Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul, who shares the following video of a recent presentation by Rob Sherwood (NC0B) for Ham Holiday Oklahoma.
I love Rob’s presentations because not only is he an authority on testing receivers and transceivers, but he also has a very pragmatic approach to operating radios. Rob speaks to the importance of using pre amps, attenuators and adjusting your receiver for band conditions. I’ve been with lifelong ham radio operators and SWLs who never use pre amplification, attenuation, or adjust their RF gain control–these are very powerful tools, especially during the noisy summer months.
If you’ve never seen one of Rob’s presentations before, I highly recommend checking out this one:
Thanks again for the tip, Paul!
Click here to check out Rob Sherwood’s home page and receiver test data table.
For the majority of operators, though, investing in a new rig, particularly one that falls in the “elite” classification, is never done in haste or based solely on what logo graces the front panel. It is a carefully researched, fully vetted process that takes into account laboratory testing, customer reviews, hours of watching videos of the radio in action, analysis of its features compared to the competition, its strengths in terms of the operator’s areas of interest (contesting, CW, DXing, etc.), and, if possible, actual on-air use to assess its ergonomics and whether it lives up to the hype.