

In the Sixties, when the AM dial was a lot clearer (and quieter) than it is today, I somehow coerced a thousand or so stations out of a 6-tube Zenith console radio that had a turntable opening from it -- the same principle as a breadbox. Station # 1000 was KWWL 1330 from Waterloo Iowa.
And I was technically the worst of the four DXers who hung out as rivals and peers.

A 1972 purchase of a Lafayette HA-600 A ....
https://www.google.com/search?q=Laf...qEk9fVAhVh1oMKHRP-B14QsAQIMw&biw=1000&bih=587
... the first four pictures with the blue dial, got me another 500 stations from the same place. The Lafayette's sonics were horrible, but it was terrific on 'splits'. Stations from Central America whose frequency ended in '5' were especially plentiful.

So on what radio(s) did you cut your teeth on for those primal, basic several hundred stations' worth of loggings? What radio(s) turned you into a hopeless addict?

Hammarlund SP-600 JX. If it can't pull out an AM station, then nothing will.

I have to go with the Hammarlund HQ-145, which I bought as my Novice receiver in early 1971. Easily the most selective receiver I've ever owned -- amazing what they could do with a single crystal, a few shunt resistors, and a variable phasing capacitor. It was deaf as a post above about 12 MHz, and suffered from the arcing IF transformer that plagued many Hammarlunds (I was able to fix it), but on the lower bands, it was a fantastic receiver.

I still have it in storage, but I haven't turned it on in about 15 years.

Three way tossup for me. In no particular order.....1
.) My grandparents' Zenith 8-S 154 console. The one that got me started. Pictured on the left (circa 1938, 4 bands). I still have it, but it no longer works. I had a copper window screen attached via wire to the antenna terminal. KFI was relatively easy duty with that one!

2.) Realistic DX-375 Portable. Made by Sangean. A really good performer on AM/MW. Almost as good on SW and FM. Stolen from my California hotel room about 8 years ago. The joke may have been on the thief, however. By then the radio was more than 15 years old, speaker didn't work, whip antenna missing, and had assorted other dings and dents from its life as a decade and a half as my traveling companion.

3.) GE Superadio II. Bought it for a dollar at a church rummage sale. Pristine condition except for battery compartment covrr missing. The ultimate bomb for AM DX! Good on FM too, but I mostly use it as speaker for my FM modulator hooked up to a 15 year old Dell laptop that I use to stream music.

Special Mention: A friend of our family who was a ham radio operator let me use his Drake 2-B communications receiver for a couple of weeks one time when I was in high school while he was out of town. Spoiled me rotten!

Steve Green NEPA said:

A 1972 purchase of a Lafayette HA-600 A ....

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I got one a year later, but mostly used it below 400 KHz and between 5.9 MHz and 26.1 MHz.

A Zenith Trans Oceanic was my favorite DX machine. When I first got it around 1961 I was interested in shortwave, but quickly discovered that the AM receiver on it was more selective than any radio I had previously used. Even with the enclosed wavemagnet antenna I realized I could hear stations that I never heard on any of our other household radios. It was also great for traveling. When on family vacations I enjoyed Dxing the Chicago powerhouses from distant places.

I can't pick just one either.

1) Though I had been DXing long before, I got a Pannasonic AM/FM 'Stereo Spacer' portable radio in 1976 which was mainly for listening music on FM but I soon found it was an AM DXing machine.

I can't find a picture of the exact model I had but on that radio, I got some of my most memorable catches when I was visiting northern California in the 70's - Nighttime regulars like WLS and WLW. Then there was WCBS and WCAU.

That was the radio where I heard KFI the one and only time from New Jersey in the winter of 77/78.


2) In 1984, I was fascinated with AM Stereo and after listening with two portable radios, I finally got the Sony AM Stereo Walkman.

That was at the very end of the AM radio top 40 era and it was so fun to stations in stereo from Florida such as WNBC, WLS, and others.

I remember there were 2 different types of stereo formats used there was a little switch on the side of the receiver to choose.


3) And of course, I have to include my current radio, the Sangean PR-D5. That's given me so many AM catches that I never thought possible.

It's such a solid radio and after 8 years, it shows no sign of wear and tear and at the rate I've used it for DXing, I didn't expect the knob to last more than a year or two.

I use it to listen to local FM and I have it playing on my desk right now.

DavidEduardo said:

I had forgotten about that removable and movable antenna, which introduced me to loop antennas and their directionality.

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It was a very handy antenna and helped me really discover how well I could null certain stations in order to hear the ones I wanted.
I still have the radio sitting in my basement (56 years old). It's not in working order, but maybe someday I'll have it restored.

I do not remember the make or model of two portables I had,
but I know that one or both could null extremely strong local
stations and get out-of-market ones...
as long as they were on internal batteries
and NOT plugged into the wall.

My first radio back in the early 70's was a Radio Shack Realistic TRF portable. I heard my first 500 or so stations with it, barefoot and balanced on my lap, before later graduating to a 3-foot loop I made myself using wire and dowel rods. It was a great radio and quite durable - my mom was still using it as her bathroom radio until 2008. This is the model I had:

https://radiojayallen.com/realistic-12-675-trf/

Nowadays, I'm fond of the PR-D5 mentioned above. I also like my Sony ICF-SW7600GR.

wildthangjim said:

This is the model I had:

https://radiojayallen.com/realistic-12-675-trf/

Nowadays, I'm fond of the PR-D5 mentioned above. I also like my Sony ICF-SW7600GR.

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http://earmark.net/gesr/12-675_tech.htm

Radio Shack made one more DX model after the 12-675:

http://earmark.net/gesr/12-655.htm

And the circuitry from the 12-655 was lifted and put into an AM/FM radio - except they decided the FET was not necessary, a good low noise bipolar is just as good. I agree with the design change. Modified, there is virtually no difference between the 12-655 AM and the 12-650 AM section.

http://earmark.net/gesr/12-650.htm. I used this unit for almost 3 years in my office along I-10 in Houston to listen to WBAP from Ft. Worth, virtually interference free.

DavidEduardo said:

The consensus "best receiver" among AM DXers was the HQ-180, particularly if modified with the Heathkit Q Multiplier.

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Never had one - I will have to check that one out.

It was around last year when I acquired a re-fitted HQ-180, through a buddy of mine in Wilkes-Barre who is far more familiar with eBay than I'll ever be.

I had used one for a while, previously, back in the late 70's, on a loan from another buddy, back near JFK Airport.
His was a wonderful rig. The 24-hour clock took a little getting used to, but with a four-foot loop it was able to null most local NYC signals plus pull in distant stations on adjacent channels even in the day.
When I returned it, my pal told me that it was performing like that despite two blown tubes.

The 'new' HQ-180 works very, very well.
At night.
During the day, the AM dial is so noisy nowadays that it's prohibitive to try for anything. Our little burgh here is about 6000 people and is surrounded by woods on all four sides of it. But the noise is unbelievable -- on any radio using wall current. Even the Chrysler car radio -- a wonderful unit that was aces when my Folks had it in Florida -- remains useful only at night.

For all intents and porpoises, vis-a-vis that nice HQ-180, I may as well have spent all that money for a clock that works only at night.

DavidEduardo said:

The consensus "best receiver" among AM DXers was the HQ-180, particularly if modified with the Heathkit Q Multiplier.

Click to expand...

The dream radio that I never had.
Years later, I learned that Hammarlund had a series of even better models.
The "Super Pro" SP-600 and some other models had two antenna inputs and a spatial diversity reception AGC system.
While the feature would not have been very useful on MW,
it would have shone on bands with wavelengths that allowed for widely spaced antennæ.

I didn't get to use this radio much as it was my older brother's. He got it from a TV/radio shop whose owner was retiring in the mid 1970s, a Zenith "Clipper" http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wshu/files/styles/large/public/201503/6g601.jpg

This was the only radio I used that ever picked up WLW 700 during the mid day in SE Iowa, at least 400 miles from the home of Skyline Chili. (I should add that it was a rainy summer day)

For FM, where I did the bulk of my DXing in the late 70s and 80s, it was my Technics SA-5170 receiver. Lots of tropo ducting and E-skip received over the years with just a pair of rabbit ears and a location without intervening hills. On AM however, it was as numb as they come. It's in the closet right now, needing re c-capped and a good thorough cleaning after 40 years.