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Reviews For: Allied AX-190

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Allied AX-190
Reviews: 12MSRP: appx 250
Description:
General coverage communications receiver.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.dxing.com/rx/ax190.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00124.2
VE2AKV Rating: 2002-07-26
Great for the price! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It`s a good receiver for the price....
Cosmetic is beautiful and a great receiver in the shack!
Well it`s a receiver made first for am brodcast.
K9STH Rating: 2001-03-04
Allied / Radio Shack AX-190 = good receiver. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
First of all, the AX-190 IS NOT a general coverage receiver. It covers 80, 40, 20, 15, and all of 10 meters (this in 4 segments) plus 15 MHz for WWV and 27 MHz for CB. This is accomplished in 500 KHz segments. There is an SWL version of the receiver called the SX-190 which covers various SWL bands also in 500 KHz segments. The receivers are identical except for the front panels and, of course, the band determining crystals. The AX-190 has an optional position for a 500 KHz segment between 3.5 MHz and 10 MHz. The SX-190 has two optional positions, one of which is between 3.5 MHz and 10 MHz and the other between 10 MHz and 30 MHz.

The receivers are fully solid-state, and were, I believe, actually built by Trio (Kenwood) in Japan. Allied sold these receivers both before, and after, that company was acquired by Radio Shack. In fact, I have two AX-190 receivers, one with the Allied name on it and the other "Realistic" by Radio Shack!

Calibration of the dial is actually 3 marks, much like Trio / Kenwood used on the TS-520. One mark is for upper-sideband, the center mark for AM, and the third mark for lower-sideband. Each revolution of the main tuning dial moves the receiver 50 KHz. This dial is calibrated for each KHz, and, is relative accurate. The crystal calibrator has two positions, the first giving 100 KHz markers and the second giving 25 KHz markers.

Also included are an "S" meter, calibrated preselector, and a Q-Multiplier. The latter can be used for both rejecting interfering signals or to peak the desired signal (much like the old Heathkit QF-1 Q-Multiplier). The "mode" switch has five positions: LSB, USB, Stand By, AM, and ANL (automatic noise limiter on AM).

Using the receiver: The main tuning dial is extremely smooth in operation, much smoother than any of my Collins equipment (have 2 S-Lines, 75A3, 75A4) or Heath equipment (have SB-301, SB-303, and SB-401). The only receiver that I own that tunes any where near as smoothly is my Hallicrafters SX-100. The i.f. filter is reasonably sharp, SSB stations are easy to tune, as are AM stations.

RCA type phono jacks are provided on the rear panel to bring out the VFO and Heterodyne Oscillators (just like the Collins S-Lines and Heath SB-Lines) to transceive with an external transmitter (which was never sold). Other rear connections include an SO-239 (UHF type) jack for the antenna; external standby switch; speaker jack (standard 0.25 inch phone jack); and an output for received audio to drive a tape recorder. Also, a jack to run the receiver from a 12 volt DC supply is provided.

The drawbacks to this receiver are that no provision has been made for a sharper filter for CW operation and that the sensitivity drops off on the higher bands. This fact was made known by several reviews in 73, QST, and CQ magazines when the receiver was first produced. There were several articles published on improving the sensitivity on 20 through 10 meters.

The performance of this receiver is better than many similar priced receivers of its day (the mid to late 1970s). Stability is excellent, and selectivity is better than average.

Actually, the receiver is about a 4.5. It compares favorably (except for the drop in sensitivity) to my Heath SB-301 and SB-303 receivers, but, is not as good as my Collins S-Lines.