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Author Topic: need help  (Read 589 times)

RENTON481

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Re: need help
« Reply #15 on: August 31, 2020, 07:55:03 PM »

Get a Tecsun. Reasonably priced, DSP chips inside, good in many locations just off the whip. Some of their models will take an external antenna. With SW propagation so poor over the past couple years, getting an expensive radio would be a waste of money, basically. By the time Cycle 25 actually hits, whenever that is, there may be little to hear on the SWBC bands.

If you're already a ham, I'd just use the general coverage receiver on your transceiver. A lot of guys do that.
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VK2NZA

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Re: need help
« Reply #16 on: September 01, 2020, 06:13:32 AM »

I would agree with Renton, from a price /performance perspective its hard to beat a Tecsun, PL-600/660/680/880 for general and portable use.
The 600 although the earliest in the afore mentioned series is priced very well around $145 Australian dollar, $106 US on E Pay up to around $229.00 Australian, $175 US for the PL-880.
All of them are good SW performers and better many quality Japanese and Euro offerings in portable SW radios for performance.

I also use an older model flagship Icom IC -765 for SW listening, many older general coverage rigs are excellent for this purpose if you want a base SW rig with external antenna for best performance., ie excellent sensitivity, variable selectivity, rock solid stability with excellent QRM fitting controls such as notch filters, IF shift , Pass band tuning etc.
Many of these superbly built older rigs are going for a few hundred dollars now and will generally out perform any portable SW radio.
The 90's model  Yaesu FT 840 was a basic general coverage transceiver that worked very well for SW, as are really any of the Icom, Yaesu and Kenwood general coverage models.without paying large dollars for a new rig.
Older Icom IC-735, IC  751A, Kenwood TS -430,TS-440, TS-680 and on are excellent receivers
If  the rig doesn't have DSP the BHI AF DSP outboard units just plug into a headphone socket or speaker outlet and work very well reducing band noise.

In my experience some of the older budget priced comms receivers were OK but just, the Kenwood R1000, R2000 were just OK but the R-5000 is an excellent older rig,
The Icom R-72 is not the receiver the excellent earlier Icom R-70 and R71A are, the later R75 is very good and the latest of Icoms dedicated SW receivers but not sold new any more sadly.
The older model Yaesu FRG 7 is often available and is actually a very good receiver, the following FRG -7000, 7700 and FRG 8800 are reasonable but not generally as good as some other offerings IMO.
Palstar make a nice sounding SW radio, the R-30 that is well regarded,
The Lowe 225 receivers sound very nice and are a good rig but can still be pricey.

Sadly there are far fewer international broadcasters than there were a decade ago, but there is still some very interesting listening out there.
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VR2AX

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Re: need help
« Reply #17 on: September 04, 2020, 10:30:51 AM »

I use a IC-R8600 for general listening. On cw/ssb it does not justify the extra cost over my 7300. I find it excels on AM like I would often tune in to the BBC World Service from SG and use the synchronous AM facility. It also comes with V/UHF capability. I previously had a R9000 which was also a star performer, but weighed in around 50lb..
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