RadioBanter - View Single Post

March 11th 04, 02:46 PM

In article k.net,
says...
Just got a refurb Satellit 800 from Universal and cannot believe this unit
does not have auto band scanning capabilities. I have 50 dollar portables
that do that. I really like the darn thing, but when I plug in the earphones
I get this noticeable background static, even with the volume turned all the
way down. Then, as I slowly bring up the volume, the static is there in the
background, making listening very annoying. What's wrong here? Finally...how
is the VFO supposed to work. Every I push the button it seems to change and
I can't figure out what its supposed to be doing. Thanks for the help.
RR

Read the manual.

The Sat 800 has a couple of different modes of programable
scanning. The manaul describes them.

The VFO works continuously via the analog style knob on the right
side of the console face or in descreet steps via the up/down frequency
keys. Keystroke entry of an exact frequency via the keypad is staight
forward except that you can speed it up a hair by entering a decimal
point at the end of the number string.

The noise with the audio gain turned up is the noise floor of the
RCVR...the sum of electrical shot noise in the front stages and the
natural noise of the "sherics,"...the outside world. The automatic gain
control always turns up the gain to where there noise floor has the same
average voltage as you get when receiving a normal signal.
Unfortunately, there is no way to turn this feature off. If I could
design a Sat-800/B, one new feature would be ACG=off with the squelch
control manually controling the gain on MW and SW.

The only cause of concern here is the static noise you get with
the audio gain all the way down. This may be a bad power supply brick
or a physical connection somewhere. Contact Universal right away and
see what they say about this.