Best Tube Radio You Ever Owned/Tuned

[N4GBK]

PP88Key -Your Stoddart NM-20A, even if it were operational, could cost a lot of money to properly calibrate and more money to keep in calibration. There are some military radio collectors that like that kind of equipment. From the pictures, it looks like a fine piece of 1950s high tech tube type battery powered radio. There are maintenance manuals still available but some of the repair parts might not be available. Unless you have a lot of spare money, I'd pass on getting that repaired by someone. A Field Intensity Meter probably is not a very good DX receiver as it does not have an AGC and some of the other things that make for a great DX machine.

 

[1L6E6VHF]

Can't choose one to call "best", it is so subjective. Love the Zenith H-500's ability to sound good, even though its selectivity is not too poor. Then again, my Motorola 45P3 "Pixie" is a lot easier to carry (LOL).

The one I miss was a Zenith brown plastic table radio, circa 1950, I bought at a yard sale for $2, sometime about 1979.

The tube complement of the AM (MW)-only radio was the ordinary All-American Five (only it had four miniature tubes, but used the octal 50L6 for audio out) - but there must have been something special in that radio's passive components. CBK would come in clear-as-a-bell once CBEF would sign off for the night. After CBK went off an hour later, a Mexican and a Venezuelan would fight it out the channel. Any other radio I had at the time (including the Realistic "TRF long range" model that was a favorite of DXers at the time) would only give a hissing sound on this (and many other) channels.

Sadly, that radio fell to its death after being left on the arm of a sofa above a slate floor.

 

[stacker]

Hammarlund HQ 160. Still have it.