"Richard" wrote in message
...


Yep.

Reading some comments about the Sony ICFM33RDS, and the bit I text I
quoted
to start the thread, I've somehow got the impression that many modern
portable PL sets are "rap" with a capital "C"on FM. Radio Shack DX-397
and
the Sony 7600GR quoted as not being that good. Not sure how expensive
these
radios are, but, the ICFM33RDS is only£35, so maybe poorish FM
performance
is to be expected for this set. If I pay say £80 or £100 for a PLL
radio,
maybe FM performance would get to as good as the old Grundig. I don't
want
the RX to be deaf on FM, or have images from localstations all over
the
band.

My DX 440 is a PLL portable and it's a good FM DXer, although I rarely
get to FM DX due to the crowed frequencies here. I was picking up a
small station, maybe 5kW or less, almost 200 miles away when conditions
were good.

Shirt pocket portables have some problems the larger portables don't.
Most small portables use the headphone cord as an antenna. The antenna
may be off it's ideal length. Stretching the cord out straight makes it
a better antenna and a poorer headphone cord.

Small portables have to use small batteries, so power consumption
becomes an important issue. It's a bit of an oversimplification, but a
RF stage which operates a high power is less prone to overloading than a
RF stage which operates on minimal power. The power consumption issue
becomes more important on radios which use power hungry PLL circuits.
So I suppose small PLL radios might starve the RF amp to preserve the
batteries. But that's just speculation.

I wonder then if I need double conversion on FM.I bet ICFM33RDS is not
double. Thats actually just a two band RX. I probably should spend a
bit
more and go for worldband. I vacillate between worldband and not
worldband.
:c)


The normal 10.7 Mhz IF is OK. You'll get an extra set of images with
each conversion. A poorly done double conversion radio is worse than a
single conversion radio.

You might want to consider radios larger than shirt pocket size. In my
expirence, the larger portables are the better performers.





Frank Dresser

Frank Dresser wrote:

You might want to consider radios larger than shirt pocket size. In my
expirence, the larger portables are the better performers.

Yea true. I've actually got I've got a DX-392, (Roberts RC818) so my focus
has been on the shirt/pocket size. And it could be that with pocket-sized
radios the chances of getting good FM performance is reduced. Made worse if
it's cheap as in cost, like the Sony ICFM33RDS is.

One could in theory say then, that generally speaking pocket portables
will not have particularly good performance on FM. That is different from
saying modern PLL portables generally speaking have not particularly good FM
performance. But even if this was true, that PLL portables in general
(not pocket) have not good FM performance, it could be price sensitive.
And you can probably always find something that does not fit the general
case. We are always looking out for these. :c) Or pay the higher price,
which may translate to no option but to go for bigger than pocket portable.
But, sometimes you really want a pocket portable.

I must suss out the right pocket portable in my price range (say up to £80
($120-ish). Whether I can get good FM performance for this cost I know not
yet. If it is true that FM performance is mediocre for modern pocket-sized
PLL RX's, then I'll not find what I'm after.Unless I were to find an
exception in that price bracket.

"Richard" wrote in message
...

Yea true. I've actually got I've got a DX-392, (Roberts RC818) so my
focus
has been on the shirt/pocket size. And it could be that with
pocket-sized
radios the chances of getting good FM performance is reduced. Made
worse if
it's cheap as in cost, like the Sony ICFM33RDS is.

One could in theory say then, that generally speaking pocket portables
will not have particularly good performance on FM. That is different
from
saying modern PLL portables generally speaking have not particularly
good FM
performance. But even if this was true, that PLL portables in general
(not pocket) have not good FM performance, it could be price
sensitive.
And you can probably always find something that does not fit the
general
case. We are always looking out for these. :c) Or pay the higher
price,
which may translate to no option but to go for bigger than pocket
portable.
But, sometimes you really want a pocket portable.

I must suss out the right pocket portable in my price range (say up to
£80
($120-ish). Whether I can get good FM performance for this cost I
know not
yet. If it is true that FM performance is mediocre for modern
pocket-sized
PLL RX's, then I'll not find what I'm after.Unless I were to find an
exception in that price bracket.



A good performing small PLL portable may be hard to find. People tend
to treat shirt pocket radios as disposable items.

I can't offer much advice on buying a good shirt pocket PLL radio, but I
have an old Sony Walkman SRF-19W analog AM-FM radio which is at least a
decent performer. It suffers from the usual headphone cord/antenna
problem, and it would be better with a FM stereo switch. The radio
autoswitches back and forth between stereo and mono on weak FM signals.
There used to be a few FM mono stations on the low end of the band and
the Walkman worked well there.

So, I suppose a FM stereo/mono switch would be a clue to the radio's DX
ability.

Frank Dresser