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#21
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Michael Lawson wrote:
"D Peter Maus" wrote in message ... The problems with the R-75 sync are based on early users who didn't know how to apply it. It's not like the Drake. It's a bit fiddly. Follow the instructions in the manual, it works fine. I took a look at the online manual, and there's a lack of description in the manual for the sync, which surprised me. Unless I was looking in the wrong place, that is; I just checked again to make sure, and the only thing as far as setting is concerned is the configuration whether the S-AM gets turned on automatically at low signal levels or whether it's always on. Oh, now, that's interesting. I got my instructions from the Icom Rep at a hamfest. I may still have them around here somewhere. I wasn't aware there was so little in the manual. But Icom manuals are like that. I've discovered half a dozen functions on my R10 that aren't in the manual, either. Only acknowledged by Icom in supplements released through limited channels. If you have those instructions around, it might not be a bad idea to post them, since as you said, Icom's manuals aren't the greatest in the world. (They do make the Sat 800's manual look nice, tho.) I'll dig around for them. Not a clue where they got to. I've moved since then. They may be in storage. I rarely toss a document, so they've got to be here somewhere. ::snippage:: Yes, if I can find the time for it this winter. Anything will be worth it to keep the internal noise from the television at bay and get a bit of directionality so I can pick up UD basketball games on WHIO 1290 at nighttime. If it's MW you're primarily interested in, you may consider a shielded ferrite loop, like the Justice antenna (which can be mounted outdoors and elevated for noise avoidance), or, if you can find one, a McKay -Dymek DA-5. Amazing how quiet reception can be with the McKay. Even indoors. When I was living downtown, there was no way to get a reliable AM signal in my building. Even on the 52nd floor, WGN was often buried in the noise and WLS wasn't even on the dial. I bought a Select-A-Tennna. It takes some careful tuning, but that cleaned up my AM dial in short order, not only boosting signal, but reducing noise as well. It doesn't work that dramatically with every receiver, but in this case, it was quite the find. I'll have to think about that for BCB AM. I'm more interested in the HF bands, but when the leaves turn color and college basketball season heats up, it's time for another season of get-my-heart-broken time by the Flyers. (At least we don't suck anymore, like the early 90's.) Suckage is often cyclic. Ask Chrysler. Silly indeed. Actually, R-71 audio can be made more tolerable with a decent speaker. Yeah; I built one for the R70, which improved things a bit. I should still have it lying around somewhere after we moved to our current house. KIWA offers an audio upgrade kit for R-71. Craig will install it for you for a fee, as well. And even installed, it's not very expensive. That's actually a mixed blessing. The audio problems with R-71 and it's stablemates is not related to poor design of the audio stage. In fact, as was pointed out in this forum a couple of years ago, the audio stage of R-71 is actually surprisingly clean for a comm radio and quite robust. Most of the distortion comes from the mixing and detector stages. And for that, there's little remedy. Doing an audio upgrade merely swaps out the ceramic caps in the audio path, which are notoriously poor for audio, replacing them with higher grade, audio friendly caps, which does make for a cleaner audio path. But that, in turn, makes the distortions more distinct and well defined. The audio goes from 'woolly' to harsh. Noticeable particularly on consonants. In the case of R-71, ceramic caps in the audio path actually work to your benefit, by smearing the harsher elements of the audio across a comparatively wide time interval,---still very small, actually---softening the more irritating elements. So the audio upgrade might not be the best idea, but definitely the external speaker is. Is that the case with the R70 as well, or just the R71A? It might be easier to get that R70 back before I get an R71A. As I recall, audio with R-70 was better than R-71, but it's been awhile since I've used R-70. Are the better filters on the R71A worth it, like they were/are for the R-5000? Absolutely. I installed the FL-44 premium filter for SSB. Made a huge difference in rejection on crowded bands. ICOM filters are going to be hard to come by, but InRad makes crystal filters for it, that have received considerable praise. Cost effective, and higher performance than most factory and aftermarket filters. Too. I seem to recall that Kiwa made some, too. I'll have to go check their website for info again. I know that the R-5000 filters come up regularly on eBay, however. You may benefit from a factory alignment after you install them, though. You probably know that R-71 originally released with PBT. And a heated patent infringement battle got that removed. But what's not widely known, is that removal only consisted of removal of the PBT components. The map on the board is still there. And the service manual still has the PBT section depicted, in detail, on it's schematics. So, with a little time inside, and nominal cost, you can restore PBT to a non PBT R-71. You'll want to install a premium filter for this at the same time. If you ask real nice, Bellevue may actually still have a PBT faceplate for this radio. For the most part, in the dark, they're the same radio. They were the 1-2 punch in the late 80's, if you couldn't spring for a JRC. The FRG-8800 always seemed to be a step behind the R71A and R-5000, and when the 535D and R8 hit the scene, the 8800 was simply outclassed. R-71 was sold by the thousands for monitoring stations worldwide. Most of the big broadcasters used them. Many government agencies used them. Some may have seen limited military service by accounts I've heard. It was the 'it' radio, to be sure. More trouble free than the JRC's. And more robust in heavy service applications than most anything out there. More trouble-free than the JRC's? I always thought that the JRC's (like the 515) were built like tanks. There was some problem with edge connectors on JRC radios that would lead to intermitted behaviours at inopportune moments. The fix was a simple cleaning, but a PITA when you had to get serious and stay serious. |
#22
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Chrysler isn't doing so bad nowdays,but I still say Chrysler messed up
when they merged with Daimler.Late next year or early 2007,y'all are going to be seeing made in China cars/vehicles showing up in U.S.A.at prices of about thirty to forty percent less than cars/vehicles made in U.S.A.Malcolm Bricklin is who y'all can blame that on.And,will Americans buy those made in China cars/vehicles? You bet they will! It will someday be the beginning of the end of the made in America cars/vehicles. cuhulin |
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