You are talking with the proud owner (and now wholly defunct) BC-610C. Even in my youth it was a dinosaur in 1966 and now it is positively Mesozoic. There comes a time when the FCC decides that bad notes are no longer tolerable and sends you nastygrams by the bushel barrel. The price of quaint AM nostalgia got too damn high. So it sits..awaiting the intrepid soul who has the desire and ability to bring the old sparker back to life and let it work its drifting and bad note magic and reinvigorate the FCC enforcement folks. Hell...I'll throw in a 2kw linear amplifier ( also defunct) for that intrepid soul.
Best,
Formerly WB4IRV (SSB is for wimps)
On SSB ... agreed. And this phrase-locked loop, synchronous detection, DSP stuff, ... , etc. Why? Use a 6DC6 (as in R-390's) or even better a 6BZ6 (HQ-180AC) for first RF ... and Wow!!!
Of course, antenna design is another issue. There a R/S ESH 3 is quite nice.
73 and VA.