Just got a G8 :)

[Tincap]

OK, this morning (between 8 & 9am), I stood out in my backyard and made a quick scan, covering the top of the FM band, with some interesting results.

107.9 -WWHT Syracuse NY Hot 107.9
- WVPS Burlington VT VPR

107.7 -CHMY-1 Arnprior ON MYFM
- WLKK Buffalo NY WBEN simulcast (195 miles to tower, using Daft Logic)

107.5 - CBCK Kingston ON CBC - Radio 1

107.3 - CITE Montreal QC Rouge

107.1 - CJTN Belleville ON Rock 107
- CILQ Toronto ON Q107 (197 miles to tower)

106.9 - CKQB Ottawa ON The Bear

106.7 - WBDR Copenhagen NY The Border

106.5 - WKRH Oswego NY K-Rock

106.3 - WYZY Saranac NY Y106.3 (serves Burlington/Plattsburgh)
- CJBC-5 Peterborough ON SRC-Première Chaîne
- CFXN North Bay ON Moose FM (Probable - awaiting playlist confirmation...210 miles)

106.1 - CHEZ Ottawa ON Chez 106

105.9 - CKLY Lindsay ON BOB FM

105.7 - CIKR Kingston ON K-Rock

105.5 - WTKV Oswego NY TK99
- unid

105.3 - CISS Ottawa ON 105.3 KISS FM

105.1 - CKQM Peterborough ON Country 105

104.9 - CFJR Brockville ON JRFM (local)

104.7 - CKOF Gatineau QC CKOI 104.7

104.5 - CFLG Cornwall ON Variety 104.5

104.3 - CKWS Kingston ON CKWS
- WFRG Marcy NY Big Frog 104.3 (serves Utica/Rome)

104.1 - CKTF Gatineau QC NRJ

103.9 - unid (open carrier)

103.7 - CJPT Brockville ON BOB FM (local)

103.5 - WUUF Sodus NY Big Dog 103.5 (serves Rochester)

103.3 - CBOQ Ottawa ON CBC - Radio 2

103.1 - WTOJ Watertown NY Magic 103

102.9 - WNCQ Ogdensburg NY Q Country (local)
- WMHR Syracuse NY Mars Hill Network

102.7 - WLYK Cape Vincent NY 102.7 The Lake (studios are in Kingston ON)

102.5 - CBOX Ottawa ON SRC - Espace Musique
- WUMX Rome NY Mix 102.5

102.3 - CIGB Trois-Rivières QC NRJ (my most easterly FM catch, 185 miles)
- WISY Canandaigua NY Sunny 102

I'll have to try other portions of the FM band, at other opportune times, but I must say...the FM section on the little thing is pretty darn impressive!

~BG

 

[mimo]

That same radio allows me to listen to 97.7 CHOM FM while right under CJLL 97.9's transmitter here in Ottawa. I read somewhere that this is how FM radios will be in the future. If that is true it's about time. I always found that the frequency right after a strong station had the most bleedover/splatter than the frequency preceding it.

 

[spunker88]

There was some pretty good tropo going through this morning, I uploaded a video of what I was getting with a dipole tv antenna in the window. Its north facing so mostly Ottawa and Montreal stuff was coming through. Unseasonably warm weather coming in is bringing some nice tropo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZfOE-8niJY

Tincap, surprised you don't have CFGL 105.7 from Montreal blocking out K-rock.

 

[Tincap]

There was some pretty good tropo going through this morning, I uploaded a video of what I was getting with a dipole tv antenna in the window. Its north facing so mostly Ottawa and Montreal stuff was coming through. Unseasonably warm weather coming in is bringing some nice tropo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZfOE-8niJY

Tincap, surprised you don't have CFGL 105.7 from Montreal blocking out K-rock.

Nice scan there, spunker. Many of those signals I pick up, but others are masked by stations more local to you (for example 97.1 or 97.9), but ya, a ton of Ottawa and Montreal snags you've got there.

Regarding 105.7, I am quite a bit closer to Kingston than Montreal. I'll try CFGL with the G8, but if I go for it with the 'tower' (Luxman/FM-6 combo), K-Rock would win, coming through the back end of the antenna, whilst pointed to Montreal.

~BG

 

[Tincap]

Tropo must've been pretty good this morning, with lots of unusual action on the my Luxman, unfortunately I didn't have much time to play.

However, while setting up 'shop' (marking assignments) I did bag 102.7 CITE-FM-1 (Rouge FM) serving Sherbrooke QC, on my G8. The tower is located on top of Mount Orford (a great place to ski, btw...) at a distance of 175 miles. For me, 102.7 is usually occupied by the semi-local Kingston ON/Cape Vincent NY hybrid, WLYK, so I was pleasantly surprised by the catch.

Happy hunting!

~BG

 

[mimo]

Have you had a chance to check out the longwave portion of the tuner? Some early reviews say it's very po0r, yet the one I bought a year ago seems to be just fine. Then again I don't have anythiing to compare it to. I get all the local beacons plus a few from Montreal, Maniwaki, Brockville, Smith's Falls and Pottsdam, New York. I've had traces of audio from overseas broadcasters, but not much more. Anyone else who has one want to chime in and say anything about that part of the tuner? Maybe they did some improvements in newer models. Since you live not to0 far away, Tincap, how has your experience been compared to other longwave tuners you have used?

 

[Tincap]

Have you had a chance to check out the longwave portion of the tuner? Some early reviews say it's very po0r, yet the one I bought a year ago seems to be just fine. Then again I don't have anythiing to compare it to. I get all the local beacons plus a few from Montreal, Maniwaki, Brockville, Smith's Falls and Pottsdam, New York. I've had traces of audio from overseas broadcasters, but not much more. Anyone else who has one want to chime in and say anything about that part of the tuner? Maybe they did some improvements in newer models. Since you live not to0 far away, Tincap, how has your experience been compared to other longwave tuners you have used?

I'll give LW a go, mimo, but (given the ferrite bar size) I can't imagine it being better than the DX-440. Didn't you pick up a beacon along the shores of the Hudson Bay (small Quebec community airport) with your G8? Not too shabby, I'd say.

~BG

 

[crainbebo]

Have you had a chance to check out the longwave portion of the tuner? Some early reviews say it's very po0r, yet the one I bought a year ago seems to be just fine. Then again I don't have anythiing to compare it to. I get all the local beacons plus a few from Montreal, Maniwaki, Brockville, Smith's Falls and Pottsdam, New York. I've had traces of audio from overseas broadcasters, but not much more. Anyone else who has one want to chime in and say anything about that part of the tuner? Maybe they did some improvements in newer models. Since you live not to0 far away, Tincap, how has your experience been compared to other longwave tuners you have used?

MW on my G8 unit is not great, with that soft mute. That's why the G8 is my FM DX radio, and the Grundig G5 is my AM/SW/secondary FM DX radio.

-crainbebo

 

[mimo]

Have you had a chance to check out the longwave portion of the tuner? Some early reviews say it's very po0r, yet the one I bought a year ago seems to be just fine. Then again I don't have anythiing to compare it to. I get all the local beacons plus a few from Montreal, Maniwaki, Brockville, Smith's Falls and Pottsdam, New York. I've had traces of audio from overseas broadcasters, but not much more. Anyone else who has one want to chime in and say anything about that part of the tuner? Maybe they did some improvements in newer models. Since you live not to0 far away, Tincap, how has your experience been compared to other longwave tuners you have used?

I'll give LW a go, mimo, but (given the ferrite bar size) I can't imagine it being better than the DX-440. Didn't you pick up a beacon along the shores of the Hudson Bay (small Quebec community airport) with your G8? Not too shabby, I'd say.

~BG

I did, and I go it again last night on 334 khz. I have heard it completely barefoot as well. I'll have to research how the DX-440 is on longwave. I've read that if the ferrite is aligned just right on the G8, the longwave isn't to0 bad. Maybe there are some qc issues in the earlier models that have been adressed. I read one person say it doesn't hear anything below 360 khz while I get two local beacons at 236 khz, 344 khz and one from Montreal at 248 khz, day or night. The Montreal beacon does require some external help though to be heard, like putting it up against a metalic fence post. If I don't do that, then I have to be in an absolutely clear spot without any phone lines nearby to hear even a faint trace of it. Even with the help, the signal is very weak.

Altogether it picks up about 11 or 12 beacons, 4 of which are local.

 

[Tincap]

Well, I did a little about of playing around this afternoon, with the little Grundig (trying to avoid marking assignments, lol). I attached a small piece of thin speaker wire, from the base of the G8's antenna, into the male F plug in the back of my old Realistic FM booster, which in turn is hooked up to my AntennaCraft FM-6 (normally I've got my Luxman R-1070 hooked up to this set-up). The FM-6 is sitting on a 30FT pole and I had it directed towards Toronto, from my location here, just north of Brockville ON.

The results were rather surprising. First off, I must say that I continue to find the selectivity and separation of the FM signals, in this little Grundig, to be quite impressive! I heard not a peep out of my locals (91.9 CBOB, 102.1 CBOF FM-7, 103.7 CJPT & 104.9 CFJR) when on adjacent frequencies. Secondly, I don't know what this afternoon's tropo conditions are/were like, but I've made a couple of surprising catches.

The catches of the day were Tillsonburg ON's CKOT 'Easy 101' (50 kW @ 452 KM/281 miles - IDed OTR) fighting it out with Rochester NY's WRMM 'Warm 101.3' and Woodstock ON's CKDK 'More 103.9' (52kW @ 443 KM/275 miles - IDed through playlist on website, Sarah McLachlin's 'Possession', followed by Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love'), jostling with Peterborough ON's CBBP 'CBC Radio 2'. I was able to hear the latter two, without a hint from my local 100kW monster on adjacent 103.7... ;D. My MW DXing has been poor this season, hopefully things are looking up in the FM band!

~BG

 

[gar hi]

As much as I love my Sangean PR-D5, I think my G8 has better FM selectivity and sensitivity.

I'm not too crazy about the AM reception, though but the shortwave reception is fantastic for a radio that size going only barefoot.

 

[cyberdad]

Very cool, Tincap. Congratulations on those catches. Shows what happens when you pair a little radio with a big antenna!

BTW, I agree with you that this year has pretty much been a bummer for MWDX. Not without a few "moments" however. I'm thinking last week when a nice path set up for me between Mexico and the western Florida panhandle.

 

[mimo]

The AM is really decent on this radio if you use it with headphones. The only radio I own that outperforms it's AM is my CC Plus. I've found that with the speakers, semi locals like CJAD Montreal can sound staticky, even local 1350 does, but with headphones, those station are crystal clear. Any station that is to0 weak to enjoy with the speaker sounds great with headphones.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

I picked up a G8 several months back, and only tried it for a short while before my wife (not a DXer) fell in love with it.
Her 'little buddy' is what she calls it. I gave to her for her birthday -- hardly used.
At the time, we had some $ to scatter, so I went out and dove for the Grundig S450.
(The S450 I bought as an eventual replacement for the GE SRII, btw. So I can't compare short wave between the two. I wouldn't know what to look for. The last SW DX I ever tried was 1993, when I was making a new and accurate dial for an old Lafayette radio, and wound up, almost daily, intrigued by the stuff around 9630, 9650, etc, all the way to 10,000.
Lol -- it was so far back that I forget which 'meter band' it was).

Anyway, my wife lost both the manual AND the AC adaptor for her new buddy the G8. Can anyone here tell me where to get replacements?

 

[Tincap]

Anyway, my wife lost both the manual AND the AC adaptor for her new buddy the G8. Can anyone here tell me where to get replacements?

Steve, mine never came with the AC adaptor, but after some hunting in Goodwills, Sally Anns and what not, I found one which works with the G8 (the negative centre pin makes it a challenge to hunt for ).

The manual can be found on-line here ~> http://www.etoncorp.com/sites/default/files/G8_Manual_052009.pdf

~BG

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Gracieux, Tincap!

The manual you provided is saved. Primarily, we needed to determine how to defeat the alarm beeps.They sound off at 10 every morning unless you take one of the batteries out,

A search is under way for the adaptor. The manual lists a telephone number for sending away.
But we'll search more in the house, that is. There must be two dozen different ones here and elsewhere. None of them fit yet. But the manual says it is 6 volts. So that's a start.
And would you believe that until discovering this swell website I never operated a radio with batteries before?
My eyes and ears have been opened.

* * * * * * *

I had sent a very similar radio (yard-sale ; free; analogue dials) to my buddy in Florida. He's a radio chief engineer.
THAT radio also did well on short-wave. Thing is, I couldn't turn off a beep that went off every so often. I couldn't even turn the radio on or off ! I had to take out a battery to shut it off.
He figured it out. So he got to keep the radio, too. He fixed it ; he bought it.

 

[gar hi]

Does anyone know which of these two sites for getting IDs of shortwave stations is more accurate?

http://hfradio.org/swbc/

http://short-wave.info/index.php

They have both been helpful but they sometimes disagree on which station I'm hearing on a particular frequency at a given time.

 

[Tincap]

Does anyone know which of these two sites for getting IDs of shortwave stations is more accurate?

http://hfradio.org/swbc/

http://short-wave.info/index.php

They have both been helpful but they sometimes disagree on which station I'm hearing on a particular frequency at a given time.

I've found 'short-wave.info' to be more user friendly. For example, you can search all frequencies of any particular broadcaster, broadcasting at any given moment, in any language (For example, every frequency which 'AIR' uses, at any time during the broadcast day). You can search for every broadcaster, broadcasting on a particular frequency, at any given time (not only on that particular frequency, but 10 kHz above and below it, as well). You can also search for every broadcaster, broadcasting in any particular language, at any time (For example, any station which broadcasts in Arabic, during the broadcast day). Any current broadcasts, are high lighted in red, so when scanning any list, you can easily choose any frequency on which broadcaster(s) are currently operating.

Having said that, 'short-wave.info', isn't perfect. For example, 'RSG', 'Radio Sonder Grense' and 'Afrikaans' are not listed in the search parameters. However, if I type in '3320' in the frequency search engine, 'R. Sonder Grense', listed as broadcasting in Afrikaans, does pop up. A bit of a loop hole there!

As for 'hfradio.org', I've just done a search of the afore mentioned 3320 kHz and RSG is listed. However, North Korea's 'Pyongyang Broadcast Service' in Korean, does not show up on 'hfradio.org', while it does on 'short-wave.info'.

In short (uuuh...wave), neither are perfect, but 'short-wave.info' appears to be the better bet.

~BG

 

[Tincap]

Gracieux, Tincap!

A search is under way for the adaptor. The manual lists a telephone number for sending away.
But we'll search more in the house, that is. There must be two dozen different ones here and elsewhere. None of them fit yet. But the manual says it is 6 volts. So that's a start.
And would you believe that until discovering this swell website I never operated a radio with batteries before?
My eyes and ears have been opened.

6 volts and a negative centre pin, which isn't the most common, if I'm not mistaken.

Steve, once E-skip/tropo season comes along (provided that you'll be able to pry the G8 out of your wife's hot little paws) you'll see that the freedom of DXing this thing on batteries is awesome. The antenna is very directional (better than my FM-6, because there's no 'back door' issue), so with a good pair of head phones and a nice location in your back yard (we knick-name our septic weeping bed 'the mountain'), the G8 does an excellent job of hauling in the FM signals.

A quick word about MW and SW. I agree with the MW side of things, as the radio is small, with a short ferrite bar, so a MWDX machine it is not. It is however, pleasantly surprising in the SW bands. During the afternoons in particular, I been tuning in very strong signals, on multiple frequencies and languages, from AIR. Kuwait, Saudi, Radio Farda, the BBC (rare these days) all come in well. In the mornings it's Radio Australia and then there's CRI, which is everywhere(!). The G8 is Gr8, IMHO!

~BG

 

[Tincap]

Well, I've been pretty happy with the little G8, so...I've got my-self another one.

This one I've got patched (mini-plug/RCA) into the Luxman, running it on an AC adaptor (6 volt, negative pin) and -most importantly- McGyvered into the AntennaCraft FM-6. It's now my primary tuner! It pulls stations in, at least as well as the Luxman's tuner section, but with much better separation. This makes me a happy camper, as I can now cleanly receive Couborg ON's CFMX (classical) over semi-local WTOJ, with much less fade out and no co-channel interference.

Also, got my-self a Tecsun AN-100 loop antenna. I've yet to give it a serious work out. I can tell you that during the daytime (mid afternoon), I cradled my little G8 within the loop and...wow! Does that AN-100 ever pull in the AM stations. Even those, which were completely non-existant on the dial. I was very surprised and impressed. The difference is less apparent on my DX-440 and D5, though it does clean up some of the interference, which my computer equipment spews all over the place.

More updates, as they warrant!

~BG