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Reviews For: Hallicrafters S-118

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Hallicrafters S-118
Reviews: 2MSRP: $99.99
Description:
Hallicrafters S-120 with much needed additional parts, An Extra if stage, sensitivity control for good ssb, better construction,added a power transformer. Hot on the am broadcast band,good sensitivity in the shortwave bands,somewhat drifty,but not too bad in the ham bands.Plenty of bandspread for the ham bands. Could be used in the ham bands today
Product is not in production
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# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0023.5
W2XS Rating: 2007-10-02
Good sensitivity Time Owned: more than 12 months.
As KA8DLL pointed out, the Hallicrafters ads for this radio must have been very confusing, and did not tell the whole story about the S-118 circuitry. The S-118 and the S-38E both have 5 tubes. The S-38E was a typical "All American Five" AC/DC, transformerless circuit, and it actually works fairly well on AM below, say, 15 MHz. I would guess that the S-120 and the S-38E are similar in performance. But several of the S-118's tubes are dual purpose, so it might be considered the equivalent of an 8 tube radio like the S-107 or S-53. It has a separate osc. section and a separate BFO section which (IMHO) adds to the stability. Plus it has a power transformer so there is minimal shock hazard. The dial lights up nicely, and the tuning has little backlash. And, as previously mentioned, there are 2 IF stages, not just 1, which helps with sensitivity and selectivity. I have my S-118 connected to an external speaker through the headphone jack and the sound is very nice. All in all, the S-118 is a nice vintage AM BCB and shortwave receiver, and a step or two above the S-38 series.
KA8DLL Rating: 2006-11-21
Best under $100.00 ,non kit, , general coverage radio in !962 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Should have a score of 3.6 to be fair. The S118 is really a remake of the series S107/S53A. A big mistake made by Hallicrafters was making it look like S120. This confused the public into thinking the performance was no better than a S120. Its very much better. The sensitivity compares well with the ICOM R75 on 80/40/20 meters. This is a quiet radio, no rf stage, to boost the noise. S118 has a sensitivity control to match the signal to the bfo output for comfortable ssb signal.Its stabilty is fair on ssb and can be used for long qso's without a lot of adjustments. Selectivity is pretty good with the 2 if stages. Bandspread is excellent make tuning ssb signals easy. By the way this a hot receiver on the am broadcast band. For its price range this is an excellent receiver. All this performance is done with only 5 tubes (wow).