• Power: 105-125 volts - 50/60Hz

• Wavebands: tuneable from 540KHz to 54.5MHz across 5 switched bands
  • 0.540 - 1.63MHz
  • 2.5 - 6.3MHz
  • 6.3 - 16.0MHz
  • 14.0- 31.0MHz
  • 48.0-54.5MHz
• Sensitivity: not known

• Valve lineup: 8 total
  • 6BA6 (x3 - mixer, 1st and 2nd IF amps);
  • 6H6 (detector);
  • 6C4 (oscillator);
  • 6CS7 (AF amp and BFO);
  • 6K6GT (AF output);
  • 5Y3GT (rectifier)

• Released 1951 -1959

• Original price: c.$90

Features a built in speaker as well as headphone sockets and a phono jack, auto-noise limiter, RF gain control, switched tone control. This set was also made as the S-53U - which allowed AC or DC operation up to 250 volts.

My personal opinion is that by dropping the round dial arrangement, Hallicrafters were losing the competetive design edge they had developed immediately after 1945 in the 'entry-level' market for general communications receivers.

The higher-end equipment had to be differentiated just as did the lower end (think of Hammarlund with their cast aluminum cabinets or Collins with the odometer type frequency readout). The Loewy design theme for the S-38 family was found in modified form on many of Halligan's products - sadly, the S-53 doesn't appear to exhibit any of them.

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Last updated 13th May 2002