February 16, 2017. Took a trip to Pennsylvania to visit Joe Cro and see if he added any new gear to his collection. (That was a dumb idea, of course Joe added more gear !). Joe invited me into his living room to see his new acquisitions.
Hallicrafters SX-73/R-274 general coverage receiver from the Korean War era.
NATIONAL NC 400 RECEIVER
top: HALLICRAFTERS S20 R RECEIVER (Irb, W2VJZ's "champion of the sky")
bottom: JOHNSON VIKING VALIANT TRANSMITTER
JOHNSON VIKING 6N2 THUNDERBOLT AMPLIFIER
Tobe Deutschmann model H from 1935. One of the first bandswitching Ham Band only receivers.
On the right: RCA Radiola 60 broadcast receiver from 1928.
Left of large cone speaker: Stewart-Warner Allwave receiver from 1933.
Left of Stewart-Warner: Browning 35 general coverage receiver from 1935.
Joe invited me to his basement museum. Naturally I had to follow the maze of equipment that led to his main operating position.
Finally I arrived at the "old man's" operating bench. Make note that every square foot of Joe's basement has this much gear or more.
In front of Joe on the desk: RCA ACR-175 general coverage receiver from 1936.
Joe points to a British Codar ATS transmitter and to the left a British AT5 MKII transmitter from the mid 1960's. Both are 10 watt AM+ CW transmitters covering the 80 and 160 meter bands.
Under the MKII is the power supply for both transmitters.
The large black, rack mounted receiver is a National AGS (Air to ground) superheterodyne receiver from 1932.
Thinking that I may have seen everything, Joe invited me to the back 40 where he built a small house he calls "Studio B".
It's hard to grasp the concept that Joe has almost cornered the market on vintage radio equipment. Everyone calls Joe, "Vortex Joe", because when a piece of gear enters Joe's domain, it gets sucked in and never gets out.
It's also hard to understand that with a large house full of equipment, this building was constructed to just handle the overflow ! It looks like Joe needs a Studio "C".
I really enjoyed my visit and without a doubt, Joe is a walking encyclopedia of vintage radio !
CHECK HERE to see
all my Vortex Joe visits back to 2002.
