RadioBanter - What is a good AM radio for DXing

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What is a good AM radio for DXing

I enjoy listening to talk radio shows at night but find my current
Radio Shack unit lacking. I live in Malibu, CA and would enjoy
listening to talk shows out of New York, Chicago and other cities with
great hosts. CC Crane offers the Sangean CCRadio Plus for $165 but
before spending this much on an AM radio does anyone have first hand
experience with it. Is there any real need to spend $165 for an AM
radio.

I have an Akai AT-2400 tuner that did super duper well after replacing the
465 KHz ceramic filter with a Collins mechanical one :-)

Moral: Even the worst RX can be made good by tweaking the IF selectivity
;-)

--
Gregg
*It's probably useful, even if it can't be SPICE'd*
http://geek.scorpiorising.ca

Ronald wrote:
I enjoy listening to talk radio shows at night but find my current
Radio Shack unit lacking. I live in Malibu, CA and would enjoy
listening to talk shows out of New York, Chicago and other cities with
great hosts. CC Crane offers the Sangean CCRadio Plus for $165 but
before spending this much on an AM radio does anyone have first hand
experience with it. Is there any real need to spend $165 for an AM
radio.

You're likely to be disappointed. At night the trouble is too many
stations, not weak signals. 50 watts makes it across the country,
but there's a million other watts on the same frequency along the
way.

A selective radio (=picking out only one channel) eliminates most
problems with stations on nearby frequencies (so you're really dealing
with 3 million unwanted watts, a million on each side) but you
still have the million on the frequency you're tuned to. The CC Crane
is fairly selective.

For the same price I'd go for a Sony 7600GR (http://www.jandr.com)
which at least gives you the ability to pick upper or lower sideband
with its synch detection, and gives you as a bonus shortwave as well;
it needs a MW loop antenna in the daytime and then it equals the
CC Crane. Select-a-tenna or Terk loop, for instance; get the cheap
passive models.

Daytime MW DXing is much more interesting because then sensitivity
really does matter.
--
Ron Hardin

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Ron Hardin wrote:

Ronald wrote:
I enjoy listening to talk radio shows at night but find my current
Radio Shack unit lacking. I live in Malibu, CA and would enjoy
listening to talk shows out of New York, Chicago and other cities with
great hosts. CC Crane offers the Sangean CCRadio Plus for $165 but
before spending this much on an AM radio does anyone have first hand
experience with it. Is there any real need to spend $165 for an AM
radio.

You're likely to be disappointed. At night the trouble is too many
stations, not weak signals. 50 watts makes it across the country,
but there's a million other watts on the same frequency along the
way.

A selective radio (=picking out only one channel) eliminates most
problems with stations on nearby frequencies (so you're really dealing
with 3 million unwanted watts, a million on each side) but you
still have the million on the frequency you're tuned to. The CC Crane
is fairly selective.

For the same price I'd go for a Sony 7600GR (http://www.jandr.com)
which at least gives you the ability to pick upper or lower sideband
with its synch detection, and gives you as a bonus shortwave as well;
it needs a MW loop antenna in the daytime and then it equals the
CC Crane. Select-a-tenna or Terk loop, for instance; get the cheap
passive models.

Daytime MW DXing is much more interesting because then sensitivity
really does matter.
--
Ron Hardin

I agree completely with the last sentence. Late at night, the
differences between various AM receivers *shrinks* as compared to
daytime (though some are still much better than others, of course), but
in midday AM DX, the radios built especially for it, and in conjunction
with something like a passive inductive loop (I like the Select-A-Tenna)
can give amazing performance over the typical AM/FM radio of today with
a 79¢ AM tuner section in it.

Tony

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Only if you want the best.

--James--

----------------------------------------------
I enjoy listening to talk radio shows at night but find my current
Radio Shack unit lacking. I live in Malibu, CA and would enjoy
listening to talk shows out of New York, Chicago and other cities with
great hosts. CC Crane offers the Sangean CCRadio Plus for $165 but
before spending this much on an AM radio does anyone have first hand
experience with it. Is there any real need to spend $165 for an AM
radio.

"James Nipper" wrote in message
...
Only if you want the best.

The GE SuperRadio is in many ways superior to the triple-priced Crane
offering, which was born in the knowledge that there are lots of talk show
listeners who are not going to price or value shop.

Neither is an R8B.

I'm in NJ and I can hear AM stations from: OH, IL, KY, PA, NY, MA,VA and
other states. For me, the key to medium wave AM broadcast listening is
having a receiver like my R-75 that has SSB, pass band shift, noise blanking
and noise reduction. With those options, not only will you be able to
"hear" distant AM stations, you will actually be able to "listen" to them,
practically speaking.

If you are into DX'ing to see what you can "catch" with your radio, and
listen to, you will need a serious rig like the R-75. At the very least, a
good portable with ssb like the Sony 7600gr or the Grundig YB-400. Also...
Just as importantly. Some sort of antenna that is made to have a good
signal to noise ratio for the AM broadast band.

If your interest is being able to suck up the content of the shows and not
the DX'ing itself, just listen to them via webcast.
--
Respectfully,

Michael

Home Page: http://md_dxing.tripod.com/
Northern NJ
R75 w/DSP, Kiwa agc/sync & audio mods
G5RV & 200ft longwire w/ICE-180
MFJ-1048 preselector
SoundBlstr Live PC card w/five piece Cambridge
speakers & full software mixer/eq.

"Ronald" wrote in message
om...
I enjoy listening to talk radio shows at night but find my current
Radio Shack unit lacking. I live in Malibu, CA and would enjoy
listening to talk shows out of New York, Chicago and other cities with
great hosts. CC Crane offers the Sangean CCRadio Plus for $165 but
before spending this much on an AM radio does anyone have first hand
experience with it. Is there any real need to spend $165 for an AM
radio.

"Gregg" wrote in message
news:iykkb.5814$At.3333@edtnps84...
I have an Akai AT-2400 tuner that did super duper well after replacing the
465 KHz ceramic filter with a Collins mechanical one :-)

Moral: Even the worst RX can be made good by tweaking the IF selectivity
;-)

--
Gregg
*It's probably useful, even if it can't be SPICE'd*
http://geek.scorpiorising.ca

Is your Akai analog or digital? My flea market early 80's Harmon Kardon has
a pretty good AM tuner. Good sensitivity, low noise and about 15
flywheel-weighted turns lock to lock on the dial. It's only real DX
drawback are rather wide IF transformers, which is what I expect for a
hi-fi. I could say the same for the JVC stereo I trashpicked a few years
ago. But it had all slider controls, an idiotic thumbwheel instead of a
tuning knob and it was ugly. It was disco era. I fixed it up and gave it
away. It did work pretty well with my homebrew loop.

Frank Dresser

Behold, Frank Dresser signalled from keyed 4-1000A filament:

Is your Akai analog or digital?

Analog. I'dda left it in the trash can if it was digital ;-)

It's only real DX drawback are rather wide IF transformers

Yeah, same here. FM section is fantabulous, but AM section is a "radio on
a chip" with two external cans, RF, IF and of course, the external
loopstick.

Pull the I,F. can and inserted the mech. filter and hey, hot dog!

--
Gregg
*It's probably useful, even if it can't be SPICE'd*
http://geek.scorpiorising.ca