Your story is exciting!

I want to do it too!

However I would rather have the RCA jack for an external shortwave
antenna...That damn miniplug for the external antenna is a big PIA...I have
always thought the antenna connections should be ELSEWHERE on the radio
away from the aux power and AF out...that cluster of input and output
sockets on the end of the radio TAXES my bifocals

Do you think the heated up RF sensistivity will be spoiled with an external
antenna connected? I use a 30's random wire

yodar


"Stinger" wrote in message
...
Back in December, I e-mailed RadioLabs to ask them if they would modify my
radio. At the time, they were only selling pre-modified radios, but they
told me to give them a call. Long story short -- Chris Justice agreed to
do
the "Super mods" to my radio. I UPS'd my radio to him, using the RMA
instructions on the "Repair" section of the RadioLabs site.

It took a few weeks to get my radio back, but there were very good reasons
for the delay. First and foremost was the fact that RadioLabs had not
planned on being in the "mods" business -- they were planning on selling
pre-modded ATS-909's as they had time to build them. I know they had to
wait for more custom-design filters to arrive from the manufacturer.

I got an e-mail from Chris when it was ready, and confirming UPS tracking
numbers from both him and the UPS shipping system. I had RadioLabs ship
it
to my office.

Two business days later, I saw the UPS guy in my office window, and met
him
at the door.

------------------
First Impressions
------------------
My Super ATS-909 looked exactly the same until I flipped it over. There,
on
the upper right-hand side of the back was a new RCA jack for an external
FM
antenna.

I put some new Alkaline batteries in it, and powered it on.

My presets were still there, so I was treated to WWL-AM, my "Priority"
station, in a rich, full CLEAR sound.

I was floored. Why? Because my office is in one of those flat-roofed,
metal-studded, radio-unfriendly buildings full of RF from a couple of
dozen
networked computers and various other noisy electronic gizmos like
plotters,
copiers and laser-printers. I've never been able to hear radio there
except
near a window -- and even that was noisy.

I pulled up the antenna and tried shortwave. Too much noise there.
Perhaps
11:00 AM inside wasn't the best time to try

---------------
Shortwave
---------------
That evening, I put it on my nightstand and plugged in the AC adapter and
my
75-foot random-wire antenna.

BLUE! The display was not what I expected -- I expected some "bluish"
white
light (instead of the algae-colored green), but what I see is a very deep
blue color, reminiscent of something it would normally take neon to
produce.
It's like indiglo on steroids. The display is very readable, and though
the
display is a little brighter than it used to be, it is not an unwelcome
new
night-light. I can see a dim reflection on the ceiling in a pitch-black
room. It's nice.

I was in luck -- propagation conditions were "good." WBCQ in Maine came
in
great (even on the whip), and I live near New Orleans. Of course all of
my
old favorite presets did as well -- only they didn't fade nearly as much
as
before. Then, another surprise -- It literally took me an hour to get
through the 49-meter band, because it was full of newly-listenable signals
to explore.

I came to really appreciate what RadioLabs had done with the "AM RF GAIN"
knob. It will now zero, which is a HUGE help when you're trying to find a
direction on MW or LW. Tuning shortwave, I found that I was using it
quite
a bit to help fine-tune signals. It is quickly obvious that the
sensitivity
has been boosted considerably.

Setting the bandwidth to "wide" on a powerful signal results in a very
clean, full sound. When DX'ing, the "NARR AM" is different than before.
It
now seems to actively isolate a signal. It's fairly difficult to get two
signals at the same time in that setting -- which I was trying to do to
review this radio so I could use SSB to zero-beat the signal. It works.

Next, I went to the 3.800 MHz area to tune in some SSB. At first, it was
a
little unusual, because I could get the signals much sooner, and it
required
more turns of the fine-tuner to get them. That's right -- you can now use
coarse tuning to get close and fine tuning for perfection.
----------------------
Longwave
----------------------
I still don't hear anything I'm really interested in on Longwave. There
are
some interesting "beeps and boops," but I'm just not enough of a radio
geek
to get excited about them. However, you do hear more of them. A lot
more...
---------------------
Medium-wave
---------------------
I've already mentioned how the modified antenna gain helps you find (or
null) signals for medium-wave (Domestic broadcast AM radio).

There's more -- the sensitivity improvements really pull in more signals.
I
found myself wishing my CCRadio Plus had the same antenna gain control as
my
Super ATS-909, because you can decrease the "floor level" of all signals
and
effectively blank weaker stations heard in the background of stronger
ones -- very handy. It makes the Super 909 the more listenable of the two
in some ways. The 909 is still not as directional as the CCRadio Plus,
due
to the shorter internal antenna.

I moved my Justice Antenna (CJA) to the Super ATS-909 just for grins --
and
it makes for a real DX combination. You can bring in a really marginal
frequency using the CJA, then attenuate it on the 909 to pull one station
out of the jumble, if that's your thing.

I just like being able to listen to my favorite nighttime 50 KW's with
much
less fading than before.
----------------------
FM
----------------------
I wish I could say that I've hooked up an external antenna for FM, but I
haven't. It is much the same as before, except with a much better sound
from the speaker, especially on "MUSIC." Headphones are much the same as
before, only with improved tone.
-----------------------
Sound
-----------------------
Basically -- night and day. First, the new speaker is crisp and clear,
but
more importantly it sounds FULL. I have found that I can keep the "TONE"
switch on "MUSIC" and still understand spoken words from even marginal
signals. The other settings are very good as well, and would be very
useful
when propagation conditions deteriorate, but I have really enjoyed
actually
hearing a little "bottom" on shortwave lately.

To give you an idea of the sound quality, many stronger Shortwave stations
will remind you of "FM-ish" clarity.
-----------------------
Quality
-----------------------
My radio came back in great condition. Frankly, I think they polished
it --
the display was really clean, etc. -- nary a sign that it had been on
someone's "bench."
Also, my radio was a bit unusual, because I bought it from C.Crane with
the
tuning detent mod already done (their "Deluxe ATS-909). I was really
surprised to see that RadioLabs even tweaked that. I guess it wasn't up
to
their standards, because the tuning knob now turns easily with one
finger --
something it did not do before -- and that's a very welcome improvement.
------------------------
Summary
------------------------
This is one radio that will never be on EBay. It's a keeper.

RadioLabs may be contacted he http://www.radiolabs.com


-- Stinger
Picayune, MS
------------------------
Disclaimer
------------------------
I am not affiliated in any way with Sangean, RadioLabs, or C.Crane
company,
and I was not compensated in any way for this review. In fact, I paid
good
money for these modifications -- and I'm damn glad I did.