Vintage Davco Receiver DR - 30 Collectors Item Ham And Shortwave AM/SSB/CW
Item History & Price
Vintage Davco Receiver DR-30 Collectors Item Ham and Shortwave AM/SSB/CW. Shipped with USPS Priority Mail. This is a vintage Davco DR-30 primarily ham band communications receiver, Serial Number 520 of fewer than a thousand. This model has become something of a classic for its advanced features and careful design. It is in clean condition. I used it very little when new, and it has been in storage ever ...since. Most of its functions appear to be working, and the frequency calibration is excellent. The sensitivity is very low, probably due to a failed front end, a common reported problem with these radios. Also, a dial light is burned out, and there appear to be some dirty contacts. Davco designed this receiver in the 1960’s to go with a companion transmitter, which would have made a quite compact transceiver for mobile use. The company went out of business in December 1968 before starting serial production of the companion transmitters, which caused me to lose interest in the receiver. For historical interest, a letter I received from Davco in February 1967 said that the DT-30 transmitter design was complete, but that production would be delayed a few months because their factory was occupied making a non-ham product. The receiver is beautifully designed, and represents excellent performance for a compact, all analog double conversion receiver. It incorporates a Collins 2.1 kHz mechanical filter plus a notch filter, noise blanker, and a 100 kHz calibrator. It covers the 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, and 6 meter ham bands, AM and SSB, plus provision for two additional bands of the user’s choice with addition of a crystal. The receiver employs 38 Germanium devices. An excellent description of the receiver, including a description of an RF stage fix, can be found at www.W8ZR.net/vintage/receivers/davco.htm. I will include both the preliminary and final versions of the Operation and Service manual, plus my correspondence with Davco. The manual is unusually detailed, including board layouts and alignment instructions, making it relatively easy to work on. This is a great acquisition for a ham history buff, illustrating a very advanced receiver for its time. Its performance isn't bad by modern standards, and would hold its own as a mobile HF receiver today.
