What Radio Did you start your listening hobby with?

[zackers]

My first SWL radio was a large portable transistor radio sold with the name "Passport" on it. I think my dad bought it and I quickly adopted it.
:-)

When I got my ham license in 1967 I picked up a Heathkit Mohawk receiver which only tuned the ham bands but I built a converter so I could tune the spectrum from 2 to 30 MHz. I've heard some interesting things on it and on other radios over the years.

One thing that surprises me - my very first numbers station was what we refer to as "V02" from Cuba on 4028 kHz. That must've been in the late 70's. V02 STILL uses that frequency!

[SHORTY]

I started with a Sony 2010 in the late 80's.

[Lex]

For those that remember their first SW receiver…do you remember the first thing you heard on it?

The first MW DX and shortwave I remember hearing - not on my own receiver - was probably in the late 1960s or early 1970s when I was a kid.  Some folks we used to visit on the remote end of Long Island had an old receiver - a Transoceanic, I think - and let my brother and me tune it around.  I remember hearing some English accented broadcasts, probably the BBC, and a bunch of odd stuff from various countries and the Caribbean.

If memory serves, I became more interested in shortwave in the late 1980s after buying an old console style hi-fi and multiband AM radio, mostly as a functional decoration.  After replacing some tubes and tuning around I discovered it got pretty decent reception of the major international AM shortwave broadcasters.

Since I had to travel a lot back then I got that no-name portable I mentioned earlier, and quickly became intrigued by the sideband stuff that portable couldn't pick up.  From there it was all downhill.  I developed the immunity to static that marks the hopelessly addicted DXer.

[L Cee]

My first was a Knight Kit "Ocean Hopper" I built in 1962 with the help of a friend. The only portable I've ever owned is a Radio Shack DX-390. I've had wonderful results with it using long wire and dipole antennas strung up in trees. It even worked well using a wire thumb tacked around the ceiling of a room. Alas, it is currently not operating.

Here is the Ocean Hopper - not mine, but one exactly like the one I had
http://yourepeat.com/watch/?v=uowJns7XFjE

[moof]

I said DX-440 because it was the first real radio I had around late 80's.  It could be months between hearing and IDing a pirate on or around 7415. 
We had a piece of garbage Hallicrafters growing up in the 60's with a piece of wire out the back.  Tubes.  Did they work?  Well enough to fire up.  Yellowed mystery tuning dial.  Even more mysterious secondary horizontal tuning.  WWV if you were lucky.  A few knobs and switches that may or may not have functioned.  I couldn't tell.  It didn't catch on fire at least.  It wasn't enough to spark an interest until I was much older.  Got really interested once I got a Drake R8.

[The Hokie]

I voted for the Grundig, as my first "real" radio was a YB400PE - but my first SW experience was on one of those MFJ battery-powered regens.

I don't think I heard anything on it but exhortations to repent, and maybe the Beeb World Service when they still pointed their antennas at us poor Colonials, but I was hooked.

[Turbo]

I started listenning to hf aero/utilities in the 80s with a portable Sony-2010 started working saved up
got a brand new Icom-R71 end loved it using a discone was able to stay up all night then got 2 Kenwood-R5000 once i got married went crazy bought lots of receivers as the pay packet got bigger current radios Alinco DX-R8 (2),Icom-R71A,Icom-R75 (2),Palstar-R30A,Rf Space SDR-IQ (2),Ten Tec-320D,Ten Tec-340 (2) also have wide band receivers that also use on hf antennas are Wellbrook-ALA1530,ALA1530AL-1,1530L,330S also share a radio room at dads place with 35 hf receivers from Aor,Icom,Drake,Nrd,Perseus,Rfspace,Racal,Ten Tec,Watkins Johnson,Winradio also have 10 vhf/uhf receivers Aor-8600MK2 (5),Icom-R8500 (5) all my uncles are into radios every few weeks we get together radio talk all night..

Regards Lino..

[Pigmeat]

A Hallicrafters S-120 a cousin gave me when he was drafted in the early/mid 60's. It had one of those fancy "vfo's" that only worked if the ssb station was really strong and there was nothing on the band near it. Otherwise,it howled when engaged.

I still have it. In fact it's the only radio I ever heard Radio Eclipse on when that station was active.

[myteaquinn]

I was going to talk about my starting my swl hobby using a Sony CRF-5100. Then I read Turbo's post and I want to be adopted.

[Zane]

My older cousin had an electronics workshop in the basement. During my pre-teen and teen years he showed me the world of electronics which eventually led to a career. He had a Hallicrafters S-108 receiver and we'd occasionally turn it on. He never had a formal antenna  (he spent more time modifying stereo's while listening to jazz on a Crown reel-to-reel), but he'd hook up a hunk of wire and I'd be fascinated by SWBC stations, hams, and even WWV. As I got older and became interested in SWLing and ham radio, he gave me the S-108 and I used it for years. I still have it.

Yep, that's me in the basement. I know - nice shirt. But hey! I had lotsa hair then!
I think I was soldering something when somebody snapped this shot.

Z

[Lex]

Yep, that's me in the basement. I know - nice shirt. But hey! I had lotsa hair then!

Hey, I had the same shirt.  Very '70s.  The cowpunk style sorta made a comeback here in the late '80s, at least around Deep Ellum, with yoke shirt patterns and bolo ties.  Ah, reminds me of seeing the Reverend Horton Heat at the Prophet Bar.

I still have the hair.

[corq]

Most this pile I Still have:

And my R-75 that I still kinda miss, though the SDR is filling the void:

Gateway drug, I tell you!

[ChrisSmolinski]

Your shack is far too neat, Corq.

[corq]

Your shack is far too neat, Corq.

Ha! That's why that particular pic was taken, because the neatness never lasts very long!

[ff]

I think BOTH of you have shacks that are too neat.  I won't submit a photo of mine because I'd probably be getting a knock from the County Health Dept!  I started as a kid with an old ham tube rig called the Lafayette HA-60.  After having tired of not knowing what was hiding in the dark spaces between the ham bands, I finally ponied up the bux for a Realistic DX100.  Although the selectivity was abominable and the dial tuning was a cheesy analog 4 band affair, I was hooked to a lifetime of squeals and pops with that little bugger.  My first true portable came much later, with the venerable DX-440, which to me, was a class act for the price.  I later bought a Sangean ATS-818, which I still use today, alongside my tabletops.