Lee wrote:
I've been away from this stuff for many years and recently bought a
NRD-525 on EBay. I'm a little disappointed in the results I'm
getting. A lot of noise and not a lot of stations, although some such
as Tiawan are very clear. At this point my antenna is a 40 ro 50 foot
wire strung out to a tree in my yard. I've been told that the ICOM
R75 is better due to newer design. There is no way for me to try one
or even look at one other than to buy it. Is the R75 are better
reciever? I mostly just want to hear commercial stations from other
countries.

Thanks for your time.

I think you will find that a side-by-side comparison of reception on
any of the high-end receivers will show them to be more similar than
different. Said another way you will likely hear the same stations on
an NRD525 that you will on the R75 or a Kenwood R5000. The 525 is
close to reaching classic status and it has a following of very loyal
users.

At the risk of being handed my head for asking the obvious are the RF
gain set to max and RF attenuator set to wide open?

Assuming the radio is set up correctly and the antenna has a good
connection the next question is how the receiver performs in comparison
to another. Do you have another shortwave receiver, even a portable?
If so try for the powerhouses on 6mhz at night.