Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Jon, who writes:
“Just noticed this very clean Yaesu FR-101 this morning on eBay. When I first saw the FR-101 in the search results, I thought it was the more popular FT-101 series transceiver. Not sure where the price will go on this one, but I would sure snatch it up if I found it at a hamfest!”
Many thanks, Jon. I was not aware that the FR-101 had a general coverage receiver; the seller lists the frequency range as “1.8 – 29.9 MHz continuous.”
This week, I purchased a radio that I have lusted after for years: the Panasonic RF-2200.
I justified this eBay purchase because June is my birthday month and…well…do I need anymore justification!?! Just look at this beautiful analog dial:
In truth, I’ve been wanting a benchmark portable medium wave receiver for ages, and I believe there are few better than the venerable RF-2200.
I picked the RF-2200 this morning and I’ve only had it on the air a few minutes. It effortlessly picked up my local benchmark medium wave and FM stations. The audio fidelity is brilliant and the ‘2200 appears to have a very low noise floor. I haven’t had a moment to truly cruise the shortwave bands, but I plan to over the course of this week and shall report back.
In response to my recent post about the vintage Arvin 68R58 transistor radio, SWLing Post reader, James Patterson, has shared photos of his collection in New Zealand. James has captioned each photo below:
This portable Sanyo was bought at a “Second Hand” shop. It had badly corroded battery connections. I repaired it and it works fine now.
![Very early National portable with twin speakers, broadcast [band] and [shortwave. Works very well.](https://swling.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/NationalPanasonic.jpg)
Very early National portable with twin speakers, broadcast [band] and [shortwave. Works very well.
This PYE Caddy was actually made here in New Zealand. I believe the design was from the UK though. It still works very well.
The PYE Caddy without the plastic cover.
Very popular in their day, the RED National Panasonic pocket AM Transistor 6. Works well.
Very early AIWA pocket Transistor 6. Still works well.
The “Murphy 8” Transistor radio. Broadcast band only. Wooden case in fab condition. Works very well.
This is the rear view of the “Murphy Transistor 8.” I gave it a new battery holder.
This is a “Murphy Transistor 7+” Im not sure what the “+” means because it does have only 7 transistors. Very good performer for its age. Wooden case is identical to the previous Murphy 8.
This is the rear view of the “Murphy Transistor 7 plus.” All very original, and works fine.
This National Panasonic DR 28 is not part of my early AM Transistor radio collection. It is, however, part of my shortwave radio collection.
Many thanks, James, for sharing photos from your collection! You certainly have some gems in there. I was not at all familiar with the New Zealand-made PYE Caddy, in fact. I’m curious if other radios were made in New Zealand in the past.
I bet you and I might agree that the Panasonic DR-28 (a.k.a. RF-2800 in North America) hardly feels “vintage,” but at 37 years old it certainly qualifies by most standards–hard to believe. The RF-2800 pops up on eBay quite often and has certainly held its value well. (Click here to search.)
Seeing the DR-28/RF-2800, in fact, is making me lust even more after the venerable Panasonic RF-2200! Alas…so many radios!
The following review originally appeared in the May 2015 issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine.
It’s no secret…I’m a bit of an SDR geek. Yes, after discovering the power of software-defined radios a few years ago, I’m hooked: SDR listening represents nearly 95% of my home listening and monitoring. And I love it.
As a result, I’m always looking at new SDR technologies to note advances that could improve both my at-home and on-the-road listening––not to mention, satisfy my appetite for spectrum and broadcast recordings.
A few months ago, I heard about a new military-grade SDR called the TitanSDR. Being eager to check it out, I reached out to the Italy-based manufacturer, Enablia; they kindly lent me a TitanSDR Pro for review.
TitanSDR back panel (Photo: Enablia)
But here I must insert a disclaimer. Even though I love SDRs, I always find myself hesitating slightly when it comes to writing a review of one––simply because, when compared with tabletop and portable radios, SDRs tend to be so very complex. While I’m fairly well versed in what to expect of an SDR application, the learning curve (and sometimes even installation curve) can be formidable. And the TitanSDR seemed especially daunting: since it’s designed for heavy, full-duty, multi-channel SIGNET and military use, I expected to need a at least a few days to both install the device and, more significantly, to learn the ropes of the application which drives the SDR.
Fortunately, my fears were unfounded. The TitanSDR and I were in sync almost before I knew it, hinting favorably about an accessible user interface.
The TitanSDR ships in a box with the following components: the Titan SDR “black box” receiver, a TitanSDR installation DVD, a printed installation manual, a USB memory stick with a license key, USB cable with chokes on both ends, and a separate regulated power supply.
Not purely a plug-and-play device, the TitanSDR requires a proper three-step installation. Fortunately, the installation manual walks you through the process, which is actually quite simple. Within a mere five minutes, I had the TitanSDR installed and on the air.
The application which runs an SDR is your interface to all of the radio’s capabilities. A top-notch SDR paired with a confusing SDR application will greatly diminish usability and, frankly, sheer enjoyment.
Fortunately, this is where the TitanSDR comes up trumps. To be clear: the TitanSDR has one of the best user interfaces of any SDR I’ve ever tested. While SDR interfaces are subjectively evaluated––some prefer a more dense, involved GUI––I always appreciate simplicity and overall usability over lots of (visible) bells and whistles.
Click to enlarge
I’m especially impressed with how easily the TitanSDR app is designed to cope with multiple band windows, both wide and narrow, while many SDR manufacturers struggle with making an intuitive interface for merely one wideband and one narrowband window, each.
The user interface is divided into three major components: the panoramic scope, the wideband scope, and the narrowband scope. Let’s take a look at each.
Panoramic Scope
TitanSDR Panoramic Scope. Click to enlarge.
When you first open the Titan application and connect the SDR, the panoramic display, which spans the top of the window, comes to life. If hooked up to an antenna, you’ll see spectrum peaks across the display, but you’ll hear no audio because you must first select a wideband and then a narrowband window.
Wideband Scope
At the upper left portion of the panoramic scope, you’ll find a button that allows you to add a wideband selection/channel. After clicking the “add” button, you’ll need to choose the width of your wideband slice. Your choices:
After selecting your wideband width, the wideband scope will appear with the spectrum and waterfall in action. At this point, you’ll still hear no audio, but you’ll see a wideband swatch of frequency represented by your selection.
New wideband selections default with a beginning frequency of 0 kHz. To place the wideband selection into the part of the shortwave spectrum you want to hear or record, you simply click and drag the appropriately colored wideband swatch within the panoramic display to the part of the HF spectrum you wish to monitor.
Selecting a Wideband channel size. Click to enlarge.
Your first wideband selection is labeled in red, the second in green, third in blue, fourth in purple. While there are limits to the number of wideband selections you can make, based on the total bandwidth of your selections [the TitanSDR owner’s manual provides a matrix of possible combinations], each is readily identifiable by color in the panoramic display.
After you’ve created a wideband selection and placed it where you’d like to listen, you’ll now need to make a narrowband selection in order to begin tuning and listening.
Narrowband Scope
Creating a narrowband channel is similar to creating a wideband channel: at the top of the wideband scope window, simply click on the “add” button, and then click within the wideband scope spectrum display to place the narrowband channel where you want it.
Once placed, this new narrowband scope will be visible in the lower right portion of the TitanSDR application window. You’ll also hear audio for the narrowband selection.
The narrowband selection defaults in USB mode, but you can quickly change modes by selecting one from the panel above the narrowband spectrum. Your choices:
Tuning
After using the TitanSDR for only a couple of days, I found I was quite comfortable tuning through the bands. Every SDR application has its own quirks; the TitanSDR app gives you several tuning options.
Within a narrowband window, you may tune by:
Tuning within the wideband scope is as simple as clicking and dragging the narrowband shaded area.
Of course, wideband areas can be moved to different parts of the HF spectrum by simply clicking on the shaded wideband area within the panoramic scope and moving it to a different location. But you can only do this if there are no active narrowband channels within the selected wideband channel.
With the ability to load multiple wideband channels with multiple embedded narrowband channels, you might think tuning and manipulating the various channels would get confusing. But this is just not the case. Herein lies the excellent user design behind the TitanSDR.
The software engineers at Enablia obviously put time into designing their application for users who routinely use multiple channels. Each channel is clearly color-coded across the scopes, and selecting them is a simple process: one of four wideband channels via the panoramic display, and one of many narrowband channels via the wideband display. Indeed, TitanSDR produced a brief video (http://youtu.be/XDdilGykSuY) describing how to use the TitanSDR application interface. The concept of selecting and manipulating the various channels is so easy, I actually knew how to do it prior to receiving and installing the software…and all from this eleven-minute video tutorial.
Without a doubt, the TitanSDR user interface is one of my favorites among the numerous SDRs I’ve evaluated.
Speaking of multiple channels, if you have a particular combination of wideband and narrowband channels that you like to load each time, you can save the full configuration and reload it at startup, preserving every frequency and channel. Brilliant.
Recording
For shortwave archivists (like the author of this review!), the TitanSDR is very enticing. Even the most basic version of the TitanSDR allows for 4 wideband channels and 8 narrowband channels of simultaneous recording. This means that you can record a wideband channel and as many as eight individual live broadcasts consecutively. While rarely needed, it’s an impressive feature. Quite often I’ve wanted to record as many as three broadcasts simultaneously; my WinRadio Excalibur, for example, allows for as many as three consecutive broadcast recordings, but limited within a 2 MHz bandwidth. The TitanSDR has no such limitation. You could load four wideband channels across the spectrum––say, one within the mediumwave band, one on 41 meters, one on 31 meters, and one on 10 meters––and record or listen to up to eight individual broadcasts within those channels. The TitanSDR pro will even allow for up to 40 consecutive narrowband channels of recording.
The record and schedule functions are prominent in the narrowband scope window (above) and the wideband scope window.
What’s more, the TitanSDR has one of the most versatile automatic file naming systems I’ve ever used. Not only can it embed the date, frequency, and mode, but also the start time and end time. It also has a user-defined string which allows for more file name customization. And another nifty feature: the Titan can be set to embed either local or UTC time in the filename.
Yet another feature the archivist in me delights in? You can schedule narrowband and wideband recordings within the application––no need for an external program or macro.
Missing features?
As a product designed specifically for military and government applications, the Titan application currently lacks many of the features you might expect in a $1000+ software defined receiver. The version of the TitanSDR application (at time of publishing this review) lacks a variable notch filter, 90 second waterfall review, and an embedded time stamp––features one might well expect from a receiver in this price class.
Prior to publishing this review, I contacted Enablia with a list of features I thought should be included, and they agreed that these features should be added to appeal to the ham radio and shortwave listening customer base. Indeed, within a matter of two weeks, I was sent a new version of the Titan application with the addition of a number of keyboard shortcuts that I recommended. A few weeks later, I received another update which included the ability to set the maximum size of spectrum recording “chunks” to anything between 50MB and 2GB. Enablia plans to add more of the features for the radio hobbyist in time, but after this review has been posted.
If you’re seriously considering purchasing the TitanSDR, you might contact Enablia first to see if and/or when these features are to be added. I’m confident they will be added in time.
When I begin a radio review, I keep a checklist of pros and cons as I discover them to remind myself of my initial discoveries.
Here’s my list from the TitanSDR:
Pros:
Cons:
No doubt, I’m impressed with the TitanSDR, performance-wise. It’s as sensitive and selective as any SDR I’ve ever tested. Serious weak-signal DXers will be pleased with this rig.
Of course, there’s the daunting price tag of the TitanSDR, which makes it clear that this was a receiver designed for government and commercial use: the basic version of the TitanSDR retails for 1380 EUR, the TitanSDR Pro for an even heftier 1970 EUR.
This pricing places it well above the Microtelecom Perseus, WinRadio Excalibur and Elad FDM-S2, all of which can be purchased for $1000 or less.
Who might benefit from the extra cost of the TitanSDR? Those who need a receiver with a very robust front end. With no less than 16 pre-selectors, the TitanSDR is a great choice for those living in the vicinity of blowtorch radio stations. If you’re looking for a stable, easy-to-use flagship SDR with a rock-solid application to support it, you might just splurge on this impressive SDR.
I always ask myself at the end of a review if I would purchase the equipment I’ve spent a couple of months evaluating. I can honestly say that if I had the money, I would not hesitate to purchase the basic version of the TitanSDR. With its four wideband and eight narrowband channels, it would more than suit my receiver needs as a broadcast archivist.
1,380 EUR buys the basic version of the TitanSDR – With four WB (Wideband) channels, eight NB (Narrowband) channels (to be allocated on WB channels) and VAC (virtual audio) interfaces to third party SW decoders, this is a solid and adaptable SDR.
1,970 EUR buys the TitanSDR Pro – With four WB channels, 40 NB channels (to be allocated on WB channels), VAC interfaces to third party SW decoders, basic LAN control and plug-in software interfaces (by LAN Ethernet) to software decoders CODE300-32 by Hoka Electronic (http://www.hoka.net/products/code300-32.html) and Krypto500 by Comint Consulting (http://www.comintconsulting.com/k500.html), this SDR can sing and dance.
View TitanSDR purchasing information and options on Enablia’s website: http://www.enablia.com/titansdr-receiver.html
Dame Vera Lynn
Today is Memorial Day, and I’m feeling humbly grateful to all of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Since I’ve been reading a lot of WWII history lately, I’ve also been playing a lot of WWII-era music here in my sanctuary to all things radio.
Few songs sum up the yearning sentiment of World War II better than Vera Lynn’s 1942 rendition of “The White Cliffs of Dover.” It’s an iconic song, one that helped British soldiers see beyond the war while mourning its painful toll. It was written in 1941 when England was taking heavy casualties, just before American allies joined the effort.
This morning, seeking something with a little authenticity, I played “The White Cliffs of Dover” though my SStran AM transmitter, and listened to it through “Scottie,” my WWII-era Scott Marine radio (above). I made this recording by placing my Zoom H2N recorder directly in front of the Scott’s built-in monitor speaker.
So here you go: a little radio tribute to all of those who fell–on both sides–of that infamous second world war.
And thanks to all who serve and have served in the name of “peace ever after.”
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen below:
Regarding noisy switching power supplies, SWLing Post reader, Dan Lewis, comments:
“Google the following: “Jameco linear wall transformer”, and you’ll find a suitable non-switching replacement.
Jameco still has a number of linear transformers in their catalog at reasonable prices. I haven’t bought anything from them in many years but when I dealt with them frequently a number of years back they were always reputable.”
Many thanks for your suggestion, Dan! Jameco is a reliable company and I’ve also been a long-time customer. If you know how to pick the proper power supply for your radio (or any other electronic device) click here to view a list of regulated linear supplies on Jameco’s website. [Also note this follow-up post.]Otherwise, keep reading…
When you purchase a replacement power supply, you must make sure that several properties match that of the device it will power, else you could cause damage.
There are four properties you need to match: voltage, rated current, polarity and tip size.
Voltage
Most consumer electronics are powered by and rated for 4.5, 5, 9, 12, or 13.8 volts DC. Of course, there are exceptions. It is important that you match the required voltage exactly. Most radios and electronic devices display their required voltage and voltage tolerance on the unit itself, on the supplied switching power supply, and/or in the owner’s manual.
Rated Current
Like voltage, rated current is usually displayed somewhere on the device, existing power supply or in the owner’s manual. Current is usually indicated in amps (A) or milliamps (mA). Unlike voltage, rated current on your power supply does not have to match the device exactly. You simply need to make sure the power supply meets or exceeds your radio’s required current.
For example, if your radio requires 800 mA (or .8 A) and you find a power supply rated for 500 mA, you should not use it. If you find a power supply rated for 2 amps (or 2000 mA), it exceeds the 800 mA rating, so you’re good to go!
Unlike voltage, your electronic device or radio will only draw the amount of current it needs from the power supply.
Polarity
Click here to read more about tip polarity. (Source: WikiPedia)
You’ll need to determine if your radio requires a plug with a positive or negative tip (a.k.a. center conductor).
Fortunately, manufacturers have long used standard symbols to make polarity obvious (see image).
You’ll typically find a polarity symbol printed on the back of your radio, near the plug-in point, in the owner’s manual or on the back of the existing wall adapter.
Note: Be very careful matching polarity! Some radios and electronic devices are not properly protected against reverse polarity; damaged can occur immediately after supplying voltage with incorrect polarity.
T
ip/plug size
You need to make sure that the inner diameter and outer diameter of a replacement wall adapter will match that of your existing adapter.
This can be the most difficult property to match.
Occasionally, radio manufacturers will actually specify the tip size in their owner’s manual, spec sheets, or on the product page of their website. I’ve even had luck calling manufacturers and asking a technician for the plug size.
Specification sheets will typically indicate plug dimensions with an illustration.
Otherwise, you can always measure the existing power supply tip (both inner and outer dimensions) using calipers.
Once you have those dimensions, finding the appropriate replacement power supply is quite easy. Indeed, companies like Jameco provide specification sheets (click here for an example) that indicate dimensions for each power supply they sell.
Once you’ve matched the voltage, rated current, polarity and tip size, you can purchase a regulated linear power supply with confidence!
Keep in mind: there are most likely other devices in your home with noisy switching power supplies that could be causing radio interference. Check out my noise trouble shooting section of this article to help identify local sources of radio noise.
Update: check out this follow-up post regarding Jameco power supplies–not all are truly linear regulated.
After the Sangean WR-15 received low marks for AM reception in an Amazon review, Bob of Sangean America replied that poor reception is due to the radio’s switching power supply–a design that is federally mandated.
Many thanks to Jeff over at the Herculodge for posting this (click here to read the full response).
It’s a shame the WR-15 can’t accommodate internal batteries as battery operation this would solve the problem.
If I owned the WR-15, I would simply replace the switching type power supply with a regulated power supply.
Looking at the back of the WR-15 (below), it appears it requires 12 volts DC, 1.2 amps and an adapter with a positive center tip. Though I’m judging this only from the image, the plug looks to be a common size.
I bet I have a power supply that would fit the bill in my junk drawer.
Bob, at Sangean America, claims moving the radio at least one foot from the power supply should help. In truth, I believe much of the noise may be conveyed by the power cord itself, though I may be wrong.
It’s a shame Sangean engineers couldn’t compensate somehow for the noisy power supply as it seems this radio was actually marketed to AM radio enthusiasts.