That's a great, classic radio. Many people got their start in the hobby
with one of those. Even though it's single conversion, it's a very decent,
sensitive receiver and outperforms a lot of cheap dual-conversion units.

I usually use bandspreads like you are currently. Unless you're trying to
ID a station and find it's true frequency, it's more like a fine-tuning
control. I've always wanted to buy another DX-160 and add a digital
display, but that's a project for another time.


"JimC" wrote in message
. net...


I recently bought a Realistic DX-160 on Ebay, hooked up about 100 feet of
outside antenna and an indoor ground, and find that it picks up all sorts
of signals. (Although I understand that, as an older, single conversion
circuit, it's not the greatest, I do have a more modern, dual conversion
set (RS DX-398, similar to the Sangean ATS-909), with digital entry and
memory.) So far, I enjoy using the DX-160, with analog tuning, more than
the digital set. I have several novice-level questions.-

First, I can pick up lots of stations on the 40-50 meter bands, and, in
the daytime, a few on the 15 - 20 meter bands. I'm not getting many HAM or
code signals or marine broadcasts. In addition to these stations, there
seem to be lots of other transmissions that can be heard and that cause
the S-meter to jump over, but which aren't speech or code. - Some of them
sound like a rushing noise, and others are like a whine produced by an
electric motor or other machine. Some are just a noticeably silent
station, with no voice or message. - Can anyone suggest what these
"broadcasts" are? Is there any way to filter them out? - Since there are
so many of them, would this suggest that I have an antenna that is too
long?

The DX-160 has bandspread tuning in addition to the main tuning, seen on a
large main tuning dial, and I'm using the bandspread tuning to go back to
a station that couldn't be tuned easily with the main dial. - I'm
wondering how most operators use the bandspread. - Do you actually "zero"
it and then scan (to the left in my case) by a given number of KH/MH, or
do you just go back and forth near the station of interest?

I'm somewhat disappointed in what's available in English (or French) most
of the time. I had hoped to pick up stations from Europe and England, but
there don't seem to be a lot of them. - I can sometimes pick up BBC
stations that I think are in England but haven't noticed much of anything
from France. Is this typical of what others are receiving? (I'm in Texas,
so probably am not in the best US location except for Cuban and Mexican
stations and US religious broadcasts.) On the other hand, there seem to be
lots of oriental language broadcasts. - I haven't figured out what
countries most are from, but the dial on my RS DX-398 indicates some are
from Japan. -

Last, I understand that sunspot activity isn't good at this time. - When
will it improve?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Jim Cate