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S 350 DL
I was browsing in Radio Shack today, and I bought a black Grundig S 350 DL.
I've had a regular 350 for quite a while now, and have always loved it, so I thought I would pick up on the new version. I haven't had time to tune around on it yet, but it looks like it will be a fine addition to my portable collection. It looks very cool in black. I like the idea of the FM stereo and the fact it will take AA batteries too. I always have a good supply of them in the house, but I never have that many extra D cells around. Last month I bought The small black Grundig Mini-300, and have had a barrel of fun with it. The size and performance for 29 bucks made it a great deal. The S350 DL was only 99 plus tax. I like the new steam of portables that is hitting America. Neat radios for a great prices. It kind of juices up the old hobby. I love collecting radios as much as listening to them. |
S 350 DL
On Apr 4, 4:02�am, "SWL-2010" wrote:
I was browsing in Radio Shack today, and I bought a black Grundig S 350 DL. I've had a regular 350 for quite a while now, and have always loved it, so I thought I would pick up on the new version. *I haven't had time to tune around on it yet, but it looks like it will be a fine addition to my portable collection. *It looks very cool in black. I like the idea of the FM stereo and the fact it will take AA batteries too. *I always have a good supply of them in the house, but I never have that many extra D cells around. Last month I bought The small black Grundig Mini-300, and have had a barrel of fun with it. *The size and performance for 29 bucks *made it a great deal. *The S350 DL was only 99 plus tax. *I like the new steam of portables that is hitting America. Neat radios for a great prices. It kind of juices up the old hobby. *I love collecting radios as much as listening to them. The S350 is poison - stay away from it: "Survey #2 - What is the most over rated radio that you have ever owned?" http://www.radiointel.com/results2.htm |
S 350 DL
On Apr 4, 1:18?pm, lsmyer wrote:
Congratulations on your cool new radio. I have a Tecsun BCL-2000 (Chinese version of the S-350) which I really like, and I've also considered the S-350DL. How does your new radio's performance (sensitivity, sound, drifting, tuning) compare with your original S-350? For some reason, some of the people who post here get really worked up over the S-350DL. Don't let their criticism ruin your enjoyment of your new radio. The S350s are garbage - open yours up and see what I mean. |
S 350 DL
wrote in message oups.com... On Apr 4, 4:02?am, "SWL-2010" wrote: I was browsing in Radio Shack today, and I bought a black Grundig S 350 DL. I've had a regular 350 for quite a while now, and have always loved it, so I thought I would pick up on the new version. I haven't had time to tune around on it yet, but it looks like it will be a fine addition to my portable collection. It looks very cool in black. I like the idea of the FM stereo and the fact it will take AA batteries too. I always have a good supply of them in the house, but I never have that many extra D cells around. Last month I bought The small black Grundig Mini-300, and have had a barrel of fun with it. The size and performance for 29 bucks made it a great deal. The S350 DL was only 99 plus tax. I like the new steam of portables that is hitting America. Neat radios for a great prices. It kind of juices up the old hobby. I love collecting radios as much as listening to them. The S350 is poison - stay away from it: Poison? That's a little dramatic. It's a radio. I've owned a 350 for several years and I love. I dont care anymore about radio reviews than I do movie reviews. They're someone elses opinion. I'm capable of forming my own opinions. "Survey #2 - What is the most over rated radio that you have ever owned?" http://www.radiointel.com/results2.htm |
S 350 DL
"lsmyer" wrote in message ... Congratulations on your cool new radio. I have a Tecsun BCL-2000 (Chinese version of the S-350) which I really like, and I've also considered the S-350DL. How does your new radio's performance (sensitivity, sound, drifting, tuning) compare with your original S-350? I havn't had time to sit down and tune it much yet, but so far so good. I can't detect any drift to amount to anything. The sound is great. The two tone controls make it rich, or flat, any way you want it. And so far, like my older S350, the sensitivity is very good. I've used my S350 a great deal, so I thought I would get the newer verision since the price was right at only a hundred bucks. For some reason, some of the people who post here get really worked up over the S-350DL. Don't let their criticism ruin your enjoyment of your new radio. Negative and/or foolish people don't affect me or rain on my parade. Unfortunatly they do live among us, all we can do is tolerate their petty jealousy and insecurities. They're kind of like the bratty kid who shows up at your grandsons bithday party, just give them some cake and hope their parents take them home first so they dont spoil the party for everyone else. |
S 350 DL
On Apr 4, 9:09 am, wrote:
On Apr 4, 4:02?am, "SWL-2010" wrote: I was browsing in Radio Shack today, and I bought a black Grundig S 350 DL. I've had a regular 350 for quite a while now, and have always loved it, so I thought I would pick up on the new version. ?I haven't had time to tune around on it yet, but it looks like it will be a fine addition to my portable collection. ?It looks very cool in black. I like the idea of the FM stereo and the fact it will take AA batteries too. ?I always have a good supply of them in the house, but I never have that many extra D cells around. Last month I bought The small black Grundig Mini-300, and have had a barrel of fun with it. ?The size and performance for 29 bucks ?made it a great deal. ?The S350 DL was only 99 plus tax. ?I like the new steam of portables that is hitting America. Neat radios for a great prices. It kind of juices up the old hobby. ?I love collecting radios as much as listening to them. The S350 is poison - stay away from it: "Survey #2 - What is the most over rated radio that you have ever owned?" http://www.radiointel.com/results2.htm Congratulations. I think you will find the S350DL will do exactly what it is designed to ddo. Which is deliver excellent good audio for broadcast stations on AM, shortwave and FM with the minimum number of controls. I think of the S350DL and S350 as a volks-radio along the lines of the very popular Panasonic analog/digitals of th 1980's. None of them were designed to be DX machines but they will pull in a lot of stations with the built-in antenna. |
S 350 DL
On Apr 4, 1:02 am, "SWL-2010" wrote:
I was browsing in Radio Shack today, and I bought a black Grundig S 350 DL. I've had a regular 350 for quite a while now, and have always loved it, so I thought I would pick up on the new version. I haven't had time to tune around on it yet, but it looks like it will be a fine addition to my portable collection. It looks very cool in black. I like the idea of the FM stereo and the fact it will take AA batteries too. I always have a good supply of them in the house, but I never have that many extra D cells around. Last month I bought The small black Grundig Mini-300, and have had a barrel of fun with it. The size and performance for 29 bucks made it a great deal. The S350 DL was only 99 plus tax. I like the new steam of portables that is hitting America. Neat radios for a great prices. It kind of juices up the old hobby. I love collecting radios as much as listening to them. Congratulations. I think you will find the S350DL will do exactly what it is designed to ddo. Which is deliver excellent good audio for broadcast stations on AM, shortwave and FM with the minimum number of controls. I think of the S350DL and S350 as a volks-radio along the lines of the very popular Panasonic analog/digitals of th 1980's. None of them were designed to be DX machines but they will pull in a lot of stations with the built-in antenna. |
S 350 DL
"Michael Black" wrote in message ... "SWL-2010" ) writes: I havn't had time to sit down and tune it much yet, but so far so good. I can't detect any drift to amount to anything. The sound is great. The two tone controls make it rich, or flat, any way you want it. And so far, like my older S350, the sensitivity is very good. I've used my S350 a great deal, so I thought I would get the newer verision since the price was right at only a hundred bucks. What some people forget is what it was like to have a low end receiver forty years or so ago. I bought a Hallicrafter's S120A (as I've mentioned before, it was a solid state receiver) in the summer of 1971, and paid something like $80, maybe a bit more, here in Canada. It was about the cheapest new receiver I could buy, and it was barely within my price range. It got the really strong signals, and not much else. It overloaded badly, it seemed to be from FM broadcast stations or maybe TV. The BFO was so weak that it wasn't useable for receiving SSB. The dial had all kinds of exotic locations listed on it, but not only was the calibration way off, but frequency readout was like "it's closer to the .5 than the .0 mark". It had horrible backlash on the tuning knob. It was awful. I claim it was the world's worst shortwave receiver, but I suspect it wasn't that different from many of the low end solid state receivers from the period, before real advancements had been made in making good solid state shortwave receivers. We suffered through them because we couldn't afford anything better. I imagine a $20 shortwave portable from Radio Shack today couldn't be worse than that old Hallicrafter's. Plus, you'd get a digital readout, and likely the tuning knob (if it wasn't tuned by up/down buttons) would have less backlash than that first receiver of mine. That doesn't mean that relative to better receivers of today the low end are perfect, merely that they can't be worse, and may be better for the simple reason that design has changed. Michael Well, I've been buying radios and other electronic toys for many years now, and I never expect anymore than I pay for. I am rarely dissapointed, and often times pleasantly surprised. If I buy a hundred dollar radio, I pretty much know what to expect. However, with the Grundigs, I get some pretty good radios for that price range. I bought a 29 dollar Grundig last month and have had a ball with it. I never factor out the fun factor in anything. Shortwave radio has been my hobby for close to 50 years now, and I still have fun with it. And for my money, that the central point. |
S 350 DL
On Apr 4, 7:29 pm, (Michael Black) wrote:
"SWL-2010" ) writes: I havn't had time to sit down and tune it much yet, but so far so good. I can't detect any drift to amount to anything. The sound is great. The two tone controls make it rich, or flat, any way you want it. And so far, like my older S350, the sensitivity is very good. I've used my S350 a great deal, so I thought I would get the newer verision since the price was right at only a hundred bucks. What some people forget is what it was like to have a low end receiver forty years or so ago. I bought a Hallicrafter's S120A (as I've mentioned before, it was a solid state receiver) in the summer of 1971, and paid something like $80, maybe a bit more, here in Canada. It was about the cheapest new receiver I could buy, and it was barely within my price range. It got the really strong signals, and not much else. It overloaded badly, it seemed to be from FM broadcast stations or maybe TV. The BFO was so weak that it wasn't useable for receiving SSB. The dial had all kinds of exotic locations listed on it, but not only was the calibration way off, but frequency readout was like "it's closer to the .5 than the .0 mark". It had horrible backlash on the tuning knob. It was awful. I claim it was the world's worst shortwave receiver, but I suspect it wasn't that different from many of the low end solid state receivers from the period, before real advancements had been made in making good solid state shortwave receivers. We suffered through them because we couldn't afford anything better. I imagine a $20 shortwave portable from Radio Shack today couldn't be worse than that old Hallicrafter's. Plus, you'd get a digital readout, and likely the tuning knob (if it wasn't tuned by up/down buttons) would have less backlash than that first receiver of mine. That doesn't mean that relative to better receivers of today the low end are perfect, merely that they can't be worse, and may be better for the simple reason that design has changed. Michael I think an old Hallicrafters S120A, Lafayette HA230 or Realistic DX150b are good examples of radios that were for very good reasons popular once upon a time. They can be fun to spin the dials on even today. Ultimately however, I think they serve as a benchmark from which to measure how far radio technology has advanced. It would not be difficult to find a digitally tuned portable priced at $50.00 to $100.00 that will substantially out perform any of those oldies. But it won't look or feel like a bandspread tuned receiver either, and it won't give the tactile and aural pleasure of slowly turning a weighted bandspread knob and listening carefully as stations gradually come into and out of tune. Eventually, when finding a specific station or jumping from band to band goes to slowly the game gets a little old. |
S 350 DL
On Thu, 5 Apr 2007 14:37:55 UTC, "Roadie" wrote:
On Apr 4, 7:29 pm, (Michael Black) wrote: "SWL-2010" ) writes: I havn't had time to sit down and tune it much yet, but so far so good. I can't detect any drift to amount to anything. The sound is great. The two tone controls make it rich, or flat, any way you want it. And so far, like my older S350, the sensitivity is very good. I've used my S350 a great deal, so I thought I would get the newer verision since the price was right at only a hundred bucks. What some people forget is what it was like to have a low end receiver forty years or so ago. I bought a Hallicrafter's S120A (as I've mentioned before, it was a solid state receiver) in the summer of 1971, and paid something like $80, maybe a bit more, here in Canada. It was about the cheapest new receiver I could buy, and it was barely within my price range. It got the really strong signals, and not much else. It overloaded badly, it seemed to be from FM broadcast stations or maybe TV. The BFO was so weak that it wasn't useable for receiving SSB. The dial had all kinds of exotic locations listed on it, but not only was the calibration way off, but frequency readout was like "it's closer to the .5 than the .0 mark". It had horrible backlash on the tuning knob. It was awful. I claim it was the world's worst shortwave receiver, but I suspect it wasn't that different from many of the low end solid state receivers from the period, before real advancements had been made in making good solid state shortwave receivers. We suffered through them because we couldn't afford anything better. I imagine a $20 shortwave portable from Radio Shack today couldn't be worse than that old Hallicrafter's. Plus, you'd get a digital readout, and likely the tuning knob (if it wasn't tuned by up/down buttons) would have less backlash than that first receiver of mine. That doesn't mean that relative to better receivers of today the low end are perfect, merely that they can't be worse, and may be better for the simple reason that design has changed. Michael I think an old Hallicrafters S120A, Lafayette HA230 or Realistic DX150b are good examples of radios that were for very good reasons popular once upon a time. They can be fun to spin the dials on even today. Ultimately however, I think they serve as a benchmark from which to measure how far radio technology has advanced. It would not be difficult to find a digitally tuned portable priced at $50.00 to $100.00 that will substantially out perform any of those oldies. But it won't look or feel like a bandspread tuned receiver either, and it won't give the tactile and aural pleasure of slowly turning a weighted bandspread knob and listening carefully as stations gradually come into and out of tune. Eventually, when finding a specific station or jumping from band to band goes to slowly the game gets a little old. My first sw radio was an S-120, my mother got it for me for Christmas at Sears. It was terrible on accuracy, not very selective, but when you are 12 years old, hearing world stations was exciting. I think that I got over 40 countries QSL'd and many states(from OK at the time). Now, I have two restored boatanchors: An S-38 and its bigger twin, a Lafayette HE-10, both provide the experience you mention: the fun of seeing the old dial lamps and turning the big dials looking for that elusive station. -- "What do you mean there's no movie?" |
S 350 DL
I've had my Tecsun BCL3000 for about a year and a half with no problems. It
works just as I expected. I had a Grundig FR200 radio that I used at the office, but after three months of use, the volume control got very noisy. I got a replacement, and it developed the same problem. My BCL3000 did not develop this problem and all the controls work well. The tuning knob was a little stiff when I first got it, but it has loosened up a bit since, and it's easy to tune. Despite all the negative comments, I find my BCL3000 is an all around fun radio to use. I use a PK AM loop antenna with my radio, and I can pick up weak stations just fine. "lsmyer" wrote in message ... Congratulations on your cool new radio. I have a Tecsun BCL-2000 (Chinese version of the S-350) which I really like, and I've also considered the S-350DL. How does your new radio's performance (sensitivity, sound, drifting, tuning) compare with your original S-350? For some reason, some of the people who post here get really worked up over the S-350DL. Don't let their criticism ruin your enjoyment of your new radio. |
S 350 DL
On Apr 5, 10:52 am, Count
wrote: On Thu, 5 Apr 2007 14:37:55 UTC, "Roadie" wrote: On Apr 4, 7:29 pm, (Michael Black) wrote: "SWL-2010" ) writes: I havn't had time to sit down and tune it much yet, but so far so good. I can't detect any drift to amount to anything. The sound is great. The two tone controls make it rich, or flat, any way you want it. And so far, like my older S350, the sensitivity is very good. I've used my S350 a great deal, so I thought I would get the newer verision since the price was right at only a hundred bucks. What some people forget is what it was like to have a low end receiver forty years or so ago. I bought a Hallicrafter's S120A (as I've mentioned before, it was a solid state receiver) in the summer of 1971, and paid something like $80, maybe a bit more, here in Canada. It was about the cheapest new receiver I could buy, and it was barely within my price range. It got the really strong signals, and not much else. It overloaded badly, it seemed to be from FM broadcast stations or maybe TV. The BFO was so weak that it wasn't useable for receiving SSB. The dial had all kinds of exotic locations listed on it, but not only was the calibration way off, but frequency readout was like "it's closer to the .5 than the .0 mark". It had horrible backlash on the tuning knob. It was awful. I claim it was the world's worst shortwave receiver, but I suspect it wasn't that different from many of the low end solid state receivers from the period, before real advancements had been made in making good solid state shortwave receivers. We suffered through them because we couldn't afford anything better. I imagine a $20 shortwave portable from Radio Shack today couldn't be worse than that old Hallicrafter's. Plus, you'd get a digital readout, and likely the tuning knob (if it wasn't tuned by up/down buttons) would have less backlash than that first receiver of mine. That doesn't mean that relative to better receivers of today the low end are perfect, merely that they can't be worse, and may be better for the simple reason that design has changed. Michael I think an old Hallicrafters S120A, Lafayette HA230 or Realistic DX150b are good examples of radios that were for very good reasons popular once upon a time. They can be fun to spin the dials on even today. Ultimately however, I think they serve as a benchmark from which to measure how far radio technology has advanced. It would not be difficult to find a digitally tuned portable priced at $50.00 to $100.00 that will substantially out perform any of those oldies. But it won't look or feel like a bandspread tuned receiver either, and it won't give the tactile and aural pleasure of slowly turning a weighted bandspread knob and listening carefully as stations gradually come into and out of tune. Eventually, when finding a specific station or jumping from band to band goes to slowly the game gets a little old. My first sw radio was an S-120, my mother got it for me for Christmas at Sears. It was terrible on accuracy, not very selective, but when you are 12 years old, hearing world stations was exciting. I think that I got over 40 countries QSL'd and many states(from OK at the time). Now, I have two restored boatanchors: An S-38 and its bigger twin, a Lafayette HE-10, both provide the experience you mention: the fun of seeing the old dial lamps and turning the big dials looking for that elusive station. -- "What do you mean there's no movie?"- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Probably the most satisfaction I got from tuning a bandspread receiver was with a Kenwood R300. It just felt good to look at and use and it did the job reasonably well. And the xtal marker helped in some situations. I owned a National HRO-500 for a while, and turning that massive bank- vault tuning knob was unadulterated pleasure. It was a royal PITA to tune and otherwise move around the bands with though. |
S 350 DL
"Roadie" wrote in message oups.com... On Apr 5, 10:52 am, Count wrote: On Thu, 5 Apr 2007 14:37:55 UTC, "Roadie" wrote: On Apr 4, 7:29 pm, (Michael Black) wrote: "SWL-2010" ) writes: I havn't had time to sit down and tune it much yet, but so far so good. I can't detect any drift to amount to anything. The sound is great. The two tone controls make it rich, or flat, any way you want it. And so far, like my older S350, the sensitivity is very good. I've used my S350 a great deal, so I thought I would get the newer verision since the price was right at only a hundred bucks. What some people forget is what it was like to have a low end receiver forty years or so ago. I bought a Hallicrafter's S120A (as I've mentioned before, it was a solid state receiver) in the summer of 1971, and paid something like $80, maybe a bit more, here in Canada. It was about the cheapest new receiver I could buy, and it was barely within my price range. It got the really strong signals, and not much else. It overloaded badly, it seemed to be from FM broadcast stations or maybe TV. The BFO was so weak that it wasn't useable for receiving SSB. The dial had all kinds of exotic locations listed on it, but not only was the calibration way off, but frequency readout was like "it's closer to the .5 than the .0 mark". It had horrible backlash on the tuning knob. It was awful. I claim it was the world's worst shortwave receiver, but I suspect it wasn't that different from many of the low end solid state receivers from the period, before real advancements had been made in making good solid state shortwave receivers. We suffered through them because we couldn't afford anything better. I imagine a $20 shortwave portable from Radio Shack today couldn't be worse than that old Hallicrafter's. Plus, you'd get a digital readout, and likely the tuning knob (if it wasn't tuned by up/down buttons) would have less backlash than that first receiver of mine. That doesn't mean that relative to better receivers of today the low end are perfect, merely that they can't be worse, and may be better for the simple reason that design has changed. Michael I think an old Hallicrafters S120A, Lafayette HA230 or Realistic DX150b are good examples of radios that were for very good reasons popular once upon a time. They can be fun to spin the dials on even today. Ultimately however, I think they serve as a benchmark from which to measure how far radio technology has advanced. It would not be difficult to find a digitally tuned portable priced at $50.00 to $100.00 that will substantially out perform any of those oldies. But it won't look or feel like a bandspread tuned receiver either, and it won't give the tactile and aural pleasure of slowly turning a weighted bandspread knob and listening carefully as stations gradually come into and out of tune. Eventually, when finding a specific station or jumping from band to band goes to slowly the game gets a little old. My first sw radio was an S-120, my mother got it for me for Christmas at Sears. It was terrible on accuracy, not very selective, but when you are 12 years old, hearing world stations was exciting. I think that I got over 40 countries QSL'd and many states(from OK at the time). Now, I have two restored boatanchors: An S-38 and its bigger twin, a Lafayette HE-10, both provide the experience you mention: the fun of seeing the old dial lamps and turning the big dials looking for that elusive station. -- "What do you mean there's no movie?"- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Probably the most satisfaction I got from tuning a bandspread receiver was with a Kenwood R300. It just felt good to look at and use and it did the job reasonably well. And the xtal marker helped in some situations. A Kenwood R-300? I have one sitting right next to me right now. It's one of my favorites. It's a big beautiful old black receiver in very good condition, and I use it everyday. It has plenty of controls, and if you get it calibrated just right, mine is pretty accurate. But the sensitivity is the great part. Mine doesn't miss anything. I also use my old Drake SSR-1 a lot too. The Wadley Loop is very accurate. All you do is set the band switch. Tune in the MHz, and then just tune the main tuning dial for KHz, and it's right there. It's in very good condition too. I use the Kenwood and the Drake when I just want to slowly go up and down bands. I could not even say how enjoyable they are. I owned a National HRO-500 for a while, and turning that massive bank- vault tuning knob was unadulterated pleasure. It was a royal PITA to tune and otherwise move around the bands with though. I've never tuned a National, but I would love to. |
S 350 DL
On Apr 5, 6:02 pm, "SWL-2010" wrote:
"Roadie" wrote in message oups.com... On Apr 5, 10:52 am, Count wrote: On Thu, 5 Apr 2007 14:37:55 UTC, "Roadie" wrote: On Apr 4, 7:29 pm, (Michael Black) wrote: "SWL-2010" ) writes: I havn't had time to sit down and tune it much yet, but so far so good. I can't detect any drift to amount to anything. The sound is great. The two tone controls make it rich, or flat, any way you want it. And so far, like my older S350, the sensitivity is very good. I've used my S350 a great deal, so I thought I would get the newer verision since the price was right at only a hundred bucks. What some people forget is what it was like to have a low end receiver forty years or so ago. I bought a Hallicrafter's S120A (as I've mentioned before, it was a solid state receiver) in the summer of 1971, and paid something like $80, maybe a bit more, here in Canada. It was about the cheapest new receiver I could buy, and it was barely within my price range. It got the really strong signals, and not much else. It overloaded badly, it seemed to be from FM broadcast stations or maybe TV. The BFO was so weak that it wasn't useable for receiving SSB. The dial had all kinds of exotic locations listed on it, but not only was the calibration way off, but frequency readout was like "it's closer to the .5 than the .0 mark". It had horrible backlash on the tuning knob. It was awful. I claim it was the world's worst shortwave receiver, but I suspect it wasn't that different from many of the low end solid state receivers from the period, before real advancements had been made in making good solid state shortwave receivers. We suffered through them because we couldn't afford anything better. I imagine a $20 shortwave portable from Radio Shack today couldn't be worse than that old Hallicrafter's. Plus, you'd get a digital readout, and likely the tuning knob (if it wasn't tuned by up/down buttons) would have less backlash than that first receiver of mine. That doesn't mean that relative to better receivers of today the low end are perfect, merely that they can't be worse, and may be better for the simple reason that design has changed. Michael I think an old Hallicrafters S120A, Lafayette HA230 or Realistic DX150b are good examples of radios that were for very good reasons popular once upon a time. They can be fun to spin the dials on even today. Ultimately however, I think they serve as a benchmark from which to measure how far radio technology has advanced. It would not be difficult to find a digitally tuned portable priced at $50.00 to $100.00 that will substantially out perform any of those oldies. But it won't look or feel like a bandspread tuned receiver either, and it won't give the tactile and aural pleasure of slowly turning a weighted bandspread knob and listening carefully as stations gradually come into and out of tune. Eventually, when finding a specific station or jumping from band to band goes to slowly the game gets a little old. My first sw radio was an S-120, my mother got it for me for Christmas at Sears. It was terrible on accuracy, not very selective, but when you are 12 years old, hearing world stations was exciting. I think that I got over 40 countries QSL'd and many states(from OK at the time). Now, I have two restored boatanchors: An S-38 and its bigger twin, a Lafayette HE-10, both provide the experience you mention: the fun of seeing the old dial lamps and turning the big dials looking for that elusive station. -- "What do you mean there's no movie?"- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Probably the most satisfaction I got from tuning a bandspread receiver was with a Kenwood R300. It just felt good to look at and use and it did the job reasonably well. And the xtal marker helped in some situations. A Kenwood R-300? I have one sitting right next to me right now. It's one of my favorites. It's a big beautiful old black receiver in very good condition, and I use it everyday. It has plenty of controls, and if you get it calibrated just right, mine is pretty accurate. But the sensitivity is the great part. Mine doesn't miss anything. I also use my old Drake SSR-1 a lot too. The Wadley Loop is very accurate. All you do is set the band switch. Tune in the MHz, and then just tune the main tuning dial for KHz, and it's right there. It's in very good condition too. I use the Kenwood and the Drake when I just want to slowly go up and down bands. I could not even say how enjoyable they are. Hey, it's good to find someone else who has used an R300. Mine worked great for about 2 years then the bandswitch started to go south. I called a guy at the then local Kenwood repair depot and he said the only real fix was to replace the long out of stock switch. So the R300 was retired. But it sure was a lot of fun to use. Mine had the SWL bandspread drum. I owned a National HRO-500 for a while, and turning that massive bank- vault tuning knob was unadulterated pleasure. It was a royal PITA to tune and otherwise move around the bands with though. I've never tuned a National, but I would love to. It's an impressive looking unit, and their first fully transistorized unit. It was surprisingly compact and lightweight. Had 4 filters, frequency synthesizer, passband tuning and dial resolution to 1khz. Sold new for the princely sum of $3,000 in the 1960's. I understand that repair and alignment was quite complex. Here's a borrowed shot: http://www.rigpix.com/national/hro500.jpg - Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
S 350 DL
"Roadie" wrote in message oups.com... On Apr 5, 6:02 pm, "SWL-2010" wrote: "Roadie" wrote in message oups.com... On Apr 5, 10:52 am, Count wrote: On Thu, 5 Apr 2007 14:37:55 UTC, "Roadie" wrote: On Apr 4, 7:29 pm, (Michael Black) wrote: "SWL-2010" ) writes: I havn't had time to sit down and tune it much yet, but so far so good. I can't detect any drift to amount to anything. The sound is great. The two tone controls make it rich, or flat, any way you want it. And so far, like my older S350, the sensitivity is very good. I've used my S350 a great deal, so I thought I would get the newer verision since the price was right at only a hundred bucks. What some people forget is what it was like to have a low end receiver forty years or so ago. I bought a Hallicrafter's S120A (as I've mentioned before, it was a solid state receiver) in the summer of 1971, and paid something like $80, maybe a bit more, here in Canada. It was about the cheapest new receiver I could buy, and it was barely within my price range. It got the really strong signals, and not much else. It overloaded badly, it seemed to be from FM broadcast stations or maybe TV. The BFO was so weak that it wasn't useable for receiving SSB. The dial had all kinds of exotic locations listed on it, but not only was the calibration way off, but frequency readout was like "it's closer to the .5 than the ..0 mark". It had horrible backlash on the tuning knob. It was awful. I claim it was the world's worst shortwave receiver, but I suspect it wasn't that different from many of the low end solid state receivers from the period, before real advancements had been made in making good solid state shortwave receivers. We suffered through them because we couldn't afford anything better. I imagine a $20 shortwave portable from Radio Shack today couldn't be worse than that old Hallicrafter's. Plus, you'd get a digital readout, and likely the tuning knob (if it wasn't tuned by up/down buttons) would have less backlash than that first receiver of mine. That doesn't mean that relative to better receivers of today the low end are perfect, merely that they can't be worse, and may be better for the simple reason that design has changed. Michael I think an old Hallicrafters S120A, Lafayette HA230 or Realistic DX150b are good examples of radios that were for very good reasons popular once upon a time. They can be fun to spin the dials on even today. Ultimately however, I think they serve as a benchmark from which to measure how far radio technology has advanced. It would not be difficult to find a digitally tuned portable priced at $50.00 to $100.00 that will substantially out perform any of those oldies. But it won't look or feel like a bandspread tuned receiver either, and it won't give the tactile and aural pleasure of slowly turning a weighted bandspread knob and listening carefully as stations gradually come into and out of tune. Eventually, when finding a specific station or jumping from band to band goes to slowly the game gets a little old. My first sw radio was an S-120, my mother got it for me for Christmas at Sears. It was terrible on accuracy, not very selective, but when you are 12 years old, hearing world stations was exciting. I think that I got over 40 countries QSL'd and many states(from OK at the time). Now, I have two restored boatanchors: An S-38 and its bigger twin, a Lafayette HE-10, both provide the experience you mention: the fun of seeing the old dial lamps and turning the big dials looking for that elusive station. -- "What do you mean there's no movie?"- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Probably the most satisfaction I got from tuning a bandspread receiver was with a Kenwood R300. It just felt good to look at and use and it did the job reasonably well. And the xtal marker helped in some situations. A Kenwood R-300? I have one sitting right next to me right now. It's one of my favorites. It's a big beautiful old black receiver in very good condition, and I use it everyday. It has plenty of controls, and if you get it calibrated just right, mine is pretty accurate. But the sensitivity is the great part. Mine doesn't miss anything. I also use my old Drake SSR-1 a lot too. The Wadley Loop is very accurate. All you do is set the band switch. Tune in the MHz, and then just tune the main tuning dial for KHz, and it's right there. It's in very good condition too. I use the Kenwood and the Drake when I just want to slowly go up and down bands. I could not even say how enjoyable they are. Hey, it's good to find someone else who has used an R300. Mine worked great for about 2 years then the bandswitch started to go south. I called a guy at the then local Kenwood repair depot and he said the only real fix was to replace the long out of stock switch. So the R300 was retired. But it sure was a lot of fun to use. Mine had the SWL bandspread drum. Mine has the amatuer bandspread drum, but it is still usable to set up the main tuner. The guy I bought it from said he had a hard time finding a buyer because most guys had no idea how to tune the radio, so, I got it for a decent price. And you're right, it is just plain fun to use. I owned a National HRO-500 for a while, and turning that massive bank- vault tuning knob was unadulterated pleasure. It was a royal PITA to tune and otherwise move around the bands with though. I've never tuned a National, but I would love to. It's an impressive looking unit, and their first fully transistorized unit. It was surprisingly compact and lightweight. Had 4 filters, frequency synthesizer, passband tuning and dial resolution to 1khz. Sold new for the princely sum of $3,000 in the 1960's. I understand that repair and alignment was quite complex. That sounds like a fine radio. I didn't know they were that feature rich. I always knew the National HRO's were expensive, and when I look at E-bay listings, they still go for a lot of money. I have several hobbies, but SWL is still my favorite Here's a borrowed shot: http://www.rigpix.com/national/hro500.jpg Oh boy! I love the looks of that! I love that style receiver. A few years back I had a pair of Allied receivers. One was an AX-190, the other was an SX-190, both had seperate speakers, and were styed similar to the National. They had the center dial, and controls to the left and right. I loved that pair of receivers, and sometimes I wish I would have never sold them. They were not on the same level of the national of course, but they were beautiful, and not bad performers either. But that National HRO...WOW, now thats a radio! I would love to have that. - Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
S 350 DL
I'm glad to hear that you've enjoyed your S350. I just picked one up
today as my first radio for SWL. I noticed the DL model you were describing in black, but I didn't see a drastic difference and decided on a $70.00 unit for my first listening device. The only thing I was disappointed in was that the sales rep. told me I could also tune WX frequencies, but I haven't found that to be the case. Not a huge disappointment though. Anyhow, thanks for the info as it reinforced my decision to grab this radio today. |
S 350 DL
You say Huh??????????? Those stuck up cats in that
rec.amateur.radio+phonograph (or whatever they call it) so-called news group.I DESPISE them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just because they think they know how to work on AM radios and tv sets and phonographs,,,, they think they are hot snot and roasted boogers.I have to watch this other Sanford & Son program on Radi tb now,,, next up,,, Trees Company. cuhulin |
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