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Hi all,

Having done some DX'ing with a small Sony SW radio for ten years, I
would like to buy a better one, connected to the pc. I was thinking of
the Ten-Tech RX320D. Does anyone have any experience with this radio?
Is it better than, say, Icom or Winradio? And what about computer
noise? Also, I'm in an apartment and would like some kind of antenna
(active?). Which one would you recommend, and where to get it. I am
not really a DIY person

Thanks!


I have the RX320D and use it quite a bit. It is not a DX machine by any
stretch, but it will handle a lot of spelunking nicely. The connection
from the radio to the computer is a serial cable (and in my case an
audio cable to play the audio through the computer, which in turn goes
to the stereo amp). Using the supplied whip, you do pick up noise from
the computer, but not because of the serial cable nor the audio cable.
With a standalone radio, you could just shut the computer off; but the
noise is hardly noticeable, and any other antenna (indoor or outdoor)
will negate any issue.

I agree with comment about not getting an internal card radio. Too much
noise inside the best of the computer boxes. Also, they are much more
expensive. At some point your new computer will come without a serial
port; then you will need to buy either a USB to serial converter, or a
serial card. Both these will be low risk and low cost compared to trying
to make a card-radio work.

Regarding software for the 320d:
I paid extra for the radio/software package from a third party, but that
turned out to be the wrong decision. Just buy the box from tentec, throw
out the software that they supply, and use the freeware from:
http://www.ilgradio.com/gnpdb/
While you are there, get the GNDB front-end and the ILG database; and
the two programs work together very nicely.

Also, you can get a freeware program that will decode DRM signals. I
messed around with it and on the few occasions that the signal (from
Sackville on the the east coast of Canada) was strong enough, the
digital signal really delivered high quality.

Also, you can get freeware DSP programs. So if you are feeding the audio
through the sound card (as I am), you can shape the audio however you
like (for example, I was once getting a lot of noise above 3khz on BBC,
so I just put a low pass filter on it and was able to hear a signal that
was otherwise unintelligible).

I will admit that I am a computer nut, so this radio makes perfect sense
for me; but it isn't for everyone. It isn't a portable rig by any
stretch of the imagination (when I am on the road, I just use DXTUNERS).

Hope that helps,
Gavin