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| Reviews Summary for Palstar R30 |
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Reviews: 30
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Average rating: 4.6/5
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MSRP: $495.00
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Description: LW/MW/SW Shortwave Receiver
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More info: http://www.palstar.com
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You can
write your own review of the Palstar R30.
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ELJAY
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 28, 2007 05:45
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Correction...
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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(Don't see any way to edit earlier review, so...)
When I popped the top recently to adjust the frequency alignment (a simple procedure), I noticed a muRata filter in the wide position. So I have an R30C, not R30CC. The R30-series has gone through three external cosmetic iterations (gathering data via the Wayback machine), so the appearance of the front panel isn't a reliable indicator of what's inside. My bad.
I used Spectran for a quick 'n' dirty analysis of the characteristics of the muRata wide and Collins narrow filters. The results were interesting and informed my casual impressions gathered from simply listening. I checked the results for AM, LSB and USB, all with wide and narrow filters.
I'll skip the details since my previous review was already too long. To sum up, the muRata ceramic wide filter is actually very slightly narrower in practice for MW and SW AM listening than I'd expected, with a shoulder closer to 5500 Hz. The very gradual rolloff seems to impart a very pleasant characteristic to any reasonable AM mode signal and is narrow enough to reject splatter from powerful adjacent stations 10 kHz apart. A Spanish language numbers station with an S9 +10 signal (AM mode) was on 5898 kHz at the same time WWCR was kicking out its usual strong signal on 5890. Neither interfered with the other, so the muRata filter is adequate for all except stations 5 kHz apart, typical of some parts of the 49 meter band at night.
The Collins narrow filter behaved exactly as described elsewhere, nothing new to add there.
BTW, for trivia nuts: As you might expect from a custom made product made in relatively small runs at a time, it does appear that there are minor, possibly insignificant differences between R30-series radios. The PC board in mine is labeled "Rev J" and "3-11-03." It's already known that the 455 kHz IF Out RCA socket was added after the earlier batch. The tuning step rate was adjusted at some point during the run as well. While I'm not aware of anyone offering modifications to the R30 right now, at some point an enterprising individual might do so and those minor variations may become more interesting.
One final note: the R30 is only as good - or bad - as the antenna. That should be elementary Radio Appreciation 101. Indoors with a random wire antenna it doesn't perform any better than my good portables with their whip antennas. But outdoors, even with only 20' of random wire but away from locally generated noise, it really shines. Even without a synchronous detector or noise blanker it's more pleasant to listen to for hours than my SW radios that have those features.
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TBAATAR
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Rating: 5/5
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May 30, 2007 17:21
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way to go!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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well I don't pretend to be a pro, but Im told I've owned some of the finest radios ever made, a hallicrafters "super skyrider" a collins R-390, 2 hammarlund super pros, 2 frg-7's {one extremely modified} and a real nice icom R71a with extra filters and CR-64 High Stability crystal,
this said I can tell you this little radio meets or edges out all the competition in expectations!
I bought it used on ebay as an R30c, had it shipped back to PALSTAR for upgrades including a new IF filter and very nice new "weighted" knob and realignment,plus repair to a tiny light bulb that had broken inside at the antenna base, when I called the company for instructions, I was treated to an unexpected conversation with palstar president and radio guru MR.H himself!!
kids if your reading this, the R30 is simply the work of the finest minds and craftsmenship that is availible today, its clear sound and outstanding ability to pull in signals is tops! but... then all other reviews will tell you this,
hats off to the palstar team for a modern work of radio art!
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KI6SZ
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 22, 2006 10:51
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Wonderful!!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Plain and simple -- This receiver is a pleasure to use. I use it with the companion Palstar speaker and the sound quality is incredible! There are some very strong broadcast band signals at my QTH (one station is >S9+60dB, 4 others >S9+40dB), but there is never any BCB breakthrough, even when listening to broadcast band DX. In this same shack I also have an Icom 756-ProII, an Icom 756-PROIII and an Icom 706-MKIIG. I do sometimes have BCB breakthrough with the Icom rigs... Doing side-by-side comparisons against these rigs, the R30 performance is darn near onpar with the PROII and PROIII and I think sometimes a little better than the 706. If I must say something negative about this fine receiver, it would be that the tuning steps in SSB could be smaller and for broadcast AM listening, it would be nice if the user could set the tuning stepsize to 10 kHz. That said, I never have any problem tuning in a SSB QSO.
In the shack, I power the R30 from the included wall-wart, but during storm power outages I switch off the R30's lights and operate it from its internal batteries -- it also makes a great backup/emergency receiver.
I highly recommend the R30 to anyone who wants a solidly built (in America!) and great performing RX.
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KI4HBX
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 4, 2006 19:41
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Super
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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This is a grat reciever maybey the best out there at this time sounds awsome.
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KD8ADH
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 19, 2005 22:54
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GREAT RADIO!
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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The R30 is nothing short of REMARKABLE, Small, easy to use, and a big easy to read display, and as the Palstar description says "Performs like nothing you’ve heard"... Pretty hard to believe that something this great is manufactured in my hometown. I have had my R30 for close to a year and will never switch to another radio for MW DXing... I have it connected to a 50ft longwire in my backyard and it works wonders, not to mention how clean the audio is with the SP30 speaker. Do yourself a favor and get yourself an R30, NO other radio comes close! NOT TO MENTION... Each radio is hand built, not slapped together carelessly in a mass production assembly line! THIS RADIO IS REAL AMERICAN QUALITY!
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KC7NYI
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 23, 2005 18:47
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GREAT
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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RECEIVED TODAY,6 23 05. HAVING OWNED THE FOLLOWING: DRAKE 8 AND B, TENTEC, KENWOODS AND YAESUS,PLUS ICOM 746 PRO,756 PRO, 6 Y847S 3 KENWOODS 2000.I THINK THE PALSTAR IS ONE OF THE BEST RECEIVERSTHAT I HAVE TRIED.USING THE SAME TWO ANTENNAS. THE CO. IS ALSO GREAT TO DO BUSINESS WITH. SINCE MY SIGHT IS NOT GOOD THE RADIO IS VERY EASY OPERATE, IT IS A KEEPER. GREAT !!!!
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KY6R
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Rating: 5/5
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May 27, 2005 15:07
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Superb
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I use an Orion for the ham bands, and so I wanted a superior receiver for short wave listening.
I read many reviews and knew exactly what the feature set was, and can only say that this is one sweet radio for SWL-ing and BCB-ing. I use my K9AY loops, and I am very pleased with the audio quality, low noise, low adjacent channel interference, and the "simple" ergonomics of the radio.
The people at Palstar are also exceptional - they are very customer oriented and will go the extra mile to make the customer happy. In fact, now Palstar join Ten Tec in my "best of the best" radio companies as far as top notch products and best support are concerned.
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VR2XCL
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Rating: 4/5
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Nov 5, 2004 01:20
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Excellent radio but some problems
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I trade my HF150 and upgrade to the R30, both are great radio, I specially like the build quality of the HF150 and the easy accessible battery compartment, but the R30 has better strong signal handling capacity. After about 3 years of use my R30 started to show its age, first the power on/off switch fail, then the memory function failed to work, Paul is so kind that he sent me the parts free of charge, I fixed the power switch and replaced the CPU, but the memory function still not working, I will live with it until the day a new model comes out then I may replace it.
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PE1DHI
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Rating: 2/5
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Feb 6, 2004 20:12
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No PC remote
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Dispite all the good receiver specs, it has no remote control connection. Its is very very strange that at present times such a receiver is developed.
This lack makes this nice receiver useless for lots of people, who want to remote-time control their receiver by a scedule for weatherfax or telex.
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KDXOHW
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 29, 2003 20:27
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Best radio for MW dx under $1,400.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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As a MW/LW dx'er, the PALSTAR R-30 was the only possible choice for me. I live within 7 blocks of a 5KW MW station which is directional in my direction with full power after sunset. All other radios under $1,400 have MW attenuation to reduce spurious responses from AM stations on the SW bands. The GRUNDIG Satellit 800 didn't have MW attenuation, but the White Paper said it's front end was not strong enough for MW listeners who live near a MW station. The R-30C, which I purchased from Paul at the factory in Ohio, has .25uv sensivity across it's entire receiving range, including MW and LW while, at the same time, maintaining an IP3 figure of +18 db. Even the DRAKE R8B, which as an IP3 figure of +21db, requires the use of an on-board pre-amp to equal the sensivity of the R-30 without a pre-amp. But when the R8B has it's pre-amp switched on, the IP3 figure drops to only +10db.
The R-30C has been the answer to my special BCB dx'ing needs. In conjunction with my MFJ 956 pre-selector, there are absolutely no spurious responses on MW or LW, and only a few very weak ones between 2-4 MC on SW. By comparison, my Sangean ATS-909 / DX-398 exhibits significant intermodulation problems even when used with the pre-selector. The audio quality is extremely special. I believe it has to do with more than just good audio circuitry. It has to do with the way the signal is detected with it's state-of-the-art dual balanced FET (whatever) and the way the signal is converted.
The Collins narrow filter has extremely sharp skirts, allowing decent audio quality with amazing selectivity. Where I live in South Western Ohio, using the narrow filter with ECSS tuning (USB), I can separate KMOX St. Louis 1120KC from our local 1110 station during daylight hours well enough to make a positive station ID of KMOX. In this difficult situation, there is some splatter, of course, from the local.
I did not realize how special the R-30C was until I got an ICOM R-75 and had all of the available KIWA mods done, including two audio mods and total MW attenuation removal. The R-30C has the same weak signal pulling power without any pre-amps as the R-75 with it's Pre-Amp #1 switched in. Theoretically, the R-30 has a better IP3 figure in this comparison, although the R-75 with Pre-Amp #1 engaged did not produce any cross modulation products. (Switching in Pre-Amp #2 on the R-75 gave superior weak signal reception over the R-30C, but doing so also created cross modulation products in some situations that prevented the reception of the desired signal.)
The clincher is this. Despite the apparent equality to dig out weak signals between the two great radios, it was easier to understand the announcer's voice and make a positive station ID on the R-30C. The R-30C just simply has superior "audio recovery." The R-75 with it's double pass-band tuning did a better job of separating 1120KC St. Louis KMOX from our local 1110KC signal, and it is an amazing radio that, with the KIWA mods, is said to be the equal of the DRAKE R8B in almost all respects by some reviewers. That the less expensive R-30 without mods can even be compared to the R8B is amazing in itself.
I give the R-30C I own a 5 for MW/LW dx'ing because there is no other available radio anywhere near this price range that provides MW/LW sensitivity, selectivity, and audio recovery, even when compared to premium radios. The quality of construction is very high, and for only $100 more than the GRUNDIG S800 sells for new at reputable dealers, it is no contest for the MW/LW dx'er. However, If all you want is great SW performance, a stock R-75, or even a Satellit 800, might do the job. The R-30 radios are truly portable, having a built-in speaker and built-in battery pack. It is not much bigger than my Sangean ATS-909, but it is heavier. However, it runs circles around the 909/398.
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