• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

OT...Want a New G-8 for Half Price?

Is this one of those shortwave radios that just one static crash (or static from your finger on the antenna) causes the front end to overload and blow-out, reducing sensitivity to nothing?
 
According to Universal Radio,no portables have any
protection against static electricity blowing out
the RF preamp transistor.It happens a lot in dry
weather conditions.

However,you can touch something metallic before pulling
out the antenna,or see Kiwa for their static charge
protect diode mod:

http://kiwa.us/KA1103.html

(please scroll down for the mod)

...Apologies to all about the G8 thingy...
 
I'm somehow put off by the lack of knobs to turn.
I cannot get used to pushbutton step tuning as normal.
I'd rather type in a number on a keypad than push an up or down button hundreds of times.
At least my old Sangean has a tuning wheel that has always been a bit flakey, but what encoder system isn't?
It lets me spin a knob to tune.

I have a hard time thinking this radio could be any good at AM.
 
"Is this one of those shortwave radios that just one static crash (or static from your finger on the antenna) causes the front end to overload and blow-out, reducing sensitivity to nothing?"

Yup.

Words to the wise from the.....um, "mildly" wise: don't operate one of those radios if you are (1) doing so in the Northwest, especially during the dry late winter months, and (2) wearing any type of synthetic fabric!

Blew up a G6 that way last year, dammit.....
 
Tom Wells said:
I'm somehow put off by the lack of knobs to turn.
I cannot get used to pushbutton step tuning as normal.
I'd rather type in a number on a keypad than push an up or down button hundreds of times.
At least my old Sangean has a tuning wheel that has always been a bit flakey, but what encoder system isn't?
It lets me spin a knob to tune.

I have a hard time thinking this radio could be any good at AM.
Click to expand...

Knobs are just so unreliable.

OK OK, modern electronic fake-y knobs are unreliable. The one on my RS/Sangean portable went bozo after just a year or so of use. The tuning knob on my car's OEM stereo is starting to flake out and it's only five years old. (The in-antenna amplifier bit the dust about 3 years back.)

Yet the faders on my cheap-*** mixing board are still quiet, as were most of the knobs on the old harmon/kardon stereo I donated a while back. It was from the 70's.
 
Zach said:
Tom Wells said:
I'm somehow put off by the lack of knobs to turn.
I cannot get used to pushbutton step tuning as normal.
I'd rather type in a number on a keypad than push an up or down button hundreds of times.
At least my old Sangean has a tuning wheel that has always been a bit flakey, but what encoder system isn't?
It lets me spin a knob to tune.

I have a hard time thinking this radio could be any good at AM.
Click to expand...

Knobs are just so unreliable.

OK OK, modern electronic fake-y knobs are unreliable. The one on my RS/Sangean portable went bozo after just a year or so of use. The tuning knob on my car's OEM stereo is starting to flake out and it's only five years old. (The in-antenna amplifier bit the dust about 3 years back.)

Yet the faders on my cheap-*** mixing board are still quiet, as were most of the knobs on the old harmon/kardon stereo I donated a while back. It was from the 70's.
Click to expand...

Indeed. I am always sort of looking for another radio, but without checking, I'd bet this one tunes MW in 9 or 10 khz steps instead of 1s.

You're right about the knobs. My Sangean 803 "fell" somehow about 12 years ago, and the side tuning wheel fell spang off.
I recall maybe 5 wires, but it was abviously a crude encoder that accomplished the same thing as pushing the up or down button, depending on the direction. It's easy to fool by gong too fast, and it's not always "paying attention" properly even when used slowly.
But it's been just like this since day 1. When it fell off I glommed it back on with some 2 part epoxy putty, and it's still there today.

Does anybody know how well this works on AM MW, and what's the AM audio bandwidth like?
 
User reviews here

http://www.amazon.com/Grundig-Trave...dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

and here:

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/8517

Download the user manual and specs here:

http://www.etoncorp.com/product_card/?p_ProductDbId=916173

This radio uses a Silicon Labs DSP IC;no IF cans,coils,etc.

See the Degen DE1123 review here (third one down) for a

discussion of it:

http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/mt_reviews_09.html


It will tune in 1 khz/10/9 khz on AM,similar on SW and FM.

FM is superb,AM/SW average,LW poor.Very good selectivity.

Like all Degen/Tecsun/Kaito radios,there is some hash here and

there on AM due to display synthesizer hash and from the DSP

circuitry but it's not as bad as a KA-1102,etc.
 
Tom Wells said:
Indeed. I am always sort of looking for another radio, but without checking, I'd bet this one tunes MW in 9 or 10 khz steps instead of 1s.

You're right about the knobs. My Sangean 803 "fell" somehow about 12 years ago, and the side tuning wheel fell spang off.
I recall maybe 5 wires, but it was abviously a crude encoder that accomplished the same thing as pushing the up or down button, depending on the direction. It's easy to fool by gong too fast, and it's not always "paying attention" properly even when used slowly.
But it's been just like this since day 1. When it fell off I glommed it back on with some 2 part epoxy putty, and it's still there today.

Does anybody know how well this works on AM MW, and what's the AM audio bandwidth like?
Click to expand...

No, that's wrong. The G8 can indeed be set to tune in 1, 9 or 10 kHz increments (1 or 5 kHz in SW mode) and in .1 MHz increments in FM. Yes, the tuning knob takes some getting used to - but it's not as bad as you're all making it out to be. Furthermore, there are some pretty active imaginations in these posts regarding static crashes and the radio being blown out. Could it happen? Yes - and you could also be hit by a train. Possible, but not that likely.

I've actually bought a couple of these and - due to their low price tag - have traveled extensively with the first one (the second is a spare). It's been in rain, snow, cold, airplanes, trains, buses, foreign countries and dropped on the driveway. And it still works as well as it did the day I bought it. Very robust. And, it features excellent reception on FM with great audio too - depending on whether you use decent earphones. The FM selectivity on this radio (thanks to the DSP chip) and sensitivity is better than what is offered on the G3, G5 or G6. I routinely get FM dx on channels adjacent to locals from up to 180 miles away when conditions are right.

As for AM, though it's not outstanding as it is on FM - the G8 is still pretty decent. Better than many radios that cost a lot more. Unlike it's younger brother the Tecsun PL-310, it does not have selectable bandwidth - choosing instead to just go with 3 kHz. But it's still a pretty good balance between audio quality and reception. I can get WABC 770 on mine at night by nulling the absolutely obnoxious sidebands of local flamethrower WBBM. Not bad. Yeah, the PL-310 is better, but it'll cost more too.

Yeah, the SW section is so-so and LW is deaf as a post. But for under $50, who cares?
 
Agree 100%.

My experience with Tecsun products has been that while

the build quality is acceptable,the factory tuning is not.

For example,BFO warble in the G6 is legendary,and one

fellow on eham.com had go in and set the synchronous detector

on his new G3 himself... .

I have yet to see a "bad" G8 (of course there have to be

some,law of averages) and suspect it is because there isn't

anything to tune or peak-just put it together and go.

Kind of like the Sony SRF-59.
 
rtc said:
Agree 100%.

My experience with Tecsun products has been that while

the build quality is acceptable,the factory tuning is not.

For example,BFO warble in the G6 is legendary,and one

fellow on eham.com had go in and set the synchronous detector

on his new G3 himself... .

I have yet to see a "bad" G8 (of course there have to be

some,law of averages) and suspect it is because there isn't

anything to tune or peak-just put it together and go.

Kind of like the Sony SRF-59.
Click to expand...

Ah, but remember that the G3 is a Degen and not a Tecsun design. Honestly, I am not certain about the G6, but I think it's a Degen too - related to the G3. Degen seem to be the ones most into Air Band radios for export. The G5 is another Degen, basically an updated version of the DE-1103.

The G8 is a gussied-up (with tighter fit and finish and a nice, grippy, rubberized coating) version of a Tecsun PL-300WT.
 
"Yeah, the SW section is so-so and LW is deaf as a post."

Is it possible to "re-align" a tuner like this, as you could in many older rigs?

I've an '81 model Panasonic RX-5030 boombox, manufactured long before the mediumwave X-band was approved, that I realigned several years back. I can now tune at least far enough to the right that I can pull in KDZR on 1640.

My Yacht Boy 400PE seems to perform quite well on longwave, and it's a revised Tecsun from what I understand. I'm sure the shortwave section would perform better if the local PUD weren't transmitting so much BPL hash from the longwire antenna power lines!
 
I'm truly amazed by my G8 for the $40 I paid for it.

It is awesome on FM. Sensitivity is great & selectivity is very good, too. Here in Lake Geneva, WI, I can listen to Chicago's WBBM-FM (at 96.3) a couple of blocks away from local 6KW WLKG (on 96.1).

The selectivity on AM/MW is great, as well. Sensitivity is a bit above average. One issue...I have a 1550 (WZRK @1KW) nearby, & it's signal seems to de-sensitize the DSP on nearby frequencies. Sometimes as much as 100 KHz either side of the station. When the offending station is nulled, I can get stations as close as 1530 & 1570.

SW is pretty good for a small radio.

LW is terrible. I can barely hear a beacon on 404 that's only 10 miles away.

At first, I thought that the digital "meter" was just for show, but I've actually seen it read pretty accurately. When tuned to the digital sideband (660 or 680) of an AM HD station, (WSCR Chicago @ 670 KHz) the meter reads signal strength in the 20s & S/N at 00. That's pretty true.

I also have a G3 which is very good on FM & SW (not sure about AIR band), but just awful on AM/MW & even worse on LW. The SSB & Sync work very well, though. I'm sorry I spent so much money on the G3. I should've got 3 more G8's.
 
Thanks for the tip.... I ordered mine last night. It may be OT but more interesting than reading about HD radio problems for a change.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom