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write your own review of the Sangean ATS-505.
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WX1F
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 2, 2010 17:35
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Tough little rig!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've had mine for over four years and it's tough as nails! Been dropped on the tile floor half a dozen times, didn't break and still works great. Of course it's not as good as tuning around with an expensive Icom or Kenwood hf rig...but for under $100, it's a fine little receiver and is easy to operate.
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GW6ITJ
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Rating: 2/5
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Oct 13, 2009 08:43
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Good FM - poor everything else
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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My ATS-505 was purchased as a replacement for a deceased Sony ICF-2001D. I thought it reasonable that even a cheaper modern all-rounder might have similar performace to the old classic - how wrong I was.
It is sold as an all-rounder but is really a good FM Broadcast receiver with AM and SW added as poor relations.
On SW the radio has very poor sensitivity and next to no selectivity at all. Signal images are common. OK it can resolve SSB and CW but it's hard work listening, listening at low audio for CW is a pain as the audio hasd a constant hiss at any volume. The 1kHz resolution is too big a step and press any button and it's back to 5kHz. Broadcast reception is OK but it's AM and wide so it should be good.
MW listening has not been extensive for me but it has never been great.
The memories are limited and often erased when changing batteries. Front panel buttons are an art to use correctly. Alarms are handy as is the auto turn off after several minutes.
How not to keep the XYL happy - listen with headphones at night and change bands. The Beep is from the radio not the headphones - you have been warned!
I mailed Sangean for some information 2 years ago - heard nothing.
So it has turned out to be a novelty radio really. A great shame. But then it was cheap, trouble is it was a present so how can I tell the XYL? Answers on a postcard.
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NIGE
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Rating: 4/5
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Jun 7, 2008 04:21
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good radio for the price
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Not a bad little radio for the price.It is nothing compared to a frog, but my son who is only 5 can operate it ok and he loves putting AM bands on and
listening to 2CH (1170) believe it or not...
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KG4GYL
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Rating: 3/5
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Dec 25, 2007 16:54
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poor sound quality ruins everything
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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great display-easy to operate-but speaker sounds like a 1960's transistor radio; just awful
otherwise great radio but grundig yb400pe sounds like a bose system next to the sangean ats505
plug it into computer speakers PLEASE
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M1MBZ
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Rating: 3/5
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Jun 28, 2006 14:33
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Okay, poor cut down version of an ats909
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Having owned and loved using an ats909, I bought this radio for holidays on the beach and to take to work with me, it was £40 in a sale at a local electronics store, the first dissapointment was the lack of an antenna jack, okay so I can use a crocodile clip on the whip instead, the second dissapointment was poor reception on bands below 1700kHz. Low band AM reception is terrible to listen to, but I have no real issues with listening above 1700kHz.
The BFO control acts as expected, when listening to SSB/CW.
No line out jack means you have to mess around to build an attenuator/impedance transformer if you want to use this radio with your PC soundcard for PSK31/RTTY/SSTV etc.
A good radio for the price I paid, but there are much better radios out there. If you can aim for a sangean ats 909 or better.
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FINETUNER
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 5, 2006 18:16
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Excellent closeout value!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I got my DX-402 at the $49 closeout price, and feel like I got an excellent deal.
Sensitivity on SW is a bit better than my ATS-909, and I can use the 402 with an AC adapter and its built-in whip for adequate reception. Another user reported receiving SSB stations no matter where the receiver is tuned on SW. I'm also finding this annoyance but only on occasion. I like the SSB reception performance. If you look at the tuning LED at a certain angle it has in interesting yellow color with SSB signal peaks.
MW sensitivity of the DX-402 is plenty adequate for my area, every channel has station(s).
FM reception good, I just tried for two favorite fringe stations and they're right there.
Audio on all bands is very pleasing, more crisp than the ATS-909, although I think the 909 has more bass, which I also like. Stereo on headphones, while a common feature on these radios, is definitely a treat at this sale price.
Unlike many users I like the tuning knob, the delay is a minor annoyance. A bigger problem is the radio's reverting to the larger tuning step after I've selected 1kHz, when any button is pressed. This is poor programming.
All in all while I'm not sure I'd have paid the original price for the 402, at the sale price this is one of my best catches.
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THATBPGUY
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 7, 2004 12:32
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Very Good For the Price!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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OK, I'm a novice, but I purchased mine 1 month ago and have travelled around a bit. It's plastic, but just as good as my other radios. SW was sensative and I get hundreds of stations worldwide. SSB worked much better than I had hoped. AM reception was great! While on the oregon coast I picked up my favorite AM sports station from San Francisco and reception was loud & clear. The speaker sounds very good (for it's size) and I can't find anything to complain about. I have a set of rechargable batteries and so far have used them for over 40 hours. I purchased mine thru C. Crane Company. I know they're spendy, but I've always had excellent customer service from them and for that, I'll pay the extra $10.
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KT6KT
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Rating: 1/5
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May 27, 2004 15:29
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poor
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Modulation recovery in AM mode poor.
Same ham station heard all over SW spectrum.
Suspect filter is RC network rather than in IF.
Never seem to see any specs on sensitivity, selectivity, IF rejection, image rejection, or other pertinent technical data which allow radio-to-radio comparisons.
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VK2HEL
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Rating: 2/5
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Sep 13, 2003 22:44
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Lack sensitivity
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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The overall design is compact enough, but the sensitivity is very poor, may be I got a defect item. I compare 909 and 505 side by side, both tuned to VOA. The sound from 505 is so soft mixed in background noise that I can hardly hear anything, while the sound from 909 was clear and nice. The mute when you tune is rather annoying, especially if you want to scan across the band rapidly.
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K0ABE
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Rating: 4/5
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Apr 13, 2003 02:41
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Price Is Key, Dude...
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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WOW… I wish I got my DX-402 for fifty bucks. I got mine for $120 a couple of years ago. In general I’m pleased with its performance. For every day shortwave listening it’s a very good receiver. I do have some issues.
The case is rather “cheap” the main tuning knob wobbles and doesn’t seem to be secure to the radio.
It tunes in 5 KHz increments, nice for general broadcast listening, a pain when you switch to SSB. Yeah, you can press the center of the “cheap” main tuning knob to change frequencies one KHz at a time but that gets to be a pain too.
The sound shuts down when you change frequencies. This makes frequency surfing a major challenge.
It eats batteries like candy. The only radio that eats batteries faster is my FT-817.
Not enough memory… Goodness, it’s a general coverage receiver. Give the radio some memory. Plus, if you unplug the radio from the AC adapter the wrong way everything is erased.
Even at $120 you can’t beat the price, except for $50 (how could anybody not buy one for that price). Other than the price the DX-402 has some good things going for it.
It “hears” well with the stock antenna, better with an external wire, better yet with that wire high and outside.
It’s small size makes it easy to pack… Bring extra batteries… Lots of them…
It has two clocks, one for local time the other for UTC.
Sound quality is just OK.
If the folks at Sangean could have added one thing I would have liked to see an auxiliary jack for connecting a tape recorder.
73 Mike KØABE
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