The Heath-kit GR-64 truly was an "economy" communications receiver, selling in its time for $39.95. Manufactured from 1964 to 1971, the GR-64 was a four-tube radio covering the MW band and three SW bands: 1.5-4.0 MHZ, 4.0-10.0 MHz, and 9.5-30 MHz. It had a ridiculously tiny band spread scale -- for "fine tuning", so to speak -- and its tuning mode switch allowed for "AM" (MW broadcast), "CW" (CW and SSB, tuned in conjunction with its BFO dial), and "Standby" for if, God Forbid, one were to try to use this as a receiver in a ham shack's transmitter/receiver setup.
In America in the 1960s, either this Heathkit GR-64 or the Knight-kit Star Roamer was pretty much every kid's first shortwave radio. I was eleven when I got my parents to buy me the GR-64 after having been inspired by an article in the August 1967 issue of Popular Mechanics, "Shortwave--have you listened to it lately?" The GR-64 was of course terrible as a shortwave receiver, but I didn't know it at the time, or maybe I didn't care all that much -- I was just so excited by all those foreign broadcasts coming through the speaker....
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