Anyone here remember/own Realistic Astronaut-8?

[Bruce Jensen]

Hi, all - back around 1973 or so, I had an 8-band portable SW radio
from RS called Astronaut-8; it was $109.99 when I bought it, and its
telescoping antenna hooked it up to an ungrounded 60-foot random wire
out my window in central Massachusetts. It had very little in the way
of fancy amenities - a small tuning knob, four other knobs for tone
control and so forth (including one for bandspread that had no dial and
I never used it), a set of 8 buttons along the top to switch bands, and
general coverage from 540 to 22 MHz (plus 2 VHF + FM + Air). Just a
plain portable radio. With it, I listened to more than 120 nations on
SWBC, including tiny Africans and South Americans, and occasionally an
SSB using the BFO that came with it.

At the time, I was unaware of any other radios (Central Mass. was rural
and largely unconnected), and I thought I had found myself a gold
mine. I was a shy fellow, too smart and meek ;-) for the gang of
ruffians who lived in my town, and this hobby and the broadcasters on
the other end became close friends. I loved listening to Keith Glover
at Radio Australia, Lynn Henderson and Charles Gursky at Radio Canada,
and the Cowans on His & Hers at Radio Nederland, and I learned to love
hearing difficult tonal languages from SE Asia and colorful Spanish
programming from Latin America at odd hours of the night...all with
this unassuming little radio.

It eventually pooped out after maybe 3,000 hours of listening, and not
knowing much about getting it fixed, I sold it and moved on to other
things.

To anybody's recollection, was this a good radio? A great radio? A
mess? Do these things ever pop up anymore? I never see them on EBay
or other outlets...if I found one working, I might even buy it for old
times' sake. No matter how good it was, it brought me enormous joy at
a time when loneliness was getting serious, and I wish now I hadn't
sold it...

--
Best regards,
Bruce Jensen

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

[ked1075]

Hi Bruce;

The Allied Radio equivalent model #2682 rcvr is currently item #
472050763 in the Ham Rcvr's section of eBay. If you are interested.

Paul

[Bruce Jensen]

In article <39EE0B4A...@localnet.com>,

ked1075 <ked...@localnet.com> wrote:
> Hi Bruce;
>
> The Allied Radio equivalent model #2682 rcvr is currently
item # 472050763 in the Ham Rcvr's section of eBay. If you are
interested. Paul<

Thanks, Paul - yepp, there are quite a few similarities; the Realistic
version was more horizontally-oriented, but the band coverage is
practically identical. All the same controls too, although I cannot see
the bad selector switch. Thanks for showing me this! I'll consider it
for fun :-)

[gary...@my-deja.com]

Nice post Bruce. I currently own a Realistic Astronaut 4 that I picked
up at a thrift store for $4.00. And the darned thing is an excellent
performer! I have more expensive radios but I found myself listening to
that little guy most of the time last winter. Just something about it
that I like. Hope you find an 8 for yourself.
Regards,
Gary

[diem...@gmail.com]

I have one but I can't find it on eBay or pawn shops