Category Archives: Reviews

Improving audio fidelity with JBL C2PS monitor speakers

Last year at the W4DXCC conference in Sevierville, Tennessee, I spent some quality time with Bob Heil (K9EID). Bob is the mastermind behind Heil Sound as well as the host of HamNation, a show devoted to all aspects of amateur radio––yet this job description only scratches the surface of Bob’s fascinating career.

Bob Heil (K9EID, left) and yours truly (right) at the 2014 W4DXX conference in Sevierville, TN

One thing is for sure, however: there are few people in the radio industry who truly understand audio as profoundly as Bob Heil, so when he announced that he would host a forum at the W4DXCC to assist amateur radio operators in improving their received (and transmitted) audio, we were all ears, and signed right up.

Early in the forum, Bob described a set of self-powered and relatively affordable JBL monitor speakers that he highly recommended for amateur radio use. Everyone in the room noted the model number of the speakers, myself included. So imagine my dismay after the convention when I simply couldn’t find my notes…

Thankfully, my buddy Gary Wise (W8EEY) recently jogged my memory. Gary purchased a set of JBL monitors and matching wall-mount brackets from Amazon, and has them hooked up to his Flex Radio FLEX-6700 SDR. Gary tells me he’s very pleased with the set-up. Here are the links:

Bob also suggests adding a small mixer to system, something like this Behringer Xenyx 802 or the XENYX502 (both of which are on my current wishlist).

Bob invited me to speak on HamNation about shortwave radio. I may take him up on the offer…well, as soon as I overcome my videophobia, that is. At any rate, if you’ve not seen it, HamNation is certainly worth checking out. And in all things radio, Bob Heil’s is a name to know; click here to visit Heil Sound.

Tecsun PL-380: Murray’s new travel radio

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SWLing Post reader, Murray, recently took the Tecsun PL-380 with him on a trip to view the solar eclipse and then to Morocco for an extended excursion. He writes:

We flew out of Billund Denmark for the [solar] eclipse flight. A couple of days after the eclipse we flew to Cassablanca Morocco, where we were to join our 2 week excursion.

Here is a shot of the radio [above] at our camp in the dunes south of Erfoud in south central Morocco. In total we spent 2 1/2 weeks in Morocco and the desert was the nicest Radio quiet location I have been in. No interference what so ever! And lots of stations. It was great. The battery consumption of the PL-380 was very good. Nice unit.

Many thanks for sharing your thoughts on the PL-380, Murray! It must have been bliss listening to the shortwaves in such an RFI-free area.

Like you, I think the PL-380 is a brilliant travel radio and one I often recommend (click here for my travel radio review). I also travel with the Tecsun PL-310ET and the new CCrane CC Skywave--all great compact portables.

Tinkering with the Credit Card Crystal Radio

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A few weeks ago, we published a short post about a credit card crystal radio from an eBay seller in the UK.

I purchased a kit–at $17-18 US shipped, it’s quite a modest investment for what might be a fun little project.

The crystal radio arrived while I was traveling during Easter break, but my free time has been so (extremely) limited lately, I was only able to unpack and try out this new arrival yesterday.

The biggest surprise for me was the fact that this isn’t really a kit–the board is fully populated and requires no soldering whatsoever. The board feels of very good quality.

All that is required is connecting the high-impedance earphone, earth/ground and aerial/antenna to the board. Since all of these components can be connected with the supplied alligator clip cables, getting it on the air took all of 20 seconds. I simply hooked up the ground and connected the aerial to my sky loop wire antenna.

I instantly heard a signal and station ID which confirmed it was our closest local broadcaster on 1010 kHz. This station isn’t of the blowtorch variety, but is the strongest one I receive on the MW band simply due to its proximity. Audio was quite faint through the earpiece, but I believe if I tinkered with antenna length and the two variable capacitors, I could improve reception.

SWLing Post reader, Richard Langley, received his crystal radio and had a very similar experience with reception.

Credit-Card-Crystal-Radio-4

With any crystal radio (especially one this small), performance is directly correlated with antenna length, availability of a good ground connection and, of course, strong broadcasters in your vicinity.

I plan to spend an evening tinkering with this little receiver and see if I can pick up some of the night time powerhouse AM stations on the east coast.

I can say this: if you’re looking for a simple, uber-compact emergency receiver for your go-bag, bug out bag or emergency kit, this one will certainly fit the bill. This crystal receiver and all of its components weight no more than a few ounces and could easily fit in compact pouch or sleeve.

Have any other readers have enjoyed tinkering with this little emergency crystal radio?

If you would like to purchase one, try searching eBay with one of the links below. The product will only appear in the search results if currently available.

Search via eBay US (best if you’re in the USA, but scroll to bottom of screen to see this item under “International Sellers”)
Search via eBay UK (best if in UK or EU)

This shortwave listener gives the Grundig G2 a positive review

Portable antennas: a review of the Par Electronics EF-SWL

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Last August and part of September, I traveled through the US with the CommRadio CR-1 and a couple of portable antennas: the Par Electronics EF-SWL and NASA PA-30. I had the opportunity to try both in the field, and took notes as I used them. Following is a short review of the Par Electronics EF-SWL.

The EF-SWL ready to deploy with my Spec.-Ops. Brand “All Purpose Bag.”

Par Electronics EF-SWL

At the Dayton Hamvention last year, I had the pleasure of speaking with representatives of the North Carolina-based LNR Precision Inc. LNR is a mom-and-pop company with a focus on providing antennas, keys, and transceivers for the ham radio and shortwave listener markets. Indeed I have several SWL friends who use on a daily basis an antenna this company manufactures and retails: the Par Electronics EF-SWL. LNR asked if I would consider reviewing their antenna, and since I was planning a road trip with radios in tow–the perfect opportunity to test such an antenna–I agreed.

The Par Electronics EF-SWL is an end-fed shortwave antenna designed for 1-30 MHz reception. It’s a receive only-antenna–perfect for the SWL. The radiator is 45 feet of #14 black polyethylene coated Flex-Weave wire. When I first used the EF-SWL, I noted the quality of its construction: no doubt it can withstand many deployments in all weather conditions–and it’s manufactured here in the US.

With a 45′ radiator, the EF-SWL needs a little space, but offers more gain than the other portable antenna I packed, the NASA PA-30 (look for its review in the near future). I put the EF-SWL to use in New Mexico where several large trees were readily available. I hooked the EF-SWL up to the CommRadio CR-1 and simply hung the end of the radiator as high as I could in a nearby tree. Though not a picture-perfect installation, it nonetheless certainly did the trick! I didn’t bother with a ground connection as I wasn’t in an area with much radio noise (RFI).

In the past, when setting up portable ham radio and shortwave listening, I’ve typically built my own antenna either for the specific meter band I hoped to use, or brought along a portable antenna tuner. It was quite nice having an antenna designed to be resonant on the broadcast bands.

Though I didn’t do this, I did noticed that the EF-SWL’s radiator is attached via a stainless stud–Par Electronics did this so you can remove the radiator and replace it with a different wire length. With the stock 45′ radiator, I still find the EF-SWL quite portable, especially when compared with most of the portable amateur radio antennas I use, which tend to take a dipole or delta loop configuration.

After returning from my trip, I decided to hook up the EF-SWL at my home base for longer-term evaluation. These past months I’ve had it on the air as an auxiliary antenna, and I’ve been impressed with its performance. In truth, it’s not in an optimal location hanging off the corner of my house, but I think this may actually represent with some accuracy the installation most SWLs will likewise be able to provide–in other words, placement that must factor in antenna restrictions or limited space. Of course, for any permanent installation, you will need to ground the EF-SWL for lower noise reception.

And yet, even in these suboptimal conditions, the antenna performs remarkably well.

As with any exterior antenna, of course, take precautions against lightening if you live in an area with thunder storms. If nothing else, at least disconnect the antenna when not in use.

Moving forward, I will plan to relocate the EF-SWL to a more ideal permanent location and most likely purchase another to keep in my antenna bag. I hope to use this antenna in a DXpedition I’ve planned later this year.

The EF-SWL retails for $75 US directly from LNR Pecision or $72 US from Universal Radio.

Note that LNR also sells a number of QRP field-portable transceivers: the LD-5, FX-4a and Mountain Topper. Click here for more details.

Dave reviews the Kenwood R-1000

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Kenwood R-1000 (Source: Universal Radio)

My buddy, Dave Zantow (N9EWO), has apprised me of a new review he has published of the classic Kenwood R-1000 receiver. Dave comments that he doesn’t normally review discontinued sets anymore, but he made an exception for the R-1000 as it “was so unique/good and still is to this day.”

Click here to read Dave’s full review.

Click here to search for a Kenwood R-1000 on eBay. Kenwood R-1000 owners should note that one Canadian eBay seller lists a re-cap kit for the R-1000 for about $50 shipped.

My new (to me) Sony ICF-2001 shortwave radio

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A few weeks ago, I made an impulse purchase: a Sony ICF-2001.

Perhaps it was the post about John Lennon’s ICF-2001, or perhaps it was the simple fact I couldn’t afford a ‘2001 when I was a kid; either way, I saw what I thought was a fair price and I bit the bullet.

At about 9-10 years old I remember seeing the (above) image of the ICF-2001 in an advertisement and imagining all that I could hear with this amazing–microprocessor-controlled, dual conversion, frequency synthesized general coverage(!)–portable receiver.

At the time, my only shortwave radio was the Zenith Trans Oceanic Royal D7000–a wonderful radio for sure–but the convenience of digital tuning? I could only imagine.

The ICF-2001 had revolutionary featured like direct access keypad tuning and an LCD digital readout. The ICF-2001 covered 150 to 29,999 kHz and, like my Transoceanic, could receive single sideband. It also had six memories that could be assigned to buttons for quick access to my favorite frequencies. Six. Whole. Memories!

Sony-ICF-2001-1

I picked up my used ICF-2001 for $67.00 US shipped. The seller (a fellow ham radio operator) insured that the radio was in excellent mechanical shape, though cosmetically showed some signs of wear. The only thing missing was the ICF-2001’s shoulder strap. That was fine by me, though, because the seller included all original manuals/documentation and a very cool canvas carry bag (below) that fits the ICF-2001 like a glove.

I’ve had the ICF-2001 for a few weeks now and I must say that I’m quite pleased. It’s much larger that most portables currently on the market, but was probably slightly smaller than the venerable ICF-2010.

The audio from the ICF-2001’s built-in speaker is top-notch; with separate treble and bass control, it’s easy to adjust audio to your taste.

Would the ICF-2001 out-perform a modern portable receiver? Probably not. Was performance similar to the ICF-2010? No way. The ICF-2001 has a few annoying quirks (like muting between frequencies, no tuning knob, a backlit display that’s rather small and hard to read at certain angles)–items most modern portables have long since addressed.

With that said, the ICF-2001 does have a few features I wish modern receivers would adopt, like, a built-in antenna trimmer.

This morning, on my porch, I listened to several broadcasters across the bands and used the antenna adjustment to tweak the match. The adjustment would sometimes increase reception by three S units. I would love to have a similar feature on, say, my Tecsun PL-680.

I also like the old school power switch–a proper mechanical switch that makes it much more difficult to accidentally turn the radio on while traveling or operating in a portable setting.

Even thought the ICF-2001 was a bit of an impulse purchase, I have no buyer’s remorse at all. She’s a sturdy rig with great audio and, I believe, decent performance on the shortwave and medium wave bands. I can certainly confirm that it would have blown my mind when I was 9 years old!

Besides..if the ICF-2001 is good enough for John Lennon, it’s good enough for me!