Telamon wrote in message
"Pete KE9OA" wrote:

I can't comment on some of these receivers, but I can comment on the
AOR7030. Meets its specs? Maybe, but after 1 year of use, some unadvertised
"bonuses" were thrown in. The mode switches have developed bounce problems
which could have easily been addressed in software. The mechanical tuning
encoder has been noisy since day one, sometimes "scanning" the frequencies
on its own. The sensitivity is definitely not on a par with the R75. I don't
care what the unit is specified as; the MDS on the R75 is better. According
to Dave Zantos, the 7030 Plus isn't much better. On his sample unit, the
optical encoder shaft developed a wobble after about one year. His 7030 Plus
had a low level background noise on signals that wasn't present with the
7030. It is suspected that the removal of the shielding from the synthesizer
might be causing the problem.
I do have both the R75 and the AOR7030, and after two years, the R75 has not
had any problems surface.
If the 7030 wasn't a Christmas gift from my wife, I would have sold this
unit a long time ago.

What I find interesting about this discussion is that I can't express my
opinion on the R75 without people responding with complete illogic and
in addition they insist on adding to the meaning of what I wrote.
What? You don't like other refuting your arguments? Pete [owner of
both] is not expresing his oppinion he is talking about a real life
AOR 7030 vs R75 experience.
I made specific and clear reference to what I objected to as design and
not QC problems.
Yes an I made specific and clear reference to the drake and ten tec
340 design problems too.


The cost of another radio has nothing to do with my objections with the
R75.
My point is that price is not synonymous of performance.I have
some savings too and I had the R8b in my shack but I know that with a
good antenna the R75 can pick-up and make inteligible any SW/MW/
signal in the air and in my test outperformed the drake in hardcore
dxing.I think that the R75 low price and nice performance is not good
news to owners of expensive receiver who believed that a low cost
receiver mean poor performance.I remember that the early R75 price was
about $1,100 sometime ago.
So reading between the lines does that mean I think someone is an idiot
for buying this radio. No. The R75 has good things going for it and some
people are willing to overlook my objections or fix them. Fine with me
that's their decision.
Yes very intelligent and knowledgeable people are fixing them an
saving a lot of moneys without sacrifice performance.
The R75 modified or not works well for people that use it in a way that
does not interest me. Modified or not the R75 will not work as well as
the radios I own in the way I use them, which is program listening.
Now your are expressing your personal oppinion an not a tested
scientific fact but I respect it.

don't begin to groan and talk about "zero credibility" if someone
point out your own drake R8B and ten tec 340 receiver faults.

Well Kenneth it you keep on making false statements that¹s what you will
have ³zero credibility.² And it does not help your arguments to redirect
issues either. Try staying on point.
Why not go to passport to world band radio page 158 and read for
yourself the ten tec 340 flaws? What not check the R8b articles and
this group archives reports about others R8B owners postings about the
r8b birdies,synthesizer noise,cheapy encoder,background hiss,filters
shape factors good but not excellent [for a receiver in this price]
ect ect.If I'm wrong then I'm in good company.Who is the one that are
making false statement now? Your only defence is to talk about
credibility but everyone following this treads know that 1 year ago
when I pointed to the internal R8b tranformer heat ,encoder
failures,and synthesizer noise you and others R8B owner start to claim
about credibility issues but now all those guys are running their r8B
with an external power supply,looking for shielding and grounding
techniques for its synthesizer noise and some had problems with the
mechanical encoder.

Subject: Icom R-75 question
From: (Kenneth)
Date: 1/4/2004 8:42 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

Telamon wrote in message
"Pete KE9OA" wrote:

I can't comment on some of these receivers, but I can comment on the
AOR7030. Meets its specs? Maybe, but after 1 year of use, some
unadvertised
"bonuses" were thrown in. The mode switches have developed bounce
problems
which could have easily been addressed in software. The mechanical tuning
encoder has been noisy since day one, sometimes "scanning" the
frequencies
on its own. The sensitivity is definitely not on a par with the R75. I
don't
care what the unit is specified as; the MDS on the R75 is better.
According
to Dave Zantos, the 7030 Plus isn't much better. On his sample unit, the
optical encoder shaft developed a wobble after about one year. His 7030
Plus
had a low level background noise on signals that wasn't present with the
7030. It is suspected that the removal of the shielding from the
synthesizer
might be causing the problem.
I do have both the R75 and the AOR7030, and after two years, the R75 has
not
had any problems surface.
If the 7030 wasn't a Christmas gift from my wife, I would have sold this
unit a long time ago.

What I find interesting about this discussion is that I can't express my
opinion on the R75 without people responding with complete illogic and
in addition they insist on adding to the meaning of what I wrote.
What? You don't like other refuting your arguments? Pete [owner of
both] is not expresing his oppinion he is talking about a real life
AOR 7030 vs R75 experience.
I made specific and clear reference to what I objected to as design and
not QC problems.
Yes an I made specific and clear reference to the drake and ten tec
340 design problems too.


The cost of another radio has nothing to do with my objections with the
R75.
My point is that price is not synonymous of performance.I have
some savings too and I had the R8b in my shack but I know that with a
good antenna the R75 can pick-up and make inteligible any SW/MW/
signal in the air and in my test outperformed the drake in hardcore
dxing.I think that the R75 low price and nice performance is not good
news to owners of expensive receiver who believed that a low cost
receiver mean poor performance.I remember that the early R75 price was
about $1,100 sometime ago.
So reading between the lines does that mean I think someone is an idiot
for buying this radio. No. The R75 has good things going for it and some
people are willing to overlook my objections or fix them. Fine with me
that's their decision.
Yes very intelligent and knowledgeable people are fixing them an
saving a lot of moneys without sacrifice performance.
The R75 modified or not works well for people that use it in a way that
does not interest me. Modified or not the R75 will not work as well as
the radios I own in the way I use them, which is program listening.
Now your are expressing your personal oppinion an not a tested
scientific fact but I respect it.

don't begin to groan and talk about "zero credibility" if someone
point out your own drake R8B and ten tec 340 receiver faults.

Well Kenneth it you keep on making false statements that¹s what you will
have ³zero credibility.² And it does not help your arguments to redirect
issues either. Try staying on point.
Why not go to passport to world band radio page 158 and read for
yourself the ten tec 340 flaws? What not check the R8b articles and
this group archives reports about others R8B owners postings about the
r8b birdies,synthesizer noise,cheapy encoder,background hiss,filters
shape factors good but not excellent [for a receiver in this price]
ect ect.If I'm wrong then I'm in good company.Who is the one that are
making false statement now? Your only defence is to talk about
credibility but everyone following this treads know that 1 year ago
when I pointed to the internal R8b tranformer heat ,encoder
failures,and synthesizer noise you and others R8B owner start to claim
about credibility issues but now all those guys are running their r8B
with an external power supply,looking for shielding and grounding
techniques for its synthesizer noise and some had problems with the
mechanical encoder.



Most of us who own R8B receivers used an external dc power supply, I have used
one for many, many years going back to Drake R7A and JRC NRD series. Nothing
new there, you talk as though you invented this idea when you "pointed" that
out........

Take your medications and calm down Kenneth, the world isn't coming to an end.

Les

In article ,
(Kenneth) wrote:

Telamon wrote in message

snip

Well Kenneth it you keep on making false statements that¹s what you
will have ³zero credibility.² And it does not help your arguments
to redirect issues either. Try staying on point.

Why not go to passport to world band radio page 158 and read for
yourself the ten tec 340 flaws? What not check the R8b articles and
this group archives reports about others R8B owners postings about
the r8b birdies,synthesizer noise,cheapy encoder,background
hiss,filters shape factors good but not excellent [for a receiver in
this price] ect ect.If I'm wrong then I'm in good company.Who is the
one that are making false statement now? Your only defence is to talk
about credibility but everyone following this treads know that 1 year
ago when I pointed to the internal R8b tranformer heat ,encoder
failures,and synthesizer noise you and others R8B owner start to
claim about credibility issues but now all those guys are running
their r8B with an external power supply,looking for shielding and
grounding techniques for its synthesizer noise and some had problems
with the mechanical encoder.

Your credibility is Z E R O. You are not in good company. You are off in
some part of space where logic and reading comprehension don't exist.

The thread is "ICOM R75 question" not Ten-Tec or Drake or AOR.

You are wrong and can't win the argument so you will point your finger
at something else. This also results in your not staying on topic.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

In article ,
(D. Kim) wrote:

The reviews I read before purchase did not sing any praises for the
IC-R75s speaker so I had mine shipped directly to Kiwa for the
following mods:

--synchronous detector upgrade
--audio upgrade
--high fidelity audio filter
--R75 filter module

The sound is just fine, though for obvious reasons I can't compare it
now to what is would have sounded like.

The tiny speaker the R75 has can't sound very good. If you are going to
spend the money for those modifications then spend a little more and buy
an external speaker.

That was my intent all along before I actually got it and listened to
it with the mods. Now I'm not really in a hurry as the sounds if
fine. When dx'ng I plug in my Grado SR80 headphones. I find it more
useful to read opinons from ppl who have actually used a product.
Kiwa's synch upgrade is top notch and I second the positive comments
for this mod. Had no qualms with sending my unit directly to Kiwa as
after several e-mails back and forth between Kiwa and iCOM they pretty
much said that the warranty would still be good as long as the mods
were done "cleanly". ymmv.

Can't argue with the logic of putting greater weight behind someone¹s
opinion that owns the radio but the small speaker in a metal box just
isn't going to compare a bookshelf speaker or quality headphones. I
think this is a pretty safe assumption to make.

How sure are you about the warranty still being in force? How would Icom
be expected to fix a radio that is modified in some way? This would not
be a safe assumption to make.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

hi Neil:

Kiwa offers Pete's MW mod but even without it the R75 MW SSB sensitivity is
2.0 uV [pre-amps OFF]. external noise on MW is ~10 dBuV [3.16 uV]. antenna
is critical on MW: indoors get a Quantum QX loop or build a 34" square box
loop, outdoors a K9AY (need 40' square) or beverages. get an external
speaker; the internal is small and covered with plastic to resist dust
entry.


hi Telamon:

I'm not spending hundreds of dollars on a radio that
must be modified to work as advertised.

no problem. but aren't you this electronics guru? imagine a machine shop
owner buying his car based on stock horsepower while balking at someone
bolting on a supercharger. what can you hear on your RX340 that you cannot
on your R8B? on an R75? please site specific specs. we all know the answer
and that is why the R75 is now one of the best selling tabletops.


hi Starman:

I've never heard of any failure of the transformer or
associated AC power supply components.

strawman argument? there are no failures, there are alignments.

The R75 sounds much better with an external speaker but it's
still not as good as an R8, particularly for program listening.

the modded R75 has fidelity, working SAM, and a better filter for SAM
sideband selection.

There is no sync' mod for the R75 that makes it work as
well as the sync' on an R8B.

says who? the guy who in 2002 said the R75 had "no synchronous selectable
sideband" then in 2004 said DUH "synchronous selectable sideband actually
being somewhat functional". the guy who in 2003 could not get a Kiwa modded
R75 to review but in 2004 sited "exceptionally fast turnaround"? the guy
who stated "added crispness marginally improves audio" but got the wrong
audio mod? the guy who "forgot" the "1/2" on the Kiwa modded R75's rating?

I prefer to pay more for a receiver that doesn't need many
(if any) mod's, than to pay less up front and then spend
more time and money to get it working acceptably.

spend time doing what? the work has already been done. you send Kiwa a
radio and an $80 check. who knows, maybe 2004 will be the year you fix the
R8B's synthesizer with encoder lubricant.

regards,
phil

Your credibility is Z E R O. You are not in good company. You are off in
some part of space where logic and reading comprehension don't exist.

The thread is "ICOM R75 question" not Ten-Tec or Drake or AOR.

You are wrong and can't win the argument so you will point your finger at
something else. This also results in your not staying on topic.

damn Telamon, i laughed out loud when i read this, what a classic! you're
really fired up.

regards,
phil

It might be a good thing, if only I could get one of them to work properly.
The quasi-sync detector has been the best sounding one so far, but it is no
better than the TDA1572's balanced detector.
The 4046/SA602 detector still needs some work.................I think that
Phase Detector 2 is unsuitable for this purpose. I need to use Phase
Detector 1, which shifts the VCO by 90 degrees. This could work, if I can
come up with a suitable phase shift network.
I just completed the intial design of the AD607 based sync detector, and
boy, does this one have problems! When I am tuned to center channel, the
system howls, but if I detune to either LSB or USB, everything is ok. This
circuit is based on Mike Murphys application note from Analog Devices. It
just may work out, with some fine tuning. This has been the best iteration
so far. Analog Devices has eliminated the AGC detector in the latest
versions of the AD607, whereas Mr. Murphy's design is based on one of the
older versions that does have this detector. I do have some samples of the
older version, so I will throw that on the board tomorrow, and see how it
works out.
Those sync detectors have been the hardest part of this radio design!
Compared to my current iterations, the Icom R75 sync detector is a gem. This
gives you an idea of just how bad my sync detectors are! I'll get them
running.........they are only a collection of parts!

Pete

starman wrote in message
...
Pete KE9OA wrote:
snipped

On the subject of the R75, I know, the sync detector isn't the best in
the
world

Pete,

Have you thought about incorporating one of your sync' detector designs
to the R75? It might prove to be the ultimate sync' mod for it.


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I am glad that it worked out...............actually, I have also removed the
attenuator from my FGR 100B. This also turned out to be a good MW receiver,
but the FRG100B has that cheap sounding audio, and the AGC attack is a bit
slow. One of these days, when I get the time, I will dig into it and make
some changes.
That fellow at Kiwa sounds like a pretty sharp fellow; he has some
worthwhile mods, including his filter upgrades.

Pete

Kenneth wrote in message
om...
"Pete KE9OA" wrote in message
I can't comment on some of these receivers, but I can comment on the
AOR7030. Meets its specs? Maybe, but after 1 year of use, some
unadvertised
"bonuses" were thrown in. The mode switches have developed bounce
problems
which could have easily been addressed in software. The mechanical
tuning
encoder has been noisy since day one, sometimes "scanning" the
frequencies
on its own. The sensitivity is definitely not on a par with the R75. I
don't
care what the unit is specified as; the MDS on the R75 is better.
According
to Dave Zantos, the 7030 Plus isn't much better. On his sample unit, the
optical encoder shaft developed a wobble after about one year. His 7030
Plus
had a low level background noise on signals that wasn't present with the
7030. It is suspected that the removal of the shielding from the
synthesizer
might be causing the problem.
I do have both the R75 and the AOR7030, and after two years, the R75 has
not
had any problems surface.
If the 7030 wasn't a Christmas gift from my wife, I would have sold this
unit a long time ago.
On the subject of the R75, I know, the sync detector isn't the best in
the
world, and the "large front mounted speaker" is a joke, but in terms of
RF
handling, selectivity, etc, the R75 is a very good receiver.
Normally, I don't step into this kind of discussion, but sometimes,
there is
more than meets the eye in this situation.
If anybody doesn't like the R75, that's fine...................still, it
is
a fairly good receiver, especially for the 450 dollar price tag that
this
unit is being sold for. Okay, the sync detector doesn't work.
Hi Pete nice review.About the R75 sync det,Kiwa CO have a fix for it:
Synchronous Detector Upgrade
Kiwa provides two major upgrades to the Synchronous Detector. Together
they provide enhanced performance where the PLL stays "locked" under
the most difficult signal conditions.The first upgrade is best
described as a "dual speed control voltage". The control voltage for
the PLL filter is tuned within an optimum window that is determined by
signal conditions.The response is slow to maintain a "centered"
condition. A second circuit provides the control accuracy to react to
fast flutter fading and noisey conditions. These two circuits provide
a dual speed control for the PLL.
The second major upgrade is to the Synchronous AM AGC. The dual speed
technique is used again to first center the AGC but still allow for
quick short changes in AGC characteristics as required by signal
conditions.In the yahoo R-75 group we have two other sync det mod
projects,one of this mods use a comparator[339]and work very good and
the cost is less than $7.00 for the total mod.I'm using your Pete's
[sensitivity mod] and now this receiver shine in the MW band.After did
your mod I tested it with a drake R8B and for hard core dxing the Icon
won hands down,thanks for the R75 exceptional quit circuitry,the help
of its nice DSP and your well designed sensitivity mod.

Hey Phil..............maybe we should really mod up the R75 and call it an
R76!

Pete

phil wrote in message
news

Your credibility is Z E R O. You are not in good company. You are off in
some part of space where logic and reading comprehension don't exist.

The thread is "ICOM R75 question" not Ten-Tec or Drake or AOR.

You are wrong and can't win the argument so you will point your finger
at
something else. This also results in your not staying on topic.

damn Telamon, i laughed out loud when i read this, what a classic! you're
really fired up.

regards,
phil

Pete KE9OA wrote:

Those sync detectors have been the hardest part of this radio design!
Compared to my current iterations, the Icom R75 sync detector is a gem. This
gives you an idea of just how bad my sync detectors are! I'll get them
running.........they are only a collection of parts!

You're learning why so few receivers have been made with a good sync'
detector.
Keep up the good work.


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