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| Reviews Summary for National NC-173 |
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Reviews: 3
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Average rating: 4.3/5
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MSRP: $189.50
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Description: General Coverage/Amateur Band Receiver
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More info: http://
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VE4HAM
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 16, 2007 06:21
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Grand Old Master
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This post war receiver endured the high seas of the Kon Tiki expedition of a raft, and when power was down ran on dry cells. It even got soaked and lived after drying out to voice the world. I still hold on to my NC 173 even though it weighs in at 40 some lbs. It's a nice old classic to operate not just for show , but to operate. It takes some skill to get used to all it's controls. The circuitry was really advanced for it's time and many circuits were used in it for it's age like cw filters, narrow band FM, 6 meters, good noise limiters, decent calibration, and very rugged. Most tube receivers sort of went dead after a certain megahertz, but not so with the NC. With proper resonant antennas it kept it's sensitivity right through all the bands. That is hard to beat, and only the best receivers in the post war era could out do it. It's a pleasure listening to the dynamic range of the audio of a tube amplifier. At times I use an old Heath DX 35 on cw as a transmitter and the National for a receiver. You really had to have some old fashioned experience to operate such a setup, why with all the controls to adjust just for one band, but it sure is fun and sometimes I tell the party at the other end I'm running some fancy Kenwood and they believe me, unknowest to them. The NC I have had little use and I tell you, on a 20 foot piece of wire and good propagation, short wave signals just pour in like nothing as well as a good number of hams. Running SSB is a bit unconventional because one has to back off the RF gain sometimes to match up with the BFO. This is not much a hinderance one one gets used to it on one's antenna setup. All around, for it's day, it's one fine piece of engineering for it's day, and for the price you got a lot, but for the price it was still a lot of money in it's time but still affordable in payments not unlike today where you get what you pay for. If you can still find one of these great old pieces, catch it, because they are awful scarce now, and will be scarer yet as time goes by because some just disappear from people not knowing what it is and heave it to ham heaven. Only my word, but it's a piece of the grand days of Ham radio that has a history to it. Catch it if you can..........
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AD5QP
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Rating: 4/5
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Dec 30, 2005 12:48
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Nice receiver for 75 AM
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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This is a nice boatanchor radio to operate 75M AM that I got in a trade. Don't use it for much else. It is fairly sensitive, and works well with the end fed Zepp antenna. It still has the original caps in it, although I had to replace some tubes when I got it. For a 50 year old radio, it works really well. Nothing fancy, and it drifts until it warms up, but once it's stable it's great. No wonder that it was used as the main receiver on the Kon-Tiki expeditions. It was set up so that it could be run on batteries, and I think this design may account for some of it's longevity. If you are looking for an old radio to operate AM with, you might want to take a look. It's not an R-390A for sure, but works well for what I want.
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W0LC
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 6, 2005 20:00
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Mid Range Rcvr
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I got my NC-173 from a fellow amateur. The receiver is a typical boat anchor. Performance is so-so, definitely not on par with my Drake 2B's.
Have to turn the RF gain DOWN and AF Gain up in order to ungarble SSB signals if you want to use the receiver for SSB reception.
Of course, this drops the sensitivity down as well.
I would recommend the Drake 2B over this receiver any day. But, if interested in a boat anchor "glow bug" type receiver, it is good for casual use.
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