My father-in-law’s S-52

Although my father-in-law, Alfonso Ruiz, was born in the United States, he was of Mexican descent, and for a while lived in Guadalajara, where he met and married my mother-in-law. He served as a Seaman Signalman in the U.S. Navy during World War II (the photo at right shows him aboard ship in 1944), and after the war, he and my mother-in-law moved to Detroit. Detroit was booming then. Jobs were plentiful, and his sister already lived here.

In 1950, he purchased a Hallicrafters S-52 shortwave radio so that he and my mother-in-law could listen to shortwave broadcasts from Mexico. He gave that radio to me about 15 years ago.

The S-52 is a single conversion general coverage receiver, and is the AC-DC marine version of the S-40 First built in 1948, the set covers 4 bands from AM broadcast to 44 MHz. It uses nine tubes, including a plug-in ballast that was selected for either 120 volt or for 240 volt operation. The 1948 price was $99.50 (about $1,000 today).

My father-in-law passed away five years ago. He was very proud of his service in the Navy, and we were happy that we could bury him in the Great Lakes National Cemetery.

My mother-in-law passed away a little over a month ago, and in going through the house that they lived in for more than 60 years, my brother-in-law found the bill of sale for the radio:

He also found the service bulletin for the radio:

It includes alignment instructions, a complete parts list, and schematic. On the parts list, my father-in-law calculated the cost of a set of replacement tubes:

They would certainly cost more than $5 today.

I haven’t turned it on for a while, but I’ll do so this holiday season. HF Underground lists a few Mexican shortwave stations that might still be on the air, although I’m not sure how successful I’ll be. Even if I don’t hear anything, it will bring back memories of my in-laws and how this radio helped them keep in touch with their homeland.