For the last 40+ years, I've listened to shortwave with the same
receiver, an old Hallicrafters S-108 that I bought when I was 12 years
old.

I recently moved it out to my workshop (making the wife happy to have
it out of the house), hung a 200' longwire antenna through the trees,
and began listening more often than I used to do.

The old radio still sounds good, and it brings the BBC and Havana in
pretty strong, but trying to listen to anything other than the strong
stations is frustrating. The reception drifts, and I never really
know what frequency I've got. I can guess somewhere in the ballpark,
but that's about it.

Yesterday I started looking on ebay for receivers, wanting something
non-portable with digital tuning. I think I'm now more confused than
anything.

I don't need or want anything state of the art or expensive, just
something workable that has better frequency identification.

Any suggestions on what to look for, and maybe just as important,
anything to definitely avoid? Cost is a factor (the economy has gone
downhill here, as well), so buying a new unit is not an option.

I appreciate any suggestions or input y'all can offer.

On Wed, 8 Apr 2009, AllenMcB wrote:

Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 08:28:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: AllenMcB
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.equipment
Subject: Looking for newer SW receiver with digital tuning

For the last 40+ years, I've listened to shortwave with the same
receiver, an old Hallicrafters S-108 that I bought when I was 12 years
old.

I recently moved it out to my workshop (making the wife happy to have
it out of the house), hung a 200' longwire antenna through the trees,
and began listening more often than I used to do.

The old radio still sounds good, and it brings the BBC and Havana in
pretty strong, but trying to listen to anything other than the strong
stations is frustrating. The reception drifts, and I never really
know what frequency I've got. I can guess somewhere in the ballpark,
but that's about it.

Yesterday I started looking on ebay for receivers, wanting something
non-portable with digital tuning. I think I'm now more confused than
anything.

I don't need or want anything state of the art or expensive, just
something workable that has better frequency identification.

Any suggestions on what to look for, and maybe just as important,
anything to definitely avoid? Cost is a factor (the economy has gone
downhill here, as well), so buying a new unit is not an option.

I appreciate any suggestions or input y'all can offer.

I bought a Grundig G5 about a year ago from Radio Shack.

About the size of two king size cigarette packages, digital readout, and
almost intuitive to operate with push buttons, and is readout to one kc,
and there is a vernier tuning for SSB and CW. Built in BFO is turned on
and off with a button, and you can tune very accurately. PLL means
basically zero drift. 2 foot telescoping antenna, can pick up almost
anything in HF range. Tunes 150 kc to 29,999 khz. But has a lot of birdies
(but that shouldn't affect much). At the time it was $150 and some places
you can get it for $100. Built in S-meter, etc. Also does FM band as well
as AM and HF. For what it is, I think its a pretty good deal.

What made the deal for me was they had one in a Radio Shack store, with
batteries, and I spent ten minutes playing with it and was able to figure
out how to use it (at the basic level) without reading the manual. Could
not hear much because of all the noise made by all the other junk, but
after I bought one and took it home to quiet home environment, I could
hear just about anything my base ham transciever could hear except for the
weakest signals.

On Apr 8, 9:54*pm, Stray Dog wrote:

I bought a Grundig G5 about a year ago from Radio Shack.

About the size of two king size cigarette packages, digital readout, and
almost intuitive to operate with push buttons, and is readout to one kc,
and there is a vernier tuning for SSB and CW. Built in BFO is turned on
and off with a button, and you can tune very accurately.

Can you attach an external antenna to it?

I've seen the little SW receivers on ebay, and they all look like the
old portable transistor radios to me. I realize a lot has changed, so
please tell me: After listening to the old Hallicrafters all these
years, how is the small receiver going to sound? Will it receive as
many stations as the old boat anchor I've been using?

On Thu, 9 Apr 2009 02:54:39 +0000, Stray Dog wrote:

On Wed, 8 Apr 2009, AllenMcB wrote:

Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 08:28:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: AllenMcB
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.equipment
Subject: Looking for newer SW receiver with digital tuning

For the last 40+ years, I've listened to shortwave with the same
receiver, an old Hallicrafters S-108 that I bought when I was 12 years
old.

I recently moved it out to my workshop (making the wife happy to have
it out of the house), hung a 200' longwire antenna through the trees,
and began listening more often than I used to do.

The old radio still sounds good, and it brings the BBC and Havana in
pretty strong, but trying to listen to anything other than the strong
stations is frustrating. The reception drifts, and I never really
know what frequency I've got. I can guess somewhere in the ballpark,
but that's about it.

Yesterday I started looking on ebay for receivers, wanting something
non-portable with digital tuning.

If you're talking used, the Grundig Satellit 700 would fit the bill.
About the size of a college pyhsics text book and runs off of batteries
or a 12VDC wall wart. Has a telescoping antenna and a external antenna
connector. Lots of extra features -- like SSB and a synchronous
detector.

(Yep, that's the way it's spelled: "Satellit".)

HTH,
Jonesy
--
Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux
38.24N 104.55W | @ config.com | Jonesy | OS/2
* Killfiling google & XXXXbanter.com: jonz.net/ng.htm

Hi,

Eton E5. Spectacular sensitivity and wicked selectivity in a portable.
$150.

Another fellow mentioned a G5 from Grundig he got at RS. AFAIK, they are
the same rig inside.

Cheers!

On Apr 9, 12:01*am, geek wrote:
Hi,

Eton E5. Spectacular sensitivity and wicked selectivity in a portable.
$150.


The Etons I've seen are wind-up chargers, made mostly for emergency
use. Is this the same Eton setup?

On Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:39:59 -0700, AllenMcB wrote:

On Apr 9, 12:01*am, geek wrote:
Hi,

Eton E5. Spectacular sensitivity and wicked selectivity in a portable.
$150.


The Etons I've seen are wind-up chargers, made mostly for emergency
use. Is this the same Eton setup?

They have a whole line. IIRC, they absorbed Grundig, so inherited the
goodies and lemons ;-)

Cheers!

On Apr 9, 12:01*am, geek wrote:

Another fellow mentioned a G5 from Grundig he got at RS. AFAIK, they are
the same rig inside.

I just read reviews on the E5/G5 at http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/6815..
I think I'm looking for something that's not designed to be portable,
that will accept an external antenna, and that doesn't use batteries.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. I learned a good bit reading about
these.

AllenMcB wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion, though. I learned a good bit reading about
these.

http://www.rffun.com/catalog/commrxvr.html

http://www.rffun.com/used/used2.html

The R1000 was sold, but there were several R1000, R2000, R5000.

The R5000, and maybe the others has a Yahoo group ask there
about them before you buy one.

http://radio.tentec.com/amateur/receivers/RX320D

Possibly the best of the radios that are run by a PC.
(no controls on the radio).

FYI: Grundig is a European manufacturer of radios who sold out their
line to Eaton. In some places current production is sold as Grundig in
others, the same radios are sold as Eaton. Grundig also made a line of
very good shortwave desktops.

Another good used radio is the Drake SW8,
http://www.rffun.com/catalog/commrxvr/0088.html

BTW, almost every ham radio transceiver made since 1985 has had a general
coverage receiver. Many of them require an added AM filter to recieve
shortwave broadcasts. Even with the price of the added filter, they make
excelent desktop shortwave receivers.

73,

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM

On Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:52:17 -0700, AllenMcB wrote:

On Apr 9, 12:01*am, geek wrote:

Another fellow mentioned a G5 from Grundig he got at RS. AFAIK, they are
the same rig inside.

I just read reviews on the E5/G5 at http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/6815.
I think I'm looking for something that's not designed to be portable,
that will accept an external antenna, and that doesn't use batteries.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. I learned a good bit reading about
these.

No problem! :-)

Eton also has the E1, which is the non-portable version.

Cheers!