Received
on January 26, 1999:
...It's quite a receiver... There were two MK II versions one
with
transistors in the AF section to power the speaker, and a later
version with
an IC power amp. I have had to repair it once - a transistor
in the
IF section went bad. A replacement transistor worked fine. I
remember that
the most difficult part was removing it from the cabinet. The
workmanship
inside is atrocious. I have toyed with the idea of adding a
a 455Khz crystal
filter to the IF section, but never done it because of the work
involved. I
would offer to repair broken sets, but postage will make a transaction
expensive.
Charles King
PO Box 116
East Berlin, CT
06023 USA
Received on Febraury 8, 1999:
Hi Francesco:
Just a note to thank you for your excellent new web page on
the XCR-30. I'm
expecting to receive one of these receivers in the next week
or so, and
finding your site with all its literature available for download
is just
wonderful.
One little problem: the schematic on your "literature"
page will not load; I
think something is wrong with the link to the file. Everything
else (the
manual pages, etc.) loads fine. I'd sure like to study the schematic,
though!
Again, congratulations on the XCR-30 site. The receiver is a
technical marvel
for its time, and deserves all the attention you've now provided
for it.
Regards,
Rick Ferranti
Received on February 9, 1999:
Francesco,
Congratulations on a great Web site. I was assistant editor
of WRTH from
1978-1987, and editor from 1987. We had a deal with Barlow-Wadley.
There
was a postcard in every box, and the buyer had to fill in his
personal
details and send it to the WRTH office in Denmark. In return,
we would
send a free copy of WRTH. The cards were then sent in batches
to South
Africa, and Barlow-Wadley would refund the money to WRTH. That
scheme
worked very well, and got us a lot of new readers.
I am so impressed with your efforts that we intend to mention
it on the
Media Network programme of Radio Netherlands, and hopefully
also in the
Real Radio E-zine which I produce.
If you need any more scans from old copies of WRTH I may be
able to help
you :-) 73, Andy Sennitt
Received on February 11, 1999:
You did a great job with the Barlow-Wadley website, I thank
you for it! I have similar experiences and feelings about this
receiver as you described in the website.
George Maroti, New York State USA
Received on February 12, 1999:
Dear Sir,
I am Costa Constantinides now living in Cyprus for a few years
now. The Barlow Wadley was one of my favorite radios.
I am from South Africa and It was a fine buy in those days.
My other receivers I used were the Realistic Dx 160. Yaesu FRG
&, Yaesu 7700, National DR28, Sony ICF 2001, I currently
use the NRD 515 and the SONY ICF 7600. I enjoy this hobby a
lot. I have 136 countries verified since I started way back
in 1969.
I am trying to write an article about dxing to promote the hobby.
In part 2. I wrote about the Barlow Wadley as follows...The
Barlow Wadley XCR was a South African produced radio and popular
through out the world in the early 1970,s...'' I am still a
active dxer and still hunting for new qsl cards. I send you
my best 73,s from Cyprus,
Regards,
Costa Constantinides.
Received on February 13, 1999:
Hallo Francesco,
What a nice idea of yours to have a site in the XCR30!
I am still repairing these sets on a regular basis here in South
Africa. I get them from all over the country by courier and
post.As far as I know I must be one of the very, very FEW tech's
who does. I see you have the whole cct diagrammes and schematic
manual.
There are of course various oddities about the manual, servicing
of the set in general,components, etc. The earliest serial number
I have done is around number 8 or so !!! The company does not
manufacture radios any more as far as I know.
I have a number of these sets in various states of pain here....mostly
kept
for spares. Here in Johannesburg it is still possible to find
a few original
spares. Hear from you again,
73 de Francois Steyn
Received on February 14, 1999:
I was alerted to your site by Francois Steyn in Johannesburg
where I used to live. Francois is very knowledgeable about BW's.
He serviced mine prior to my coming to NZ and "touch wood"
it has not given me a problem since.Great idea to have a web
site for these old classics.
Good luck with the site.
Best wishes, David Norrie NZ
Received on February 15, 1999:
I live in Johannesburg and I still use mine regularly for listening.
And I love and enjoy every moment of it!
Congratulations on a very special website!
Attie ZS6RFT Parkwood, Johannesburg.
Received on February 21, 1999:
The Barlow Wadley was a very good receiver. I didnīt have it.
But my
friend, well known DXer Ewald Bartunek, also living in Vienna
has it.
Many, many listeners sessions followed after he got hte BW!
I will be
very happy if I can get a BW now, but there are no DXers with
this
product!
Your pages are excellent. It is a very good work!
Gerhard Buetow, AUSTRIA
Received on February 28, 1999:
Thank You for a very interesting Wadley Site. I am glad that
you have
made contact with Francois Steyn, as he must be the best BW
Boffin in
the world. Also, he is an amazing technician, and can tune,
repair and
fix virtually anything! Apart from that he is is also a pretty
good
editor!
All of the best with your endeavours. I hope your site will
generate
the interest that it deserves.
Groetnis / Regards
Received on March 4, 1999:
Hello Francesco,
just found your web site on the news groups.
Congratulations on a GREAT web site, I found lots of information
which I was looking for.
A brief history on my XCR30. I am from England, about 70 Km
north
of London. I found this receiver in a second-hand shop in my
home town.
I did not know about the receiver so I pulled it from the shelf
and see that
it had SSB and asked how much it was. The lady from the shop
said
"I don't know if it works, 2UKP love!" I soon put
my hand in my pocket and
paid for it. It did work OK when I got it home, that was two
years ago.
The serial number on my radio is 10147 if you are interested
in that sort of
thing.
Now it has gone deaf and I think it's TR5 (RF Amp) thats gone.
I get a hiss
from the set but nothing else. I down loaded all the service
manual and the
schematic but I have to get some BF255 transistors to try it
out.
When I had it working it was a great radio and I would love
to get it going again.
My other radio equipment is:
Sangean ATS803a
Hammerlund HQ170A
Lot of Antennas
73 and good DX, Reg
Received on March 10, 1999
Thanks for making this material available. A friend has a Racal
RA17 receiver [military set with a lot of tubes (23?)].
It uses the Wadley loop principle and I visited your site to
find out how it works.
Thanks
Martin Ackroyd
[Bristol, UK]
Received on March 12, 1999
Hi. A couple of weeks ago I was given a box of old test gear
and other
bits and pieces. The box was full and packed as so things didn't
get to knocked around. In amoungst the various bits and pieces
surrounded by news paper was a Barlow Wadley Portable. A closer
inspection revealed the model no XCR-30, Mark 2 with a serial
no
of 1449 marked the fold down rear panel plate.
Of course I'd heard of the Barlow Wadley name and am quite familiar
with the Wadley Loop System used in well known SW RXers such
the
RA-17, FRG-7 and so on, but this was the first time I'd actually
come across a XCR-30.
Needless to say I immediatly forgot about the other stuff and
had
a closer look at the thing. Every-thing looked OK with the OHM
Meter
so I fired the thing up and it seemed OK, apart from a problem
with
the second micro-switch on the antenna trimmer, a minor problem...
A day of so later I turned to the WEB for some more imformation
and
found your WEB page, great stuff. I downloaded just about everything
you had on the XCR-30 and have since given the thing a tune-up.
My XCR-30 was rather dirty and a little knocked around but I
have
since given it a good clean (several in fact) relinished the
knobs
and applied a few coats of Amorall (a plastic and vinyl protector)
and it doesn't look to bad at all now.
Thankyou for the efforts on your WEB pages, I've found it quite
helpful in restoring my XCR-30 to almost its former glory.
Regards
Chris J Arthur
Chief Technical Officer
Comms Group, Comm & Elec Eng, RMIT.
Here is a page of Chris about Wadley
Loop. Enjoy!
Received on April 6, 1999
Boy, your web site is getting better and better, with the owner's
manual and
more reviews posted. Great resource!
My Barlow Wadley XCR-30 Mark II has a serial number of 2930.
Name is Rick
Ferranti, now living near Boston, Massachusetts.
I've used the BW quite a lot over the past weeks, and it's a
fine radio. It
just stays put on frequency, even when monitoring SSB transmissions
for a long
time, while my Panasonic RF-2200 (an analog shortwave portable
from the same
time period, with comparable frequency readout) just drifts
away! The BW is
quite sensitive and selective, too. The Barlow Wadley is unusual
in that
there's no bandswitch, and nothing to get out of order there,
and it's so easy
to go from the AM BC band to 10 meters in just a simple finger
motion.
On the 7 MHz band, I get interference from FM broadcast stations,
but by
tweaking the MHz dial I can eliminate it from whatever frequency
I'm listening
to, and still hear the desired 40 meter station with good sensitivity.
It
would be fun to design and integrate in a 30 MHz lowpass filter
to completely
eliminate FM problems, but designing the filter's input/output
impedances
properly will be a challenge -- neither the whip antenna (the
input to the
filter) or the preselector (which is what the filter output
port will see) are
50 ohms!
Again, thanks for your great web site and best wishes,
Rick Ferranti
Received on 15 April 1999
Great to see a site dedicated to one of my favourite receivers!
Have had a XCR-30 Mk2 for severeal years. Got it from a golf
club garage
sale for $15 NZ and restored it. Have it on the bench here at
the
university at the moment to check out international news broadcasts.
It's quite a good ham receiver and with a simple mod for external
antenna connection plus LED dial lighting goes very well indeed.
Years ago I built a Wadley loop synthesiser for my han station
and
frankly it was a better local oscillator than almost any other
I've
tried.
One thing though, the BW has a positive ground power supply
so if you
use it as a fax RX, as I have, its a good idea to use an isolating
audio
transformer in the cable to the computer!
Regards
Cliff Wright ZL1BDA ex G3NIA
Received on 29 April 1999
I think somewhere in this site I saw mention of the fact that
Radio
Shack (Tandy to non-US readers) sold one or two sets that used
the Wadley Loop design.
Indeed they did. The ones I am aware of are the DX-300 and the
DX-302.
I have a '302 (it was my first real shortwave radio, bought
it when I was
a teenager with money earned from a summer job); I've only seen
pictures
of the '300 but it looks very similar, so most of what I write
below
probably applies to both models.
The DX-302 seems almost identical with the XCR-30 electronically,
but on
the outside it looks completely different. It is a tabletop
receiver that
has some provisions for being used as portable (carrying handle
on the left
side of the case, came with a whip antenna that could be mounted
to the
antenna screw, has a battery holder in the back that holds 8
D cells). Also has
a built-in AC power supply and line cord, and a coaxial power
socket for
connection to an external 12V DC source. Front and back is black
plastic,sides are metal painted black. Has a very late 70s /
early 80s look to it.
Tuning is accomplished with separate MHz and kHz tuning knobs,
and there
is also a preselecter tuning knob. So far, very familiar. But
the
frequency is displayed on a digital frequency readout (five
red 7-segment LED's).
The two tuning knobs are in the center of the front panel, directly
below
the frequency readout. The kHz control is a large black knob
with a crank
on it (a must, since it often has to be cranked a fair distance),
and the
MHz control is a metal ring surrounding the kHz control. A larger
version
of the nested volume/squelch controls one sees on some ham equipment.
Other
controls on the front panel are a preselector band rotary switch,
an
attenuator (3-position switch, 0, 20, or 40 dB), a light switch
(only
does anything when run off batteries, then it lets you kill
the panel lamps
to conserve battery power), a selectivity switch (2.5 or 3.5
kHz ceramic
filters), RF gain, volume, BFO pitch, and mode (USB, LSB, standby,
AM,
and AM/ANL). The light switch also let one turn the S-meter
into a
voltmeter to check on the status of the internal batteries.
The BFO knob behaved exactly like the one on the XCR-30: it
controlled
the frequency of the BFO, not its amplitude. When listening
to SSB, one had
to either add (LSB) or subtract (USB) about 2 kHz from the display
to
get the true frequency of the signal being tuned. And keep a
hand on the
kHz and BFO knobs -- the DX-302 tended to drift quite a bit,
even after
being on for a while. There was no separate provision to receive
CW
signals,though of course the SSB mode positions could be used
to do this (in
fact,they are labeled "LSB/CW" and "USB/CW").
On the back were connectors or jacks for an external speaker,
a code
practice key, the 12v power socket mentioned earlier, a 50-ohm
coaxial
antenna connection, a hi-Z antenna terminal, two ground terminals,
and
a muting terminal. The latter, when shorted to ground, would
mute the
receiver's audio. The code practice key also just muted the
audio --
to use the radio as a code practice oscillator one would tune
it to
a frequency like 1.000 MHz and adjust the MHz tuning control
until the
birdie was very strong, then switch to one of the sideband modes,
adjust
the BFO control for the desired pitch and plug the key in. A
radio that
uses what most designers consider to be a "bug" as
a "feature"!
Like the XCR-30, it is full of such birdies and images, many
of which
could be moved away by tweaking with the MHz tuning control,
and the owner's
manual mentions this trick. For the time that it was my main
SW receiver, I
was living in fairly small towns in the Rockies, where as in
South Africa
there aren't many strong local SW or MW signals. For old time's
sake, I
tried connecting an external antenna and powering it on recently
here in
Seattle (home to four 50 kW MW broadcast stations), and was
shocked by
how much of a mess it was -- almost as bad as my old Star Roamer
or
Hallicrafters S-38C when it comes to broadcast band junk in
the SW spectrum.
Glad I was living where I was when I bought it, or I would have
been sorely
disappointed with my new purchase. It also had the XCR-30's
problem of letting
stations 1 MHz higher or lower "leak through".
This image problem is one reason why the World Radio TV Handbook's
reviewers (based in Europe, which is packed with megapower MW
and LW transmitters) gave it such bad marks in their receiver
reviews.
Looking at the block diagram in my owner's manual, I see a few
differences.The DX-302 used a first LO on the 55.5 to 84.5 MHz
range (i.e. 10 MHz higher than the XCR-30), and the first IF
was likewise higher (55.5 to 55.5 MHz as opposed to around 42
MHz). Second and third IF frequencies look to
be the same. The 1 kHz harmonics came from a 4 kHz crystal oscillator
and an IC divide-by-four circuit. Block diagram is quite a bit
more complex, as it has the circuitry to drive the digital display,
the selectable crystal filters, and the separate SSB detector
shown on it.
It was my main receiver from high school until I got out of
college and
I logged many hours and stations listening to it. Among the
most
memorable was the time I listened to MacDill AFB in Florida
coordinate flights to
and from Grenada when Ronnie sent US troops there.
David W. Barts
Received on 13 June 1999
Hi Francesco !
Just stumbled by accident across yr. BW-site and I cant tell
you how
much I enjoy it !!!!
I'm the proud owner of a BW, Ser.No. 795, which I bought many
years ago
in South Africa (I lived there from 1969 to 1977), later I added
the Digital
Frequency Display from Miramo (I suppose you know them ?), Model
DCR 30 N,
Ser. No. 72, manufactured in 1976.
I still use both of them quite frequently and hope they will
provide
good service for many years to come !
Thanks again for yr phantastic home-page for BW !!!
Best regards from Vienna, Austria - Hubert
Received on 22 June 1999
A great site. I'm pleased that I found it. My BW is 17043. I
am in Australia and will attempt to take it back to SA for a
service soon.
Best regards, Russell Cooper
Received on 18 February 2000
Hello from England
Just found your Barlow Wadley site.I saw the 15c stamp.Has the
envelope been autographed by Dr Wadley? I have the stamp with
the same postmark as on your site.I have it on a mint condition
envelope.In the envelope is a card detailing the history of
the
Tellurometer.
I was a monitor for Radio RSA for many years & visited there
4 times,staying
with one of the announcers & his family 3 times.He actually
had a BW in his
kitchen for listening to the BBC.
Regards Bob Balser
Received on 7 April 2000
Thanks for the great site.
My Barlow is serial 0561 and I have owned it since 1975.
My name is Arie Schellaars
and I live at 33 Bailey Road
Narre Warren Nth
Vic. 3804
Australia.
I have taken my Barlow to the Antarctic twice and trekked all
over Australia as well.
You have some famous DXers on the Register
Cheers and 73"s
Arie VK3DBF
Received on 10 April 2000
Ciao Francesco
Mi chiamo Alberto e sono un radioamatore di Roma (IZ0CEZ)
Sono arrivato sul tuoi sito facendo una ricerca su siti di radio
d'epoca.
Non ci crederai, ma io HO USATO il ricevitore di cui parli alcuni
anni
fa... Non sono certo che il modello fosse quello, ma sono certo
che fosse
un Barlow Wadley e poi l'immagine che hai sul sito è
identica (inconfondibili le 4 manopole ed i cursori laterali...).
Tra l'altro questo RX mi fu prestato per un po' da un mio amico,
mentre
stavo per prendere la patente ordinaria, per farmi abituare
alla SSB...
Lui ce l'ha ancora ed ora capisco perchè ne è
così geloso....
Tutto qui. Volevo solo dirti che anche io ho provato tale apparato
ricevente ed in effetti, pensando alla tecnologia dell'epoca
ed
alle sue dimensioni, si è dimostrato un apparato eccellente.
73 alberto iz0cez
Received on 14 June 2001
When I arrived in the USA in 1968 from Honduras, I used to check
every radio I could find for stations from my homeland which
usually transmitted in short wave on the 6000MHz band. My desire
to listen to Honduran stations led me to purchase a Barlow-Wadley
XCR-30 receiver. I prepaid for the set with Gilfer & Associates
in New Jersey. I loved the radio: it was the best shortwave
receiver I had ever had. It was very sensitive and could be
adjusted to catch even the weakest stations with good separation
and volume. It worked fine for a while but it seemed to be a
delicate instrument and eventually it malfunctioned. I decided
to have it serviced by the factory so I sent it to Praetoria,
South Africa. Due to the civil war going on at the time, they
did not return it to me until a year later; again I tried to
give it more sensitivity, but I ended up breaking it. The day
I put it in the trash, my wife told me: "You usually pick
up what you've thrown out and make it work again, but now that
radio is mixed with all the trash in New Orleans." But
I told her that the radio would come back because it was the
home of Guazuzu, a demon from Africa. This was a joke because
we had recently seen the movie: The Exorcist ll: the Heretic,
which featured an African demon of similar name. The joke came
up because, as I was throwing he radio away, in the handle was
a piece of bone and a worm inside that must have come all the
way from Africa. This first radio was colored gray.
A long time later, after I had forgotten all about the radio,
I received a cable from the Barlow-Wadley factory in South Africa,
saying that they had found a box with my name and address on
it and a radio inside. They asked me to specify the problem
so they could repair it. Since they had already sent me a radio,
I believed the original box had gotten lost so they must have
sent me the first one as a replacement. But now they must have
found my original so I asked them to repair it. But I did not
hear from them for a while so I called them to find out what
was happening. I called in the evening here in New Orleans where
I live but I had forgotten about the time zones so I was answered
by a night watchman who said no one was there. So I wrote a
letter asking about my radio. I received an answer that the
factory had moved to another province and they had lost my radio
again so they were just going to send me a brand new one. I
was very happy because this was the second time the radio had
come back to me and I joked to my wife that the African demon
Guazuzu had brought it back.
When I went to pick up the second box at the airport, the US
Customs agents were suspicious because it was sent free of charge
and they wanted to open the padded parts to look for contraband,
but I finally convinced when I told them this story.
This radio was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. It
was dark olive green with black padding but after a while I
could see that it also did not receive signals well and on top
of that, unfortunately, I dropped it so I sent it back to South
Africa for repair. This time I spoke to a Japanese service man
who quoted me a price that I did not realize failed to include
insurance so the radio was returned by surface freight.
When I picked up the box, it was rounded at the corners and
when I opened it, I heard pieces rattling inside the radio.
It do not tune at all- it was detroyed so sadly I just put it
in the trash.
Since then I have been looking for Barlow-Wadley XCR-30 receivers
but have not seen any for sale. Now I have a Braun T-1000 receiver
that my son, Luis, found at a thrift store for twenty dollars.
It was made in Stuttgart, germany in the seventies and it works
very well. I also have a small Grundig Passport that is fun
to use. And a Freeplay self-powered shortwave set that is also
very nice. I recommend it for emergencies.
Recently we went online and just saw an auction for a Barlow-Wadley
XCR-30 but it sold immediately for $80 before we saw it. Thank
you for reading my adventures with the Barlow-Wadley - it has
many twists and turns but it is true.
Jesus Interiano R.
Received on 22 May 2002
Thanks for bring back wonderful memories to me. I owned a Barlow
Wadley in 1976 and then
upgraded in 78 to a FRG-7. Your site is truly excellent and
a testament to your efforts. I have
run through a slew of radios from the mid-60s onwards with my
final radio being a JRC NRD-525 which I bought in 91. I have
not been doing anything in the way of Dxing the last few years.
I live in downtown Vancouver, Canada and even with a 80 foot
long wire on the roof it was so depressing with the masses of
interference generated here. I fancy I am probably out of the
hobby for good sadly unless I move to a much better location
and much further East than Vancouver.
Peter George
Received on 24 July 2002
Hello barlow fans around the world.
In the early 80's i owned a barlow wadley and was very happy
with it.
But because i was unemployed,and i needed the money very bad
i sold it again.
After that time i have always wanted to have one again.
One week ago it finaly happened. On a buy/sell site i found
a ad from somebody who was selling an bw for only 45 euro
(same in us-dollars these days).
Ik have the barlow now and it is in nice shape and works okey.
But how lucky can a man be. Today i received a email from
the man i've bougt the barlow from, he told me he found the
dcr 30 digital frequency counter and asked if i wanted to
buy it for 17,50 euro incl.post and package. So in a few days
i have that one to.
I have lots of fun with the bw so much that my nrd 535 is
out of work at the moment.
By the way the bw is with fm tuner. Best reguards.
Ferry and linda van der Kaaij
http://www.hamclassics.2ya.com
email: hamclassics@hotmail.com
Received on 20 August 2002
Salve,
mi sono appena imbattuto sul tuo sito dedicato al famoso ricevitore
Barlow XCR30 e desideravo complimentarmi con te per l'ottima
realizzazione veramente ricca di dati e dettagli tecnici.Sono
un appassionato di ricevitori HF e poter leggere una simile
quantità di dati su un singolo apparato é realmente
gratificante.Avevo sentito parlare di questo apparato,negli
anni passati,(quando i ricevitori venivano valutati per le
prestazioni e non per la quantità di lucine e fesserie
varie) e finalmente adesso posso documentarmi.
Ringraziandoti per la documentazione messa a disposizione
di tutti ti saluto cordialmente.
Francesco Mendola - Ragusa
Received on 23 August 2002
To people that may be interested.
I just bought a receiver and I am interested
to find people that would be
interested in the technical aspects of this special receiver.
There are a few other
companies that produced receivers based on the same principle:
Racal,
Yaesu FRG-7,Drake etc.
It happened that 23 years ago I build a receiver based on
the Wadley
loop, and now I am contemplating to build an other one using
the up today
electronic chips. To this purpose I would appreciate, opinions
, observations
and any other type of input. The receiver that I am thinking
to build will a portable,
but with improved performance (better selectivity , better
ergonomics, better signal
to noise ratio and better immunity to strong signals.
Please do not hesitate to send me your opinion.
Doc - eprocopovici@juno.com
Received on 28 August 2002
I have owned my Barlow Wadley Radio since somewhere around
1982. Have had no trouble with it. The BW. is still my favourite
receiver and I have 15 different makes and models of receivers.
From, J. B. Chamen, Port Elizabeth, Republic of South Africa.
Received on 13 November
2002
I've got it two days ago!
For the moment I can say it's simply fantastic, comparable
with my station equipmant (TS450 running a balcoon antenna).
Handling it is a pleasure!
Lorenzo Pirola Grassi (ITA)
Received on 13 November
2002
Dear Francesco, Your site is just wonderful! Congratualtions,
very well done. I have made a submission to your Register,thank
you. You are a Man with a great sense of humour, I like you
comments. I slavaged my MkII in great condition, all Log Cards
still in the radio, a VF rating I would call the condition
of this one. I stopped it from going for a ride to (RIP) land
only 2 days before it was going for its last ride to the rubbish
tip!!!!! How lucky :-) !! I will re-tune the Rx over the next
month or so, I have all my old radios finely tuned, I like
them that way, as do all SWL's I guess. I look forward to
speaking with you one day my friend. BW's for EVER . LOL Kind
regards from John, (VK5KLJ)(L50545) Near Adelaide South Auystralia.
73's Francesco and thanks again.
Received
on 1st December 2002
Hello again Francesco,
Did you see that that other Barlow Wadley just went on ebay
for over $500. The price of these radios is coming up very
fast. The reason I went to $612 was that I wanted a perfect
early model
( ser. No. 1171), and I know that I might never get one as
good ever. In fact I would have paid more to get it. Ebay
can be pretty difficult sometimes with last minute high bids.
Some-one who probably didn't know much about these put an
AC power supply in the recent Ebay one. I don't think a very
clever idea, as the Barlow has fantastic low battery current
drain, and operating time over over 200 hrs on good batteries.
Plus you lose the "portable" character to the radio
when you plug it in, and also battery power is super clean
and far superior to any mains derived supply, that's why batteries
are also good for scientific instruments with sensitive inputs.
Personally I think the best batteries are standard Zinc/carbon
cells (Leclanche) , NOT alkaline. The reason for this is that
if you get leakage from alkaline cells the corrosion is severe,
but fairly mild from standard zinc carbon cell. You don't
really need the extra current delivering capabilities of alkaline
cells for something like the Barlow wadley, and if there is
ever a short or similar problem the alkaline cells can deliver
very large currents causing more destruction.
Thankyou for the advice on taping the batteries in to the
holder.
My Barlow is perfectly calibrated now an exceeds the manufacturers
specifications, the dial calibration and tracking is perfect.
It's quite an art and science to align one of these radios
properly, you need the best of test equipment, sweep and signal
generators, scope and a thoughtful approach. Before making
any changes, like adjustments to the air coils, the effect
of the change needs to be carefuly considered and properly
monitored, to avoid having to make multiple adjustments. Most
of my experience in radio work has actually been with television.
I've restored a number of old TV sets, with complex IF amplifiers.
If you look at
www.earlytelevision.org (NB-great site, FC) and click
on "restoration" then look for my name, you will
see a 1939 HMV tv set and a couple of others that I have restored.
Best regards,
Hugo.
Received on 16 April 2003
thanks for putting up the site dedicated
to Barlow Wadleys!!
Just like yourself, I always wanted one of those magic machines
in the mid-70s but the money was never there. My main rigs
these
days are the FRG-100 and FT-817 (I am also licenced ham M3KPW
and G7RTI).
Just recently I acquired a set on eBay Germany
for approx 90 Euro.
I am awaiting the parcel via my brother there as the seller
didn't want
to post direct to UK. Of course, it may not work when it arrives,
and
no warranty or return of course!!
But then I only paid a "small" amount
- there was one set (with FM) on
eBay in the UK recently which sold for just over 300 Euro,
and it needed
the battery box soldering in - so it wasn't a working example
in the first
place! Crazy!
Anyway, I will register the serial number once
it arrives & hopefully it
will be a nice set for SWL/DX.
73 Klaus
M3KPW - G7RTI - High Wycombe/UK
[IO91OP - WAB SU89] - Logs: http://www.qsl.net/m3kpw/
Received on 24 April 2003
I have owned the BW since new. Purchased whilst I was working
in Papua New Guinea late 1974 (or early 1975). Other than
in a couple of major towns which had MW broadcating, other
broadcasting in PNG at that time was in the lower frequency
SW bands (common in tropical countries). Also used to get
news from overseas on the higher SW bands (mainly from Radio
Australia).
Eric R Gray (AUS)
Received on 27 July 2003
My name is Fred Clepper and I live in Largo, FL. I have owned
a BW XCR-30 Mark II for over 25 years. This is receiver is
S/N 682-FM. Today I brought my receiver out of the cabinet
where it has been stored for 25 years. The FM tuner works
great but the SW bands are not working.
When I traded equipment for this receiver 25 years ago, the
SW section didn't work and I found a broken circuit board.
After fixing the circuit board, the radio worked for several
years before failing a second time. I didn't have time to
fix the receiver so just put it away and forgot about it.
I was pleasantly surprised to find your web site and have
decided to attempt another repair on my radio. I have the
service manual as well as the operation manual.
Thanks for a great web site and renewing my interest in the
BW receiver.
Received on 3 September 2003
Hi to all BW users
I bought second hand a BW (4022) in about 1979 as a back up
receiver to a Trio 9R59D I had then. The Trio was of course
not portable and I wanted a SW set to take with me out into
the Aussie deserts on camping trips. I still take the BW to
this day and use it on my bush trips 25 years later! The set
gave some trouble a few years back - diagnosed as dry joints,
but apart from that it has been trouble free. I primarily
use it in remote South Australia to monitor the 4 wheel drive
radio skeds on 8022 KHz. This frequency is used widely in
Australia as a long distance HF one for outback 4WD clubs
that enables remote travellers to get up to date road and
weather conditions, so important when you are travelling in
outback Australia. I don't use a wire antenna, the whip does
fine. The BW has provided me with years of fun outback, and
it has operated in heat, dust, incredible bumpy and rocky
tracks, and floods. I won't swop my BW for anything. It is
robust, reliable and very low battery drain - very important
when you are hundreds of kilometres out in the deserts beyond
any towns.
I think the BW site, which I have just found, great. Keep
up the good work.
Tony Wege
Nuriootpa
South Australia
Received on 3 September 2003
Hi Francesco,
I found your site the other day after I pulled my old BW out
of a cardboard
box after several years and decided to see what I could find
about it on the
'net... You have put up a great site - I have downloaded the
schematics and service
manual - they will be very useful.
I bought my BW second hand maybe 20 years ago. It is Serial
number 3210. It
still goes ok though a little weak - I think a tune up may be
in order and
this will happen now I have the right information! I spent countless
hours
in the '80's listening to the whistle of the BFO as I tuned
into yet another
amateur station. My "Barlow thumb" came back into
operation recently to work
the tuning dials after many years absent.
Thankyou for taking the time and effort to make suuch a wonderful
sight,
Best regards,
Tom Stamp
Melbourne, Australia
Received on 18 December
2003
Hi Francesco,
I have really enjoyed your website and have found a lot of
useful info here. Thank you for all your hard work. I have
owned my BW for about 3 years now and I have discovered that
my Barlow can receive shortwave signials almost as well as
my much newer and more expensive tabletop receivers can. In
fact, I use my BW every morning to listen to Radio New Zealand,and
the BBC while I eat breakfast. My faithful Barlow has never
failed me. I have used only two new sets of batteries in three
years. I just love it!!! Again, thanks for your wonderful
website.
Ron Spears, USA
Received on 6 April 2004
1.00. I have had a BW since 1975 and have had lots of fun
with it.
1.01. It is a good reciever but all things it could even be
better.
2.00. Recently I gave it a clean out and it works wit
a new stablized power
supply.
2.01. It is very hot and I can coppy SSB on 14 Mhz,
at about the same strength as my FT100 with a 2Element Quad.
2.02. The BW is however connected to a trap dipole.
2.03. However the FT100 has DSP and input attenuation, and
is very quiet
without a signal.
2.04. Ther BW with the three misxers has a lot of back ground
noise.
3.00. Has any one done any thing to reduce noise.? and or,
added a vernier on the clarifier to make it easier to tune.
3.01. Will an Fet at the input make it quieter.
3.02. Would love to know, to obviate reinventing the wheel.
Thanks.
Received on 11 April 2004
I have just been given a link to your site by a friend.
I have an XCR30 which I bought in South Africa in 1974 or
1975.
This radio has been all over the world with me since then.
When I worked in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970s, the radio
was my link
with the outside world and, when I had spare time, I would
use it to
listen to everything from aircraft over the Azores to amateurs
in
Vietnam.
I spent many, many hours with this radio. I loaned it to a
friend in the early 1980s
and got it back with a little damage but still working.
In August 1990, I was working and living in Kuwait when that
place was
invaded.
I eventually escaped across the desert and, as we had to travel
light, I
took with me only my wife's jewellery, my Swiss Army knife
and my Barlow Wadley.
We crossed the desert in to Saudi Arabia and, because the
customs
officials in that country would not allow South African goods
in, I had
to remove the identification plate from the rear case of the
radio.
I still have the radio, thick with desert dust and in need
of a
re-alignment.
Definitely the best radio I have ever owned, and I am very
pleased to
have discovered your site.
Regards
Kelvin Davies
England
Received on 21 September 2004
I just discovered your site. It´s great
and interesting. I feel beamed back to the time when I had
the BW who was my first "serious" shortwave RX (around
1975) . Perhaps I will also implement a (very) small BW section
on my homepage and
set a link to your HP, if this would be o.k for you.
Mario Hagedorn (DE)
Received on 23 November 2004
Very fine site, you have there - one of my favourites
on the 'net. I have a BW Ser. No. 1006-FM which I received
fromn a deceased estate (the "remains" of the old
Southern Cross DX Club) for $A50 + postage. It was in excellent
condition and came with an "old" service manual
and all supporting documentation. It works well and the only
problem I have had with it is the time when stations started
appearing 1MHz above where they were transmitting - e.g. a
station transmitting upon 11750kHz was received upon 12750kHz!
The problem (such as it was) was quickly traced to the capacitor
C35 which is located immediately above the MHz tuning capacitor.
Component density is such that this cap. is pushed right up
against the frame of the tuning cap. and, consequently, both
leads of the cap. had shorted to the frame. The cure is simple:
just get in there and GENTLY ease the cap. out with a small
screwdriver. Purists will probalby want to unsolder the cap.
and cover the leads with heatshrink tubing so the problem
should not happen again!
Terry Robinson - VK3DWZ. - Australia
Received on 26 Jaunuary 2005
Dear Francesco:
 I
am a Portuguese citizen, living in Spanish-speaking Argentina.
I am an amateur radio operator and an old friend of David
Larsen. I have not spoken to him in many years, though. I
am now 57 years old and my BW story, as you will see later,
started perhaps, 30 years ago.
I used to live in Angola, Africa and, as a radioham, my calls
are:
Angola. CR6IK
Portugal: CT4IK
Argentina: LU5OM
Nowadays I live in the city of Salta, in northwest Argentina.
My BW story:
When I had to leave Angola in 1976, I lived in Portugal for
a few months. I had a BARLOW WADLEY receiver (I cannot remember
where I got it! I think Dave had something to do with me getting
it, but I am not sure) and, in those days, I tried to install
(and unfortunately I did!) a PL259 so I could connect my hamradio
antennas to it. It did not improve anything. You will see
it (the PL259) in the attached photograph.
Any way. I left Portugal for Argentina in 1977 and my BW was
nicely packed and stored. About a week ago, one of my daughters
went to Portugal and unpacked my BW. I asked her to put some
batteries and try it. "It works like a charm", she
says.
I have asked her to check for a serial number and she says
she found one, inside the radio, at the bottom. I am not sure
if this is the serial number: She will be taking a few more
photos but, for the moment, I enclose the only one I have.
With her camera, she showed me parts of the receiver inside,
and it looks brand new.
XR 800 B SN. 0425
As I have not seen the radio in so many years, and my daughter
is not radio oriented, I am writing to you, to ask if this
would be the serial number, so I can register it in your site.
I enclose a photo of my BW and I have asked my daughter to
take a few more pictures. The serial number looks too low
to me but, may be it is the right number. You are an expert
on BW's so I hope you will be able to assist me in this matter.
The bottom line is: I had a BW receiver stored for 27 years
and it works!!! I wish I had it here with me. I am already
thinking of ways to bring it in.
Greetings from Argentina Francesco and my heartiest congratulations
for a well done job with your site. I am sure it took a lot
of time and effort to put all this together.
Thank you and 73
Manuel Wilches
Salta, Argentina
www.tabacoargentino.com
Received on 28 March 2005
Hi
While in the RSA, I bought in 1975 in Hillbrow's shop in JHB
my BW for 175 rand.
As many whites I decided to leave the RSA after the Afrikaners
handed the country over to the blacks. I shipped my BW to
Poland. It is now in a steel trunk difficult to access, hence
I cannot supply you with the number. It has the audio stage
build with transistors. As soon as I get access to my box
(I'm living in a small 25 m2 flat in Warsaw), I'll register.
The most mazing thing to me was how they designed
the linear frequency tuning in the receiver. Perhaps somebody
knows.
I asked this question at Plessey in Cape Town
in the 90 ties but no one could tell.
I modified my BW a bit, replaced the bipolar frond end transistor
with JFET and would say less whistles now.
Best Regards
Piotr Lenartowicz
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