Bob Dobbs wrote:
Brenda Ann wrote:
Mind you, I have a couple new radios: An Eton E1XM and a Degen DE1123, plus
a Grundig Satellit 650 Professional (last of the true Grundig big portables)
and a couple ham rigs with GC receivers. For pulling out the DX, the SX-25
beats them all...

Since I'm not privy to the population of your antenna farm, I can only
speculate as to why an old Halliscratcher would beat the newer solid
state rigs. Maybe something to do with impedance and/or coupling?
In my case either of the HAM rigs generally out perform the other
receivers, especially in the presence of QRN. On a quiet occasion it
could very well be different, but those times are frustratingly rare.
Do you use a marker generator to calibrate to the approximate target
freq, or just tune for whatever shows up wherever? Back in my hollow
state days I thought the little XTAL marker box was the neatest thing on
the table, don't know what I would have thought to have seen a digital
display.

I made charts for each band. Bandspread at 100. Main tuning on known
station. Note bandspread setting vs. known station as BS is tuned
toward 0. Extrapolate on graph paper.

Dave wrote:
Bob Dobbs wrote:
Brenda Ann wrote:
Mind you, I have a couple new radios: An Eton E1XM and a Degen
DE1123, plus a Grundig Satellit 650 Professional (last of the true
Grundig big portables) and a couple ham rigs with GC receivers. For
pulling out the DX, the SX-25 beats them all...

Since I'm not privy to the population of your antenna farm, I can only
speculate as to why an old Halliscratcher would beat the newer solid
state rigs. Maybe something to do with impedance and/or coupling? In
my case either of the HAM rigs generally out perform the other
receivers, especially in the presence of QRN. On a quiet occasion it
could very well be different, but those times are frustratingly rare.
Do you use a marker generator to calibrate to the approximate target
freq, or just tune for whatever shows up wherever? Back in my hollow
state days I thought the little XTAL marker box was the neatest thing on
the table, don't know what I would have thought to have seen a digital
display.
I made charts for each band. Bandspread at 100. Main tuning on known
station. Note bandspread setting vs. known station as BS is tuned
toward 0. Extrapolate on graph paper.

Clarification: 2nd "known station" in above refers to SWBC station
encountered while tuning with Bandspread. I was never lost on my old
S-40B. Monster of a radio...