Hi all,

Having done some DX'ing with a small Sony SW radio for ten years, I
would like to buy a better one, connected to the pc. I was thinking of
the Ten-Tech RX320D. Does anyone have any experience with this radio?
Is it better than, say, Icom or Winradio? And what about computer
noise? Also, I'm in an apartment and would like some kind of antenna
(active?). Which one would you recommend, and where to get it. I am
not really a DIY person

Thanks!

Bill schrieb:

Hi all,

Having done some DX'ing with a small Sony SW radio for ten years, I
would like to buy a better one, connected to the pc. I was thinking of
the Ten-Tech RX320D. Does anyone have any experience with this radio?
Is it better than, say, Icom or Winradio?

As far as I've read, the RX-320 is pretty much the best shortwave rig in
its class; no idea whether the Winradio G303i or G313i might beat it in
terms of strong signal handling, though.

And what about computer
noise?

Assuming the RX-320 is decently constructed, there shouldn't be any more
such noise than with any other PC controlled receiver. The best place
for an antenna is as far away from noise sources (including the PC) as
possible, with coax lead-in. BTW the worst interference sources from my
rig here are the ethernet switch (cheapie) and a front mounted
(unshielded) case fan.

Also, I'm in an apartment and would like some kind of antenna
(active?).

Particularly when having to use the PC for receiver operation, you want
something outdoors.

Stephan
--
Meine Andere Seite: http://stephan.win31.de/
PC#6: i440BX, 1xP3-500E, 512 MiB, 18+80 GB, R9k AGP 64 MiB, 110W
This is a SCSI-inside, Legacy-plus, TCPA-free computer
Mail to From: not read, see homepg. | Real gelesene Mailadr. s. Homep.

"Bill" wrote:

Having done some DX'ing with a
small Sony SW radio for ten years,
I would like to buy a better one,
connected to the pc. I was thinking
of the Ten-Tech RX320D. (snip)


I considered buying one of those types of shortwave receivers before.
However, I changed my mind after weighing all the possible long term
implications. A good, well-built, standalone receiver can be useful over
many years. Indeed, among my radios, I have a twenty-five year old Kenwood
that is still performing like a champ. A computer-based receiver, on the
other hand, is clearly dependant on the computer for continued use. Given
the speed in which computer technology advances and today's technology
becomes obsolete, a computer-based receiver clearly has a limited lifespan.
Further, after a lessor number of years, when a new OS has replaced the OS
needed to operate the receiver's software, any resale value would be sharply
reduced. Of course, one can hope the receiver's manufacturer will release
new software as operating systems change, but even they will eventually drop
this model with a newer receiver with support for older models eventually
ended. I'm not trying to talk you out of buying that receiver (since I don't
know you, I have no real interest in what you buy). Instead, I just wanted
to add this to the general discussion of this newsgroup.

Stewart

"Dwight Stewart" wrote in
nk.net:

"Bill" wrote:

Having done some DX'ing with a
small Sony SW radio for ten years,
I would like to buy a better one,
connected to the pc. I was thinking
of the Ten-Tech RX320D. (snip)


I considered buying one of those types of shortwave receivers before.
However, I changed my mind after weighing all the possible long term
implications. A good, well-built, standalone receiver can be useful over
many years. Indeed, among my radios, I have a twenty-five year old
Kenwood that is still performing like a champ. A computer-based
receiver, on the other hand, is clearly dependant on the computer for
continued use. Given the speed in which computer technology advances and
today's technology becomes obsolete, a computer-based receiver clearly
has a limited lifespan. Further, after a lessor number of years, when a
new OS has replaced the OS needed to operate the receiver's software,
any resale value would be sharply reduced. Of course, one can hope the
receiver's manufacturer will release new software as operating systems
change, but even they will eventually drop this model with a newer
receiver with support for older models eventually ended. I'm not trying
to talk you out of buying that receiver (since I don't know you, I have
no real interest in what you buy). Instead, I just wanted to add this to
the general discussion of this newsgroup.

Stewart



I have a PCR-1000 here that will work on everything from Win95 to WinXp +
Linux//Unix. At the very worst you can dedicate on "older" computer to
the setup and keep it going indefinitely. There may be many reasons to
choose a different type of receiver, but the chaning OS scene is certainly
not one of them. Since most modern receivers also have serial ports on
them, and are used with some form of computer connection, if only just for
logging, your argument would also apply to them. Certainly these receivers
have no more limited a life span than any other more conventional gear.
Having been in the hobby for many years, about the only thing I don't like
about the software controlled gear is the lack of a knob or two to twirl
But that is generally made up for with the veratility of the equipment.
e.g. I can listen to short wave and at the touch of button turn the PCR-
1000 into a trunk tracking scanner. There are not many receivers on the
market that are capable of a similar feat.


--
Panzer

Panzer240 wrote:

"Dwight Stewart" wrote in
nk.net:

"Bill" wrote:

Having done some DX'ing with a
small Sony SW radio for ten years,
I would like to buy a better one,
connected to the pc. I was thinking
of the Ten-Tech RX320D. (snip)


I considered buying one of those types of shortwave receivers before.
However, I changed my mind after weighing all the possible long term
implications. A good, well-built, standalone receiver can be useful over
many years. Indeed, among my radios, I have a twenty-five year old
Kenwood that is still performing like a champ. A computer-based
receiver, on the other hand, is clearly dependant on the computer for
continued use. Given the speed in which computer technology advances and
today's technology becomes obsolete, a computer-based receiver clearly
has a limited lifespan. Further, after a lessor number of years, when a
new OS has replaced the OS needed to operate the receiver's software,
any resale value would be sharply reduced. Of course, one can hope the
receiver's manufacturer will release new software as operating systems
change, but even they will eventually drop this model with a newer
receiver with support for older models eventually ended. I'm not trying
to talk you out of buying that receiver (since I don't know you, I have
no real interest in what you buy). Instead, I just wanted to add this to
the general discussion of this newsgroup.

Stewart



I have a PCR-1000 here that will work on everything from Win95 to WinXp +
Linux//Unix. At the very worst you can dedicate on "older" computer to
the setup and keep it going indefinitely. There may be many reasons to
choose a different type of receiver, but the chaning OS scene is certainly
not one of them. Since most modern receivers also have serial ports on
them, and are used with some form of computer connection, if only just for
logging, your argument would also apply to them. Certainly these receivers
have no more limited a life span than any other more conventional gear.
Having been in the hobby for many years, about the only thing I don't like
about the software controlled gear is the lack of a knob or two to twirl
But that is generally made up for with the veratility of the equipment.
e.g. I can listen to short wave and at the touch of button turn the PCR-
1000 into a trunk tracking scanner. There are not many receivers on the
market that are capable of a similar feat.

Wideband receivers (whether they be PC controlled or not) are notorious for
being overall poor performers.

dxAce

Panzer240 wrote:

"Dwight Stewart" wrote in
nk.net:

"Bill" wrote:

Having done some DX'ing with a
small Sony SW radio for ten years,
I would like to buy a better one,
connected to the pc. I was thinking
of the Ten-Tech RX320D. (snip)


I considered buying one of those types of shortwave receivers before.
However, I changed my mind after weighing all the possible long term
implications. A good, well-built, standalone receiver can be useful over
many years. Indeed, among my radios, I have a twenty-five year old
Kenwood that is still performing like a champ. A computer-based
receiver, on the other hand, is clearly dependant on the computer for
continued use. Given the speed in which computer technology advances and
today's technology becomes obsolete, a computer-based receiver clearly
has a limited lifespan. Further, after a lessor number of years, when a
new OS has replaced the OS needed to operate the receiver's software,
any resale value would be sharply reduced. Of course, one can hope the
receiver's manufacturer will release new software as operating systems
change, but even they will eventually drop this model with a newer
receiver with support for older models eventually ended. I'm not trying
to talk you out of buying that receiver (since I don't know you, I have
no real interest in what you buy). Instead, I just wanted to add this to
the general discussion of this newsgroup.

Stewart



I have a PCR-1000 here that will work on everything from Win95 to WinXp +
Linux//Unix. At the very worst you can dedicate on "older" computer to
the setup and keep it going indefinitely. There may be many reasons to
choose a different type of receiver, but the chaning OS scene is certainly
not one of them. Since most modern receivers also have serial ports on
them, and are used with some form of computer connection, if only just for
logging, your argument would also apply to them. Certainly these receivers
have no more limited a life span than any other more conventional gear.
Having been in the hobby for many years, about the only thing I don't like
about the software controlled gear is the lack of a knob or two to twirl
But that is generally made up for with the veratility of the equipment.
e.g. I can listen to short wave and at the touch of button turn the PCR-
1000 into a trunk tracking scanner. There are not many receivers on the
market that are capable of a similar feat.

--
Panzer

Some PC based radios will be easier than others to keep going as computers and operating systems change. I'd be concerned about receivers that come on internal cards - because keeping an old computer running eventually becomes impractical.

Can you still buy a new hard drive for an XT?

But I do still have a 1976 Polymorphic Systems 8813 with three single sided hard sectored floppy drives and a whopping 56k of ram, and I suppose it could run some of the pc based radios if I wrote the software myself.

In article ,
says...
Hi all,

Having done some DX'ing with a small Sony SW radio for ten years, I
would like to buy a better one, connected to the pc. I was thinking of
the Ten-Tech RX320D. Does anyone have any experience with this radio?
Is it better than, say, Icom or Winradio? And what about computer
noise? Also, I'm in an apartment and would like some kind of antenna
(active?). Which one would you recommend, and where to get it. I am
not really a DIY person

Thanks!


I have the RX320D and use it quite a bit. It is not a DX machine by any
stretch, but it will handle a lot of spelunking nicely. The connection
from the radio to the computer is a serial cable (and in my case an
audio cable to play the audio through the computer, which in turn goes
to the stereo amp). Using the supplied whip, you do pick up noise from
the computer, but not because of the serial cable nor the audio cable.
With a standalone radio, you could just shut the computer off; but the
noise is hardly noticeable, and any other antenna (indoor or outdoor)
will negate any issue.

I agree with comment about not getting an internal card radio. Too much
noise inside the best of the computer boxes. Also, they are much more
expensive. At some point your new computer will come without a serial
port; then you will need to buy either a USB to serial converter, or a
serial card. Both these will be low risk and low cost compared to trying
to make a card-radio work.

Regarding software for the 320d:
I paid extra for the radio/software package from a third party, but that
turned out to be the wrong decision. Just buy the box from tentec, throw
out the software that they supply, and use the freeware from:
http://www.ilgradio.com/gnpdb/
While you are there, get the GNDB front-end and the ILG database; and
the two programs work together very nicely.

Also, you can get a freeware program that will decode DRM signals. I
messed around with it and on the few occasions that the signal (from
Sackville on the the east coast of Canada) was strong enough, the
digital signal really delivered high quality.

Also, you can get freeware DSP programs. So if you are feeding the audio
through the sound card (as I am), you can shape the audio however you
like (for example, I was once getting a lot of noise above 3khz on BBC,
so I just put a low pass filter on it and was able to hear a signal that
was otherwise unintelligible).

I will admit that I am a computer nut, so this radio makes perfect sense
for me; but it isn't for everyone. It isn't a portable rig by any
stretch of the imagination (when I am on the road, I just use DXTUNERS).

Hope that helps,
Gavin

On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 15:23:57 -0400, dxAce wrote:



Panzer240 wrote:

"Dwight Stewart" wrote in
nk.net:

"Bill" wrote:

Having done some DX'ing with a
small Sony SW radio for ten years,
I would like to buy a better one,
connected to the pc. I was thinking
of the Ten-Tech RX320D. (snip)


I considered buying one of those types of shortwave receivers before.
However, I changed my mind after weighing all the possible long term
implications. A good, well-built, standalone receiver can be useful over
many years. Indeed, among my radios, I have a twenty-five year old
Kenwood that is still performing like a champ. A computer-based
receiver, on the other hand, is clearly dependant on the computer for
continued use. Given the speed in which computer technology advances and
today's technology becomes obsolete, a computer-based receiver clearly
has a limited lifespan. Further, after a lessor number of years, when a
new OS has replaced the OS needed to operate the receiver's software,
any resale value would be sharply reduced. Of course, one can hope the
receiver's manufacturer will release new software as operating systems
change, but even they will eventually drop this model with a newer
receiver with support for older models eventually ended. I'm not trying
to talk you out of buying that receiver (since I don't know you, I have
no real interest in what you buy). Instead, I just wanted to add this to
the general discussion of this newsgroup.

Stewart



I have a PCR-1000 here that will work on everything from Win95 to WinXp +
Linux//Unix. At the very worst you can dedicate on "older" computer to
the setup and keep it going indefinitely. There may be many reasons to
choose a different type of receiver, but the chaning OS scene is certainly
not one of them. Since most modern receivers also have serial ports on
them, and are used with some form of computer connection, if only just for
logging, your argument would also apply to them. Certainly these receivers
have no more limited a life span than any other more conventional gear.
Having been in the hobby for many years, about the only thing I don't like
about the software controlled gear is the lack of a knob or two to twirl
But that is generally made up for with the veratility of the equipment.
e.g. I can listen to short wave and at the touch of button turn the PCR-
1000 into a trunk tracking scanner. There are not many receivers on the
market that are capable of a similar feat.

Wideband receivers (whether they be PC controlled or not) are notorious for
being overall poor performers.

dxAce

True, they typically are. The original poster was looking at the Ten
Tec RX320 though and that model is strictly HF. I have seen so many
positive reviews of this radio; even by folks with very nice Drake,
Racal et al tabletop radios; that I too strongly considered it. The
only drawback for me was that it is tied to the computer and I wanted
portability.
Howard

I would tend to disagree about the RX320 not being a DX machine.
I've gotten my fair share of good stuff on this radio; over the last
couple of nights, for example, AIR Bangalore's regional service on 10330
has been doing quite well here in Maryland. I've often caught smaller
LA stations using the 320. Almost anything my venerable R7A can hear, my
RX320 can, too. The only limiting factor is, of course, hash from the
monitor and/or computer. And to add to the data here, I'm using
homebrewed antennas in my attic. It's a matter of skill, too.
Regarding software; we've got a nice collection of links with all
sorts of controller programs, mods, reviews - and there's even a link
with a *huge* assortment of digital decoding software for those that
like to get into that sort of thing. All that can be found on the
RX320's Yahoo group at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RX320/

73s Mike

Gavin Jacobs wrote:

In article ,
says...

Hi all,

Having done some DX'ing with a small Sony SW radio for ten years, I
would like to buy a better one, connected to the pc. I was thinking of
the Ten-Tech RX320D. Does anyone have any experience with this radio?
Is it better than, say, Icom or Winradio? And what about computer
noise? Also, I'm in an apartment and would like some kind of antenna
(active?). Which one would you recommend, and where to get it. I am
not really a DIY person

Thanks!



I have the RX320D and use it quite a bit. It is not a DX machine by any
stretch, but it will handle a lot of spelunking nicely. The connection
from the radio to the computer is a serial cable (and in my case an
audio cable to play the audio through the computer, which in turn goes
to the stereo amp). Using the supplied whip, you do pick up noise from
the computer, but not because of the serial cable nor the audio cable.
With a standalone radio, you could just shut the computer off; but the
noise is hardly noticeable, and any other antenna (indoor or outdoor)
will negate any issue.

I agree with comment about not getting an internal card radio. Too much
noise inside the best of the computer boxes. Also, they are much more
expensive. At some point your new computer will come without a serial
port; then you will need to buy either a USB to serial converter, or a
serial card. Both these will be low risk and low cost compared to trying
to make a card-radio work.

Regarding software for the 320d:
I paid extra for the radio/software package from a third party, but that
turned out to be the wrong decision. Just buy the box from tentec, throw
out the software that they supply, and use the freeware from:
http://www.ilgradio.com/gnpdb/
While you are there, get the GNDB front-end and the ILG database; and
the two programs work together very nicely.

Also, you can get a freeware program that will decode DRM signals. I
messed around with it and on the few occasions that the signal (from
Sackville on the the east coast of Canada) was strong enough, the
digital signal really delivered high quality.

Also, you can get freeware DSP programs. So if you are feeding the audio
through the sound card (as I am), you can shape the audio however you
like (for example, I was once getting a lot of noise above 3khz on BBC,
so I just put a low pass filter on it and was able to hear a signal that
was otherwise unintelligible).

I will admit that I am a computer nut, so this radio makes perfect sense
for me; but it isn't for everyone. It isn't a portable rig by any
stretch of the imagination (when I am on the road, I just use DXTUNERS).

Hope that helps,
Gavin

In article , Stephan Grossklass
writes:


Also, I'm in an apartment and would like some kind of antenna
(active?).

Particularly when having to use the PC for receiver operation, you want
something outdoors.


Try this... !

Outdoor antenna for Apartment Dwellers . ..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MATERIALS

Some Stranded, Insulated copper wire from Radio shack
Colors so it matches the bricks / outside of your building

Some stick-on Cord holders
One tube clear Silicone sealer glue
One black magic marker
One Rusty red magic marker
A roll of Duct tape color of outside of apt.

One Mop
One piece of twine or string.
One Small soft edged weight.

PROCEDU

See how far it is in between two windows of your Apt..

Measure out a piece of string this distance + ~ 6 - 8 feet.
Attach a small soft edged weight to it.

( Look Outside to see no one is looking !! )

Secure curious household pets

Open Both Windows.
Insert mop part way out one]
Close that window to secure mop handle

Run over to the other window QUICK!
Take the twine with the weight on it & (without risking life & limb)
Toss the string over the mop sticking out the other window.
Secure the end of that end of the string with a bit of slack
Close that window
Run over to the other window with the mop that has the twine handing down off
it

Pull the mop in
Close the window.

( Breath deeply )

NOW....

Attach the stranded wire to the end of the string.
Slightly open window
Run over to the oher window.
Open it & pull in string until wire / string connection is through..

Pull in enough so that wire will reach SWR
Attach wire to SWR.
Close window.

- That's basically it. Modify as needed.

You can take Square stick -on cord holders
Camouflage them with magic Marker color , &
Silicone glue them to the outside corners of the window,
Then loop more wire

( DONT FALL OUT WHEN DOING THIS !!)

around the cord holders. This makes the antenna longer.
repeat for other windows..This should help lots..

( Works for me !!)