Dear Ms. Laura,

Contrary to a post above, the Roberts R861 is equivalent to the Sangean
ATS 909, a radio which is superior to the '505. It is a good (not
great) short wave portable radio. However, it does not feaure the
synchronous selectable sideband circuitry which the Sony features and
which, in my opinion, makes all the difference in pleasant listening.

I habe never owned a Sangean ATS 909 nor do I know anyone who does.
According to PASSPORT TO WORLD BAND RADIO, the Sangean/Roberts works
BEST off its AC adapter as it "eats" batteries. An external antenna is
necessary also, as it lacks sensitivity with its whip (according to
them).

A long wire, or loop antenna, mounted on your roof would be ideal. Try
buying a length of insulated wire, two ceramic or equivalent stand-off
insulators (to isolate the antenna from whatever support you use) and
some lead-in wire; attach the appropriate plug to the lead-in to attach
to the radio and you're in business. No separate ground is necessary,
but make sure you DISCONNECT the antenna whenever the radio is not in
use and, especially, during local thunderstorms. (NEVER use ANY
electronic appliance during a thunderstorm; storms only last a
half-hour or so.)

Do NOT let your antenna proper or the lead-in touch anything metallic;
that will degrade the signal.

Tall buildings don't impact short wave signals; electrical "noise" from
computers, fluorescent lights, light dimmers, and other such modern
accoutrements do, however, and it is best to turn these off if
possible. Especially turn off such items one by one to see if the
particular item is causing interference. (Of course, you can do nothing
about your neighbors.) I have a very bad situation at my location with
local electrical noise and I have been able to find a solution, but it
would not be appropriate for you as it cost a great deal of money.

I received VOK several weeks ago at about 0130 on 15180 kHz (actually a
"hair" off that frequency). I haven't heard it since, but, frankly,
have not tried either. Perhaps in the next couple of days I'll listen
for it again.

Do you know about Prime Time Shortwave? Just enter that in Google and
it will take you to one of the best short wave schedule programs on the
web (it's free!). There you can find the latest information on any
station you might desire - its time and frequency and the "target area"
to which it is transmitting. This often lets you have a "fighting
chance" of picking up the signal.

All the best, and the best of luck with your new radio,

Joe

laura fairhead wrote:
fOn 10 Dec 2004 06:40:32 -0800, "Joe Analssandrini"
wrote:


Hi Joe,

I was an impatient child in the end and went and bought a Roberts
R861.
They actually retail for quite a bit more than the Sony but I'm not
sure I did the right thing :O Its difficult for me because I can't
get deliveries where I live so I checked the local stores and to my
surprise the local electronics shop he had a Roberts R861 (2nd hand
but
VGC) and was only asking =A3120 for everything including mains
adapter.
I'm happy because the Sony was going to cost more than that and
the Xmas squeeze is on - I think I'm going to get so much into this
I will end up getting the Sony soon AS WELL anyway First thing we
realised
is reception is rubbish here (right next door to a huge apartment
block
and lots of buildings on all sides we think are blocking the signals)

The funny thing is that having the mains adapter plugged in seesm to
improve the signal rather than degrade it (maybe it uses it as an
aerial?)
I understand that the telescopic aerial is for FM ? I plugged in the
'whip'
(long wire thing) and put it as high as I could (not very much!) but
we think it will be much better if we put an aerial up on the roof.
Should I just put a long length of wire up there ? Is it alright to
just dangle that down the side of the house to connect it or do we
need to use a special shielded cable to do that? I want to have the
computer running at the same time and it seems to interfer, maybe
it would interfer with the aerial lead coming in ? (I don't know
being inexperienced but that is what my hunch is...)

Anyway I have been glued to the thing all night and wonder if I'll
ever
get to bed :-)) My first exciting discovery (I have been scanning and
writing down the channels or a description) was "All Indian Radio"
on 7.409Mhz. Also I think I got something from Nigeria on 7.382Mhz.
I couldn't get Voice of Korea at all, not one iota. Do you think the
Sony would fend better at that? Or is it just my aerial I need to
set-up?
What frequency did you get VOK on?

Thanxs again, your post was very informative

bestwishes
laura

Dear Ms. Laura,

Universal Radio sells an AC adapter for the Sony ICF-SW7600GR which
they claim is satisfactory. Sony's adapter is of the new "switching"
kind which, though much more efficient than the older linear
adapters,
introduces a lot of noise; this makes it unsuitable for SW
reception.

In any case, the adapters sold here are for 110V, not 220. I do not
know anything about the AC adapters sold in England. You must make
sure
that any AC adapter you purchase for the radio is a linear one as
opposed to a "switching" adapter.

I don't recommend the AC adapter because, even if it injects just a
small amount of noise, this may impact your reception of Korea. (You
should check on that with people who live in the UK; Korea's signal
strength may be well stronger in the UK than the US.)

Of course, if you wish to use a timer to turn on the radio, then, of
course, you will need an AC adapter which would plug into the timer.

However, if you use rechargeable NiMH batteries (which is what I
strongly recommend for both the radio and the antenna), these can be
charged at any time (they have little or no "memory effect" like
NiCad
batteries) so you could charge them every day if you wished. There
are
chargers which will recharge those batteries in one hour or less.

The radio runs a very long time on rechargeable NiMH batteries and
the
antenna lasts even longer on those batteries. You need have no fear
of
the batteries going flat if you maintain them properly in accordance
with your listening habits.

The myth that "the radio powers the antenna" began, I'm afraid, with
an
error in PASSPORT TO WORLD BAND RADIO which is maintained even in
its
latest edition. It may be an error in interpretation. The radio will
power on (and off) the antenna (in other words, when using the
antenna
with the '7600, one does not need to use the power switch on the
antenna; it is turned on or off with the radio), but batteries are
required in the antenna. It will not work if there are no batteries
installed. PASSPORT's terminology is unfortunate and has led to a
great
deal of confusion.

The antenna has no input for an AC adapter, but, as it turns on and
off
with the radio, there would be no problem with leaving the antenna
powered unnecessarily. (The Sony AN-LP1 has the "automatic"
operation
only with the '7600 radio. It, of course, works with other SW
radios,
but the power switch must be turned on and off manually. Note also
that
the AN-LP1 is strictly for SW. It must be physically disconnected
from
the radio when listening to MW or LW.)

I hope the above is of some use to you and, again, I wish you the
very
best of luck.

Joe
=20
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