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

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