The Art of Collecting: Henrique Schuchmann Morador
Report written by: Martín Butera
Photos: Ligia Katze
Collecting is a basic and very old human instinct, typical of organized, careful and somewhat obsessive people. Our interviewee is the opposite.
Entering his garage in which he keeps a secret bunker where he hosts his radio collections, is like entering a trip to the origins of the cosmos, a collection of messy planets that at the same time work in perfect balance.
Henrique Schuchmann Morador, Born in 1963 in Brazil in a small town called “Santana do Livramento”, located on the border between Brazil and Uruguay, also close to the country of Argentina. Then he would move to the city of Porto Alegre, capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul – Brazil.
By profession, an agronomist, Henrique Schuchmann Morador, is in the antipodes of a collector of “militaria”, does not like weapons, war clothes, combat strategies, decorations, or anything in warlike relationship.
For Henrique Schuchmann Morador, the answer to why he collects is in the pleasant feeling he feels, every time he gets that radio that is missing from his collection.
However Henrique Schuchmann Morador, knows that the pleasant sensation of getting new radios for his collection, eventually tends to disappear, because it becomes routine.
Hence the urgent need to achieve something increasingly exclusive and unique.
We already know that a collection depends on the personality of the collector and its media.
Visibly, the collection of Henrique Schuchmann Morador, is not cataloged, to know about the origin of each radio, just ask …
That’s how Henrique Schuchmann Morador invited me to spend an entire afternoon in his secret garage-bunker and told me infinite stories of his radios.
For example, by the huge Hammarlund SP-600 receiver, he explains that this was used by military and government agencies in the United States, such as the FBI and the CIA.
About the Collins ART-13 transmitter and the BC-348 receiver, Henrique, he explains that they were, radios on board the American World War II bomber planes, such as the B-17, B-24, B-25 and B -29, like the ones that threw the two atomic bombs. Hiroshima and Nagazaki (B-29), which can be seen in US museums.
Henrique then tells me the story of the BC-312 receiver, tells me that it was widely used by the US. UU. In World War II, being compact but extremely heavy, capable of resisting the explosion of a nearby grenade, in accordance with military regulations, and whose manual includes information on how to destroy it so as not to fall into the hands of the enemy.
Then he shows me an old National HRO Senior 1937 and tells me that it was widely used by the English at Bletchley Park.
Bletchley Park was the name of a military installation located in Buckinghamshire, England, in which the work of deciphering German codes was carried out during World War II.
He explains that there were about 80 of them, intended to intercept Nazi messages, encoded in the Enigma machine and transmitted by telegraphy, to decode in the Ultra machine (Alan Turing). It is estimated that it shortened World War II in two years due to the great secrets discovered, as revealed in the books The Codebreakers and The Ultra Secret.
Then he shows me the PRC-25 backpack, and explains that it is the well-known backpack radio used in the Vietnam War and that it appears in any film about that war.
The PRC-25 tells me that it was succeeded by PRC-77 still participating in Vietnam, a radio that does not yet have in its collection. On the other hand, it tells me that it has some ERC-110 radios, which is the version of PRC-77 made in Brazil.
He also presents the monstrous GRC-106, consisting of three modules with RTTY capability of a 3/4 ton Dodge military truck specially designed for use in Vietnam.
Under the table, supported by old car tires, is the GRC 3-8 set, also the Vietnam War. It also shows me the famous GRC-9 (Angry Nine) used in the Korean War.
There are also in the collection several military equipment used by the Brazilian army, of national manufacture, but of similar pattern to the Americans.
There are hundreds of radios, distributed by its garage-bunker, each incorporated into its messy collection, has an orderly history in the memory of Henrique Schuchmann Morador.
He does not delve into the electronic technical details, but the main characteristics of the equipment, the period and place of manufacture and the purpose of use for example: radio amateurs, army, navy, aeronautics, maritime navigation, government agencies, civil aviation companies , etc.
For Henrique Schuchmann Moradormi, a new radio in his collection means taking a bit of history to the garage-bunker, a passion for life, with all that that implies.
Henrique Schuchmann Morador and his Collection of Citizen Band Transmitters and Car Radios
The Henrique collection, not only has military radios, its collection is also composed of base stations, mobile and handheld, known as walki-talkies, and portable, citizen band.
Henrique has a preference for CB Base. In that category, in its collection we can see 2 Cobra 2000 GTL, a Cobra 142 GTL, a President Madison, a Lafayette Telsat SSB 140 and a Ranger 2990.
You can also see them scattered throughout your Garage-Bunker, many car radios, when I asked Henrique about these radios, he told me that he only collects those that have some shortwave band.
Henrique Schuchmann Morador and his Beginnings with Radio Listening
Henrique Schuchmann Morador, is not only an atypical collector of military radios, he is also a dedicated radio listener, to this day.
He started from a very young age with his father who usually listened to the news on the radio, that was the usual medium at that time, remember that they did it in a very popular receiver of national manufacture, an AC-431 of the company SEMP (acronym for Paulista Eletromercantil Corporation).
MB: What did you remember hearing?
HSM: I mainly listened to Radio Guaíba from Porto Alegre, capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, located approximately 500 km away. It was captured at 720 kHz in medium waves, especially at night, but also listened to very strong Uruguayan and Argentine stations, due to its geographical proximity.
MB: When did you start listening to shortwave?
HSM: I began to listen to shortwave, thanks to an uncle who had a beautiful leather-covered portable Mitsubishi receiver (model 10X-718, 10 transistors), which spent whole mornings in my hands, tuning distant stations mainly in shortwaves, although I also loved looking for distant medium wave stations. That was probably the beginning, it should be about 10 years old, early 1970s.
MB: In what language did you like to listen?
HSM: Well it was very small, but fortunately, there were many transmissions in Portuguese and especially in Spanish, which in my case is also a mother tongue, since my city has an open border with Rivera in Uruguay, divided only by a street.
When I grew up I began to follow broadcasts in English through BBC London and the Voice of America.
I also remember hearing the Moscow Central Radio, Deutsche Welle, Radio Netherlands and many others that no longer exist in the original language.
MB: At that time, did you use any external antenna?
HSM: No, all the listening was done without any external antenna, only with the small telescopic antenna of the Mitsubishi, perhaps a little electric cable of about 40 cm, screwed into the antenna, but no more than that.
The ionospheric propagation was spectacular in those times.
Today Henrique Schuchmann Morador, keeps with much love, in his collection an identical model of that Mitsubishi radio, which his uncle lent him.
Over the years he has come to use the classic Satellit 3400, with professional external antennas.
below appears a National HRO 1937, collection by Henrique Schuchmann Morador.
Schuchmann Morador.
Henrique Schuchmann Morador and his Beginnings with Citizen Band and Ham Radio
MB: How were your beginnings as a citizen band operator and then Ham Radio?
HSM: In 1972, my family moved to the state capital, Porto Alegre, and I kept listening, using that beloved radio from my father’s AC-431 of the SEMP, that radio has medium waves and four extended shortwave bands, providing excellent reception.
On this radio, I started listening to the amaterus radio in the 80 meter band, broadcasting in modulated amplitude, without knowing it I was taking my first steps in the radio hobby.
Henrique Schuchmann Morador.
In 1976 I received a walkie talkie from a friend of my parents, even with the financial difficulties we were going through at the time. It was only one, not the pair, I remember that it was from the Savoy brand, with a 9V battery and only 100mW of power and transmitted on channel 14 of the citizen band, but I indiscriminately received the station with the strongest signal, regardless of channel used With this little walkie talkie, I made my first contacts were 2 citizen band stations that were close to my house.
Already in 1978, with about 15 years of age, with my savings, I was able to acquire the first transceiver of the citizen band a Kalimar of 23 channels in AM mode, during the school holidays, I was traveling to my uncles house in Sao Paulo, It was there that I built my first dipole antenna, which I extended in my cousin’s room, between the door and the window, thus making my first local contacts.
Shortly after, towards the end of the year, I sold this radio to buy a new one and the fabulous Cobra 148GTL arrived, whose price difference was sponsored by my mother, who is still in a very difficult phase, a widow and with four children to raise, however It gave me that pleasure.
In the following years, with that Cobra 148GTL and its original 12 watts, “I went around the world”, with the help of a cubic square antenna of two elements, built on a scheme published in an electronic magazine, very popular at that time .
Contacts with other regions in Brazil, South America, Central America, the Caribbean, the United States, Canada and Europe were easy.
MB: Do you remember which was your first Ham Radio transmitter?
HSM: Yes, of course, my first amateur radio equipment was a powerful Delta 500, nationally manufactured, with two 6KD6 valves at the outlet and 80 to 10 meter bands.
Already in the year 2000, I acquired an Icom 751, my passion to this day for the excellent reception and transmission
MB: Do you remember what your first antenna was?
HSM: I started using a W3DZZ antenna for 80 and 40 meters.
collection by Henrique Schuchmann Morador
Then came antennas of all kinds yaguis, rotors and everything we are used to seeing in a current Shack Radio.
Henrique Schuchmann Morador, with time he achieved his maximum category in Brazil (Class A) and with his indicative PY3APY, participated in many competitions with excellent location, especially CQ WW, CQ WPX and JIDX, in the bands of 10.15 and 20 meters in phone and also in digital modes RTTY, PSK31 and more recently JT65 and FT8.
Goodbye the New, Welcome the Old
When he turned 50 he decided to buy his own gift, a modern equipment, a new Yaesu FT-2000, because in addition to serving for the activity of the radio hobby, it could also be used to listen to the radio.
When the team arrived, remember that it was a party. He put the FT-2000 on the table of his garage-bunker and tested it in each band, he found that it was a great team, but a few days later he returned it to the box where he stayed for a year.
It was at that moment that he realized, that his preference was the old teams, with a history, to represent his time. It was not the case of the wonderful FT-2000.
One day, a friend offering you a complete Collins “S” line in perfect condition, it consists of a 32S-3 transmitter with its power supply and speaker, a 75S-3B receiver, a phone fonepatch console and an amplifier linear 30S-1. In addition, a Collins 75A-4 receiver also came in the same state.
When Henrique Schuchmann Morador tells this anecdote, he defines it as a fair trade, because even to this day the two friends ask themselves, who was the one who cheated the other.
Henrique Schuchmann Morador, a “Crazy Dreamer” of Collecting
When Henrique Schuchmann Morador was approaching university graduation, he was hit by a strong depression, something little known in those times, perhaps caused by the imminence of graduation and the emergence of new challenges.
I’m looking for a doctor appointed by an aunt, Dr. Claudio Osorio, who asked him: “Henry, what do you like to do?”
He tells me that without hesitation he replied to the doctor: “I like Doctor radios.”
Then the doctor without having the real real dimension of what the word “radio” meant, to Henrique, asked him again: Where are your radios?
Henrique replied that they had been stored for years. Immediately the doctor recommended that he reactivate that hobby, so henrique took what the doctor said to the letter.
Over time henrique recovered from his depression and never again went through something similar.
Today when he sees his collection he calms down and says that it was thanks to a “medical prescription” that I should not disobey.
Before I left, I asked Henrique Schuchmann Morador if his last acquisition, a Hallicrafters S-20R (1939-1945), ends his collection and he replied: “I told my wife that I would stop collecting,” he said. “But hey, I also tell lies” (laughs).
This report was made as follows:
Visit to Henrique Schuchmann Morador, at his home in the city of Porto Alegre – Brazil at the end of August 2019.
The report was written at the beginning of November 2019.
Special thanks
To my Treasure Ligia Katze (Video and Photos)
To my friend Mark Melzi, for the photo editing in this article.
Review with author information
Martín Butera
Radio operator since 1992. Martin has participated in DXpeditions throughout South America, with the Argentine radio callsign LU9EFO and the Brazilian callsign PT2ZDX.
Martin is the founder of CREW called 15 point 61 (15.61), São Paulo – Brazil.
Martín Butera is a journalist, documentary filmmaker and founding member of Radio Atomika 106.1 MHz (Buenos Aires, Argentina) www.radioatomika.com.ar
He currently lives in Brasilia, capital of Brazil.
e-mail: martin_butera “at” yahoo.com.ar
