TenTec BFO Kit?
 

Greetings! TenTec has a BFO kit that they sell for about $11-$12. Has
anyone used one before? I have a Rat Shack DX-396 that I picked up new
on clearance about a year and a half ago for $27 and I really enjoy the
radio for taking with me in the truck or using with headphones. It
tunes through the SW bands from 2300 to about 21885kh continuous. It
tunes in 5 khz increments. Will that BFO tune far enough to get the
freqs in between the 5 khz steps? Just curious. This thing can be
added inside the case if there is room, or attached to the radio on the
outside, or just put in its own case and just placed close to the
radio. I just thought this might work out nice instead of buying
another portable when I would be satisfied with this if it could tune
on 75, 40, and twenty. Thanks for your input! Have a great weekend!
Jon in South Carolina.

Don't waste your money on it. I did the same thing for the very same
radio. It's very unstable with low output on the fundamental freq. and
loaded with harmonics that you don't want. I went and got a Kaito
KA1102 and have been very satisfied.

Frank
K3YAZ
Tucson

wrote in message
oups.com...
As with another response post, I've heard good things about the
KA-1103. I really like my KA-1102. IT has a true product detector for
SSB and a variable BFO thumbwheel for USB/LSB and SSB copy is quite
good for a portable, actually better than the ATS-909 that I previously
had. Sensitivity on just the whip is excellent. It has a few
operational idiosyncracises but these are minor and you get used to
them. (e.g. you can only use the BFO when in page # 9). I think I got
mine for about $75 over a year ago.

Frank
K3YAZ
Tucson

Hi Frank, you haven't started improving the KA-1102 yet? The 1103 has quite
a lot of mods already developed by a Russian enthusiast
http://lab.radioscanner.ru/review/degen2.php. I have an 1103 and it gives my
DX-394 a bit of a chase. I'd say it's a better SSB receiver than the 1102 as
far as operating convenience goes. There is a SSB on/off switch that can be
used on any frequency except VHF and all 260 some memories can be used for
any mode. It has a product detector and BFO fine tuning with a range of
about +/-1.5kHz. Switchable fiilters are usable in either AM or SSB mode.
I'd say the narrow filter is sharper on the nose than the DX-394's but the
skirt is shallower. By offsetting the BFO by 1kHz, you get a degree of
opposite sideband suppression, not as much as with the DX-394 or better
radios. I have even used it to listen to AM in ECSS (or maybe just EC)
mode - zero beating takes a fine touch and it does not hold for a long time
but works well on USB reduced carrier transmission from CHU and is not too
bad on speech programming. The fact you cannot offset far enough to shove
the carrier down the filter skirt makes music programming sound pretty awful
without an exact zero beat. Maybe the next generation will have a
synchronous detector!

73, Tom

Tom Holden wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
As with another response post, I've heard good things about the
KA-1103. I really like my KA-1102. IT has a true product detector for
SSB and a variable BFO thumbwheel for USB/LSB and SSB copy is quite
good for a portable, actually better than the ATS-909 that I previously
had. Sensitivity on just the whip is excellent. It has a few
operational idiosyncracises but these are minor and you get used to
them. (e.g. you can only use the BFO when in page # 9). I think I got
mine for about $75 over a year ago.

Frank
K3YAZ
Tucson

Hi Frank, you haven't started improving the KA-1102 yet? The 1103 has quite
a lot of mods already developed by a Russian enthusiast
http://lab.radioscanner.ru/review/degen2.php. I have an 1103 and it gives my
DX-394 a bit of a chase. I'd say it's a better SSB receiver than the 1102 as
far as operating convenience goes. There is a SSB on/off switch that can be
used on any frequency except VHF and all 260 some memories can be used for
any mode. It has a product detector and BFO fine tuning with a range of
about +/-1.5kHz. Switchable fiilters are usable in either AM or SSB mode.
I'd say the narrow filter is sharper on the nose than the DX-394's but the
skirt is shallower. By offsetting the BFO by 1kHz, you get a degree of
opposite sideband suppression, not as much as with the DX-394 or better
radios. I have even used it to listen to AM in ECSS (or maybe just EC)
mode - zero beating takes a fine touch and it does not hold for a long time
but works well on USB reduced carrier transmission from CHU and is not too
bad on speech programming. The fact you cannot offset far enough to shove
the carrier down the filter skirt makes music programming sound pretty awful
without an exact zero beat. Maybe the next generation will have a
synchronous detector!

73, Tom

Tom - I did open up the KA-1102 and and once I saw the very tiny
surface mount parts I decided to leave it the way it was short of
disconnecting all the signal level LEDs to save battery power. Give me
thru-hole parts any day if I'm going to do modifications! I've stuck to
tabletops for heavy duty experimentation!

Frank