Radio Shack DX-160 SWL Radio Vintage Classic!

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73 DE VE5JL

[@k2cjbradio]

You got a great deal! I bought one on eBay some time ago and it looks great in my home office. Every once in a while I’ll tune around on it. It’s a classic for sure! 73 de Chris K2CJB

[@sparkybluefox]

Great review of the DX-160 , A life long buddy of mine gave me a restored DX-160 about 15 years ago..... He re-capped it and tuned it up to spec ! I am in love with my "First" real shortwave reciever.... even in this world of modern solid state rigs. ( sort of like your first "girl friend: ) You know what I mean. Thank you for bringing back such awesome memories .! SBF

[@ve5jl-theradioguy]

haha... Yes... I DO know what you mean, 73!

[@radiotec76]

I just picked up a DX-160 I February and aside from a ding in the right rear corner it’s in good shape. I also got the speaker with it. It’s a bit tinny but it sure looks good. So far, alignment seems to be all the radio needs. BTW, I picked up USAF Hf GCCS signals on 11175 during the first Gulf War. I received the on a Realistic DX-440 using the BFO on the radio. Apparently, I bought the last one in the state of Texas back in early January, 1991. The radios were selling like hit cakes at the local Radio Shack. Then someone where I worked at Johnson Space Center gave me a DX-150 and had two Realistic shortwave radios to play with. I had fun with that one too and picked up GCCS there too. Also had a ball listening to Radio Canada International rebroadcast Sunday Edition. They had some of the best documentaries I have ever heard and I often recorded them to cassettes. I still have them. Thanks for the memories.

[@radiotec76]

@@joelockhart6986, btw my call is WD5L. I’ve had the call for 37 years. I was I originally licensed WB2JOI in 1976.

[@6643bear]

Hi , great video, I nearly bought one of these back in 1977 in uk Tandy stores which was the radio shack in the Uk, I bought yaesu. Frg7 instead which at that time petty good rxer , regards 73s mark G8rde

[@ve5jl-theradioguy]

Thank you Mark. The FROG-7 is a radio I'd love to have in the shack. Maybe one day I'll find one is pristine condition at the right price. 73s!!!

[@6643bear]

@@ve5jl-theradioguy hi thanks for reply, absolutely am glad I bought one years ago was a toss up at frg 7 or radio shack dx160. I still have frg7 and frg7d the digital display one . Regards mark

[@lylewatts6370]

Radio is not the greatest but for the time it was produced it's not bad. I have one with speaker and my club has one also. Usually get them donated from silent key estates. I have a FRG-7 Yeasu radio that works great. I am working on an old trio 9R59 receiver. Always something in the shack to work on and it does pass the time on those cold winter days. Thanks for sharing.

[@fredzalupski663]

Congrats on the find. Lovely shack pictures, too. 73!

[@ve5jl-theradioguy]

That wasn't finished and it going to be redone after some thinking about the layout. Hopefully, it will be up and running again soon. 73!

[@extremeedison]

The Realistic DX-160 radio has a dissimilar metal problem on the tuning printed circuit board with the rivets that connect the top side printed circuit to the printed circuit on the bottom side of the PC board. Resoldering is not sufficient, the fix is to solder jumper wires on the top side of the board to replace the connection made by the printed circuit on the bottom side. Shining a bright light through the bottom of the board shows clearly where to solder the jumper wires on the top side. This is the RF amp and Local Oscillator circuit so it will require alignment. Operation without repair may be intermittent.

[@ve5jl-theradioguy]

It's a great radio and thankfully there are ways to fix it and keep it working. Thank you for posting! 73 Joe

[@ry491]

Like you I could not afford a DX160 at the time but I now have one bought off ebay. It is in mint condition and with speaker. It works superbly . Coupled up to a long wire it perforns as well as many modern recievers . The calibration on mine is spot on and the tuning is so much nicer than these horrible DSP recievers that are produced now. I have done the usual audio mod and that does make a difference . I wonder how many present day recievers will still be working after 50 years . Regards from the UK

[@ve5jl-theradioguy]

I was at a ham swap meet over the last weekend. I picked up two more :) They also work and bring back some real nice memories. 73!

[@larrypicard5969]

I bought one of these back in the day. In 1977 I was making about one thousand dollars a month before taxes. That was not bad money for the time. I was always disappointed with this rig. I recall low sensitivity, very poor tuning accuracy and equally poor tuning repeatability. The higher the frequency, the worse it got. Tuning in SSB was difficult and there was some drift. Only nostalgia makes this radio attractive today.

[@craftsman123456]

I was just able to pick one up for free the other day. It has the 1,000 megahertz mode (old version). I noticed that mine has horrible drift on 20m ham SSB. Wont even stay on frequency for more then 45 sec. Is that common?

[@ve5jl-theradioguy]

I've had a few of these radios over the years and I've never experienced drift at all never mind as bad as you described. Maybe someone with more experience with drift can assist you. 73 and thank you for watching the video. 😃