[mikethedruid]

LOL, Ed, About half of my antique receivers are shortwave sets, ranging from the Olympic 6-608- 110 and RCA 5Q55 through Philco 37-360 and 48-482, to my RCA 18T and RCA T8-18, and, top of the line, my Hammarlund HQ-140X and HQ-145. Tonight I tested out the Lafayette HE-30. I am very pleasantly surprised. The only thing that does not seem to be working as it should is the S meter. When the set arrived the movement had come loose from the front part of the meter, and I had used tape to hold it back together. I removed the meter and rang it out for resistance, and it seems to be within what I would expect, about 110 ohms. I have also put a milliamp meter across the leads which go to it, and the current varies with the signal it is receiving. Tonight I made sure the needle has free movement, and glued the movement back to the clear front part again. It is sitting drying right now, and I will re-install it tomorrow. Hopefully it will now work OK, otherwise I will have to be on the lookout for a replacement. Aside from that, I am VERY happy with this set. It works like a champ, certainly on par with my RCA T8-18, which is the best of my really old sets, if not even better. I will know better when I put the top and bottom covers back on, and test it on my outdoor antenna. The circuit is very nice, with two stages of IF amplification, and tuneable IF gain. I am also pleasantly surprised because I do not think I will have to do any alignment at all, the frequencies seem to be spot on. With just my short (6 foot piece of wire) test antenna CHU Canada at 3.33 Mhz (only 3 Kw), and WWV at 5 Mhz (10 Kw) come in very well, which makes me think this set may end up outperforming anything but my Hammarlunds. It may replace my RCA T8-18 as my daily driver.