373
Item nr.
Simply the best. In 1973.
| Production | South Africa, 1973.
Price was 800 guilders. |
|---|---|
| Bands | 500kHz - 31MHz. |
| Semi- conductors | 15 transistors, 1 IC, 11 diodes. |
| Cabinet | Steel with leatherette. Size 29x19x10 cm. Weight 4.3 kg (inc. batt.). |
| Power | Batt 6xD or ext. 6-12V, 20-200mA. |
| Documents | Service doc, User manual. |
The Barlow-Wadley was simply earth-shaking when it came out in 1973. It was a portable, transistorized, and, above all, affordable implementation of Wadley's triple conversion drift compensating principle that made the Racal receiver a success. See this separate article. 
The set uses triple conversion, with Intermediate Frequencies 45MHz, 2.5MHz, 455kHz (the first two being station dependent). It will not receive below the MW band, because the antenna circuitry is pretty deaf for frequencies below 500kHz. Still, I can combine the Barlow Wadley with my Kent LG Converter and receive Long Wave stations in quadruple conversion mode. BBC at 198kHz, for example, is converted by the Kent to 10,198kHz, then in the Barlow to 45,302 (frequency is mirrorred in this step), then 2,802, and finally 455kHz. Miraculously, after all these conversions, strong broadcast stations still come out pretty good. All the mixing causes a lot of noise and plethora of ghost stations between the real ones.
| Obtained | 1/2014 from Brian, sn=14983. |
|---|---|
| Condition | 8. |
| Disposed | Sold 10/2016. |
| Sound sample | PLAY SOUND It is quite easy to pick up radio amateurs operating on SSB, even on just the whip antenna. What puzzles me here is how somebody can be located between Italy and the Swiss border. |