The best receivers were those of the tube days, and were determined by the
number of tuned RF stages BEFORE the first mixer. (Three stages seemed to be
the maximum, but even one was very good.)

That's where good selectivity began, too. The RF stage(s) kept out the adjacent
signals which cause problems when they are allowed into the rest of the
receiver.

Today's crap, as you put it, lets everything in through the barn door front end
and then tries to sort it out with whiz bang, floor noise generating circuitry.

If I were a DXer and not a SWLer, I would get a WWII military receiver. Those
were no-frills radios that could just about hear anything that was on the air.
And when a band was open, the receiver would sound dead -- except when there
was a signal.

73,
Bill, K5BY

Get a 5 tube superhet at a garage sale. No RF stage and image prone
but very sensitive.

Or an old car radio with a sliderule dial. One of the major
shortcomings of today's AM radios is the lack of fine tuning.

On 10 May 2004 12:22:53 GMT, (WShoots1) wrote:

The best receivers were those of the tube days, and were determined by the
number of tuned RF stages BEFORE the first mixer. (Three stages seemed to be
the maximum, but even one was very good.)

That's where good selectivity began, too. The RF stage(s) kept out the adjacent
signals which cause problems when they are allowed into the rest of the
receiver.

Today's crap, as you put it, lets everything in through the barn door front end
and then tries to sort it out with whiz bang, floor noise generating circuitry.

If I were a DXer and not a SWLer, I would get a WWII military receiver. Those
were no-frills radios that could just about hear anything that was on the air.
And when a band was open, the receiver would sound dead -- except when there
was a signal.

73,
Bill, K5BY

WShoots1 wrote:
The best receivers were those of the tube days, and were determined by the
number of tuned RF stages BEFORE the first mixer. (Three stages seemed to be
the maximum, but even one was very good.)

Uh, most tube (consumer) radios didn't have *any* RF amplifiers before
the mixer. They did have one tuned circuit before the mixer - which is
more than you can say for most radios today.

I don't recall ever seeing a radio design with more than one amplifier
stage before the mixer.

Today's crap, as you put it, lets everything in through the barn door front end
and then tries to sort it out with whiz bang, floor noise generating circuitry.

I'm not so sure the radio is usually the problem today. It's not that
hard (or expensive) to make a decent AM radio. The problems with AM
reception a

- Noise. Back in the 60s the only real noise source in your car was the
ignition system, and that was relatively easy to filter. Today your car
is full of computers - which seem to do a pretty good job of drowning
out the ignition noise! Home environments are even worse.

- Interference. There are roughly 5 times as many stations in the U.S.
as there were in 1950. More recently, the vast majority of daytime-only
stations have been allowed to run at least a few watts at night. New
stations have been authorized on channels where formerly only one
station was allowed to operate at night. (for example, I remember a
time when WOAI was the ONLY station in the US or Canada allowed to
operate at night on 1200. Today, there are 17.)

IMHO the most important component of good AM reception is the antenna.
A few hundred feet of wire hooked to just about any halfway-decent radio
will bring in plenty of DX.
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com

"Doug Smith W9WI" wrote in message
...
I'm not so sure the radio is usually the problem today. It's not that
hard (or expensive) to make a decent AM radio. The problems with AM
reception a

- Noise.

Yes.

- Interference.

Yes.

IMHO the most important component of good AM reception is the antenna.

I'm with you so far. A dime in the antenna is worth a buck in the receiver.

A few hundred feet of wire hooked to just about any halfway-decent radio
will bring in plenty of DX.

True, but as long as we're talking hypothetical best-case scenario, I would
opt for low-noise, directional antennas. You can't beat a long Beverage
antenna, but a large-enough loop _properly installed_ away from metal
objects and noise sources, will do well, especially if it's tiltable. A loop
can be used to null interference and, being electrically short-circuited, is
quiet. Crane's loop probably does a good job but I never bought one to try.
I had a 4-foot-square loop that turned and tilted, and an SP-600 receiver,
that made a good combination for AM DXing. SuperPros are overpriced now,
IMO, but I believe the extra shielding paid off.

As long as we're kvetching about AM, what bothers me is that so many
stations just run satellite feeds and there is very little diversity in
programming. Broadcasting has become too homogenized. It's fun to pick up
distant stations but the program content that made it interesting in the
past is rarely there. When you heard the hog report from some little town
west of nowhere, you _knew_ you were DXing!

"PM"

!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"
html
 
pPaul_Morphy wrote:
blockquote TYPE=CITEI agree, Paul. When I was working in the Oil Patch
in 1984, my little Datsun (also a bygone name) only had an AM radio. Most
mornings on the way in to the office site I would tune in the news and
at the end of the hour they always had the farm report. It helped to remind
me that there were a lot of people in those areas that made their livings
in ways other than by working for the Seven Sisters. On the whole however,
other than the local news programs there was little worth tuning in to;
even then the AM dial was full of talk show drek./blockquote

pbrAs to the original topic, I find I can do some nice DXing with my
Radio Shack SW-100. The "direction finder" on the top is actually the ferrite
bar, which allows me to turn the antenna up to 35 degrees in either direction
without moving the radio. When I add the Radio Shack AM loop antenna, here
in southern Maine I'm able to pick a bunch of Canadian stations, both French
and English, and a whole lot of balsams. These old radios can be had for
about $20 on ebay.
pHave fun!
pPete Davis
blockquote TYPE=CITE 
pAs long as we're kvetching about AM, what bothers me is that so many
brstations just run satellite feeds and there is very little diversity
in
brprogramming. Broadcasting has become too homogenized. It's fun to pick
up
brdistant stations but the program content that made it interesting in
the
brpast is rarely there. When you heard the hog report from some little
town
brwest of nowhere, you _knew_ you were DXing!
p"PM"/blockquote
/html

!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"
html
I meant a whole lot of ball games, not balsams. Operator spell check error.
Sorry. We have a lot of trees here in Maine, but they're no more worth
listening to than the talk show bozos.
pPete Davis
pPete & Renee Davis wrote:
blockquote TYPE=CITE 
pPaul_Morphy wrote:
blockquote TYPE=CITEI agree, Paul. When I was working in the Oil Patch
in 1984, my little Datsun (also a bygone name) only had an AM radio. Most
mornings on the way in to the office site I would tune in the news and
at the end of the hour they always had the farm report. It helped to remind
me that there were a lot of people in those areas that made their livings
in ways other than by working for the Seven Sisters. On the whole however,
other than the local news programs there was little worth tuning in to;
even then the AM dial was full of talk show drek./blockquote

pbrAs to the original topic, I find I can do some nice DXing with my
Radio Shack SW-100. The "direction finder" on the top is actually the ferrite
bar, which allows me to turn the antenna up to 35 degrees in either direction
without moving the radio. When I add the Radio Shack AM loop antenna, here
in southern Maine I'm able to pick a bunch of Canadian stations, both French
and English, and a whole lot of balsams. These old radios can be had for
about $20 on ebay.
pHave fun!
pPete Davis
blockquote TYPE=CITE 
pAs long as we're kvetching about AM, what bothers me is that so many
brstations just run satellite feeds and there is very little diversity
in
brprogramming. Broadcasting has become too homogenized. It's fun to pick
up
brdistant stations but the program content that made it interesting in
the
brpast is rarely there. When you heard the hog report from some little
town
brwest of nowhere, you _knew_ you were DXing!
p"PM"/blockquote
/blockquote
/html

"Doug Smith W9WI" wrote in message
...


[snip]


I don't recall ever seeing a radio design with more than one amplifier
stage before the mixer.


Two or more RF stages were used on high end single conversion radios to
reduce images. These designs were largely replaced with double conversion
designs.

Frank Dresser

A few hundred feet of wire hooked to just about any halfway-decent radio
will bring in plenty of DX.

That'd look killer while driving. ;-)

~^Monitoring The Spectrum^~
Hammarlund HQ129X /Heathkit Q Multiplier
Hammarlund HQ140X
Multiple GE P-780's(GREAT BCB Radios)
RCA Victor *Strato- World*
RCA Victor RJC77W-K(Walnut Grain)
1942 Zenith Wave Magnet 6G 601M
Cathedral/ Ross#2311/Rhapsody-MultiBand
DX100/394/*SUPER*398/399/402
OMGS Transistor Eight/Realistic 12-1451
Henry Kloss Model One/Bell+Howell
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Alpha Delta DX Sloper 57ft.
500ft. 12AWG. (non-terminated)
120ft. 12 AWG Sloper
2 Radio Shack Loop Antennas
Radio Shack Amplified Antenna
30X30 DiamondLoop(six section 830pf Cap)
* Diamond Loop mounted to Lazy Susan TurnTable*
*21/2X2ft.FiveSpoked~Penta-Loop~PancakeLoop*

If I were a DXer and not a SWLer, I would get a WWII military receiver. Those
were no-frills radios that could just about hear anything that was on the
air.
And when a band was open, the receiver would sound dead -- except when there

was a signal.

I know and totally agree with what you said. Do you mean though for a car? If
so, where would one find one of these? Would it mount in a car or take some
ingenuity?

That's kind of the way it is with that old Delco, is it possible it has a tube
in it? No volume right away just like my tube receivers here at home.
It'll be quiet while I'm driving a straight ten mile stretch along the river
slowly turning the knob and then bam- there's a station, or if two are on top
of each other, I pull out on the on/off/volume and presto, I have only one
station.

I love it and will keep it till I die, but if I could find what your talking
about, I'd definitely put it in and moves the Delco inside or maybe keep both
of them in there. :-D

~^Monitoring The Spectrum^~
Hammarlund HQ129X /Heathkit Q Multiplier
Hammarlund HQ140X
Multiple GE P-780's(GREAT BCB Radios)
RCA Victor *Strato- World*
RCA Victor RJC77W-K(Walnut Grain)
1942 Zenith Wave Magnet 6G 601M
Cathedral/ Ross#2311/Rhapsody-MultiBand
DX100/394/*SUPER*398/399/402
OMGS Transistor Eight/Realistic 12-1451
Henry Kloss Model One/Bell+Howell
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Alpha Delta DX Sloper 57ft.
500ft. 12AWG. (non-terminated)
120ft. 12 AWG Sloper
2 Radio Shack Loop Antennas
Radio Shack Amplified Antenna
30X30 DiamondLoop(six section 830pf Cap)
* Diamond Loop mounted to Lazy Susan TurnTable*
*21/2X2ft.FiveSpoked~Penta-Loop~PancakeLoop*