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Reviews For: Taiyo MF HF ADF TD-C338HS

Category: Direction Finding equipment

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Review Summary For : Taiyo MF HF ADF TD-C338HS
	Reviews: 1	MSRP: est $2500
	Description: Synthesized, uses fixed crossed loop, goniometer type ADF. CRT polar plot display. 200 Khz- 23.995 MHz. Other similar models go to 30 MHz. TD-338HS was made for govt customers.
	Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.taiyomusen.co.jp/eng/products/direction_finder/
# last 180 days	Avg. Rating last 180 days	Total reviews	Avg. overall rating
0	0	1	4

SWL377	Rating:	2019-11-12
Good, but tricky on SSB			Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Used these on commercial fishing boats. GREAT ADF for CW and AM, but hard (not impossible) to get reliable bearings on SSB as azimuth scan rate (the effective rotational speed of the goniometer) was too slow compared to the syllabic speech rate. You couldn't tell a null from a speech pause. If there was a loud constant background noise, as from a genset or constant RPM propulsion engine, then you could see a consistent "propeller" pattern on the CRT and get a bearing on an HF SSB signal, especially when the guy transmitting paused in his speech and you only had the constant noise modulating the xmtr. The C338HS was made for govt customers and tops out at 23.995 MHz as I recall. A very similar commercial version goes to 30 MHz. The crossed loops are very hard to find as they are usually scrapped with the ship or left in place, Ship breakers in Bangladesh have them but shipping is prohibitive. Not too hard to homebrew an antenna. These types of ADFs were used to locate net and longline buoys that transmitted just below 2 MHz. The advent of GPS enabled transponder buoys made the DF location method instantly obsolete. Few boats kept these ADFs and they now show up cheap as used gear, $50-$250. Finding the right Taiyo antenna is REALLY hard, so if you find one in any condition buy it as you likely won't get another chance. BTW shooting DF bearings on HF sky-waves is pretty useless for determining signal origin direction.

Category:

Direction Finding equipment

Product:

Taiyo MF HF ADF TD-C338HS

Summary:

Rating:	Time Owned:
Great! Good OK Needs Help Poor Awful!	0 - 3 Months 3 - 6 Months 6 - 12 Months More than 12 Months

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