Tag Archives: Panasonic

Radio in the field: SWLing on the coast of the St. Lawrence river

Yesterday, the weather was gorgeous here in Québec, thus a prime opportunity to find a beach, start a new book and, of course, play radio!

I found a fantastic spot on the north bank of the St. Lawrence river near Baie-St-Paul, Québec. There were only a few folks at the beach, so it was all very peaceful.

I found a picnic table perched on the edge of the beach shaded by an apple tree–a perfect spot to relax, play radio and start a new book: Dark Voyage by Alan Furst.

I brought two portables: the C. Crane CC Skywave SSB and the recently acquired Panasonic RF-B65.

I had not checked to see if propagation was good, but tuning to WWV on 10 MHz and 15 MHz confirmed that signals were travelling. In fact, as I started tuning around–first with the CC Skywave SSB, then with the Panasonic RF-B65–I discovered some of the best propagation I’ve experienced in ages!

I did a relatively quick scan covering the 31 through 19 meter bands. Some signals were absolutely booming in.

I jotted down some of the broadcast details on a make-shift log and recorded a few videos.

Note that after making the first video, I discovered I had limited space on my phone, so most of the clips are quite short:

Here are the stations I logged in the clear:

All in all it was a brilliant afternoon and the short band scan reminded me that there is still so much content to be found on the shortwaves.

You just need a little propagation, and some time to listen and explore!

Post readers: Have you snagged any elusive DX recently? Please comment!

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Delivered: The Panasonic RF-B65

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It turns out, I didn’t need to worry about the delivery time of the Panasonic RF-B65 I ordered on eBay Thursday evening. It was shipped from Washington state and arrived here yesterday (Saturday) via USPS 2 Day Priority Mail. I’m quite impressed with the delivery speed!

I haven’t had time to put the RF-B65 through the paces, but so far all appears to be in order. The unit is very clean, the battery compartment looks like new and the antenna straight and fully intact. This listing did not include a case, box or manual, but I’m fine with that.

I’ve only had the RF-B65 on the air for a few minutes to verify that everything works properly–so far, so good. This afternoon, I’ll start a “burn in” session to see if the radio will play for multiple hours on a set of fresh batteries. I’ve found in the past that if there are any capacitor issues, older portables like this could power down prematurely.

I’m hoping all will check out with the RF-B65 because I look forward to taking it on travels this week!

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Panasonic RF-B65s abound on eBay

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who notes that Panasonic RF-B65s are, “Abound […] all over eBay–most I have seen in years.”

As I’ve mentioned in the past, the Panasonic RF-B65 is one of the few “vintage” benchmark portables I’d happily add to my collection. I’ve been looking for one since last summer and have missed out on a deal or two. Very few have been posted. Dan, and a number of SWLing Post readers, have touted this radio’s performance many times, so I bit the bullet and ordered one of the units from eBay. I hope it’s in good shape–it does not include the manual or box, but I’m not looking for a mint unit–this will accompany me on travels and to the field. I have a padded bag that should fit it well.

I should receive my RF-B65 early next week and will look forward to putting it on the air!

Click here to search eBay for the Panasonic RF-B65.

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Doctor Vlado repairs the Panasonic RF-2200 (Part 1)

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Last year, at Hamvention, I picked up a Panasonic RF-2200 for $70. It came with the original box, manual and was in superb cosmetic condition.

The seller told me that over the years he exclusively used the radio to listen to a local FM station.

At that price, I didn’t hesitate to make the purchase even if this would have simply been a non-functioning parts radio for my other RF-2200.

After I brought the radio home, I unpacked it and gave it a quick test.

FM worked brilliantly. Mediumwave and shortwave, however, were essentially deaf. I made the assumption that the ‘2200’s switches and pots likely needed cleaning with DeoxIT. The next day, I was leaving for a two month trip to Canada though, so I packed the RF-2200 back into its box and set it to the side of my shack table.

Fast-forward to yesterday…

While digging around my shack, I re-discovered the boxed RF-2200. Since I was planning to visit my buddy Vlado (the best radio repair guy in the world) yesterday evening, I thought I’d take the RF-2200 and do a proper contact cleaning. Several of the RF-2200’s switches and pots cannot be easily cleaned without removing the chassis.

(Click photos to enlarge.)

Vlado is familiar with the RF-2200 and since it’s not the easiest radio to work on, I asked for his expert hands on the job. Within seconds of handing him the radio, he plugged it in, tested the switches and pots, then removed the back cover (disconnecting the battery compartment leads) and then the front cover (disconnecting the speaker leads).

The magic behind the RF-2200’s classic analog dial:
Vlado offered a word of caution to anyone operating on their RF-2200: as you can see in the photo below, the dial string snakes around the front of the radio and is very close to some key components. You must exercise caution when having a soldering iron tip near the string, or using lubricants nearby.I didn’t realize this, but by the time Vlado started taking apart the RF-2200, he had already determined that even though the contacts needed cleaning, this wasn’t the source of the audio problem for the MW and SW bands.Vlado expertly pulled out the pot for the FM/AM/SW selection–not an easy task–began cleaning it, testing it and re-soldering contacts.

Vlado determined the pot was actually in good shape, thus started testing the rest of the circuit.

After a few minutes of performing tests and getting intermittent performance, he determined that at least one, if not more, of the RF-2200’s caps need to be replaced. Of course, neither one of us was terribly surprised. At this point though, it was getting late and I had an early wake up time in the morning, so I left my RF-2200 with Vlado.

Am I worried about this prognosis? No, not in the slightest…

Doctor Vlado is on the job!

Vlado will have the RF-2200 back on the air in no time, working as well as it did when it was new. He’s actually performed a similar RF-2200 repair for an SWLing Post reader and I’m willing to bet this repair job is relatively simple compared to most he encounters (including the Icom IC-7200 he recently repaired after it was hit by lightening!).

I’ll try to post a “Part 2” update with photos of the RF-2200 repair. Follow the tag: Panasonic RF-2200 Repair

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Dan spots a mint Panasonic RF-B65 on eBay

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following:

This does not appear to have the AC adaptor — not all kits included that, but they are findable on Ebay] OK, folks here’s your chance — a Panasonic RF-B65, one of the best portables of all time in terms of overall sensitivity and audio (in this size category) in what appears to be Like New condition. Price is about right for one of these complete with box, manuals, etc I usually jump on these but I already have two in this condition….

Click here to view on eBay.

The RF-B65 is certainly a highly regarded portable and Dan knows I’m on the hunt for one. Frankly, I’ll probably wait until next year to search for a deal. This model is not the cheapest, but looks incredibly clean and is being sold by a seasoned seller with 100% positive feedback. If you’ve been considering an RF-65B, this is a good one. Thanks for the tip, Dan!

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Video: Daytime mediumwave shootout with the Tecsun S-8800

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About a week ago, I received a re-engineered version of the Tecsun S-8800 from Anna at the excellent online retailer, Anon-Co.

If you recall, I evaluated an early production unit of the S-8800 in February and while putting it through the paces, I discovered loud, warbling DSP birdies throughout the mediumwave and shortwave bands. Tecsun, to their credit, pulled the S-8800 from production to address the issue.

My schedule last week made it impossible to carve out the dedicated time I needed to begin an S-8800 evaluation.

Yesterday, however, I spent the afternoon with my family at Richland Balsam, the highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway (6,000′ ASL) and a completely RFI-free zone. I brought the Tecsun S-8800 and a few other portables along for the ride–namely the Digitech AR-1780, the C.Crane CC Skywave and the Panasonic RF-2200.

I had just enough available space on my smart phone to record this one short video:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Let’s be clear: comparing any modern radio with the RF-2200 on mediumwave is hardly fair.

For one, the RF-2200 has been out of production for a few decades.

Secondly (what I never finished saying in the video is that) the RF-2200 has a large rotatable ferrite bar antenna that provides excellent gain. The RF-2200 simply wipes the floor with all of my modern portables as their ferrite bar antennas are a fraction of the size.

In other words, the RF-2200 was engineered to rule mediumwave like a boss.

On shortwave, the RF-2200 does a fine job, but isn’t nearly as accurate and stable as modern DSP receivers.

Spoiler alert

Still, as the video indicates, my final review of the Tecsun S-8800 will indicate that it is not a receiver for the serious Mediumwave DXer. It’s been my experience that few shortwave portables are excellent on both HF and MW.

At home, tuned to local station 880 AM.

Of course you can’t tell from the video, but the S-8800 actually sounds brilliant when tuned to a relatively strong/local AM station, but either a lack of sensitivity or internal noise makes MW DXing a challenge.

I spent the better part of two hours yesterday evaluating its daytime MW performance–the video is pretty indicative of my findings. The S-8800 struggles with weak stations, but does a fine job with strong ones. It’s overall audio fidelity almost matches that of the RF-2200 when tuned to a strong broadcast. I’ve yet to test evening MW

The S-8800 still has some birdies on MW, but they’re not the loud warbling kind found on the previous model. Tecsun did properly address this, though in full disclosure, I haven’t fully explored the shortwave bands yet.

Shortwave?

I suspect the S-8800’s performance on shortwave will be much better than mediumwave because the previous S-8800 showed excellent results. As long as sensitivity wasn’t harmed while addressing the DSP birdies, I expect it’ll give the PL-880, PL-680 and Sony ICF-SW7600GR a run for their money.

Still…the lesson learned yesterday?

The Panasonic RF-2200 is the indisputable champion of mediumwave!

UPDATE: Click here to read our full Tecsun S-8800 review.

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Panasonic RD-9820 on eBay

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi, who shares an eBay link to this Panasonic RD-9820–the matching antenna coupler for the Panasonic RF-2200. Mario notes that RF-2200 owners might take note as the auction price is on a more reasonable trajectory than ones have in past auctions. This 9820 also includes the box.

Thanks for the tip, Mario!

Click here to view on eBay.

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