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| Reviews Summary for National NC-270 Receiver |
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Reviews: 7
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Average rating: 4.0/5
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MSRP: $295 in 1960
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Description: The "Cosmic Blue" National NC-270 is a double conversion ham-band receiver that tunes 80 through 6 meters (no warc bands).
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More info: http://www.io.com/~nielw/index.htm
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You can
write your own review of the National NC-270 Receiver.
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K3MD
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Rating: 2/5
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Sep 20, 2005 13:32
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Interesting
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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After much scouring I came upon this nice NC-270 on EBay, works fine. "Cosmic Blue" paint, working slide-rule dial. Replaced only the RF gain control, it came with new tubes. There was a major revolution in receivers in the 1960 era... AGC on CW/SSB, crystal controlled, PTO design, bandpass filters. This is BEFORE the revolution. Tuning on SSB is a chore, and you have to ride the RF gain control all the time or you get audible distortion of the SSB. Stability is what you would expect with a free-running oscillator at 5-30 MHz... not too good. Easy to align. The skirts on the IF filter are not that sharp. .5 kHz sounds like 3 kHz. It loves to receive AM. Truly a historical piece.
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KB1SH
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 8, 2005 01:19
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XYL Found a Gem
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Vintage receivers in good shape are getting harder to find, but my XYL found a very good NC-270 on e-Bay which showed up on my doorstep for my 62nd birthday....what a surprise! Well I dove right into the thing and 3 days later I had a cleaned up, repaired, aligned receiver that looks and operates just like when it came out of the box in 1958. It is evident the receiver was well cared for over the many years as there are no cabinet or front panel scratches. Aside from a very detailed cleaning, a few things needed attention: there was some chassis corrosion which cleaned up nicely, the T-notch filter was out of alignment and the bandswitch required disassembly,cleaning and re-build to solve a binding problem. Also had to replace the panel bulbs. Unit operates very smoothly after cleaning/lubricating various pots and switches. Checked alignment/performance using lab test equipment and found it to be very close to factory specs. On the air it is joy to use, slowly turning the dial on 75 meters looking for DX....it is very sensitive and fairly selective...about what you would expect from a 60's ham band receiver. The LO is rock solid after a 10 minute warm up so it camps on a signal for hours with no noticable drift. A lot of fun...brings back memories...started out with an old Philco in 1957 and dreamed of having either the NC-270 or NC-300...then untouchable with paper route money ! If you purchase one make sure the owners manual with full schematic comes with it as it contains a very detailed alignment procedure. 73, de Jim at KB1SH
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N4UE
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Rating: 4/5
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Jan 3, 2004 14:04
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Nice addition to the BA lineup
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I also purchased my NC-270 to complete my collection. I wanted a receiver from all the 'big guys' of years past. I got the 270 cheap because it also had problems. I messed with it on and off for, let's just say a LONG time. Finally found the problem, and it has surprising performance. Of course, it can't match a modern, high end radio, but on HF there is a limit as to how much sensitivity you really need anyway.
Alignment is pretty touchy, but it looks and sounds great!
I just love those flywheel dials!
73
ron
N4UE
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W1BKZ
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 2, 2004 21:35
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Slick litte thing
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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A really neat radio for the "glow-in-the-dark" crowd. When I obtained mine, it was in electrical trouble. The price was right ($75.00)
because it "didn't work". Replacement of all electrolytics, and a few tubes, cleaning of band switch and sundry controls, we breathed a new life ito the radio, and it hears alnost as good as my ICOM IC-761, also not a bad radio........
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N8FVJ
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Rating: 3/5
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Nov 3, 2002 13:05
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OK, not Impressed.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Nothing special about this receiver to me. Many outperform it. I did not find the 'ferrite' filter very good on selectivity and the dial/tuning is not great. However, the 'fun factor' is high. Just do not pay a lot for one.
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N3IBX
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Rating: 4/5
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May 14, 2002 18:03
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Great Medium Priced Receiver
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I use a NC-270 coupled to my Heathkit Apache and am very satisfied with it. It offers good stability, descent signal to noise ratio of received signals and a classic design. The only flaw I can find is that it doesn't have a provision for 160 meters.
If you buy one I don't think you'll be disappointed.
73 de Joe N3IBX
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N5RNL
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 12, 2001 02:18
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Cool Blue Beauty!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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The National NC-270 is a cool radio! It is a beautiful two-tone cosmic blue color and it has chrome, gaudy fins, flip feet, etc. It fits in the early 60's with big Cadillacs and rock -n- roll. But don't let that fool you. It was and is a solid ham-band receiver.
Of course it lacks the refinements that integrated circuits can offer, but it does a fine job for the day. The use of ferrite-core coil filters along with conventional T-notch circuit provides very good selectivity back before SSB was anything more than a fad.
The receiver includes a built-in crystal calibrator which is activated by a front panel switch. There is also a dial set control which provides for lateral motion of the entire dial scale to bring the tuning pointer and calibration mark directly in line.
The NC-270 received accolades during Hurricane Carla in 1961.
If you feel the need to get in touch with radio from a by-gone era, this is a good receiver to start with. It is beautiful, fun and a good performer to boot.
I recently got the opportunity to pick up a collector quality unit and it will be a part of my radio shack permanently.
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