Scott Dorsey wrote:
wrote:
the SX28 and 28A were designed in the 30s.

I also own both an R390 and an R390A. If you want the ultimate in AM
performance, either of these beauties will do it for you. I perfer
the R390 because it tunes more smoothly and overall has a smoother
feel. On the air performance is similar in both, and of course both
have the famous mechanical dial.

The RF performance on these radios cannot be beat. In my office at work
I have a Watkins-Johnson HF system that cost the government a few tens of
thousands of dollars and directly digitizes the IF for digital filtering
and demodulation. The R-390A is better at pulling weak signals out of
the trash (although the panadaptor display on the Watkins-Johnson is hard to
beat).

The problem with the R390 is that the audio quality just stinks. Great for
DXing, not good for casual shortwave listening. The filters ring like mad
and the distortion on the output stage is way too high for my taste. There
are some aftermarket AF decks for these but they don't solve the real problems.

But, my god, they pull stuff out of nowhere. And once they are warmed up,
they are stable enough to stay tuned on a RTTY station for weeks.

I throw my lot in with Scott on the R-390/R-390A for stability and
sensitivity. It's all technology that I understand, but it sure is
a lot like magic.

I don't have the reservations about fidelity and distortion that
he does: they sound about as good as my Yaesu FRG-100 and my Icom
PCR-1000.

Anyone who wants to give (or lend) me a recent-model WJ receiver is
welcome to do so; I'll happily do A/B comparisons for a year or two.

--
Mike Andrews, once WN5EGO, and hoping to be W5EGO

Tired old sysadmin