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DXing with an inexpensive portable radio
- Thread starter sam critter
- Start date
Oh no! Another Tecsun/Eton/Grundig that's "crapped out". Can you send it back/still under warranty? I'm no electronics whiz I can solder but no good advice for your issue specific sorry.
I am so sick of Grundig's poor quality control the past few years. Two radios, both several parts failed, fell off, or burned up and that's with careful feminine care (woman here speaking). If DXing were more popular, Grundig would have a class action suit for their lemons. Grundig 750 at 300 bux, and the Grundig G6.
a week after the year warranty 750 suddenly got poor reception on SW, and silence on SSB- and weird garbled audio on MW. The extendable whip literally fell apart one day. The wall wart cord inexplicably broke off at the "wart" and looked like the plastic coating "dried up" and cracked.
G6 power supply jack fell inside the tiny radio, now cannot use AC and radio won't run off batteries because it thinks it's still plugged in. These are radios that never left their clean dry desks & I never ran ext antenna during bad weather.
OK sorry it's not all about "me"
is your Tecsun still under warranty? Can a potentiometer be replaced with a bit of solder?
I am so sick of Grundig's poor quality control the past few years. Two radios, both several parts failed, fell off, or burned up and that's with careful feminine care (woman here speaking). If DXing were more popular, Grundig would have a class action suit for their lemons. Grundig 750 at 300 bux, and the Grundig G6.
a week after the year warranty 750 suddenly got poor reception on SW, and silence on SSB- and weird garbled audio on MW. The extendable whip literally fell apart one day. The wall wart cord inexplicably broke off at the "wart" and looked like the plastic coating "dried up" and cracked.
G6 power supply jack fell inside the tiny radio, now cannot use AC and radio won't run off batteries because it thinks it's still plugged in. These are radios that never left their clean dry desks & I never ran ext antenna during bad weather.
OK sorry it's not all about "me"
is your Tecsun still under warranty? Can a potentiometer be replaced with a bit of solder?
Is the Grundig 750 the one with the external antenna jack? I've read that one of the Grundig SW radio's (don't remember which model) internal / external antenna switches can go funky -- need a bit of cleaner or exercise now and then.
It might be one of the problems. But no SSB, MW sounding garbled -- I've no clue what would cause that.
It might be one of the problems. But no SSB, MW sounding garbled -- I've no clue what would cause that.
An update on my faulty GE Superadio 3, which I'd mentioned here previously.
I have two SR3's, one made in 1995 (my good one), and an earlier one made possibly in '93 (it has no date code) -- I think I bought it the year after it came out.
After playing a bit with the '93 radio, I realised it was cramming the entire AM band in between 540 and just under 1600, and it was cutting the very bottom of the band off. After warm up, I was hearing local station KVI-570 where 540 should be, and local station KNTS-1680 was appearing to the left of 1600. Above KNTS-1680 I had a little more than 100 khz worth of static.
Obviously, something was haywire with the tracking…. all the spectrum between 1000 and 1700 was crammed between 1100 and 1590 or so. No wonder it was difficult to tune the radio.
I think it was that way the entire time I had the radio. Recently I pulled it back out of the closet, to see if I could fix it.
I did a bit of research on the radio online, and decided to try tweaking range pots R1 and R3. I figured I had little to lose, as the radio was basically unusable. If that didn't work I was going to go ahead and try to replace the main tuning pot.
Tweaking the range pots worked. Now the radio tunes from 520 to just about 1710. XEPE 1700 appears at 1700. The Sea-Tac TIS at 530 appears at 530. The radio even tunes in beacon INE on 520.
The high mid part of the band is off kilter from around 1000 to 1600, but I can live with that. I was able to DX with the radio the last three nights, and aside from a little backlash, I'm able to zero in on stations between 1100 and 1700 and get the radio to stay on them. The radio appears as stable as an SR3 gets -- for the time being, it's working fine and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
The '93 SR3 has a little less selectivity than my '95 SR3, and consequently sounds a bit better. Sensitivity appears the same. It also has a chromed binding surrounding the speaker grille, volume and tone controls, whereas with the '95 radio the binding is all black.
I broke the power switch during disassembly (I'd thought I had it pressed down, but it wasn't). Now the power switch is a little toggle switch sticking out the back side of the radio. It drifts a bit right after power up (so does my 1995 SR3), but after it settles down, it’s pretty stable.
I have two SR3's, one made in 1995 (my good one), and an earlier one made possibly in '93 (it has no date code) -- I think I bought it the year after it came out.
After playing a bit with the '93 radio, I realised it was cramming the entire AM band in between 540 and just under 1600, and it was cutting the very bottom of the band off. After warm up, I was hearing local station KVI-570 where 540 should be, and local station KNTS-1680 was appearing to the left of 1600. Above KNTS-1680 I had a little more than 100 khz worth of static.
Obviously, something was haywire with the tracking…. all the spectrum between 1000 and 1700 was crammed between 1100 and 1590 or so. No wonder it was difficult to tune the radio.
I think it was that way the entire time I had the radio. Recently I pulled it back out of the closet, to see if I could fix it.
I did a bit of research on the radio online, and decided to try tweaking range pots R1 and R3. I figured I had little to lose, as the radio was basically unusable. If that didn't work I was going to go ahead and try to replace the main tuning pot.
Tweaking the range pots worked. Now the radio tunes from 520 to just about 1710. XEPE 1700 appears at 1700. The Sea-Tac TIS at 530 appears at 530. The radio even tunes in beacon INE on 520.
The high mid part of the band is off kilter from around 1000 to 1600, but I can live with that. I was able to DX with the radio the last three nights, and aside from a little backlash, I'm able to zero in on stations between 1100 and 1700 and get the radio to stay on them. The radio appears as stable as an SR3 gets -- for the time being, it's working fine and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
The '93 SR3 has a little less selectivity than my '95 SR3, and consequently sounds a bit better. Sensitivity appears the same. It also has a chromed binding surrounding the speaker grille, volume and tone controls, whereas with the '95 radio the binding is all black.
I broke the power switch during disassembly (I'd thought I had it pressed down, but it wasn't). Now the power switch is a little toggle switch sticking out the back side of the radio. It drifts a bit right after power up (so does my 1995 SR3), but after it settles down, it’s pretty stable.
Icangelp said:I know one receiver not to buy...the Grundig S350. Back it went.
same story for me: saw the Amazon offer and ordered it. looks good...but...impossible to tune
it accurately. plus...very cheaply made...SW band selector knob was loose, and ready to fall off.
I returned it after 2 days. Amazon is very good about returns: I dropped it off @ UPS
on Saturday...the refund $$ hit my account early this morning.
F
FreddyE1977
Guest
boombox said:FreddyE1977 said:Along the lines of this topic...
The inexpensive Tecsun portable I was so impressed with is now suffering from the same
fatal malady that eventually claims most inexpensive radios (the cheap as hell little potentiometer
they use as an on/off volume switch is crapping out. Can no longer control volume and radio
frequently blanks out or goes to static).
Aside from this the thing is in near-mint condition. Any point at all in exploring getting this fixed?
I am sure if it's possible at all it will cost me much more than the list price of the radio.
If the radio's no longer under warranty, maybe opening it up and spraying a bit of cleaner / lube into the control would help.
Thanks! I'm familiar with that old trick. But televisions have not come with detent tuners for at least 20 years.
Do places like Radio Shack even still carry such spray?
No more "blue shower" which contained actual abrasives, but DO consider De-Oxit D5, which really is very good in most noisy/badFreddyE1977 said:boombox said:FreddyE1977 said:Along the lines of this topic...
The inexpensive Tecsun portable I was so impressed with is now suffering from the same
fatal malady that eventually claims most inexpensive radios (the cheap as hell little potentiometer
they use as an on/off volume switch is crapping out. Can no longer control volume and radio
frequently blanks out or goes to static).
Aside from this the thing is in near-mint condition. Any point at all in exploring getting this fixed?
I am sure if it's possible at all it will cost me much more than the list price of the radio.
If the radio's no longer under warranty, maybe opening it up and spraying a bit of cleaner / lube into the control would help.
Thanks! I'm familiar with that old trick. But televisions have not come with detent tuners for at least 20 years.
Do places like Radio Shack even still carry such spray?
potentiometer issues.
hey i got a question for you all...
i'm looking for a decent quality portable that tunes continuously from LW into MW. At the recommendation of this thread, I just purchased a Tecsun PL606 which is fantastic. Sadly though, the LW stops at 512kHz and MW picks up at 520kHz. I'm hoping to get something that scans continuously so I can decode some NAVTEX on 518.
Any recommendations?
i'm looking for a decent quality portable that tunes continuously from LW into MW. At the recommendation of this thread, I just purchased a Tecsun PL606 which is fantastic. Sadly though, the LW stops at 512kHz and MW picks up at 520kHz. I'm hoping to get something that scans continuously so I can decode some NAVTEX on 518.
Any recommendations?
Sangean PR-D5 versus Tecsun PL-606
Having heard so many positive comments about the PL-606 I received one as a belated Xmas gift. Right out of the box my first impression was,"You gotta be kidding Me!". It is only 1/3rd the size of the PR-D5 and less that half its thickness, and yes it fits into my shirt pocket. Having been told the PL-606 has only a 3 or 4 inch internal antenna I had my doubts concerning its capabilities.
I decided to run a test with my PR-D5. All were at night (10pm to midnite) and both were equipped with headsets. Was I ever surprised!
EVERY station I could pick up and was readable on the PR-D5 the same was true for the PL-606. I could hardly believe it, and after a week of testing the little 606 convinced me that it really could deliver.
Readability.... On weak to fair readable stations I could make out almost every word on the PR-D5, but on the PL-606 it was somewhat harder to "clearly" hear every word. (This dispite its variable bandwidth option). The second item was when there was multipath flutter. It was harder to clearly hear the station on the PR-D5, but on the PL-606, the flutter all but overwhelmed voice readability in many instances.
Overall and dispite the above,the Tecsun PL-606 does a fantastic job of AM dxing.... but my first choice is still the PR-D5. One reason is that the D5 is a simple AM/FM radio with a big internal ferrite antenna (8 inches) and has a minimal number of controls.
By contrast the 606 has a host of keypad options, with tiny crowded push buttons. It seems to be capable of doing everthing except whistling dixie. This bothers me, because of the Murphy Law, that the more things a device can do, the greater the chance of something failing. time will tell on this.
I'm not going to go into a point by point comparison. This would take up too much space. I will say that both have certain strenghts and weaknesses. My primary concern here was readability, but don't get me wrong. If I can assign a 10 to the PR-D5 the PL-606 would come in around 8/9 in this respect. I like several of the features on the PL-606 and I wish the PR-D5 had them... but such is life.
Having heard so many positive comments about the PL-606 I received one as a belated Xmas gift. Right out of the box my first impression was,"You gotta be kidding Me!". It is only 1/3rd the size of the PR-D5 and less that half its thickness, and yes it fits into my shirt pocket. Having been told the PL-606 has only a 3 or 4 inch internal antenna I had my doubts concerning its capabilities.
I decided to run a test with my PR-D5. All were at night (10pm to midnite) and both were equipped with headsets. Was I ever surprised!
EVERY station I could pick up and was readable on the PR-D5 the same was true for the PL-606. I could hardly believe it, and after a week of testing the little 606 convinced me that it really could deliver.
Readability.... On weak to fair readable stations I could make out almost every word on the PR-D5, but on the PL-606 it was somewhat harder to "clearly" hear every word. (This dispite its variable bandwidth option). The second item was when there was multipath flutter. It was harder to clearly hear the station on the PR-D5, but on the PL-606, the flutter all but overwhelmed voice readability in many instances.
Overall and dispite the above,the Tecsun PL-606 does a fantastic job of AM dxing.... but my first choice is still the PR-D5. One reason is that the D5 is a simple AM/FM radio with a big internal ferrite antenna (8 inches) and has a minimal number of controls.
By contrast the 606 has a host of keypad options, with tiny crowded push buttons. It seems to be capable of doing everthing except whistling dixie. This bothers me, because of the Murphy Law, that the more things a device can do, the greater the chance of something failing. time will tell on this.
I'm not going to go into a point by point comparison. This would take up too much space. I will say that both have certain strenghts and weaknesses. My primary concern here was readability, but don't get me wrong. If I can assign a 10 to the PR-D5 the PL-606 would come in around 8/9 in this respect. I like several of the features on the PL-606 and I wish the PR-D5 had them... but such is life.
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