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Reviews For: Hallicrafters S-240 general coverage receiver

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Hallicrafters S-240 general coverage receiver
Reviews: 2MSRP: $109.95
Description:
Five Band general coverage including the FM band
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
1524
KD5ITM Rating: 2023-09-17
Good quality table top general coverage / SW radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my Hallicrafters S-240 at a Ham radio tailgate sale for $25 back in 2010. The Hallicrafters S-240 general coverage / SW radio was made in Japan from 1967 - 1971. Covers the AM - 530KHz - 1620KHz / FM 88MHz - 108MHz broadcast bands and covers general receive AM Ham / Short Wave bands from 1.800MHz - 30.000MHz. It has a built in telescoping antenna as well as a connection on the rear of the radio for a wire antenna. The S-240 works good with up to a 12’ wire antenna. A wire antenna longer then 12’ will start to overload the BFO, causing signal distortion. Even though the S-240 is more of an entry level radio, the receive sensitivity is quite good with the use of a 10’ wire antenna. The S-240 features a selectable on / off BFO and FM - AFC switch, audio tone control, 5 band selector control, a normal tuning knob with a fine tune knob. 120V power cord. It also has a signal S meter which is helpful when tuning in stations. The radio is solid state with 11 transistors. The BFO is helpful when listening to the Ham bands. As a 27 year SWLer and 24 year Ham operator, I enjoy listening to SW on the S-240 and have it sitting on my Ham shack radio desk.
KA8DLL Rating: 2009-03-30
Japanese made Hallicrafters Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is a Japanese made 5 band all wave radio with a Hallicrafters label on it. This radio competes in the entry level category.
This is quite an attractive shortwave radio which is about the size of a shoebox. It was made in 1967 and contains in the neighborhood of 11 transitors. The case is mostly metal with quite a bit of chrome on the front. The back is all cardboard which is about what is expected in this price range. It's kind of like a desktop Trans-oceanic. The mostly metal case is covered with an artifical wood material instead of being painted. Since this is a small desktop radio, it has a small whip antenna in the right hand corner.
The actual performance of this radio is really pretty good. It has a BFO control for the ham bands, a main tuning control and a fine tuning control. The overall sensitivity is very good and the selectivity is fair. It has a stable BFO which really helps in the ham bands. The bad point of the BFO is on any antenna longer than about 10 feet the BFO is overloaded with signal with a large amount of audio distortion. The good news is on about a 10 foot antenna the radio has pretty good sensitivity.
This would be a wife approved radio for the kitchen table since it has a large amount of chrome and looks like a small stereo receiver.
This radio has the necessary controls to be a shortwave radio (and all the knobs are chrome.) It would have really helped the radio out if the main tuning knob and the fine tuning knob were of a larger size.
All in all this is a nice beginners radio. I bought this near perfect radio on ebay for $35.00 and I consider this a very good deal. It has the performance of a very good portable radio with the beauty of a small chrome and wood table top radio.