The Marconi CR100 -- An Iconic Radio from the Past
Created by on 2022-12-20The Marconi CR100 was one of the many communications receivers that appeared on the government surplus market in the 1950s and 1960s. The receiver was a single conversion superhet covering LF, MF, and HF bands.
The receivers were used by all three of the British Forces in World War II: army, Royal navy & Royal Air Force. They provided a very effective communications receiver for a variety of purposes, even being widely used for the "Y" stations that intercepted Nazi radio messages for decryption by Bletchley Park. These stations were located at a variety of points around the country.
Many people will remember using one of these receivers whe they came ontoth e govermnet surplus market. For many short wave listeners and radio amateurs they provided a good receiver at a moderate cost. Although, by today's standards, their performance is nothing special, for their day they proved their worth when they were most needed.
Read more about the Marconi CR100: https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/history/radio-receivers/cr100-marconi-radio-receiver.php
| SM0AOM | 2023-01-22 | |
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| The Marconi CR100 -- An Iconic Radio from the Past | ||
| The CR100 family was representative for the HF receiver state-of-the-art in the late-30s. It is similar in design to the Super-Pro, AR-88 and HRO receivers. However, it was not designed by a radio amateur. Instead, the design team was headed by Dr. Eric Zepler, a Jewish refugee from mid-30s persecution in Nazi Germany. He had been an engineering manager at Telefunken i Berlin, and got a similar position at Marconi after arriving in the UK. A well-known textbook about receiver design, "The Technique of Radio Design", carries his name. | ||
| K9LY | 2023-01-08 | |
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| The Marconi CR100 -- An Iconic Radio from the Past | ||
| The “How’s DX” section of QST in the 1960s and 70s would sometimes have a photo of a G, VK, or ZL op with a CR100 at his operating position. That receiver looked so different from anything we had in the U.S., it seemed quite exotic to this young Novice! | ||
| G3VGR | 2023-01-04 | |
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| The Marconi CR100 -- An Iconic Radio from the Past | ||
| I had one. It was as deaf as a post | ||
| VE2KM | 2022-12-28 | |
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| The Marconi CR100 -- An Iconic Radio from the Past | ||
| As a newbie UK short wave listener prior to getting licensed I had the naval version of this receiver (B28). I had countless hours of fun with this Rx. | ||
| G4GZG | 2022-12-24 | |
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| The Marconi CR100 -- An Iconic Radio from the Past | ||
| The CR100 was designed by a British radio amateur during WW2 and represented the state of the art at the time. Even with the supply of BC342, |HRO, AR88 and SX28 from the US under lend lease conditions , the CR100 was often seen as their equal. A friend of mine had one in the 1970s and I remember it being perfectly capable of receiving HF DX and the 300Hz selectivity came in useful. | ||
