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Reviews For: NRD-545

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : NRD-545
Reviews: 2MSRP: 1999.00
Description:
0.1 to 30Mc, 3xConv, DSP,USB, LSB, CW, RTTY, AM, FM,WFM option
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.jrc.co.jp/product/comm/e-comm/jst-e.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0023
Larry Robison Rating: 2003-10-09
Nice Receiver! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The NRD545 is an interesting receiver! It has a real solid feel and seems well constructed! There are so many features that you need to put it aside until you spend a few days with the manual. Even though I'd rate it highly, I do have a few issues. The noise blanker is not good and the notch is poor. On the other hand the ECSS feature is superb. I use the receiver on AM in the ham bands and I find the ability to separate out various stations under the worst conditions is great! Fidelity is superb. I use both the external speaker and the line out jacks. Feeding a small bookshelf speaker provides excellent sound quality from the external speak out and the line out drive a small amp into JBL studio speakers and Wow!!

My biggest concern is with service. The front end is particularily sensitive to static and RF from nearby transmitters. That's simply typical of this type of receiver but receivers like the Drake R8 can be sent to Drake and parts are easily available. The same with other manufacturers equipment, they are all easy to get service and parts. NOT SO WITH JRC .. BEWARE!!!
W6MKA Rating: 2000-09-28
After further review... Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
After further use, I sold my 545. As I mentioned, I also had the JST-245 transceiver. It has dual 1.8kHz filters installed. Something about fixed filters to my ear that I like better than DSP filtering. Audio on the 245 sounded better. But the main thing that made me change my mind, was the DSP Noise Reduction. It doesn't do a very good job of locking onto the noise and not the weak signal you're trying to recover. It sometimes takes several on-off cycles to obtain a "useful" signal and then you find that the choise of NR level is wrong. Now it's to the menu, make an adjustment, store it, and try again with a fresh lock. This is no fun!

Having 2 similar pieces of JRC equipment, with what looks to be identical front panels, was a bit confusing to use. When trying to do comparisons, the main controls (RF/AF Gain, BWC, PBS, NR, Memory select) were in different places. So I eliminated the worse radio and kept the 245. Also I've now added the Timewave DSP599zx DSP unit to the 245 and it works like gangbusters. I now have a Beat Canceller and a NR unit that works right the first time-every time. Anyone thinking of spending this kind of money, should consider the Drake R8B or one of the other Ham transceivers and possible adding the DSP599zx to it.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by W6MKA on 2000-03-02

This is by far the best general coverage receiver available today. I use mine with a JRC JST-245 HF transceiver (see separate review) and this combination blows the doors off any combination that the other Japanese manufacturers have to offer with internal or external DSP. The IF DSP makes reception come alive. I read about the receive features of the latest new transceivers from ICOM, Kenwood, and YAESU but their receivers can’t hold a candle to what the 545 can do. The DSP is a 40-bit extended floating-point processor with an 18-bit over-sampling A/D converter and a 16-bit D/A converter. 13 receiver functions are controlled by the DSP. 990 different bandwidths using an Infinite Impulse, structure concurrent Chebyshev-type digital filter, 256 step DSP noise reduction that makes signals pop out of the noise along with 256 step DSP beat canceller and Auto-Track Notch. Once a menu setting for the Noise Reduction and Beat Canceller are found, a simple button press reduces the background noise or interference instantly.

I added the Wide Band Converter and the 0.5 PPM TCXO options. The 30-2000 MHz coverage is excellent, and you must use the power on sequence described in the manual to enable SSB/CW/RTTY operation in this range. The AGC is variable from 40 msec to 5 seconds in all modes except AM. The ECSS function in AM mode works very well for fading signals and those that have interference either above or below the main carrier frequency. The dual noise blankers work well on power line type noise as well as passing vehicle ignition noise.