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Receiver Recommendations?

landtuna

landtuna

I'm thinking seriously of getting back into the listening side of amateur radio after a number of years. Reading about all the new technology has made me crazy sooooooo......

What receivers would you consider adaquate for hobby listening for both LW/MW/HF and VHF/UHF? I realize there may be two different receivers involved.

I'm currently leaning towards an ICOM R75 for the shortwave side and ICOM R7000/R7100 (unblocked) for the VHF/UHF side. I'd like to stay 'reasonable' on the cost side (less than $1,000 for all radio's).

Comments?
 
The R75 is very good for HF & 6m. Actually I traded mine for an IC-718 when I got my General ticket & honestly can't tell much difference if any on HF, although I believe the R75 has FM which the 718 doesn't. You should be able to find a good deal & I think they come standard with DSP now.

I just use a wide coverage scanner for VHF/UHF - just be sure to get one that does APCO25 or at least trunking. Higher end receivers like the AOR's will probably blow out your 1k budget.
 
I would suggest two receivers, with the aforementioned R75 being a great choice for anything under 30MHz. I don't own an R75, but I played around with one a couple years ago and was impressed.

As for the world above 30MHz, check out the BR330T, if you are not concerned with APCO25 digital trunk reception. Except for cellular, it has decent coverage from 5MHz up to 1300MHz with no gaps. I say "decent coverage from 5MHz up" even though it actually tunes down to 100kHz, because the receiver's reception is rather poor below 5MHz. Even so, it will still get your local AM stations if need be. The BR330T has a LOT of memory, a decent computer interface (computer not required to program, though), ability to quick-tune a nearby transmitter (a feature called Close Call), per-channel attenuator, selectable Narrow-FM / FM / Wide-FM / AM (no SSB) on any frequency, and preprogrammed service searches which includes the amateur bands 10m, 6m, 2m, 222, 440, and 1240. It also has a reasonably fast CTCSS/DCS tone-search, which can help with identifying various repeaters. I've seen the BR330T at Communication Electronics for around $275 (this is NOT an endorsement, just an example!).

There is a very similar unit which also includes APCO25 digital for around $550 -- I think the model number is the 996.

Now, one final note... Be forewarned, the BR330T receiver has a NASCAR logo on the front. Some people are irritated to heck about that. It doesn't bother me. I've heard other people say they remedied the situation with a nicely-cut rectangle of electrical tape. ;D
 
Thanks for the great advice guys. As it turns out I bought an R75 late last week because virtually everyone gave it high marks. Then just this morning I lucked into a great deal on an ICOM 7000. It's an older unit but has been well maintained and works like a charm. It won't be state of the art but it was very reasonable and, until I get more real-time experience, will do quite nicely.

I'm going to keep your recommendations for future reference. :)
 
For HF you might want to look at some of the old boatanchors, good ones are stable enough for SSB reception. The ones that come to mind are R-390A's and Hammarlund SP-600's. The latter goes up to 6M. You can set a good R-390A to a station once it's warmed up and it will still be dead on in a week. You can even take apart and fix these radios, imagine that? The sound of them really kills most modern radios also.
 
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