m II wrote:

johnnyjumpup wrote:

I have aquired an FRG-100, and am curious as to wha the option TCXO-4
does, I know that it stabilizes the frequency, but what does that
mean? And so you see a huge difference in the stock stabilizer?

A crystal is used to set the frequency in the radio. Crystals will
change frequency a bit with changing temperatures This is called 'drift'.

To prevent this, a really accurate crystal will be held at an even
temperature by some sort of heating device. The temperature of this has
to be above any normally encountered room temperature...for obvious reasons.

It's easier to vary the heat to the crystal than to adjust the frequency
by other means. It may be a nice thing to have, but most likely
unnecessary. It may be good if you were taping all night and didn't want
the station *maybe* slowly fading out due to frequency shift.

The worst radio I've ever seen for this was a cheap 35 dollar Grundig(1)
multiband. It would change 10 kilohertz in under three hours. A related
problem is it's inability to keep time. Garbage.

(1) a once respected name

What the hell did you expect for $35?

dxAce