An all-too-familiar story: man finds radio, man loves radio, man loses radio, man regrets…In this case, however, Neil and his radio are reunited. And the new relationship? Stronger than ever.
Read and enjoy: An old friend returns, and arrives with a mystery item.
Neil also blogs on Fofio!
Refering to a Digitec AR 1945 model Portable Gen coverage receiver,that has the SSB mode for DXing SSB utilities.There doesnt seem to be many if any reveiws for this one,so I decided to do this out of my own interest as Im a very keen utility DXer.This has been my formost listening hobby for many years.Amongst Ham Radio that Im licenced to operate.But I get great pleasure listening amongst all the “hash” and atmospheric interference,to a most distant utility station….eg Military,Shipping,Air Craft and the list goes on.The hardest thing for me over the years has been to be able to find or up date portable receivers for this use.Here in down under NewZealand,Short Wave /general coverage receivers with SSB seem to have been forgotten about now with most people working their computers instead.DXing to Short Wave and SSB utilities seems to be a thing of the past now a days.So I find it very hard to acturly find a good quaility portable receiver that does all.
I tried and tested the new Tecsun PL600 and the PL660.Both models I tested had very loud harmonics produced inside the radio that climbed up and down the HF bands.Maybe they had come from a “Bad” batch and not checked properly at the factory,because most reveiws of these have been of the best 10 out of 10!!.Every feature of the radio worked very well,except the very loud harmonics would drown out any SSB station I was listening to as it climbed up or down the frequencies.
So my next test was to try out the Digitec AR 1945 model Gen coverage portable receiver sold at Jaycar,both in Australia and NZ.Well I can say AM broadcast/FM broadcast/UHFAIR band and AM SW work very well with just the long telescopic antenna.The radio takes a choice of either size D or size AA batteries,big speaker with Treble and bass controls nice solid look and comes with automatic search and 500 memories.Air band has scan and Squalsh settings.All very good one might say.But here is the catch!! I tried the SSB upper and lower that is switchable,and I found very scratchy audio indeed.It seems that with any interference at all,is amplified through SSB and the voices come out very crackled.The receiver has many tuneing steps to help resolve SSB,and this does a fine job,as there is not BFO control or clarifier.So all is done just like a Ham rig on the dail.The external antenna terminal seems almost dead,as if there is a strong resistor in there somewhere,or they forgot to solder a wire from it to the board!Once the SSB mode is switched on,the audio goes right down but then turning the RF gain right up to compensate for that just over loads the SSB and it becomes very quivered and very weak.So where in little old NewZealand does one buy a good quality portable Gen coverage receiver?I have old Sonys ICFSW 55 and ICF SW 7600G,National Panasonic DR 49 (Black beast) as its called by some DXers,my ICOM 725 Ham rig.But I have a mobile Camper and enjoy travel,so I need to own portables.So updateing my old receivers seems to be the hardest thing to find one that acturly works and passes all tests!!For me,a portable receiver must have excellent SSB receiption,and NO anoying internal harmonics that climb up and down the HF frequencies,because that is my listening hobby more so than just listening to SW.The old Sonys do still work exceptionaly well.But when newer receivers come on the market,well one cant help but update the old ones to what should be better quality.Are they made cheaply with cheap quality components?So much is getting cramped into these newer models to keep up with the modern age of electronics.All I need is one that acturly works!!!.Maybe there is a Good Tecsun receiver out there somewhere. Thanks for reading this.