[rescue] radio

[Dave McGuire]

On December 31, dave at cca.org wrote:
> >  Holy COW...OFF THE CURB??!  SX42s typically go for $100-500 on the
> >collectors market depending on condition.  That is an *excellent*
> >score.
> 
> Yeah, I had to stare at it for a while before I believed it was
> actually sitting there.

  Yeah, really!

> It works a *little* bit. That might just be because my antenna sucks,
> given that I don't know anything about radios, and I just grabbed some
> wire and guessed.

  That's fine for casual listening.  For a receive-only random-length
longwire antenna, the general rules are...the longer and the higher,
the better.  A good ground is important as well.  Those old
Hallicrafters radios are quite sensitive.

> I've picked up a bit of russian-sounding talk, and a lot of morse.
> 
> It does FM/AM/CW. What's CW? That's where all the morse is.

  CW is Continuous Wave...morse.

  See if you can pick up WWV from Fort Collins, CO on 5, 10 15, or
20MHz.  The higher frequencies likely won't be audible at night if
you're far from Colorado.  Also try the Canadian time reference
station, CHU, on 7.335MHz.  Use AM for these transmissions.  CHU
should be audible by pretty much any decent reciever with pretty much
any antenna over most of the US.

> My God it's nice looking though. :-)

  Yes, they're gorgeous.  Take some pics!  I have a Hallicrafters
S-38, a Skyrider-23, and an SX-100 that I'll be taking some pics of
soon.

    -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
St. Petersburg, FL         "Less talk.  More synthohol." --Lt. Worf