I love mine so much that I went and got another. I originally got mine at Hudson's Bay, but knew the source also carried them....well, the source is phasing them out of the stores. A month ago I went all over Ottawa to get my second one. I ended up bussing to Orleans where one store had 3 left. The one in the rideau centre called ahead for me and asked them put one on hold. They are truly fantastic tuners.
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Just got a G8 :)
- Thread starter Tincap
- Start date
mimo said:
Hey mimo, I think you'll like the fact that the first frequency I tested out with the G8/AN-100 combo, was 1350 kHz. Not a peep was heard out of (CIRA-5) Radio Ville-Marie, on the G8, during my mid-afternoon test. However, once I placed it within the AN-100's loop and tuned the attenuator...bingo! Some nice classical music programing, with a good sound. It was really amazing. Even my wife was impressed...and that's saying something!
~BG
I might as well add my two cents about this radio since I just purchased it a couple days ago. I really like the ease of use and small portable size. It's a good travel radio, hence the name. But the main problem I have where I live is FM overload from nearby FM transmitters. The DSP chip still isn't enough to handle this problem. The reception on FM is good anywhere else, but the signal numbers on the display are really low... like between 05-15 for FM stations that are really only 20 miles away but are being blanketed by other FM stations about 1 mile away with a hissing/static.
gar fla said:
I've never used the first one.
The only two sites I use are Short-wave.info and the one on EiBi, www.eibispace.de. Between those two sites everything's about covered.
The first one's got a grey line map, too.
Andrew K said:
Where I live, I don't have an overload issue in the FM front end, nor do I recall such an issue when I'm up in Ottawa with it. I do have strong locals (10/15 mile range), yet have no problems tuning in distant adjacents. I can even tune in distant co-channels over semi-locals. Andrew, perhaps you have a faulty unit??
~BG
Tincap said:
The G8 isn't really that bad. It gets clear audio on FM if I place it in a good spot, but the dBu levels aren't very high on the screen. I swear that being near FM towers really messes with reception, and it's hard to find a radio to completely correct this. Next time you're in Ottawa, cross the river into Quebec and drive near (about a mile away or closer) to the main city broadcasting tower. Last time I was there, I'm pretty sure I drove by it when I was in Gatineau Park. You may notice that it's harder to receive the weaker distant stations that would normally be received just fine. The overload/blanketing interference creates a static/hiss noise all across the FM dial, covering up the weak stations. I just ordered the AntennaCraft FM6, so I'm hoping that since it's highly directional, it will reject a lot of the mess that spills over from the powerful nearby FMs.
The situation gets even worse when I drive closer in my car past the shadow of a tower. An example for me is if I drive pass the WQMX/WZIP/WKSU tower, I almost completely lose WFHM 95.5. The spillover from 94.9 WQMX almost obliterates WFHM making it unlistenable for the minute I'm close enough to the tower. Heck, I even lose WDOK 102.1, and that's way up the dial past all these frequencies. My car radio can't even correct this problem.
I live within sight of the towers for the Jewel, CHIN FM and 95.7 here in Ottawa. On every radio but the G8 those 3 make the rest of the FM dial unlistenable. Especially close to my office. I was so annoyed that the Jewel was going to raise their power I filed an intervention with the CRTC, of course no one listened to me, and the day they increased their power, it was as bad as I imagined. The Jewel is constantly over 64 DBU'S at the house, and so is CHIN 97.9. Yet...during the warm months, CHOM FM from Montreal still manages to sneak in on 97.7 On the radio I used before, I couldn't even listen to CBC radio 1 (91.5) due to both the Jewel and CHIN. 99.1 and 99.7 only go into the low 20's on the meter because of the Jewel, but more than enough for a clean stereo signal.
mimo said:
The G8 is good, but the reception I don’t think is much different than the Kaito KA-1103 I purchased a few years ago. Mimo, if I remember right, aren’t the Jewel and CHIN-FM a couple of the weaker Ottawa stations? But I’m sure if you live near these, you’ll still have issues. Down in Bobs Lake, about 60-70 miles from Ottawa, I don’t receive those stations, but I do receive most of the Ottawa FMs. Mimo, are you using an external antenna like the Antennacraft FM6? I just ordered mine, and I was looking at the pattern. It looks like the antenna has a null on each side. I’m wondering if this would help eliminate nearby FM overloading.
Andrew K said:
As mentioned, I've got my FM6 attached to my G8 and IMHO the AntennaCraft does null well, allowing me to receive adjacents to my locals. I can also get co-channels, though at times stuff does come through the back door (Montreal's CHOM over-riding Bancroft's CHMS, Burlington VT's WVPS over Syracuse's WWHT, or visa-versa, etc.). That seems to be the nature of the beast regarding directional antennae.
~BG
Andrew K said:
They are weaker as far as power level goes, but the Jewel went through a major upgrade a few years ago, putting them in the middle of the pack power-wise. Their problem is that they are broadcasting from a tower located downtown. As every one knows, Ottawa doesn't have any tall buildings. That means the signals are extremely strong downtow, but are gone by the time you hit 20 miles away. The Jewel is so bad that CHRI even opposed the power increase they asked for because the original power they had was killing CHRI downtown and in the inner city neighbourho0ds. When CJRC went from 1150 to 104.7 they to0 were downtown, but had to relocate the tower to Gatineau, as they couldn't even cover half of Gatineau. All other Ottawa FM's (with the exception of CIDG 101.9, CHRI 99.1, CJOT 99.7 and CKAV-9 95.7 broadcast from Camp Fortune. A much better location for sure. Gatineaus 94.9 and 94.5 also broadcast from Camp fortune, the remaining Gatineau FM's use the tower near that tall building just west of Lac Lemy.
I don't use any antenna for FM except what the radios came with. Even my CC plus gets overload if I raise the antenna. I have to leave it completely retracted and even then, half the dial is weak. Trying to add any signal to FM would not work here due to high front end overload. Somehow my G8 seems immune to it. I use a terk advantage for the CC plus and the G8 if I'm in the yard. Other than that the G8 is always barefo0t and used with headphones.
Tincap said:mimo said:
Hey mimo, I think you'll like the fact that the first frequency I tested out with the G8/AN-100 combo, was 1350 kHz. Not a peep was heard out of (CIRA-5) Radio Ville-Marie, on the G8, during my mid-afternoon test. However, once I placed it within the AN-100's loop and tuned the attenuator...bingo! Some nice classical music programing, with a good sound. It was really amazing. Even my wife was impressed...and that's saying something!
~BG
To add to that, CIRA-5 has finally fixed their modulation as of a week ago. I had emailed them telling them that the volume was so low that they weren't really listenable. I had to turn the radio halfway up or louder before, and there was static, despite a strong signal. Now it's clear, loud and sounding like they should. My girlfriend notices the difference as well. She wasn't a radio listener at all before, but likes the station and doesn't mind static on AM at all. Although I'm sure she's loving the new clean sound they have.
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