The type of AM reception you remember was probably centered on dusk-to-dawn
hours. GE has a portable ($50 to $60) called a Superadio which is VERY good on AM. Just remember to turn it on its axis to find your station's strongest signal because the internal antenna is directional. Most automobile radios are very good on AM too, plus they have the benefit of digital tuning and readout. They work best with a 30" rod antenna. You can buy a junk radio from a Chrysler for !$15 at a junkyard; all you need then is a 12volt power supply (1 amp), and speakers. If you want a table radio with a real DXing "feel" to it, go on EBay and look for a Hammarlund HQ receiver (140, 145, 150 or 180) but these will cost $200 or so + shipping. Just remember that during sunlit hours you'll only get local and semi-local stations. |
Radioman390 wrote: The type of AM reception you remember was probably centered on dusk-to-dawn hours. GE has a portable ($50 to $60) called a Superadio which is VERY good on AM. Just remember to turn it on its axis to find your station's strongest signal because the internal antenna is directional. Most automobile radios are very good on AM too, plus they have the benefit of digital tuning and readout. They work best with a 30" rod antenna. You can buy a junk radio from a Chrysler for !$15 at a junkyard; all you need then is a 12volt power supply (1 amp), and speakers. If you want a table radio with a real DXing "feel" to it, go on EBay and look for a Hammarlund HQ receiver (140, 145, 150 or 180) but these will cost $200 or so + shipping. Just remember that during sunlit hours you'll only get local and semi-local stations. Radioman's right, and one additional thing you might want to consider: The "Select-A-Tenna" (about $50) is a noticeable help at night. Noticeable - not awesome, but I still use it for nightime DX with my GE Superadio III - it helps. But for *daytime* DX, it is awesome! A faint, scratchy station you can barely make out in the daytime can become adequately listenable with the Select-A-Tenna. And considering that the basic Select-A-Tenna (the best buy of the lot, IMHO) is totally passive (no batteries or plug-in), and will last a lifetime if you don't throw it off a cliff onto the rocks. I think it's the best $50 I ever spent on AM DX. Tony |
I have the HQ-180, R-390A and the SP-600 and I have found that each has pros and
cons with regards to AM reception. When I was back east (in Montreal) I found that the phasing control on the SP-600 gave an advantage for chasing down Europeans and Middle Eastern stations (ie. Saudi Arabia on 1521 kHz vs Buffalo on 1520 kHz). Phasing sent Buffalo in the dirt and the Saudi station came through nicely. I use the KIWA MW loop for AM DXing. Regards John Barnard Radioman390 wrote: The type of AM reception you remember was probably centered on dusk-to-dawn hours. GE has a portable ($50 to $60) called a Superadio which is VERY good on AM. Just remember to turn it on its axis to find your station's strongest signal because the internal antenna is directional. Most automobile radios are very good on AM too, plus they have the benefit of digital tuning and readout. They work best with a 30" rod antenna. You can buy a junk radio from a Chrysler for !$15 at a junkyard; all you need then is a 12volt power supply (1 amp), and speakers. If you want a table radio with a real DXing "feel" to it, go on EBay and look for a Hammarlund HQ receiver (140, 145, 150 or 180) but these will cost $200 or so + shipping. Just remember that during sunlit hours you'll only get local and semi-local stations. |
"John Barnard" wrote in message ... I have the HQ-180, R-390A and the SP-600 and I have found that each has pros and cons with regards to AM reception. When I was back east (in Montreal) I found that the phasing control on the SP-600 gave an advantage for chasing down Europeans and Middle Eastern stations (ie. Saudi Arabia on 1521 kHz vs Buffalo on 1520 kHz). Phasing sent Buffalo in the dirt and the Saudi station came through nicely. I use the KIWA MW loop for AM DXing. I second John's praise of the SP-600. I'm not nostalgic for boatanchors but mine was the best MW DX receiver I ever used. Among its other advantages was its excellent shielding. Signals just couldn't get in anywhere but through the coax from the antenna. I lived on a high hill with a direct view to a 50-kW MW BC station about 5 miles (8 km) away. I had a large radio room with no foil insulation in the walls, and a 4-foot (1.1-m) square loop on a wood frame, that tilted and turned. Working close in frequency to the local BC station, the loop's ability to null wouldn't have been as effective if the receiver had allowed the signal to leak in through other paths. There is more to a good receiver than the oft-cited on rrs "sensitivity." True sensitivity can be more curse than blessing. The receiver needs enough _gain_ to make weak signals hearable, but more important is immunity to strong, adjacent signals, steep-sided variable selectivity, low internal noise (like synthesizer phase noise) and low-distortion audio. Short of the Drake R8, you just don't get all those features in modern consumer receivers, especially portables. Of course, the SuperPro was not a consumer receiver, either. McSangeans are fine for _listening_. For serious DXing you need more. To forestall reports of "Well, PM, I heard this and that on my McSangean/McSuperRadio," yes, you can hear distant stations with almost any receiver, sometimes. A high-quality _communications_ receiver (what's inside, not what it says on the front panel) lets you hear more stations, more reliably. "PM" |
Another good receiver for MW DXing was the R388/51J series. Also, a true
test of a receiver is how well it works in the daytime. With a loop antenna, it should be possible to hear MW stations on the low end of the band up to 300 miles. Here is Chicago, I can hear WLW on 700kHz all day, along with WJR 760, and even the Iowa City beacon on 524kHz all day. The key is making sure that your receiving system can hear the ambient noise in the first place, although a larger aperture loop antenna does wonders for those weak signals. Pete "Paul_Morphy" wrote in message ... "John Barnard" wrote in message ... I have the HQ-180, R-390A and the SP-600 and I have found that each has pros and cons with regards to AM reception. When I was back east (in Montreal) I found that the phasing control on the SP-600 gave an advantage for chasing down Europeans and Middle Eastern stations (ie. Saudi Arabia on 1521 kHz vs Buffalo on 1520 kHz). Phasing sent Buffalo in the dirt and the Saudi station came through nicely. I use the KIWA MW loop for AM DXing. I second John's praise of the SP-600. I'm not nostalgic for boatanchors but mine was the best MW DX receiver I ever used. Among its other advantages was its excellent shielding. Signals just couldn't get in anywhere but through the coax from the antenna. I lived on a high hill with a direct view to a 50-kW MW BC station about 5 miles (8 km) away. I had a large radio room with no foil insulation in the walls, and a 4-foot (1.1-m) square loop on a wood frame, that tilted and turned. Working close in frequency to the local BC station, the loop's ability to null wouldn't have been as effective if the receiver had allowed the signal to leak in through other paths. There is more to a good receiver than the oft-cited on rrs "sensitivity." True sensitivity can be more curse than blessing. The receiver needs enough _gain_ to make weak signals hearable, but more important is immunity to strong, adjacent signals, steep-sided variable selectivity, low internal noise (like synthesizer phase noise) and low-distortion audio. Short of the Drake R8, you just don't get all those features in modern consumer receivers, especially portables. Of course, the SuperPro was not a consumer receiver, either. McSangeans are fine for _listening_. For serious DXing you need more. To forestall reports of "Well, PM, I heard this and that on my McSangean/McSuperRadio," yes, you can hear distant stations with almost any receiver, sometimes. A high-quality _communications_ receiver (what's inside, not what it says on the front panel) lets you hear more stations, more reliably. "PM" |
"Pete KE9OA" wrote in message ... Another good receiver for MW DXing was the R388/51J series. Also, a true test of a receiver is how well it works in the daytime. With a loop antenna, it should be possible to hear MW stations on the low end of the band up to 300 miles. That receiver was designed for use with a whip antenna, wasn't it? That would explain the sensitivity. I recall there being a mod to improve front-end selectivity or to prevent mixer overload, when used with better antennas. It was in CQ, back in the Middles Ages. IMO, the 51Js were about the prettiest receivers of the era, right up there with the earlier SX-28. I never had the pleasure of owning one. 73, "PM" |
I believe that they did have a high impedance input, but it has been years
since I had one. Over time, I have owned the 51J, the 51J-2, 51J-3, 51J-4, R-388, 51S-1, and the 651S-1. They were all great receivers. I did mod a few of my 51Js converting the cathode follower for the I.F. output to a product detector for SSB. Best sounding SSB audio I ever had, probably due to the wider I.F. bandwidth. Another modification for gain-hungry people like myself was to move the output connection from the tap of one of the I.F. transformers to the end connection, the way it was configured in the 51J-4. Oodles of gain after that mod! Pete "Paul_Morphy" wrote in message ... "Pete KE9OA" wrote in message ... Another good receiver for MW DXing was the R388/51J series. Also, a true test of a receiver is how well it works in the daytime. With a loop antenna, it should be possible to hear MW stations on the low end of the band up to 300 miles. That receiver was designed for use with a whip antenna, wasn't it? That would explain the sensitivity. I recall there being a mod to improve front-end selectivity or to prevent mixer overload, when used with better antennas. It was in CQ, back in the Middles Ages. IMO, the 51Js were about the prettiest receivers of the era, right up there with the earlier SX-28. I never had the pleasure of owning one. 73, "PM" |
"Pete KE9OA" wrote in message ... I believe that they did have a high impedance input, but it has been years since I had one. Over time, I have owned the 51J, the 51J-2, 51J-3, 51J-4, R-388, 51S-1, and the 651S-1. They were all great receivers. I did mod a few of my 51Js converting the cathode follower for the I.F. output to a product detector for SSB. Best sounding SSB audio I ever had, probably due to the wider I.F. bandwidth. Another modification for gain-hungry people like myself was to move the output connection from the tap of one of the I.F. transformers to the end connection, the way it was configured in the 51J-4. Oodles of gain after that mod! There's "communications bandwidth," and then there's fidelity. : The late V31BB had a modified Icom transceiver with a wide filter in the transmit side. When you're DX, you can get away with that. I wish I still had the DBX decompressor. It was intended for noise reduction, but it did a fair job of 'improving' the source dynamic range. AM stations use so much compression, that might be a good way to improve the way they sound. 73, "PM" |
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