but the tuning
knob is very cheap, lightweight and wobbled.

You know, during the fall and winter months I carry mine in a backpack wrapped
in bubble wrap along with batteries, headphones, wire, an antenna phaser, etc
and find that the R30 is quite rugged. It gets hauled around on my back while I
mountain bike or hike to secluded DX sites, tugged in and out of the pack ...
no problem. I run it off some old rechargable cell phone batteries.

I thought about adding more weight to the tuning knob (solder or lead), but
then that's just more mass to haul on my back.

I'll be getting the Palstar MW??? preselector soon (second hand) and will
report on it's performance with the R30.

Best DX so far is WDHP, 1620khz US Virgin Islands while using a 700 ft wire on
the ground. Sigs were S9 well over the usual US jumble, and I had no overload
problems from a local station on 1290khz that was a mere 3 miles away.

Gee, am starting to get pumped for the fall DX season!


John K9RZZ