After years of using the old Viking tabletop radio to listen to my beloved shortwave bands, I saw an advertisement in the classified section of the Winnipeg Free Press, for shortwave radios. A fellow named Mr. Hall, who lived down on Landsdowne Ave (a rough part of town now, but not bad then), had some radios for sale. I had a bit of money saved from my paper route, and convinced my dad to take me to see them.
I paid $20 for a Hallicrafters S-77A communications receiver. Wow, what a difference! I used that radio for many years, and when I got something better (a Yaesu FRG-7), I took it out to the family cabin, where I used to listen to shortwave on lazy summer nights…
While at Mr. Hall’s place, I was bedazzled by the vision of an amazing, complex, wonderful radio – a full carrier-mounted Marconi No. 19 Set Mk. III! I asked how much it was… and decided that I had to have it, too.