How Do You Use and/or Derive Enjoyment from Your Scott Radio?

[Eric Beheim]

Perhaps this question has already been asked, but since I’m new to this forum, I’ll ask it again.  How do you use and/or derive enjoyment from your Scott radio?  For myself, I have a CD/MP3 player connected to my AW-23’s phono-in posts and use it primarily to listen to vintage radio material from 70-80 years ago.  My particular interest is news programs from the late 1930s and early 1940s, particularly World War II-era news programs.  (See https://www.otrcat.com/reliving-world-war-ii-via-radio.)  That’s how I use and enjoy my Scott.  I’ll be interested to learn how other people use their sets.

[palegreenthumb]

The only Scott I own is a Scott Sixteen.  The receiver was recapped a few decades ago, but the power supply & amp were essentially untouched when I bought it.  And it needs a new dial belt, because the tuning slips and sticks.

I rebuilt the power supply, put it on a short antenna (~20 ft), and started dialing around the narrow range of stations I could tune with the slipping dial belt.  Low and behold, from Seattle, I picked up a New Zealand station somewhere around 19 MHz!  Not very loud, but I could understand it.  Of course at 9pm--10 minutes after I started listening--they changed frequency up to 25 MHz somewhere, and I couldn't follow because of the dial belt issue.

Still, New Zealand.  That was totally cool.  Haven't repeated that feat, but it was worthy.

[Tony Peterson]

The Pointer dial Philharmonic I listen to morning talk shows most weekday mornings.

The AM-FM Phantom I often listen to classic radio programs on Hollywood 360 Saturday evenings from 8pm until midnight.

The SLR-12B I listen to overnight programs most nights. Usually Coast to Coast AM or Overnight America.

The Capehart 406E I don't listen to as often but when I do it's for an hour or so before dinner.

The others I listen to once in a while just to keep them running.

[Kent King]

I listen to "oldies" stations. Sometimes I'll hook up a CD to the phono input. I try (mostly unsuccessfully) to run different sets as often as I can to keep them "fresh" but I always come back to the same 2-3 radios, usually the AW27 since it has the best sound.

[David C. Poland]

Mostly for music in my radio room where my computer is. Seldom DX or use the short wave bands anymore. I  rotate my restored Scotts trying to run each restored example at least a couple times per month - some more regularly. The talk radio stations annoy me, except for certain NPR programs which is FM radio around here. Mostly I play CD's for a wide variety of music but I favor some types for certain radios.

A couple Scotts usually on a nearby university classic rock station - the Super XII and Sixteen. My late AW-23 with the tweeters also on the same classic rock station, but because it has the simple radio/phono switch, I also have a NAD digital tuner on the phono input for WOSU classical music station.

My early 5-knob AW-23 (Laureate Grande with optional tweeters) requires the CD player have its own volume control, so use a SONY Walkman CD player  to demo the audio quality for visitors with recent CD's like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy or finger guitar of Adrian Legg.  On a late AW-15 usually another portable CD player especially  vintage vocal like Sinatra, Fitsgerald or Anita O'Day which sound particularly good on this radio. Scott Masterpiece in Mayfair phono combo usually another CD player for a variety of classical, Big Band .... 

My Philharmonic needs little work but will eventually get it into the rotation again.

[jimmie o. ashabraner]

 hi, in regards to how you use your scott radio. I have owned two  aw23 and now have a 1940 philharmonic I enjoy in my shop. I have an fm converter I can hear a lot of stations on. mostly I listen to an oldies station on am at 1600. sometimes I play it for two or three hours at a time. it seldom drifts off frequency and all components run warm but not overheated. SCOTTS FOREVER, JIMMIE ASHABRANER

[Thomas Day]

My all wave 23 gets used mainly for broadcast stations and some AM DX work late at night. Also tune the shortwave bands to see what is out there, which is not much these days, except for some religious stations and Radio Havana. I have picked up Radio New Zealand a couple of times.

[Angelo]

 I use my philharmonic to listen to hams on 3.885 and 3.880 AM and on 7.295mhz , and i listen to a few AM broadcast stations here that play classic rock and todays rock.My Phantom AM Deluxe i use it  to DX with and have heard  russia, romania ,bulgaria,india to name a few.My Allwave 12 Deluxe i listen to the broadcast band with it .I try to use them every day or at least once a week.

[David Wilson]

I use my SS TRAN - AMT 3000 low power AM transmitter to rebroadcast from a retired Apple 4 phone. I have my I Tune record library loaded on this phone and I have my Sirius XM app on the phone that works over the Internet. I also have the Pandora app on the phone for music as well. This system works where all my restored radios can receive the signal in my home.

I listen to these broadcasts and other AM broadcast over my Scott AW 15. I also use the TECSUN AN-200 tunable medium wave loop antenna (400 Ω) which is also marketed under the Grundig name on all my console radios. These antennas can be bought on Amazon for around $28.

We discovered these antennas a few years ago when we held a radio listening competition at our NMRCC picnic where members ranked the Scott AW 12, AW 15, Philharmonic, McMurdo II, III, VI, Midwest 16, Zenith 1000 Z Stratosphere, 16-A-61 Stratosphere and the Zenith 12-A-58. All these radio were located at two of our members’ homes and they all were equipped with these TECSUN AN-200 tunable antennas so they could all be compared with a similar antenna. These loop antennas also do a nice job of pulling  in most of the El Paso, Texas AM stations 50 miles away  from my home on most of my consoles. They work fabulously on Scotts! I highly recommend them for AM listening.

[David Willenborg]

Derive enjoyment?  That would come from restoring them and looking at them.  At present only one is working and rarely do I turn it on.

David