Lowe Electronics - The Trio QR666

We sold our pristine AR88D in polished oak cabinet because we were bored. We took our new-found riches up to Lowe Electronics and bought a QR666. Why?

The AR88 was about as far as the technology had advanced in its day. The QR666 was new tech but entry-level. We just liked the look of the thing. We were about to learn a lesson or two.

It did hark back to radios of old with large illuminated dials. It did have Tonka Toy tuning knobs, one of which was BANDSPREAD. You could spread the Broadcast or the Ham Bands. It was an option. To go for the broadcast option surrounded by Hams at the local club was social suicide.

Any of those Hams would tell me of the QR666's technical failings. We knew this and we revelled in them. Selectivity was either NARROW or WIDE but the filters leaked so gloriously, AM listening was a joy.

It had the power to drive an outside hi-fi speaker. It may seem a bit of a waste but AM radio was not as processed as what's left of it is today. It did hum a bit.

We often wondered if this was noticed outside the UK. This was modulation hum, only present on the carrier of an AM station. The standard fix was to bridge the rectifier diodes with 0.01uF capacitors. At least it was a chance to try a few modifications...

Our QR666 did drift a little but the OCD that seems to go with the hobby had us at the Tonka tuning knob and back on frequency.

QR6-FM was not an exotic call sign but the FM Radio option. A must-have, it meant another trip to Lowes, always a joy as it gave you a chance to demo the radio you should have bought.

The Installation Guide said fitting the FM Option was easy. It was, because we knew how to solder, how to wire up, how to read circuit diagrams and how to check it all before you switched on. Those skills are gone now, replaced by Plug And Play and knowledge of sales law, so technical incompetence in the buyer can be blamed on the dealer.

FM was great on the QR666. More leaky filters meant the sound was cool, tuning a little less so. The over-sensitive front-end got us into Sporadic-E listening from Kenny Everett on Capital to opera from Milan.

A technical let-down on paper but great to own, we miss it now.