** Restored **
Heathkit GR-81 Regenerative Radio
The GR-81 Economy SWL Receiver

This radio was part of my personal collection of restored GR-81's (sold). 

I love these radios, because I built one with my father in 1964, when I was a pre-teen.  They work amazingly well once you hook up a good antenna and get proficient at tuning a simple regenerative rig.  Every time I play with one of these, I remember my dad explaining to me the finer points of tuning a regenerative radio. 

I replaced the electrolytic capacitors and the one black beauty cap with new components of the exact values but with greater voltage ratings.  I left the the old multi-cap electrolytic "can" in place and installed a small one-lug terminal strip beneath it to make for neat and tidy connections.  Because the can's lugs were not used, the point-to-point wiring has changed just slightly, but remains absolutely consistent with the schematic, so there are no modifications to the circuit.  You can see the new (dark blue) capacitors below.

This GR-81 not only looks great, but it works perfectly, to factory specs, on all bands.   This radio should keep working for many years to come. 

Many GR-81's found these days have the little Heathkit feet either missing, cracked, or broken.  The feet always were somewhat fragile and they grow brittle with time.  This radio has all 4 feet intact and in perfect condition, which is really nice.  Without the feet, the radio sits too low to the desk.  And it just doesn't look right with stubby rubber replacements.

I almost always have to refinish these cabinets (I have one GR-81 with a cabinet that looks pretty good without refinishing).  This particular set came to me not working, with several large rust spots and bends on the steel chassis.  I stripped the chassis to bare metal, straightened it, primed it, and repainted it to match as close as possible the original Heathkit beige. 

I really like the beige and aquamarine color scheme of this radio.  You will notice a scuff on the speaker grill just above the regeneration and volume knobs, visible below.  This kind of scarring on the speaker grill is not uncommon.

You may have also observed that the Heathkit decal is missing from this radio, and that the little white pointer on the fine tuning knob is not there.  Actually Heathkit sold these both with and without the little white pointer knobs.  Some units shipped with knobs which sport a black line instead of a pointer (as below).  I prefer the white pointer look. Click the link below for a photo of a nice GR-81 with the Heathkit decal in place and the white pointer fine tuning knob.

I enjoy keeping one of my GR-81's at the workbench to listen to the AM broadcast band, or 160 Meter CW, SSB, or AM ragchews.  I use a simple G5RV antenna.  I also enjoy listening to shortwave broadcasts with this receiver. I am a CW operator and enjoy CW contests.  But during SSB (ham) contests, I like to listen on this set to my friends "run" stations while I kick back with a beverage or dabble with various projects on the workbench.  

These little regenerative sets work very well (considering their simplicity) from 160 meters to 40 Meters.  Its still a little difficult with the GR-81 to separate signals on the higher bands.  That's why I moved up, as a kid, to the Heathkit HR-10.  Nevertheless, it was the GR-81 that got me "hooked" on radio many years ago.  Maybe it was your first shortwave radio too.

Click here for a nice restored Heathkit GR-81 with original decal and the alternative fine tuning knob.