Category Archives: Radios

Dave unveils the Sproutie MK II regenerative receiver

My talented pal, Dave Richards, has built yet another home-brew regenerative receiver––which he dubs the Sproutie MK II––and wow, it’s a thing of beauty.

Dave tells me has been working on this receiver for many months, and upon viewing the following photos of it, it’s clear to see why he took his sweet time. As in his original Sproutie, a vintage HRO dial has taken pride of place as the centerpiece of his rig; it looks stunning.

But the Sproutie MK II is not only painstakingly-crafted on the outside; like Shaker furnishings, wrought for the eyes of God both outwardly and within, the interior of Dave’s receiver is equally well-crafted.

Okay, maybe that’s a little over the top…but if you doubt me, just join me in admiration of this board:

As for performance? Of course, with such a clean interior, the Sproutie II performs like a champ. Dave posted a few videos showing how his new receiver commands the airwaves and aptly handles AM, SSB, and CW.

That’s an amazing piece of kit you’ve created there, Dave! Hats off to your incredible craftsmanship.

Check out Sproutie II on Dave’s blog, where you can read a full account of how he designed and built this gorgeous regen receiver.

The New York Times: breaking news and antique radios

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Many thanks to my buddy, David Goren, who recently discovered that the New York Times Store is now selling fully-restored antique radios.

Pricing is not for the faint of heart–at time of posting, prices ranged from $395 to $23,000 US. Each radio is beautifully presented, with a full description, and carries a one year restoration warranty. For an additional $95, many models can be modified with an AUX in audio jack.

While these radios are well outside my meager vintage radio budget, I must say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed looking at the photos and reading the descriptions.

Click here to view on the NY Times Store.

Icom introduces the IC-7300

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Icom introduced a new general coverage transceiver this year at the Tokyo Hamfair: the Icom IC-7300.

Icom has released a preliminary spec sheet (click here to download), but no pricing information yet. The IC-7300 will most likely be the least expensive Icom transceiver with a full spectrum display.

At first glance, I like the form factor and touch screen display–the panel appears to be less cluttered than many other large-display models. The ‘7300 has dedicated knobs for passband tuning and AF/RF gain (major plus in my book). It also comes with a built-in automatic antenna tuner.

I’ll post more info once Icom releases pricing and availability.

You can follow IC-7300 updates by bookmarking this link.

Bob’s review of the C.Crane CC Skywave

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SWLing Post reader, Bob C., recently shared his review of the C.Crane CC Skywave portable radio:

Well, I just received my new CC Skywave radio and it’s terrific! I own a lot of portable radios (including several Tecsun DSP sets), and the Skywave is a new favorite and will likely become my standard radio for travel.

Good fit and finish, great ergonomics, and easy to use. I was pleased to find that, despite what’s written in the ads and on the back of the radio, you can set the radio to receive FM down to 76 MHz by selecting the a 9 kHz MW spacing.

Great for international travel. The following is my brief review (by band):

Mediumwave

The Skywave is far better than any of the Tecsuns and is almost as good as the C Crane 2E (my best MW receiver). At my location (40 miles N of Chicago), the distant groundwave fringe includes WLW, WJR, and KTRS (St. Louis) – in descending order of reception potential. Most radios can get a whisper of WLW (though not discernible), while the other two are rare. The C Crane 2E gets WLW and WJR well enough that you can listen; KTRS is detectable. The Skywave gets WLW and WJR and you can tell that KTRS is there. That indicates that the Skywave is among the best. And there are no birdies nor whistles on the band. Nice.

FM

Just as sensitive and about 99% as selective as any of the Tecsun DSPs. The shorter antenna doesn’t seem to hamper reception at all. And, with no soft muting and a more logical tuning setup, it’s a pleasure to work with. Lastly, the stereo reception threshold on the C Crane DSP chip is significantly lower than that on any of the Tecsun rigs, so most signals decode stereo and simply sound better. Where I live, I have tons of signals that are 0.2 MHz apart (i.e. 101.9 Chicago, 102.1 Milwaukee, 102.3 Waukegan – and local) – the Skywave has no trouble separating these and providing a usable signal for all three.

Shortwave

Seems to do just fine. I have not had any overload issues with my unit and can pull in all as many SW signals and most of my other small portables. The lack of SSB is an inconvenience, I suppose, but I guess you can’t have it all!

NOAA/Weather radio

This band is great to have and is perfectly functional. I will say that this isn’t my most sensitive WB radio, but it’s not deaf by any definition. It’s just a little less sensitive to distant fringe WB stations than some of my other sets. But it does dependably pull in anything within 60 miles, so we’re only talking about ability to pull in distant fringe signals (which can be fun).

Air

I’ve played around with this a little and it definitely works better than expected. O’Hare tower is about 25 miles away and I get it clearly, along with aircraft that are (from what I can tell) basically anywhere within about 60 miles. The ability to scan is very helpful; however, catching a signal when someone is broadcasting is tricky. A little online research into local ATC frequencies goes a long way toward having fun on this band. The Skywave seems to work the Air Band better than the G6 and G3, my only other radios with this band.

So, overall, this radio has been a very pleasant surprise. No disappointments whatsoever. Kudos to C Crane Company for doing such a fine job with yet another radio.

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on the CC Skywave, Bob! Like you, I really love this little radio for travel and gave it a favorable review several months ago.

That’s an excellent tip about widening the FM frequency range down to 76 MHz by selecting 9 kHz steps on mediumwave. Brilliant!

Readers should be aware that some Skywave owners have noted a vulnerability to overloading and imaging in urban markets or where blowtorch stations are nearby. If your listening post fits this description, you may want to hold off until C.Crane has addressed the issue.

The CC Skywave can be purchased directly from C. Crane. It is also available at Universal Radio and Amazon.com.

Jeff finds a solution for sticky preset buttons on the CC-Radio 2E

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Jeff, over at the Herculodge blog, recently posted that the preset #2 button on his C.Crane CC-Radio 2E had become so sticky, it was almost to the point of not being functional.

One of his readers suggested that he use Deoxit spray to remedy the sticky button and it worked!

Deoxit is amazing stuff and something I suggest any radio enthusiast keep handy. Years ago, I had an Icom IC-735 I thought needed a new power button;I had to press and hold the button for the power to turn on. I searched for a replacement botton for weeks. When I reached out to a friend who is an electronics technician, he suggested that I open the chassis and try spraying the button with Deoxit.

I did, and it worked beautifully.

Deoxit is not the cheapest contact cleaner around, but it is the brand I trust the most. It comes in both a spray and liquid form.

Tecsun PL-880: Evans notes signal meter and other discrepencies

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SWLing Post reader, Evans (in Greece) writes:

I would like your opinion regarding two strange points we noticed in two different Tecsun PL-880 models, which a friend and I have recently purchased. In particular:

The signal meter is supposed to measure up to 99dBu (my Tecsun PL-390 s-meter goes indeed up to 95-97dBu for very strong amateur signals in my area included mine in mw zone). The point is that for both devices (both of which have 8820 firmware) the signal meter does not exceed 85 dBu and in particular my Tecsun PL-880 signal meter does not goes over 70dBu (ie. even lower measurement). Why this behaviour?
Another strange point is that my friend’s Tecsun receiver displays for a “quiet” frequency (mw) a noise level of about 10-12dBu, while my Tecsun device shows only 2-3dBu noise (same frequency in the same spot!). We both tried the threshold muting adjustment (key 9) and this worked a bit but with minor results in sensitivity, especially for my Tecsun PL-880 receiver. Is it possible to adjust the noise level so that it can be 10-12dBu instead of being only 2-3dBu and hence better sensitivity? And is it possible to adjust the maximum signal level (99dBu instead of 85dBu or even worse 70dBu for my device)?
I have noticed that the hidden feature regarding the external mw antenna didn’t work in my case, even though I did resets an tried many times. I pressume, hence, that maybe Tecsun disabled this hidden feature. Is there any modification available to “add something” into the radio hardware in order to be able to listen mw/lw frequences with external antenna and thus, increase sensitivity?

Many thanks for your questions, Evans. Since my PL-880 is a first production run unit, I’m hoping readers who’ve recently purchased the Tecsun PL-880 might comment.

I suspect Tecsun engineers give little thought to calibrating the S meters. I’m very curious if there is a hidden feature to do this, but I’m guessing this is limited only to those who can program the DSP functionality of the chip inside.

DSP noise may come from clock and data line harmonics

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In response to our review of the Sangean ATS-405–which noted DSP noises on 800 and 1600 kHz–SWLing Post reader, Steve Yothment, comments:

“Yes, modern radios usually have a micro communicating with the DSP IC through I2C communications.

The inter-IC communications includes a clock and data line. The clock for I2C is typically 400 kHz nowadays. Harmonics from this clock line are probably the source of the interference.

The manufacturer should have designed the product to ensure that this interference does not occur. It may be that they resolved it at one time but with limited manufacturing quality and component substitutions that often occur in mass production, the problem is occurring now even though it may have looked OK earlier in development. At least, that is my experience with such things. (I used to design car radios for the Panasonic Company.)

You can learn more about the I2C bus at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%C2%B2C.

Many thanks for your comments, Steve! I recall a similar metronomic sound on another DSP-based radio, but can’t remember which model. I need to dig through my reviews as I’m sure I noted this. I believe checking 400, 800 and 1600 kHz will become a standard checklist item when I review DSP-based radios.