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#11
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Dear Ms. Laura,
Contrary to a post above, the Roberts R861 is equivalent to the Sangean ATS 909, a radio which is superior to the '505. It is a good (not great) short wave portable radio. However, it does not feaure the synchronous selectable sideband circuitry which the Sony features and which, in my opinion, makes all the difference in pleasant listening. I habe never owned a Sangean ATS 909 nor do I know anyone who does. According to PASSPORT TO WORLD BAND RADIO, the Sangean/Roberts works BEST off its AC adapter as it "eats" batteries. An external antenna is necessary also, as it lacks sensitivity with its whip (according to them). A long wire, or loop antenna, mounted on your roof would be ideal. Try buying a length of insulated wire, two ceramic or equivalent stand-off insulators (to isolate the antenna from whatever support you use) and some lead-in wire; attach the appropriate plug to the lead-in to attach to the radio and you're in business. No separate ground is necessary, but make sure you DISCONNECT the antenna whenever the radio is not in use and, especially, during local thunderstorms. (NEVER use ANY electronic appliance during a thunderstorm; storms only last a half-hour or so.) Do NOT let your antenna proper or the lead-in touch anything metallic; that will degrade the signal. Tall buildings don't impact short wave signals; electrical "noise" from computers, fluorescent lights, light dimmers, and other such modern accoutrements do, however, and it is best to turn these off if possible. Especially turn off such items one by one to see if the particular item is causing interference. (Of course, you can do nothing about your neighbors.) I have a very bad situation at my location with local electrical noise and I have been able to find a solution, but it would not be appropriate for you as it cost a great deal of money. I received VOK several weeks ago at about 0130 on 15180 kHz (actually a "hair" off that frequency). I haven't heard it since, but, frankly, have not tried either. Perhaps in the next couple of days I'll listen for it again. Do you know about Prime Time Shortwave? Just enter that in Google and it will take you to one of the best short wave schedule programs on the web (it's free!). There you can find the latest information on any station you might desire - its time and frequency and the "target area" to which it is transmitting. This often lets you have a "fighting chance" of picking up the signal. All the best, and the best of luck with your new radio, Joe laura fairhead wrote: fOn 10 Dec 2004 06:40:32 -0800, "Joe Analssandrini" wrote: Hi Joe, I was an impatient child in the end and went and bought a Roberts R861. They actually retail for quite a bit more than the Sony but I'm not sure I did the right thing :O Its difficult for me because I can't get deliveries where I live so I checked the local stores and to my surprise the local electronics shop he had a Roberts R861 (2nd hand but VGC) and was only asking =A3120 for everything including mains adapter. I'm happy because the Sony was going to cost more than that and the Xmas squeeze is on - I think I'm going to get so much into this I will end up getting the Sony soon AS WELL anyway First thing we realised is reception is rubbish here (right next door to a huge apartment block and lots of buildings on all sides we think are blocking the signals) The funny thing is that having the mains adapter plugged in seesm to improve the signal rather than degrade it (maybe it uses it as an aerial?) I understand that the telescopic aerial is for FM ? I plugged in the 'whip' (long wire thing) and put it as high as I could (not very much!) but we think it will be much better if we put an aerial up on the roof. Should I just put a long length of wire up there ? Is it alright to just dangle that down the side of the house to connect it or do we need to use a special shielded cable to do that? I want to have the computer running at the same time and it seems to interfer, maybe it would interfer with the aerial lead coming in ? (I don't know being inexperienced but that is what my hunch is...) Anyway I have been glued to the thing all night and wonder if I'll ever get to bed :-)) My first exciting discovery (I have been scanning and writing down the channels or a description) was "All Indian Radio" on 7.409Mhz. Also I think I got something from Nigeria on 7.382Mhz. I couldn't get Voice of Korea at all, not one iota. Do you think the Sony would fend better at that? Or is it just my aerial I need to set-up? What frequency did you get VOK on? Thanxs again, your post was very informative bestwishes laura Dear Ms. Laura, Universal Radio sells an AC adapter for the Sony ICF-SW7600GR which they claim is satisfactory. Sony's adapter is of the new "switching" kind which, though much more efficient than the older linear adapters, introduces a lot of noise; this makes it unsuitable for SW reception. In any case, the adapters sold here are for 110V, not 220. I do not know anything about the AC adapters sold in England. You must make sure that any AC adapter you purchase for the radio is a linear one as opposed to a "switching" adapter. I don't recommend the AC adapter because, even if it injects just a small amount of noise, this may impact your reception of Korea. (You should check on that with people who live in the UK; Korea's signal strength may be well stronger in the UK than the US.) Of course, if you wish to use a timer to turn on the radio, then, of course, you will need an AC adapter which would plug into the timer. However, if you use rechargeable NiMH batteries (which is what I strongly recommend for both the radio and the antenna), these can be charged at any time (they have little or no "memory effect" like NiCad batteries) so you could charge them every day if you wished. There are chargers which will recharge those batteries in one hour or less. The radio runs a very long time on rechargeable NiMH batteries and the antenna lasts even longer on those batteries. You need have no fear of the batteries going flat if you maintain them properly in accordance with your listening habits. The myth that "the radio powers the antenna" began, I'm afraid, with an error in PASSPORT TO WORLD BAND RADIO which is maintained even in its latest edition. It may be an error in interpretation. The radio will power on (and off) the antenna (in other words, when using the antenna with the '7600, one does not need to use the power switch on the antenna; it is turned on or off with the radio), but batteries are required in the antenna. It will not work if there are no batteries installed. PASSPORT's terminology is unfortunate and has led to a great deal of confusion. The antenna has no input for an AC adapter, but, as it turns on and off with the radio, there would be no problem with leaving the antenna powered unnecessarily. (The Sony AN-LP1 has the "automatic" operation only with the '7600 radio. It, of course, works with other SW radios, but the power switch must be turned on and off manually. Note also that the AN-LP1 is strictly for SW. It must be physically disconnected from the radio when listening to MW or LW.) I hope the above is of some use to you and, again, I wish you the very best of luck. Joe =20 --=20 echo |sed 's/\(.\)\(.\)/\2\1/g' |
#12
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"Joe Analssandrini" wrote in message ups.com... Dear Ms. Laura, Contrary to a post above, the Roberts R861 is equivalent to the Sangean ATS 909, a radio which is superior to the '505. [snip] Apologies for confusing the two models. |
#13
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I owned a Sangean ATS 909 in 1998.(I reckon ccrane company might still
have some hard paper and or electronic data in their computers of whom bought what from them before.I bought it from ccrane company in Fortuna,California.That was right after I bought one of them ccrane radios that has AM/FM/a couple of tv channels/stations and the weather station thingy that them kooks,Art Bell and George Noory on www.coasttocoastam.com The KOOK show,tout so much.Those ccrane radios didn't show me jack shyte! I sent them back to Fortuna.ccrane company sells over priced JUNK! cuhulin |
#14
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And just as Bad,them snake oil pedars at ccrane still charge Greatly!
over priced prices for their plastic JUNK too.And them Full Blown KOOKS! Art Bell and George Noory are still touting their ccrane JUNK too! EFF Them!!! cuhulin |
#15
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A few weeks ago I read an article by a guy in England and he and his
wife live in an apartment building.He was talking about the woes they have concerning their wireless computers on Wi-Fi.Different parts of their rooms in their apartment,their computers might work ok or then again their computers might not work or somebody else in the same apartment building or behind their home or up and down the street or accross the street might be hijacking their computers. cuhulin |
#16
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Sorry for a 'top post', but I'm rushed and just wanted to say I also own a
Sony ICF-SW7600GR receiver and it's 'sync' feature is worth every penny. (Or do you British still have 'farthings'? LOL.) Anyway, should your current set-up not satisfy, do look into the Sony. Some would call it pricy, but in Canada it's pretty reasonable compared to the really high-end stuff. All the best and good luck, Mike T. "laura fairhead" wrote in message ... fOn 10 Dec 2004 06:40:32 -0800, "Joe Analssandrini" wrote: Hi Joe, I was an impatient child in the end and went and bought a Roberts R861. They actually retail for quite a bit more than the Sony but I'm not sure I did the right thing :O Its difficult for me because I can't get deliveries where I live so I checked the local stores and to my surprise the local electronics shop he had a Roberts R861 (2nd hand but VGC) and was only asking £120 for everything including mains adapter. I'm happy because the Sony was going to cost more than that and the Xmas squeeze is on - I think I'm going to get so much into this I will end up getting the Sony soon AS WELL anyway First thing we realised is reception is rubbish here (right next door to a huge apartment block and lots of buildings on all sides we think are blocking the signals) The funny thing is that having the mains adapter plugged in seesm to improve the signal rather than degrade it (maybe it uses it as an aerial?) I understand that the telescopic aerial is for FM ? I plugged in the 'whip' (long wire thing) and put it as high as I could (not very much!) but we think it will be much better if we put an aerial up on the roof. Should I just put a long length of wire up there ? Is it alright to just dangle that down the side of the house to connect it or do we need to use a special shielded cable to do that? I want to have the computer running at the same time and it seems to interfer, maybe it would interfer with the aerial lead coming in ? (I don't know being inexperienced but that is what my hunch is...) Anyway I have been glued to the thing all night and wonder if I'll ever get to bed :-)) My first exciting discovery (I have been scanning and writing down the channels or a description) was "All Indian Radio" on 7.409Mhz. Also I think I got something from Nigeria on 7.382Mhz. I couldn't get Voice of Korea at all, not one iota. Do you think the Sony would fend better at that? Or is it just my aerial I need to set-up? What frequency did you get VOK on? Thanxs again, your post was very informative bestwishes laura Dear Ms. Laura, Universal Radio sells an AC adapter for the Sony ICF-SW7600GR which they claim is satisfactory. Sony's adapter is of the new "switching" kind which, though much more efficient than the older linear adapters, introduces a lot of noise; this makes it unsuitable for SW reception. In any case, the adapters sold here are for 110V, not 220. I do not know anything about the AC adapters sold in England. You must make sure that any AC adapter you purchase for the radio is a linear one as opposed to a "switching" adapter. I don't recommend the AC adapter because, even if it injects just a small amount of noise, this may impact your reception of Korea. (You should check on that with people who live in the UK; Korea's signal strength may be well stronger in the UK than the US.) Of course, if you wish to use a timer to turn on the radio, then, of course, you will need an AC adapter which would plug into the timer. However, if you use rechargeable NiMH batteries (which is what I strongly recommend for both the radio and the antenna), these can be charged at any time (they have little or no "memory effect" like NiCad batteries) so you could charge them every day if you wished. There are chargers which will recharge those batteries in one hour or less. The radio runs a very long time on rechargeable NiMH batteries and the antenna lasts even longer on those batteries. You need have no fear of the batteries going flat if you maintain them properly in accordance with your listening habits. The myth that "the radio powers the antenna" began, I'm afraid, with an error in PASSPORT TO WORLD BAND RADIO which is maintained even in its latest edition. It may be an error in interpretation. The radio will power on (and off) the antenna (in other words, when using the antenna with the '7600, one does not need to use the power switch on the antenna; it is turned on or off with the radio), but batteries are required in the antenna. It will not work if there are no batteries installed. PASSPORT's terminology is unfortunate and has led to a great deal of confusion. The antenna has no input for an AC adapter, but, as it turns on and off with the radio, there would be no problem with leaving the antenna powered unnecessarily. (The Sony AN-LP1 has the "automatic" operation only with the '7600 radio. It, of course, works with other SW radios, but the power switch must be turned on and off manually. Note also that the AN-LP1 is strictly for SW. It must be physically disconnected from the radio when listening to MW or LW.) I hope the above is of some use to you and, again, I wish you the very best of luck. Joe -- echo |sed 's/\(.\)\(.\)/\2\1/g' |
#17
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On 11 Dec 2004 14:48:08 -0800, "Joe Analssandrini" wrote:
Hi Joe, When I bought the Roberts I did check it had SSB and you can switch it too USB or LSB instead of AM - is that what you meant? Anyway I had quite an exciting reception the other day because I was scanning around 41m on LSB and found some local radio hams having a good chitty-chat. I know they were local because they mentionned some places around town where people in their group came from. One day I wanna get a transmitter too... :-) Also since I last posted I have received Iran (Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran), Vietnam, China (China radio international), Albania, the U.S , Voice of Russia (World service), Brussels. I'm going to send off for my first QSL card from Brussels (Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal - www.rvi.be). I still haven't heard anything of V.O.K and I've tried every different frequency I have and at different times. I think there is a lot of interference around here (it sounds like electrical noise). I tried turning off everything I have electrical in my flat (and also the fluorescent light in the hall outside my apartment) but to no avail it doesn't seem the noise is coming from here. My friend told me to try connecting an aerial we already have on the roof to the radio which I wouldn't have tried usually because it is a satellite dish (and I thought they were for receiving microwaves) but anyway we tried taking the thick middle cable of the lead (the aerial rather than the earth shielding around it) and wrapping it around the FM aerial of the radio. That seemed to increase the signal coming in which is odd but it also gives something if I put it into the TV so I gather sometimes the wrong aerial type can be bette than none at all. Anyhow I suppose it would be even better to make up a jack and plugh it into the AM aerial socket but rather than waste time messing around with that I think building a real aerial is my next move. The way I understand it I need to get a length of normal insulated wire, single core (does the gauge matter or will any do?) lay it on the roof in more or less a straight line (I am thinking to put weights at certain intervals to stop it blowing around) then connect that to some radio co-ax at one end and trail that down the side of the house and into the window to plug in the radio? The questions I have is (i) where should I plug the earth of the radio co-ax? (the outer layer shielding thingie) (ii) are these "ceramic stand-off insulators" capacitors or what ? if they are what values should I use ? I can understand the risks during a storm but people never unplug a TV aerial when they finished using it - why is that? Is it because there is some protection or is it because the risk is very low? I will take a look at prime-time shortwave when I get time. Can you recommend me any good URLs for reading and learning about things? A lot of it seems to assume you already know all the basic stuff which I don't (I know more than average but I'm regularly left misty-eyed reading radio-ham pages after a couple of KOVAs, QOLs and DXes ;-) bestwishesfrom laura Dear Ms. Laura, Contrary to a post above, the Roberts R861 is equivalent to the Sangean ATS 909, a radio which is superior to the '505. It is a good (not great) short wave portable radio. However, it does not feaure the synchronous selectable sideband circuitry which the Sony features and which, in my opinion, makes all the difference in pleasant listening. I habe never owned a Sangean ATS 909 nor do I know anyone who does. According to PASSPORT TO WORLD BAND RADIO, the Sangean/Roberts works BEST off its AC adapter as it "eats" batteries. An external antenna is necessary also, as it lacks sensitivity with its whip (according to them). A long wire, or loop antenna, mounted on your roof would be ideal. Try buying a length of insulated wire, two ceramic or equivalent stand-off insulators (to isolate the antenna from whatever support you use) and some lead-in wire; attach the appropriate plug to the lead-in to attach to the radio and you're in business. No separate ground is necessary, but make sure you DISCONNECT the antenna whenever the radio is not in use and, especially, during local thunderstorms. (NEVER use ANY electronic appliance during a thunderstorm; storms only last a half-hour or so.) Do NOT let your antenna proper or the lead-in touch anything metallic; that will degrade the signal. Tall buildings don't impact short wave signals; electrical "noise" from computers, fluorescent lights, light dimmers, and other such modern accoutrements do, however, and it is best to turn these off if possible. Especially turn off such items one by one to see if the particular item is causing interference. (Of course, you can do nothing about your neighbors.) I have a very bad situation at my location with local electrical noise and I have been able to find a solution, but it would not be appropriate for you as it cost a great deal of money. I received VOK several weeks ago at about 0130 on 15180 kHz (actually a "hair" off that frequency). I haven't heard it since, but, frankly, have not tried either. Perhaps in the next couple of days I'll listen for it again. Do you know about Prime Time Shortwave? Just enter that in Google and it will take you to one of the best short wave schedule programs on the web (it's free!). There you can find the latest information on any station you might desire - its time and frequency and the "target area" to which it is transmitting. This often lets you have a "fighting chance" of picking up the signal. All the best, and the best of luck with your new radio, Joe laura fairhead wrote: fOn 10 Dec 2004 06:40:32 -0800, "Joe Analssandrini" wrote: Hi Joe, I was an impatient child in the end and went and bought a Roberts R861. They actually retail for quite a bit more than the Sony but I'm not sure I did the right thing :O Its difficult for me because I can't get deliveries where I live so I checked the local stores and to my surprise the local electronics shop he had a Roberts R861 (2nd hand but VGC) and was only asking =A3120 for everything including mains adapter. I'm happy because the Sony was going to cost more than that and the Xmas squeeze is on - I think I'm going to get so much into this I will end up getting the Sony soon AS WELL anyway First thing we realised is reception is rubbish here (right next door to a huge apartment block and lots of buildings on all sides we think are blocking the signals) The funny thing is that having the mains adapter plugged in seesm to improve the signal rather than degrade it (maybe it uses it as an aerial?) I understand that the telescopic aerial is for FM ? I plugged in the 'whip' (long wire thing) and put it as high as I could (not very much!) but we think it will be much better if we put an aerial up on the roof. Should I just put a long length of wire up there ? Is it alright to just dangle that down the side of the house to connect it or do we need to use a special shielded cable to do that? I want to have the computer running at the same time and it seems to interfer, maybe it would interfer with the aerial lead coming in ? (I don't know being inexperienced but that is what my hunch is...) Anyway I have been glued to the thing all night and wonder if I'll ever get to bed :-)) My first exciting discovery (I have been scanning and writing down the channels or a description) was "All Indian Radio" on 7.409Mhz. Also I think I got something from Nigeria on 7.382Mhz. I couldn't get Voice of Korea at all, not one iota. Do you think the Sony would fend better at that? Or is it just my aerial I need to set-up? What frequency did you get VOK on? Thanxs again, your post was very informative bestwishes laura -- echo |sed 's/\(.\)\(.\)/\2\1/g' |
#18
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On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 16:15:14 -0500, "Mike Tschel." wrote:
Hi Mike, I didn't get the Sony because I wanted a radio NOW heheh and it was last thing on a Saturday and it was in my hands and it was either that or wait for a while (another stupid week) and then I would have to pay more for the Sony here (I got the R861 for 120 and the Sony would have been more than 150 over here). When I got it home I thought I might have made a bad decision but since we have found that the R861 is very good radio. The only problem I have with it during operation is that I can only tune AM in 1Khz steps and not finer. This is pretty annoying but everything else is good. Now it's christmas I can't spend much more money right away but anyway the most important thing for me is to learn more things about all this and to build my first aerial. If I can get a signal for Voice of Korea with the aerial then I will almost certainly get a Sony as well to see what it can do (and it has +/- 1.5Khz fine tuning on the dial as far as I could tell) but I don't think it will perform miracles if the Roberts can't get anything at all and it would be awfully dissappointing to spend another 150 and find I still couldn't tune into Pyongyang ! I hope you understand what I mean bestwishes laura Sorry for a 'top post', but I'm rushed and just wanted to say I also own a Sony ICF-SW7600GR receiver and it's 'sync' feature is worth every penny. (Or do you British still have 'farthings'? LOL.) Anyway, should your current set-up not satisfy, do look into the Sony. Some would call it pricy, but in Canada it's pretty reasonable compared to the really high-end stuff. All the best and good luck, Mike T. "laura fairhead" wrote in message ... fOn 10 Dec 2004 06:40:32 -0800, "Joe Analssandrini" wrote: Hi Joe, I was an impatient child in the end and went and bought a Roberts R861. They actually retail for quite a bit more than the Sony but I'm not sure I did the right thing :O Its difficult for me because I can't get deliveries where I live so I checked the local stores and to my surprise the local electronics shop he had a Roberts R861 (2nd hand but VGC) and was only asking £120 for everything including mains adapter. I'm happy because the Sony was going to cost more than that and the Xmas squeeze is on - I think I'm going to get so much into this I will end up getting the Sony soon AS WELL anyway First thing we realised is reception is rubbish here (right next door to a huge apartment block and lots of buildings on all sides we think are blocking the signals) The funny thing is that having the mains adapter plugged in seesm to improve the signal rather than degrade it (maybe it uses it as an aerial?) I understand that the telescopic aerial is for FM ? I plugged in the 'whip' (long wire thing) and put it as high as I could (not very much!) but we think it will be much better if we put an aerial up on the roof. Should I just put a long length of wire up there ? Is it alright to just dangle that down the side of the house to connect it or do we need to use a special shielded cable to do that? I want to have the computer running at the same time and it seems to interfer, maybe it would interfer with the aerial lead coming in ? (I don't know being inexperienced but that is what my hunch is...) Anyway I have been glued to the thing all night and wonder if I'll ever get to bed :-)) My first exciting discovery (I have been scanning and writing down the channels or a description) was "All Indian Radio" on 7.409Mhz. Also I think I got something from Nigeria on 7.382Mhz. I couldn't get Voice of Korea at all, not one iota. Do you think the Sony would fend better at that? Or is it just my aerial I need to set-up? What frequency did you get VOK on? Thanxs again, your post was very informative bestwishes laura Dear Ms. Laura, Universal Radio sells an AC adapter for the Sony ICF-SW7600GR which they claim is satisfactory. Sony's adapter is of the new "switching" kind which, though much more efficient than the older linear adapters, introduces a lot of noise; this makes it unsuitable for SW reception. In any case, the adapters sold here are for 110V, not 220. I do not know anything about the AC adapters sold in England. You must make sure that any AC adapter you purchase for the radio is a linear one as opposed to a "switching" adapter. I don't recommend the AC adapter because, even if it injects just a small amount of noise, this may impact your reception of Korea. (You should check on that with people who live in the UK; Korea's signal strength may be well stronger in the UK than the US.) Of course, if you wish to use a timer to turn on the radio, then, of course, you will need an AC adapter which would plug into the timer. However, if you use rechargeable NiMH batteries (which is what I strongly recommend for both the radio and the antenna), these can be charged at any time (they have little or no "memory effect" like NiCad batteries) so you could charge them every day if you wished. There are chargers which will recharge those batteries in one hour or less. The radio runs a very long time on rechargeable NiMH batteries and the antenna lasts even longer on those batteries. You need have no fear of the batteries going flat if you maintain them properly in accordance with your listening habits. The myth that "the radio powers the antenna" began, I'm afraid, with an error in PASSPORT TO WORLD BAND RADIO which is maintained even in its latest edition. It may be an error in interpretation. The radio will power on (and off) the antenna (in other words, when using the antenna with the '7600, one does not need to use the power switch on the antenna; it is turned on or off with the radio), but batteries are required in the antenna. It will not work if there are no batteries installed. PASSPORT's terminology is unfortunate and has led to a great deal of confusion. The antenna has no input for an AC adapter, but, as it turns on and off with the radio, there would be no problem with leaving the antenna powered unnecessarily. (The Sony AN-LP1 has the "automatic" operation only with the '7600 radio. It, of course, works with other SW radios, but the power switch must be turned on and off manually. Note also that the AN-LP1 is strictly for SW. It must be physically disconnected from the radio when listening to MW or LW.) I hope the above is of some use to you and, again, I wish you the very best of luck. Joe -- echo |sed 's/\(.\)\(.\)/\2\1/g' -- echo |sed 's/\(.\)\(.\)/\2\1/g' |
#19
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On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 00:29:28 GMT, (laura fairhead) wrote:
On 11 Dec 2004 14:48:08 -0800, "Joe Analssandrini" wrote: PS: In case you didn't get my URL's in my header info try http://dprk.1accesshost.com It's my website about Korea - if you like Korean music there are some links there to hundreds of songs seeya laura -- echo |sed 's/\(.\)\(.\)/\2\1/g' |
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