On 14 abr, 04:13, "Von Fourche" wrote:
I'm thinking of going after a Kenwood shortwave receiver on e-bay. Back
when I got into
shortwave radio during the mid 1990's I always wanted a Kenwood R-5000.
Well, after buying two great portables, a Grundig Yacht Boy 400 and the
famous Sony ICF-2010, I never went after a Kenwood.

Anyway, I stopped listening to shortwave four or five years ago. Now I
noticed that Kenwood radios are discontinued and are popping up on e-bay.

So, are Kenwood radios worth going after for shortwave? And will they
let me pick up the small stations in Africa that I could never get with my
portables?

Thanks!

Hello,

The R5000 is a nice receiver (I own one), but is no guarantee for
hearing a station. At this moment I frequently use a wide band
receiver (AOR 8200, with good continuous tunable preselector and a
sangean ATS 909, all with external antennas), because they are
portable.

Before you buy something else, try to figure out what does hinder you
from receiving another station. Some issues:

Do you have problems with adjacent strong stations? A receiver with
better selectivity might help (but when stronger adjacent station
emits out of band, a better selectivity may not be sufficient).
Sometimes, you can use an antenna with nulls in the radiation pattern
(for example a small tuned loop antenna). You can orient the antenna
in such a way that reception from the desired station is emphasized
with respect to the undesired station.

Do you have blocking or overload from non-adjacent, but very strong
stations? A better receiver might work. As a test you may construct a
resonating circuit to make your own preselector. For example, my AOR
8200 receiver cannot be used with external antenna without
preselector. When you buy a R5000, check what filters have been
installed.

Do you have local interference (from domestic equipment)? In that case
it is very unlikely that a better receiver will work better. When the
interference is pulse like, a good functioning Noise limiter/blanking
system will give some improvement. The R5000 has a good one. Trying to
reorient the antenna or find the source of interference may help you.

Is It just noise that hinders reception?. Whether a better receiver
will perform better or not, depends on whether the receiver's noise or
external noise is dominant. Try to add some attenuation between the
antenna and the receiver (provided you are using an external antenna).
If the reception becomes worse, the sensitivity of the receiver is
causing the noise. When it becomes better, then your receiver suffers
from overload, a preselector might help. When it doesn't change,
external noise is dominant, a better receiver will not help.

In general, in many cases the receiver is not the problem, but the
antenna and propagation is.

If you want another receiver bear in mind that many of the R5000 are
in service for over ten years. That is a time that electronic
components may suffer from wear-out. It would be sad when you spend
500 dollars for a receiver in bad shape.

I hope this will help you to make the right decisions to receive the
stations you want to hear.

Best Regards,

Wim
PA3DJS