DFP-201 Receiver
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In the tradition of the famous National catacomb receivers of the late 30's and
40's came the Millen DFP receivers. The first receiver introduced in their 1947
catalog as "custom built" was the DFP-501. This was an elaborate receiver
with direct frequency readout, ten ham and general coverage bands, motor-assisted
tuning, motor-driven bandswitching! However, these features didn't come cheap! To
make any form of profit would have put it well beyond the range of the ham market.
Thus, the DFP-201 was created. Gone were the motor drives. However, in the Millen
quality tradition this receiver still maintained the mechanical marvels associated
with their other equipment. Extensive backlash supression gearing was used to drive
the two tuning condensors as well as a gear and chain driven mechanism to move the
tuned circuit catacomb and rotate the direct reading logging drum. Even without
the motor drives it was reported to cost $2100 to build in early 1947. Alas, even
the DFP-201 was to expensive to be a viable ham receiver. Only a few prototypes
were made and there are no reports of any of them ever being operational nor being
fully completed. It was an interesting change of fate for Millen in that during
his time at National their primary products were receivers and during the entire
history of the Millen company they never ended up producing a receiver for the ham
market. The prototype pictured above was provided by Fred Watson, KI8BP, and is owned by Don Buska, N9OO. Like most of the prototypes still known to exist it is not complete. This unit does not have the catacomb tuning box and associated mechanics. However it is a beautiful display piece! |