RadioBanter - View Single Post

March 29th 04, 06:44 AM

(BCcubed) wrote in message ...
Is this true?

Why was I told that I could break my radio?

If this is so I don't necessarily need a R8B. I can use my SAT 700 with a
passive preselector and a nice 75' square longwire and do some serious DXing.

Help.

There's a lot more to serious DXing that sensitivity and antenna. The
Satellit 700 has a fair to poor dynamic range while the R8B dynamic
range is good to excellent. Another factor is blocking - the 700 is
fair while the R8B is excellent. What it all comes down to is this -
portables are made to be used with their internal antennas and
desktops are made to be used with outdoor or external antennas with
higher gain. You can't do serious DXing on the 700 with an external
antenna because when you amplify the weak signals you are also
amplifying the strong signals next to it. Blocking is the ability to
resist desensitization by powerful nearby signals. Poor or fair
blocking will take the strong signal you don't want and actually
desensitize the signal you do want. Portables just aren't built for
serious DXing. For serious DXing you also should have passband offset
and a good notch filter. The R8B has both.

Without the expense of the R8B, the next best thing is something like
the SW8, or the Grundig Satellit 800. While missing some of the
features, they both are made to work well with an external antenna.

The new Eton E1, which is supposed to come out this summer, will be
the only current model portable with passband offset, but still no
notch filter. It will be interesting to see test results of this new
model to see how it performs compared to other portable and desktops.