Hallicrafters S-53A

[jbpollock]

I picked up a Hallicrafters S-53A table top shortwave radio at a garage sale this morning. Brought it home and the power cord was only about a foot long and obviously repaired. Went to plug it in and got a large spark between the two sides of the plug. Got it plugged in despite the spark (stupid I know) and it did power on. No sound, and only left it on for a minute. It looked like all but maybe 1 of the tubes was glowing. Anyway, the selector switch on the back was set to headphone rather than speaker. I went to plug it in again to see if this was causing the silence, but got another spark and decided not to plug it in again. (It was turned off by the way).

Anyway, any opinions on wheter or not a new power cord will solve this problem?

[Tom Bavis]

You'll want to replace the leaky caps (which is probably ALL of them) before using this. Owners manual is here: http://bama.edebris.com/manuals/hallicra/s53a/ - I see alignment listed, I assume there's a schematic as well.

[jbpollock]

Thanks for the link. Those are great manuals.

[compucat]

I have one of these receivers that I have restored and have been using for e few years now. They work great and are well worth the effort to bring back. You will want to replace ALL paper caps and electrolytics. This is a good transformer powered set so you don't want any parasitic loads. I have a schematic for this radio and if you need any information, please let me know.

I will start you off right by giving you the schematic.

On mine, I restrung the dials, replaced the front panel toggle switches and much more. It was well worth it. The S-53A is one well built radio.

[compucat]

The schematic file is too large to upload. If you need it, let me know and I can e-mail it to you.

[jbpollock]

Compucat, thanks for the offer, but the link that Tom Bavis posted above has a nice scematic.

Regarding the capacitor replacement, they are listed in the manual as either

1) Ceramic
2) Tubular
3)Trimmer Assembly, 5 sections, antenna stage and Trimmer Assy. , 6 secs., oscillator stage
4)mica or silver mica
5) Folded Paper
6) Electrolytic (only one- the big can with 3-capacitors inside)

Of these, obviously you mentioned that you replaced the folded paper and electrolytic....but the rest are fine? I am not clear on what the manual means by "tubular"

Thanks!

[Sandy G]

Well, here's what my Fred Osterman "Shortwave Receivers:Past & Present"-the "Bible" of this stuff- has to say...S-53-1948-1950, scarce, 8 tubes, was about $80 when new. The S-53A was made from 1951-57, is fairly common, & was about $90 when new. Doesn't look like there's any real difference...

[compucat]

The differences between the S-53 and the "A" version are that the "A" has civil defense markings on the dial and uses miniature IF cans. The S-53 has no CD marks and uses full size IF cans. Other than that, they are the same radio.

[jbpollock]

Jeffhs, after taking the unit apart the cord is even more pitiful than is appears and could very easily be shorting on te cabinet. There actually is no fuse in this radio that I could find. The power cord hooks directly to the rectifier tube and then off to the power supply.

If I wanted to add a fuse for safetly, where would it go?

When I did have it turned on, nothing felt abnormally warm, but I only had it on for 1-2 minutes. Is there a way to determine if the power tranformer is good before I replace all of the capacitors?

If I am able to get this radio working, I do want it to operate safely. Is it advisable to send this off to someone who knows what they are doing or is it all pretty straight forward (I don't want to burn my house down or "electrify" my friends and family)

1951-57. I guess this radio is from late in the 53A production run because it is stamped Mark II on the chasis.

[NikkoUser]

I don't think you should get all that excited over that S53-a. I used one 40 years ago as a Ham Radio Novice. It worked but just barely. It was just another in a long line of Hallicrafters cheap radios that they were producing. If you look at the dial, there's only about 1/2 inch of dial space to cover the 40 meter band. It did work but there are many more receivers out there that have more value. Anything with "half moon" shaped dials will be more valuable.

[compucat]

The only thing about this radio that isn't that great is the BFO. It is practically useless for receiving voice SSB transmissions. It was obviously designed for use with CW code transmissions. As a shortwave program listening receiver, it is excellent and I've had good results with mine using a 12 foot piece of wire run along the floor.

Also, there is no line fuse in this radio. When I got mine, a replacement line cord had been poorly spliced in by hand (no solder) to the tube socket and the wire covered with electrical tape. I completely diassembled that radio, did a full cleaning and restoration and corrected a few hack repairs in the process. Now it is on its second fifty years of reliable service.

[JDaniel]

Jeff,

Excellent find there mate. I too am the proud owner of a Hallicrafter S95 thanks to jaymanaa and the last AK Crap Swap. Mine is in beautiful shape outside.

I just found the manual on-line at the link above too.

Now I need to tinker with it and see if I can get it working. I've been so busy I've neglected it.

JD

[Fran604g]

Hi, I just wanted to thank you guys (and the rest of AUDIOKARMA'S contributors) for the vast amount of knowledge one can find at AUDIOKARMA! Because of this thread in particular, I now have a schematic AND advice for my S-53a. I've been carrying this around with me since I left my parents in 1976. It still sports the broken tuning knob that was caused by me yanking on the power cord some where around 1960, when I was 2. It still works great, but the more I read here, the more I realise that it's time to put togather a work area and go through all the old stuff I've ignored for the past 3 decades! Thanks agian!