Thanks to Tony for apprising us of this rare bargain for a Hallicrafters SX-888. Tony is so blown away by the price, he's tempted to fly to Florida and pick up the radio in person.
Update:
Tony is serious about this radio. After reading the original post, he emailed me:
I read your post for the SX 88. If I were to buy it, I would drive to Florida to personally pick it up. I would be afraid to ship a heavy tube radio cross country via UPS or FedEx or by any other means. I used to work at FedEx Ground & saw firsthand what can happen to boxes when they get trapped in the conveyor system - not pretty!
The SX 88 is probably the best general coverage receiver Hallicrafters ever made. It gets rave reviews from everyone who has owned one. Since I can’t afford one, I’ll stick with my Hammarlund HQ 180 which I bought new in 1963 for the then princely sum of $429. That same year I bought a Volkswagen bug for $1729 to give you an idea.
Did anyone go to the YouTube link to see the unit in operation? Any wonder why the inbuilt speaker sounds weak according to the seller. Still, I suppose the inbuilt sound effects generator adds extra fun to the whole SW listening experience. I must say that I did grunt rather loudly (as my shaken two cats would attest) when I saw the mode switch on SSB!
Posted by: Avo | January 07, 2014 at 11:31 PM
Why is the volume of the internal speaker so low?
Posted by: Angelo | January 08, 2014 at 08:17 AM
Angelo, the internal speaker is probably low because the final or pre-amp tubes are weak.
It really needs some work!
New caps, probably some resistors out of tolerance, and a few new tubes, an alignment wouldn't hurt either!
Looks nice for it's age, however if I wanted to spend $4.5k on a radio, this isn't the one.
Posted by: plus.google.com/102572055407642643011 | January 08, 2014 at 11:00 AM