I am looking for a feedback on the performance of Tecsun BCL 2000
from someone who owns it and experimented it's SW ability .

Thanks ,
Kam

I wouldn't pretend to be an expert, but I have owned and regularly used a
number of analog and digitally-tuned shortwave receivers since the 1960's.

I sure like the Grundig S350 version of this radio. The one I have has the
newer power-on switch with defeatable timer on it. I don't know about the
drifting improvement, but it doesn't seem to drift very much.

I have to say, as a person who likes analog tuning, this is by far the best
analog portable shortwave receiver I've ever owned in terms of performance,
and it's my number one favourite of ANY radio I have had and still have
(I've only owned portables though). It really pulls in the shortwave
stations just from the telescopic antenna where I live (eastern central
Canada), as well or better than the higher-end digitally-tuned radios I've
owned. I find myself able to listen to stations for hours that I could only
get for a short while before. It's also wonderful on regular AM and FM
bands. I absolutely love the way it marries analog tuning with a digital
frequency display, and the way the tuning dial has both fast and a fine
tuning. And unlike any portable I've ever had except my early 70's Grundig,
the audio is full and deep, just about like the Grundigs of old, with
separate bass and treble controls, plus the two bandwidths, LPF and RF gain
buttons/dials really help tuning shortwave stations to best advantage.

And if that's not enough, although the buttons are light plastic, they are
solidly-mounted, and the whole radio feels like the most solidly-built one
I've seen so far from China. The antenna alone feels like it's on a radio 10
times the price, and, compared to the one on a Sat 800, its base is rock
solid. It has a solid cabinet that appears very well put together, with
everything a precise fit. For the price, this is one terrific radio, without
a cheap feel to it at all - and this is completely the opposite of what I
expected.

If you can live without punch-in tuning and digital tuning conveniences like
automatic band scanning, pre-sets, SSB, etc., and I certainly can, this is a
great radio. Nice size too. Not too small, not too big.

Did I say I love it? Let me count the ways! I know it's really a Tecsun, but
what American or European brand of anything electronic is really what the
brand says these days. To me, it feels totally like I own a nice Grundig
again, like I did in the 1970's. I got mine at Radio Shack, and as I said,
while the model they had on display didn't have the new power switch, the
one in the box sure did. If you buy it from China on ebay, you have to wait
a while until it arrives, the shipping isn't exactly cheap, plus you don't
get the guarantee and support that Eton/Grundig provides.

By the way, I think that for those of us who are longtime Grundig fans, it's
terrific that Eton keeps the Grundig name alive in shortwave receivers like
this. Those of you who have been here a while may recall that I wasn't at
all impressed with the Sat 800 I had a couple of years ago (maybe they are
better now, don't know), and I didn't mince words about it on here. I don't
like what I don't like, but if I say I like something, I really like it.

Pete


"kamalakar pasupuleti" wrote in message
om...
I am looking for a feedback on the performance of Tecsun BCL 2000
from someone who owns it and experimented it's SW ability .

Thanks ,
Kam

kamalakar pasupuleti schrieb:

I am looking for a feedback on the performance of Tecsun BCL 2000
from someone who owns it and experimented it's SW ability .

This is a fun rig with analog tuning and good sound, but not a serious
shortwave receiver. In this price range, I'd look out for a Degen DE1102
(or Kaito KA1102), a Sangean ATS-606 or maybe an ATS-505. A used Sony
ICF-SW7600G may also be an option. If you're looking for something more
or less similar to the BCL-2000, an old (National) Panasonic
RF-2600/2800/2900 may be worth a look.

Stephan
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In article ,
says...
I am looking for a feedback on the performance of Tecsun BCL 2000
from someone who owns it and experimented it's SW ability .

If you plan to really listen to SW rather than just tune around the dial
to see what you can find (and I'm not passing judgment on either
activity), you will probably find the BCL-2000 rather frustrating.
After tuning in a station, the radio will initially drift as the tension
in the tuning mechanism equalizes, and it will continue to drift to a
lesser extent even after that. You'll be re-adjusting the tuning every
10-15 minutes, possibly even more often on the upper end of the bands.
That's when the hysteresis in the slow tuning knob will start to annoy
you.

On the plus side, it's the best sounding SW portable south of the
Satellit 800. The performance on MW is excellent. Battery life seems
pretty good. The dial light will stay on permanently if you want it to
(a big plus if you listen in the dark).

I view the BCL-2000 as an outstanding MW portable at a great price. The
fact that it also tunes SW is a big plus, but SW is not its best
feature. If you mostly want to tune around the SW bands to see what you
can find and occasionally do some casual listening, you might be happy
with it. If you want to tune in the BBC and listen for an hour or two,
you would probably do better with something else. If the latter is the
case, the Degen/Kaito 1102 has been getting some good reviews. You might
also want to check ebay for a used DX-398 (rebadged Sangean ATS-909).
They've been going for $100-$125 recently.

-- Jay

I can't say that has been my experience. I listen to the BBC for hours.
Look, it's an analog radio. It's not like a Drake R8 or something like that.
If you're into digital tuning, the S350/BCL2000 probably won't satisfy you.
But it's an outstanding medium-sized portable for the price.
Pete

"Jay Heyl" wrote in message
...
[snipped]
I view the BCL-2000 as an outstanding MW portable at a great price. The
fact that it also tunes SW is a big plus, but SW is not its best
feature. If you mostly want to tune around the SW bands to see what you
can find and occasionally do some casual listening, you might be happy
with it. If you want to tune in the BBC and listen for an hour or two,
you would probably do better with something else. If the latter is the
case, the Degen/Kaito 1102 has been getting some good reviews. You might
also want to check ebay for a used DX-398 (rebadged Sangean ATS-909).
They've been going for $100-$125 recently.

-- Jay

"Pierre L" wrote in message ble.rogers.com...
I can't say that has been my experience. I listen to the BBC for hours.
Look, it's an analog radio. It's not like a Drake R8 or something like that.
If you're into digital tuning, the S350/BCL2000 probably won't satisfy you.
But it's an outstanding medium-sized portable for the price.

I agree with you, Pierre. The BCL2000 is an outstanding radio for the
money. I'm not at all disappointed that I bought one. But the reality
is that it has a few shortcomings, and these make it less than optimal
for certain situations. I was just trying to point out these flaws in
case they were of concern to any potential purchasers.

As to your experience listening to the BBC, are you saying you aren't
seeing the drift that others are experiencing? Do you normally run
off batteries or off the mains? R. Australia was booming in last
night and I listened on my BCL2000 for about an hour. I had to retune
four times in the first 30 minutes because the radio had drifted so
far as to make the signal almost unlistenable. After 30 minutes it
seemed to stabilize. I always run off batteries, so I don't benefit at
all from the stay-warm solution Tecsun implemented for when the radio
is plugged into the mains. I'm wondering if this might explain our
different experiences in this regard.

-- Jay

I took my BCL 2000 outside and listened for a couple of hours today. It's
such a sweet radio, but most of the time, there's too much RF noise in my
house to get much use out of its sensitivity. I mainly use it to listen to
AM talk or maybe a ballgame or maybe an oldies station on FM. Dxing isn't
possible inside our house right now. We have a cable modem and four
computers all networked with WI-FI. The radio noise is unbearable with
everything going at once.

One thing I noticed today about my 2000, the radio's battery indicator is
one step below full. I got my radio in Feb 2003. On the day I got it, I
bought some cheap Panasonic alkalines (4/$2) to put in it. If the radio had
been a dud, I didn't want to waste money on good batteries. But, now it's
been 13 months, and those cheap batteries are still going (sorry Eveready)
strong.

Oh, to be fair and balanced, there is one thing I wish I could change about
this radio that really drives me crazy. The fine tuning mechanism is ok on
MW and FM, but on shortwave, especially over 15 MHz, it's incredibly tough
to fine tune those signals.

That's one of the things I also like about analog radios. The batteries last
such a long time. I never really thought of this as a problem with the two
Sony digitals I had, because I live in a region that had never had a
technological or natural catastrophe of any kind in my lifetime. But then,
we were without power for 5 days during the big ice storm of Jan 1998 (right
in the city too), and then again this past summer, we were without power
almost 24 hours. 24 hours wasn't too bad, but man, it wasn't easy to find a
store with batteries in stock during that ice storm. I think that's when my
then love affair with things digital began to wane

About the drifting. It drifts a little bit on SW, and the digital frequency
readout seems very precise in showing it, but, in my experience, not that
much for analog tuning. I don't personally find it a problem. I've so far
only used mine on batteries. I haven't tried the AC adaptor.

Pierre


"Corbin Ray" wrote in message
...
I took my BCL 2000 outside and listened for a couple of hours today. It's
such a sweet radio, but most of the time, there's too much RF noise in my
house to get much use out of its sensitivity. I mainly use it to listen to
AM talk or maybe a ballgame or maybe an oldies station on FM. Dxing isn't
possible inside our house right now. We have a cable modem and four
computers all networked with WI-FI. The radio noise is unbearable with
everything going at once.

One thing I noticed today about my 2000, the radio's battery indicator is
one step below full. I got my radio in Feb 2003. On the day I got it, I
bought some cheap Panasonic alkalines (4/$2) to put in it. If the radio
had
been a dud, I didn't want to waste money on good batteries. But, now it's
been 13 months, and those cheap batteries are still going (sorry Eveready)
strong.

Oh, to be fair and balanced, there is one thing I wish I could change
about
this radio that really drives me crazy. The fine tuning mechanism is ok on
MW and FM, but on shortwave, especially over 15 MHz, it's incredibly tough
to fine tune those signals.

Jay Heyl wrote:

...You'll be re-adjusting the tuning every
10-15 minutes, possibly even more often on the upper end of the bands.
That's when the hysteresis in the slow tuning knob will start to annoy
you.

On the plus side, it's the best sounding SW portable south of the
Satellit 800. The performance on MW is excellent. Battery life seems
pretty good....

You're right, it does drift a little. That doesn't bother me. I guess it
might be because I was brought up on analog radios. Touching up the tuning
is second nature to me. At least with the digital readout, you know which
way it drifted.

I love the sound quality, plus the fact that I can use the wide bandwidth
setting even on most distant MW stations, even when there's another
station 10kHz away.

Plus, I live in a really bad area for FM. There's so many transmitters
nearby, nearly every radio overloads and all but the strongest local
stations are lost in mixing products. The BCL-2000 does show a little bit
of overload, but I can listen to FM stations 60 miles away and even
further, which is a real achievement.


--
Reply address munged. You can figure it out.

I guess that's why it didn't seem very significant to me that there a slight
amount of drifting, having first used analog radios for years long before
digitally-tuned ones. I'll bet that with many digitally-tuned radios,
there's drifting too, back and forth, only, because the display stays fixed
at the frequency you punched-in, you don't notice it.

I really don't consider a very slight adjustment to the shortwave frequency
every once in a while to be a big deal. For example, listening to the BBC
last evening, on 5975, after an hour or so, the display showed 5974. That's
the kind of drifting we're talking about.

Pierre


"CAndersen (Kimba)" wrote in message
...

You're right, it does drift a little. That doesn't bother me. I guess it
might be because I was brought up on analog radios. Touching up the tuning
is second nature to me. At least with the digital readout, you know which
way it drifted.

I love the sound quality, plus the fact that I can use the wide bandwidth
setting even on most distant MW stations, even when there's another
station 10kHz away.

Plus, I live in a really bad area for FM. There's so many transmitters
nearby, nearly every radio overloads and all but the strongest local
stations are lost in mixing products. The BCL-2000 does show a little bit
of overload, but I can listen to FM stations 60 miles away and even
further, which is a real achievement.