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Reviews For: Palstar R30

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Palstar R30
Reviews: 44MSRP: 749. USD
Description:
LW/MW/SW Shortwave Receiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.palstar.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00444.2
KC4CQS Rating: 2001-08-24
Good Service Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The adapter that was shipped with the unit fell
apart. Although this is not a major problem I
called Paul and he said "I'll just ship you another one. In short I call that SERVICE! And
also to include the great operation of the R30C.
When I received the new adapter it was solidly
constructed. Thanks Paul for your attention.
N3IKQ Rating: 2001-08-24
I'm keeping it! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
How many radios have you owned where you can say you know the first name of the designer let alone be able to converse with him?! I have been getting tired of the arrogant "big boys" producing mediocre radios loaded with bells and whistles. In the end it's still the receiver that matters most. This rig fills a big hole in the receiver (transceiver) market. It is (almost) as small as a portable yet has the performance of the big, expensive rigs. It is small and cheap enough that you won't mind taking it out in the car or on vacation to do some low noise DXing. It has great sensitivity in the LF bands for those of us who need to get away from power lines to enjoy ourselves. It's actually refreshing to concentrate on the great sound without feeling the need to push 50 buttons! The sound is nothing short of OUTSTANDING! With an external speaker the sound is smooth and mellow in a way I can't describe. It probably can be attributed to the almost total lack of noise coming from the speaker. I have owned the highly regarded AOR 7030 and I think the R30 sounds better. It's amazing how much 'crap' coming from many rigs is really internally generated hiss, noise and intermod. Listening to this radio will make you realize just how lame the current crop of mid-priced, DC to Daylight, do-it-all receivers and Ham transceivers really are! As has been noted a couple of budget-oriented compromises were made with the case and dial but in the end this rig is all heart! All the glitz and packing in the world won't improve a bad receiver. So go ahead Paul, take the R30 guts and put them in a bomb proof enclosure with a 5 pound tuning knob, put in 3 more filters, sync detection and RS-232, add a Li-Ion rechargeable internal battery option and double the price. Just don't change the receiver and I'll be first in line!
K1RRR Rating: 2001-08-17
This receiver is a sleeper! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Just a comment on this radio. I had a similar problem as described by others and on the second trip back Paul determined that I had a faulty power on/off switch. Now the radio works just as new. I use this radio by bedside every day and it works flawlessly.

I own a dozen or more SWL/Ham receivers and this radio is right at the top of the list. Only improvement I have suggested to Paul is to add an auto notch filter. If you use SSB make sure to add the Collins filter for superior selectivity (passband tuning is not necessary with this radio).

This is a very small radio which is rock solid, has great sensitivity and outstanding audio when used with an external speaker. If you want a no frills radio that works with the best of them this is the radio you have been waing for as it meets those requirements.
HFHAM Rating: 2001-08-15
Like the Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Let me begin by saying that on Short Wave, I'm a program listener and not a DXer so bear that in mind when reading this review.

I got this radio with high hopes that it would be like the Lowe HF-150 I once owned. I liked the look of this (R30C) radio and the reviews so far have been very good.

First thing I noticed on opening the box was the really cheap-feeling plastic tuning knob. It's a very lightweight effort and although it works okay, just cheapens the overall quality feel of the radio in my opinion. Analog S-meter is a nice touch. Careful with the front-panel though as it's one of those stick-on perspex window ones like the SGC SG-2020.

Although it's a "porta-top", like the Lowe HF-150, it's not very "porta". It's actually worse than the HF-150 in this respect. You have to undo 5 screws to change the (10 AA) batteries and would also have to lug an active antenna or random wire; probably an external speaker too ! You can't recharge the batteries inside the radio either.

The lack of bells and whistles "features" on this radio is fine by me (except for the lack of a sync detector or decent ECSS capability; see below), and I found I could easily tune where I wanted to without much trouble.

Ergonomics are good except that it's easy to switch into memory mode when you meant to change bandwidth; there's no way back into "VFO Mode" except to re-tune manually !). Also didn't like the fact that although the memories are re-writeable, they are not eraseable.

Wide filter is just a little touch too wide and allowed heterodynes (whistles) into the pass band now and again. Narrow filter is too muffled sounding for use on AM (in my opinion).

Sound is often too bassy for me on the internal speaker (wide or narrow filter) and the cabinet rattles when the volume is cranked-up. Initially I purchased a Radio Shack Pro-X33AV external speaker for use with this radio. All I can say about this $39.99 speaker is... nice (die-cast) enclosure, *very* mediocre speakers ! RS cheerfully refunded my money as per their 30 day money back guarantee.

On recommendation from Palstar, I purchased a pair (they only come in pairs) of Jensen C-JR bookshelf hi-fi speakers which are an excellent value at $40 a pair from Circuit City; they sound very good with this radio. Note: this is the online ordering price they're $50 in-store but they might "price-match" if you ask.

What this radio really lacks in my opinion is a synchronous detector. I knew when I purchased it that there was no sync detector, however, I figured I would just use the old ECSS trick (i.e. tune to one of the sidebands of the AM signal in SSB mode and let the BFO take care of the fading distortion).

Wrong ! Yes, you can do it (even though tuning like this on this radio requires a safecrackers steady hand) but with the narrow filter (Collins 2.3 kHz I think) the sound is too muffled for my liking and after listening in this mode for a short while, my ears felt like they were straining to clarify what they were hearing (an odd sensation and very uncomfortable to say the least).

Opening-up to the wide filter (using ECSS in SSB mode) almost always caused the (AM) signal to "flutter". So ! The narrow filter is indeed an SSB filter (as advertised) and is probably well suited to resolving SSB signals. However, it is not, in my opinion useful for ECSS resolution of an AM signal. My radio (R30C) was fitted with the Collins SSB filter, I can't comment on the cheaper (high-end) Murata-equipped version (R30). I would doubt that most folks could tell any difference however and probably (like me) just pay the extra $50 for the "prestige" of having the name Collins associated with their radio :) There is no CW filter either.

Anyway, bottom line is that if the signal is not fading or you don't mind fading distortion, then this radio can provide excellent audio (with a good external speaker) and seems really sensitive and selective (perhaps too much so with the narrow filter).

Maybe I've been spoilt with the Lowe HF-150 and the (Kiwa-equipped) Sony ICF-2010 as both have excellent sync detectors. Whatever, I decided that this radio's not for me and returned it.