Peter Maus wrote:


Now, why am I not surprised.....


Yeah, I know, I sound like phil blathering on about the R-75...

Actually, I was expecting you to give the other side's
perspective.

Well, I think that the radio gets a lot of hard knocks that it doesn't
deserve. Aside from the filters and some missing features, it is a
*good* radio.

A real surprise to me was seeing how Robert Sherwood ranked it in its
performance at

http://www.sherweng.com/table.html

....every time I see Bob at a hamfest I bug him to get the R-75 numbers
up there so we can do an a/b comparison.

But in the mean time, check out noise floor, ultimate rejection,
preselector, sensitivity, compared to, say, the RX-340.


How you been Eric? Things going better?

A little bit, but still touch-n-go for the moment. Sold off my R-75,
HF-150, FRG-7 and DSP-599zx, leaving the two 8500s, the RX-340, the
R-392 and the WinRadio G303i. I'm still plodding along, although the
rest of the year will be wicked, next year should improve.
--
Eric F. Richards,
"This book reads like a headache on paper."
http://www.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/readi...one/index.html

Eric F. Richards wrote:
Peter Maus wrote:



Now, why am I not surprised.....



Yeah, I know, I sound like phil blathering on about the R-75...


Actually, I was expecting you to give the other side's
perspective.


Well, I think that the radio gets a lot of hard knocks that it doesn't
deserve. Aside from the filters and some missing features, it is a
*good* radio.




I've never met a radio that I didn't like. Even the worst had
their charms. But IC-R8500 is fine. Not an R-9000, but what is.


As I said, I'm not a big fan of widebands.





A real surprise to me was seeing how Robert Sherwood ranked it in its
performance at

http://www.sherweng.com/table.html

...every time I see Bob at a hamfest I bug him to get the R-75 numbers
up there so we can do an a/b comparison.

But in the mean time, check out noise floor, ultimate rejection,
preselector, sensitivity, compared to, say, the RX-340.




Impressive.





How you been Eric? Things going better?


A little bit, but still touch-n-go for the moment. Sold off my R-75,
HF-150, FRG-7 and DSP-599zx, leaving the two 8500s, the RX-340, the
R-392 and the WinRadio G303i. I'm still plodding along, although the
rest of the year will be wicked, next year should improve.




Of the ones you've lost, you'll miss HF-150 the most. The ones
you kept will leave few wants.


Congrats on hanging on through a tough year. There were a couple
of times I thought I'd have had to wok the dog, myself, a few years
ago. Patience, and determination, count.

Peter Maus wrote:

A little bit, but still touch-n-go for the moment. Sold off my R-75,
HF-150, FRG-7 and DSP-599zx, leaving the two 8500s, the RX-340, the
R-392 and the WinRadio G303i. I'm still plodding along, although the
rest of the year will be wicked, next year should improve.




Of the ones you've lost, you'll miss HF-150 the most. The ones
you kept will leave few wants.


Actually I didn't use the HF-150 all that much -- I found it to be a
pain to tune and that it was too drifty to hold lock with sync AM
until the thing had been on for an hour or so.

My "goto" radio is usually the '8500. But the '340 can't be beat for
getting the signal out from under the noise. I had an amusing moment
when listening to 11.175 and some aircraft and Offutt were being
jammed and couldn't hear each other, yet I'd cancelled, notched, and
bandpassed everything out and heard them both as armchair copy.

--
Eric F. Richards

"The weird part is that I can feel productive even when I'm doomed."
- Dilbert

Eric F. Richards wrote:
Peter Maus wrote:


A little bit, but still touch-n-go for the moment. Sold off my R-75,
HF-150, FRG-7 and DSP-599zx, leaving the two 8500s, the RX-340, the
R-392 and the WinRadio G303i. I'm still plodding along, although the
rest of the year will be wicked, next year should improve.




Of the ones you've lost, you'll miss HF-150 the most. The ones
you kept will leave few wants.



Actually I didn't use the HF-150 all that much -- I found it to be a
pain to tune and that it was too drifty to hold lock with sync AM
until the thing had been on for an hour or so.



Really. Exactly opposite my experience.


I do run it off a huge regulated power supply at 14V rather than
12V. That may have something to do with it. My 7030+ is similarly
stable at the top of it's operating voltage.



My "goto" radio is usually the '8500. But the '340 can't be beat for
getting the signal out from under the noise. I had an amusing moment
when listening to 11.175 and some aircraft and Offutt were being
jammed and couldn't hear each other, yet I'd cancelled, notched, and
bandpassed everything out and heard them both as armchair copy.



Outstanding. Have you had a chance to play with RX-350? Not
quite as tasty as RX-340. Then again, not quite price tag, either.


p

Peter Maus wrote:

Eric F. Richards wrote:
Actually I didn't use the HF-150 all that much -- I found it to be a
pain to tune and that it was too drifty to hold lock with sync AM
until the thing had been on for an hour or so.



Really. Exactly opposite my experience.


I do run it off a huge regulated power supply at 14V rather than
12V. That may have something to do with it. My 7030+ is similarly
stable at the top of it's operating voltage.


Well, I'm running off 250 Ah of gel-cells, and they hold near 13.5
most of the time...

But that was my experience regardless of input supply. I was just
fortunate that when I had it on display at the hamfest where it
ultimately sold that it warmed up and stabilized as well as it did.
At the other end of the 'fest there was a guy with an AM
transmitter...



My "goto" radio is usually the '8500. But the '340 can't be beat for
getting the signal out from under the noise. I had an amusing moment
when listening to 11.175 and some aircraft and Offutt were being
jammed and couldn't hear each other, yet I'd cancelled, notched, and
bandpassed everything out and heard them both as armchair copy.



Outstanding. Have you had a chance to play with RX-350? Not
quite as tasty as RX-340. Then again, not quite price tag, either.

Only at Ten-Tec last Christmas. Since I was looking for a radio with
a bulletproof front end, I was only considering the '340. I was sure
that, as nice as the '350 is, I would have a severe case of the "If
only I bought."
--
Eric F. Richards

"The weird part is that I can feel productive even when I'm doomed."
- Dilbert

Wow...I haven't checked this thread in a couple of days. Thanks for all of
the wisdom and information. I'm still relatively new to the hobby so I have
a lot to learn. I spent several hours over the weekend doing research on
widebands and, based on that research and on the great recommendations here,
I'll stick with what I have. My Drake R8-B has enabled me to pick up
transmissions that none of the other receivers that i've owned have been
able to flush out. I guess this excite got me to thinking about what else
is out there, especially in the more esoteric frequencies. I didn't realize
that, at this point, the higher frequencies are primarily for use in data
transmissions and other such things. I simply thought there would be more
voice transmissions up there above 1.2GHz. Even if this were the case,
given my location (Southeast Kansas, USA), the odds of picking up any high
frequency voice transmissions would be slim at best; even the "air" band
around here, with a small local airport, is pretty quiet.

Again, thanks for your kind responses to my inquiry.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Jenni_is_a_Whore" wrote in message
news:8ZZpb.211$jt.139@okepread05...
Hello all. I have been into DXing for about 5 years or so, and I recently
purchased a Drake R8B. It's fantastic. Anyway, after using it for a
month
or so, I've found myself thinking about a wideband receiver to complement
my
Drake. However, I already have a Uniden BC 780 XLT scanner, which I enjoy
as well. So I guess I have 2 questions:

1. Am I really missing anything by not having a receiver that does not go
above 1.2 GHz? In other words, is it worth the $$$ to get access to the
1.2
+GHz spectrum above and beyond what my scanner will pick up?

2. Assuming that I decide to go with another receiver, do any of you have
recommendations as to a wideband receiver? I've been looking at the Icom
R-8500 and the Yaeseu VR-5000 (but the reviews I've read indicate this
thing
stinks up the joint somewhat). I was also thinking about a JRC NRD-545
with
a VHF/UHF converter, but that would probably be expensive overkill.

All comments/suggestions/wisdom welcome.

Thanks!

Should be Thank you OHIO!

Tracy