Harris receiver reviews
 

Can anyone point me to an internet where I can find reviews of the various
Harris RF receivers; side by side comparisons with other top notch equipment
and measured performance figures. AM band performance is one of my interest.
Comments from Harris users are also of interest.
Thanks,

Ron

RonH wrote:

Can anyone point me to an internet where I can find reviews of the various
Harris RF receivers; side by side comparisons with other top notch equipment
and measured performance figures. AM band performance is one of my interest.
Comments from Harris users are also of interest.
Thanks,

Ron

I'm not aware of any in depth reviews, but your best bet is probably to read the archives of Premium-RX.

http://kahuna.sdsu.edu/~mechtron/PremRxPage/

Personally, I like my Harris RF-550 better than the Racal 6790/gm I had.

A friend prefers his 550 to a WJ 8718 in sideband mode, but if he's listening in AM mode, he'll often use the WJ.

I would love to own one of the receivers mentioned.
My one gripe would be the eventuality of a needed
repair which would be prohibitively costly.
"RonH" wrote in message
k.net...
Can anyone point me to an internet where I can find reviews of the various
Harris RF receivers; side by side comparisons with other top notch
equipment
and measured performance figures. AM band performance is one of my
interest.
Comments from Harris users are also of interest.
Thanks,

Ron

"Radio Man" wrote
I would love to own one of the receivers mentioned.
My one gripe would be the eventuality of a needed
repair which would be prohibitively costly.

Good point, and contractors such as Harris normally charge about $140/hr
labor. The good side is, there is almost nothing in a DoD-market radio that
has a troubleshoot and replace time of more than one hour! Cost of parts is
another matter altogether, but unless the radio is more than 20 years old,
they would typically still be a good investment.

For Ron H, it was only about a month ago that the exact same thread was run
on this group. Suggest you search archives for the comments you requested.

73,

Jack

"RonH" wrote
Can anyone point me to an internet where I can find reviews of the
various
Harris RF receivers; side by side comparisons with other top notch
equipment
and measured performance figures. AM band performance is one of my
interest.
Comments from Harris users are also of interest.
Thanks,

Ron

Another way of looking at it: If i were to get married
& eventually get a divorce i would have to pay/lose thousands
of dollars. If i remain single i could purchase a quality receiver
& even down the road if a repair was required, receiver & repair
would be less than $2,500! Also i could lower the volume or
turn the radio off when it becomes upnoxious.

"Radio Man" wrote
I would love to own one of the receivers mentioned.
My one gripe would be the eventuality of a needed
repair which would be prohibitively costly.

Good point, and contractors such as Harris normally charge about $140/hr
labor. The good side is, there is almost nothing in a DoD-market radio
that
has a troubleshoot and replace time of more than one hour! Cost of parts
is
another matter altogether, but unless the radio is more than 20 years old,
they would typically still be a good investment.

For Ron H, it was only about a month ago that the exact same thread was
run
on this group. Suggest you search archives for the comments you requested.

73,

Jack

"RonH" wrote
Can anyone point me to an internet where I can find reviews of the
various
Harris RF receivers; side by side comparisons with other top notch
equipment
and measured performance figures. AM band performance is one of my
interest.
Comments from Harris users are also of interest.
Thanks,

Ron

Radio Man wrote:

I would love to own one of the receivers mentioned.
My one gripe would be the eventuality of a needed
repair which would be prohibitively costly.

Hi

The key is when you buy one of those radios, track down a service manual - "just in case".

But all manuals are not equal.

The Harris and WJ manuals I've seen are all quite good. My impression is with the manual, anyone with basic knowledge of electronics and access to appropriate test equipment could repair them.

I was less impressed with the service manual for my 6790/gm.

Parts availability is also a valid consideration - it's much easier to track down an LED than an LCD. Likewise, TTL chips are easier to find than custom ones. I understand some of the chips used in the Plessey 2280 are out of production.

But sometimes you find a radio that uses oddball parts, and you can't find documentation. I'd love to find a service manual for my Applied Communications/Norlin SR-2150. And I'm sure it would be a bugger to track down a new plasma display if mine died.
Still, it's a great radio, and I'm happy to have it.

The RF-590 has a sterling reputation, probably in top 5 of all time.
One un-noticed gem is the 505A, which I believe is the best SSB receiver ever.
It had a squelch which only responded to audio (not noise). When I had the 505A
I also had about a dozen other super-RXs, and the 505 picked up weaker signals
more clearly than ANY of them. Since I used a single antenna feeding a
multicoupler, each radio got an identical signal...no question of switching
antennnas, etc.
I'm sorry I ever sold it.
Two issues: it is not a tune-around receiver (set it and forget it), and you
MUST use the preselector tuning control; intermod on the AM band is not
acceptable.

The ISB capability (simultaneous USB and LSB) is cute. Two programs on VOA
feeder circuits, and on occasion, 11175 had USB and LSB activity at the same
time.