| OE3SGU |
Rating:     |
2006-10-15 | |
| Good and decent performer |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I owned this Radio back in 1999 and liked it, but in my opinion it was to complicated to use and packed with options no one needed. Reception was quite ok, even in SSB and CW. I remember hearing plenty of JA's on 40 SSB with the built in telescope, not bad. |
|
| WZ9U |
Rating:     |
2006-10-14 | |
| A good companion radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have a Grundig Yacht Boy 400PE and I'm completely happy with it. I bought the Sangean ATS-909 because my YB is in storage at the moment and I got nostalgic for a worldband radio.
There was an ATS-909 on eBay going for a reasonable price and I won it. It came with batteries (!), a soft plastic case, ear buds, and the reel-type long wire antenna, along with the manual, quick-start guide, original warranty card and some other paperwork.
I tend to agree that the ATS-909 is close to deaf on its built-in extensible whip antenna, but I've had China and Australia come in loud and clear on good days. I haven't yet tried it with the supplied longwire (which is supposed to make a world of difference).
My local Public Radio broadcasts the RDS signal, and the ATS-909 picks it up and sync's its clock with it nicely -- it also displays the callsign of any RDS station. That's nice.
It has loads of memories, comes from the factory pre-programmed with all the heavy hitters from around the world. It has an RF Gain and Filter (narrow/wide), receives AM, FM, USB, LSB, and tunes as finely as you could ever want.
I like it. I'm glad I bought it. I expect to like it even more when I attach the long wire. If reception improves, my rating would jump to at least 4.5, otherwise I'm completely satisfied with it. |
|
| K0WJH |
Rating:      |
2006-07-13 | |
| Love this radio! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I've had my Super 909 for a few days now; this is a great little receiver. The audio quality is very good and the receiver is hot. I do not experience any of the complaints I've read about this radio in previous reviews. I have a Grundig YB400 that I've used for several years, great radio however the Super 909 is a nice step up. I'm very happy with my purchase and really enjoy this radio. Way to go Sangean and Radio labs! |
|
| ATOMICTHUMBS |
Rating:     |
2005-10-28 | |
| An overall good radio |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| This is a very good radio. It has many advantages, including good reception with the whip, excellent reception with the included reel antenna, and great am,fm,lw,sw. reception. I use it for listening to ARt Bell and his ham buddies ragchew on 3.840 MHZ lsb. My only complaints are that the buttons could be backlighted, and the three alarms are extremely hard to set. |
|
| LRDHEAT |
Rating:    |
2005-02-01 | |
| not great |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I agree with the previous review of the super 909 upgrade of the Sangean 909 from Radiolabs.
The elimination of the muting between frequencies was nice. Beyond that, there was not an increase worth noting in sensitivity on any of the shortwave bands. The narrow filter was sharper than the stock filter (this is good), and audio quality did seem better on the new speaker. The LED's for illumination were blue as advertised (so what?). The lack of increased sensitivity was such a surprise and disappointment! My $40 Grundig 300 Mini PE consistently discerns signals with greater ease than the 909 super. This with the RF gain turned all the way up. The super 909's am (mediumwave) band is now full of hash from images and reflections of other stations...the 909 was much quieter and sensitive to weak daytime stations before the modification. The 909 without the modification is a slightly better set, and for the price would rate perhaps a 4...the unmodified 909 is already a nice performer on SSB reception (super doesn't change this). Not a lot of play on batteries.
By making the modification, the listener is spending $100 to go from a 4 to a 3 rating!
Time owned (original >12 months; mods 0-3 months) |
|
| KA4DPO |
Rating:    |
2005-01-19 | |
| Disapointed |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Back in December I decided it was time to replace my old Sony SW-7600. After looking at the newer Sony and YB 400 PE I decided the Sangean 909 was the way to go. While I was checking some on-line dealers I came across the Radio Labs page. I read their ad for the Super 909 and decided that was the way to go so I ordered one. Upon receiving my new Super 909 I was somewhat disapointed in the performance of the radio. I set it up along side the Sony 7600 and did some comparisons on various bands and signals. The first thing I noticed was the 909 was almost deaf using the telescoping antenna. I tuned in WWV on ten MHZ and the signal was loud and clear on the Sony yet barely audible on the 909. The outcome was the same on all bands, the Sony is clearly a hotter receiver. Keep in mind the Sony doesn't have an S meter and the 909 does so my test results are based on my perception. The Sony even beat the 909 on AM broadcast reception although the 909 does have better audio. Over all, my Super 909 doesn't seem to be the red hot performer I expected and my 7 year old stock Sony beats it hands down in sensitivity and seems to be just as selective. The bottom line is, I like the memories, the tuning, and the audio of the Super 909 but the performance is not at all what I expected for the price of this radio. |
|
| TECCART |
Rating:     |
2005-01-19 | |
| Very Good |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Excellent radio, very good for utility and ham radio reception, has a lot of memories for storing stations.
Would need a little more sensitivity for this price range, but with a couple of feet of wire does wonders.
I broke the little plastic stand on the back last year and wrote to Sangean for a replacement, they sent me a replacement 4 weeks later absolutely free of charge. |
|
| CLYDEMCCLARAN |
Rating:    |
2004-12-28 | |
| Many features, average quality. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I bought mine as a DX398 at my local Radio Shack in mid-1999 for $199.95. Now, it not available as a DX-398 but as a Sangean. I used a long wire antennae and SW reception was average. With rod antennae SW sensitivity was barely adequate. Sideband reception was acceptable on the outdoor antennae, though suseptable to bleedover from stronger signals occurred on 41 meters. Factory programmed memories and timer features were convenient and a plus. Battery life (in mine) was not good, drained quickly. Keypad and knob was not substantial and felt loose even when new.
Reception on FM and AM was good, FM has the "RDS" where the call letters are identified (provided the station has compatable equipment).
Overall, a consumer grade radio with average quality and sound. It is not a serious DX machine, though I understand after market modifications could be made to improve performance. I no longer have mine as I have sold mine earlier this year. |
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| KR3DX |
Rating:  |
2004-11-06 | |
| Mine committed suicide |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have previously reviewed this radio in August, 2003. See my comments about CPU lockup in that review. My RS DX-390 has locked-up permanently. Shorting the memory capacitor (even for DAYS) no longer unlocks the CPU. The radio just flashes its "low battery" icon whenever power is re-applied. I now have a paperweight/doorstop. I'll replace this radio with a Sony ICF7600GR.
73,
Denny
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Earlier 4-star review posted by KR3DX on 2003-08-09
Enough has already been said about this receiver's performance, here is some info that may help someone if they are experiencing the same problem as I did with mine. My DX-398 worked fine for several months, then one day the batteries went dead when the radio was switched on. The low battery icon was flashing, so I installed new batteries. This didn't fix the problem, so I connected the external 6v power supply. Still the same problem. I reset the microprocessor several times, still the same problem so I gave up and tossed it aside for several weeks. One day I decided to try it again and it worked! Hmmmm, OK, anyway, it works now. It worked for a few more months until once again the batteries went dead when the radio was switched on. Same problem as before, unable to bring it out of it's low battery indication, the microprocessor just locked up. I removed the front cover and decided to measure the voltage on the "memory capacitor". I measured over 2v, even though the front panel battery icon had faded out and was no longer visible. This latent voltage was keeping the microprocessor locked up and it would continue to do so for several weeks until the capacitor sufficiently discharged and allowed the radio to unlock, restoring operation. I shorted the memory capacitor with a small alligator clip (be sure that there is NO power supply or batteries connected) for several minutes, then measured only a few hundredths of a volt on the capacitor. I removed the short across the capacitor and applied power and operation was restored. This is much better than waiting 4-6 weeks for the capacitor to self discharge. The memory capacitor is located under the front cover of the radio, just to the lower left corner of the front keypad metallic shield. It has markings for + and - and also 5v. It is the approx 1cm square grey plastic SMD with the 2 connections near the bottom edge of the circuit board. This fix worked for me, I hope that it helps someone else if you have the same problem with this receiver.
73,
Denny KR3DX
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|
| EXPAT |
Rating:     |
2004-05-26 | |
| I use it every day in the kitchen |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Well, I sure can´t compare with the previous, tech-loaded review, but I´d like to give my impressions of this radio, which I´ve had since August 2003. My perspective: a part-time SWL and would-be amateur operator with technician-level electronics knowledge (i.e., not much!).
OK, the physical radio: it is standard consumer quality construction, apparently I have one of the Chinese-made specials since I bought it fairly recently and it has that awful green/silver color which scratches even when I slide the thing onto the shelf! Otherwise,it is all right, thought the gain knob does become loose quickly, as noted below. The buttons are good and there are plenty of switches to play with. I have not had trouble with the radio turning on while in storage, the button lock works fine for me. I have the Sangean, obviously, and am happy with the enclosed accessories, particularly the wind-up external antenna.
Reception: well, I´m no expert with other, expensive radios to compare it to. However, I have used it in both the US (NJ) and Europe (Czech Republic) and have some opinions. In the US, the SW sensitivity with either the whip or the wire was marginal, day or night and on all bands I tried (I have working knowledge of radio propagation). I could not get much outside North America except randomly, but then, at that time, I didn´t know enough about SW broadcasting to be particular. Now, in Europe, I have to say that the radio is much more useful. If I use the wire, night reception is OK for European stations though it is difficult to separate nearby frequencies. Since I bought the thing to hear English language in a foreign country, the conclusion is that the radio works but could be better. As noted in other reviews, modifications are possible to improve various aspects, but I have no experience with those.
As for FM, I am very pleased. The speaker is marginal, but reception is sensitive...much more sensitive than my downstairs stereo, my boombox, or even my upstairs PC with an external FM dipole! I have few problems with overloading, but it happens sometimes. I like classical radio, and the wide dynamic range of this music is not reproduced so well, but I can´t hear anything on my stereo! The reason is simple, the buildings here are brick and iron, and heavy construction, too. Houses have one or two foot thick brick walls, no lie. Hence the external dipole...gotta feed that down to the living room stereo, huh?
AM (MW)/LW: Good, but of course the local stuff is talk radio in Czech, so my experience is limited. Really, look elsewhere for more information about the 909 and what we Americans call AM. And longwave? Since it isn´t used for broadcast in the US, same difference, but let me mention that in Europe there are some stations and the radio does a decent job. Audio is muddy, is this due to the low frequencies or poor bandwidth? Anyway, no problem getting a groundwave from 100 miles away on LW...through that brick wall.
Batteries: this radio has a reputaion for eating batteries and, though I haven´t had a problem while the radio is off, it does use them quickly when on. My solution is to use the Ray-O-Vac "Rechargeable Alkaline" AA batteries, they do work well in relatively low-draw situations (not in transmitters, for example) and they supply a full 1.5V. Unfortunately, the included charger died after a month (Chinese special, again), so keep your receipt.
Overall, I think this is a decent all-purpose radio for travel, though I use mine as a kitchen radio to hear the morning news on BBC, get some classical FM while the wife is watching the tube, and general travel. It is no DX radio, for sure, though modifications and a better antenna may help. Of course, it has US/Euro AM as well as fairly useless tone, gain, and band width controls. The memory takes time to learn but works well when frequency-hopping to find where your SW station is at a given time. Plenty of tuning controls. Haven´t tried the audio(line)-out, the stereo FM-out works well but I don´t like earplugs. Has world band/local clocks and three difficult to learn alarms. Lamp could be brighter but stays on when using mains, timed out with batteries. Display contains more information than average. Would be better with synchronous sideband, I guess, since SW fading and such are a problem with indoor antennas. |
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