| Page 1 of 2 | 1 | 2 |
|
|
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Though I'm not a non-technical person, my area of expertise - or even
moderate knowledge - does not rest in the realm of shortwave radios. However, I've always had an interest in pursuing the subject, and towards that end my wife was kind enough to buy me a Grundig Yacht Boy 400PE for the holidays. My problem is this. After reading the entire manual, reading the Passport text and taking the plunge into the world of sw radio, I'm having trouble getting reception for stations that I would expect to get. I live in the northeast United States (northern New England). My condo is on the third (top) floor of a 15 unit building. My living room window looks out onto a massive lake with no building in the way through an 8 foot by 8 foot window. I have placed the receiver in this window and even covered the window in an X pattern with the external reel antenna. Nevertheless, I can't get even a single station that Passport recommends in the "First Tries: Ten Easy Catches" section. I've been listening at night and the band that Grundig recommends as "Good all night everywhere" in the 400PE manual - the 31m band - doesn't have a single frequency that comes in for me. Neither does the 41m band - also recommended as good all night in Northeastern America. The best I've been able to manage are two frequencies in the 49m band - one of which appears to be China Radio International on 5950. Neither of these are terribly clear at that, and the best reception that I've been able to get is with WWCR. Does anyone have any recommendations? Being new to this, I don't know what I should reasonably expect. Should I expect to be able to pick up a variety of things with moderate clarity. I know that this is all variable on many conditions, but realistically, what should I be expecting here? Thanks for your help. |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
|
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Sounds like your condo is built out of concrete and steel. Do you have
a balcony? If so try string the reel antenna outside on the balcony. Another option is to run a wire out a window hanging down with a small weight on the end that will not cause any damage to the building, A small rubber ball works well for this. Attaching a wire from the antenna to the window frame itself has helped me in the past. Just experiment and see what works best in your situation. It will take some time to get an understanding on what to expect. Just try experimenting and have fun with it. If you need help we will be around. |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
|
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Propagation conditions . . . - not quite stormy.. not great either . . http://www.n3kl.org/sun/noaa.html 5.975, 7.415 6.166 12.095 should all be receptable at some point.. try the 20 feet random wire on the antenna, check DX / Local switch.. also try 1170 WWVA, Wheeling West Virginia.. ( Just as a test) |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Like someone said,the radio could be defective.You should be able to
pick up a lot of shortwave radio stations. cuhulin |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
wrote:
Nevertheless, I can't get even a single station that Passport recommends in the "First Tries: Ten Easy Catches" section. I've been listening at night and the band that Grundig recommends as "Good all night everywhere" in the 400PE manual - the 31m band - doesn't have a single frequency that comes in for me. Neither does the 41m band - also recommended as good all night in Northeastern America. The best I've been able to manage are two frequencies in the 49m band - one of which appears to be China Radio International on 5950. Neither of these are terribly clear at that, and the best reception that I've been able to get is with WWCR. Actually 31 meter band reception here in NE is not that great lately. Try the 49 and 41 meter bands first. -- Brian Denley http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
|
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Pete...
You said you live in a condo over looking a huge lake. Do you have a boat or access to one? If so take that radio out in the boat and test it out on the whip antenna and if the boat is big enough string up your reel antenna. If it's a sailboat you could hook a jumper from the radio antenna or antenna jack to the mast or a stay. Watch out for static producing conditions. If you have a balcony with a metal railing, try hooking a jumper to that. If you have access to the roof, a longwire should do wonders. In dealing with radios for many years, the radio is part of the equation but the antenna is a huge part of it... probably the biggest part of it, assuming you have a decent radio, which you do. I wouldn't rely on that telescopic whip unless it's your only choice. Sometimes learning and experimenting in the beginning can be very rewarding. Please keep us informed on your progress. |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
|
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
My goodness! Thank you all for the incredible wealth of insight and
advice! While I can't say that my problems are yet solved, I can report the results from my latest tests. Though I'm starting with relatively little technical knowledge I suspect that I am nevertheless hooked - if venturing out in -2 degree (F) weather in the middle of the night to test my radio counts as being hooked. The first thing I did was to take Bob's advice and double check all the switches. It's always something simple, right? Well, the SSB switch was set to off, so I set that to on right away. Everything else is as it should be. As it *is* the middle of the night, procuring wire for antenna is an impossibility so I did what I could in the meantime. On the recommendation of Junius and others I grabbed some batteries, popped them in the Yacht Boy and ventured out onto one of the piers here on the lake. Not much around save water, though there are some power lines not far in the distance. It was bitter cold, so I didn't bother trying to rig up the reel antenna to anything and relied only on the whip. I tried all of the frequencies recommended by mcdonald606a - 5975, 7415, 6616, 12095 & 1170. This was all just after the start of the 0600 UTC hour. My research tells me that I should have heard the following: WBCQ (from Maine, USA) on 7415 BBC World Service on 12095 Nothing on 5975 (gap in schedule) but I couldn't turn up anything at any time for any day on 6166. And what did I hear? Nothing, save for some weak voices on 1170. Now by my understanding, 1170 would technically be an AM or MW frequency, correct? And mcdonald606a says that it's WWVA from West Virginia. I also turned up, in my reading, a listing for Radio Farda on the same frequency. Is this correct? I have to say though, the voice seemed to indicate much more of the scheduled "Truckin' Bozo" from WWVA than anything that could possibly have been on Radio Farda. Am I in fact correct in understanding that they are the same frequency though? The bad news is that the reception was still not terribly intelligible. Lots of noise. Distorted voices. I then packed up, hopped in the car and drove out of town to a fairly remote location where I found a wonderful field to stop at. Again, much of the same. The good news is that since I changed the SSB switch to "on", I can pick up a lot more, but only enough to make out that it is supposed to be a broadcast of some sort, never anything that could actually be listened to and understood. While in the field I cruised around the 49 and 41 meter bands per Brian's recommendation. No luck. Just more of the "ooh, ooh, what was that" experience. Nothing ever actually comes in. I'm going to continue pushing forward and will be visiting the electronics store tomorrow to look into antennas. After all the recommendations - and especially the encouraging words of GYT - I'm hoping that a decent antenna will help to solve the problems. Feel free to weigh in again after reading this update, and I'll be sure to post the results of the next step in testing. BTW - Regarding the question about that X pattern... My huge window faces west - much like Peter Maus' - and the X crosses it, which would make it run north/south (or more of a slightly NE/SW in my case). I also have a lot of electronics in the house - something that Peter also mentioned - so I did take the liberty of turning them all off, but who knows what others in the building are running. It's a small building and I can pick up at least 4 wireless networks so I'm guessing that the neighbors are pretty tech-laden as well. But the outdoor tests should have shed some light on all this... |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Pete, Another helpful tool is: http://www.anarc.org/naswa/swlguide/ Scroll down to the bottom and click on "LIST PROGRAMS AT CURRENT HOUR" It's sort of like a TV Guide for Shortwave radio. That SSB (Single Side Band) switch should be off for now. It is used primarily for the Amateur Bands (Ham Radio). It can be used on AM broadcasts in certain situations to cut down on interference but we are skipping ahead just a bit. There is another possibility in all of this and this is that the radio could be defective. You should be able to pick up something. Let's not throw in the towel just yet though. CAUTION! This is a last resort suggestion. I take no responsibility for the outcome. Sometimes when things appear hopeless, I read the instruction booklets. Yes I know that this sounds desperate but there have been times when I have actually gotten useful information from these things. Try it if you haven't already to see if there might be some useful tidbit of information that would pull this whole thing together. You might want to list what city (not address) you are in and possible someone on here is located there and can help you out by checking out your radio by letting you hook it up to one of their antennas. One other thing, if you are using batteries, make sure that they are fresh. This can have an effect. Keep us informed on your progress. |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
In article .com,
wrote: My goodness! Thank you all for the incredible wealth of insight and advice! While I can't say that my problems are yet solved, I can report the results from my latest tests. Though I'm starting with relatively little technical knowledge I suspect that I am nevertheless hooked - if venturing out in -2 degree (F) weather in the middle of the night to test my radio counts as being hooked. Here in Seattle, this time of year, a bit before midnight, I would expect to get what you've got. Nothing. Some bad space weather this week, a low spot in the solar cycle, and the seasonal poor propagation means that there's nothing to hear until the Asian/Pacific stations drop down to lower frequencies for their evening (their local time) broadcasts. They're broadcasting, but the 17, 15 and 13 MHz signals just don't get here. Even Radio Australia on 9590 and 9580, at 08:00 UTC, has been iffy this week. Try 6165 from 0:00 to 2:00 UTC for Radio Netherlands from their Caribean site. And try the 15 and 17 MHz bands (I don't do Meters) around 3-4 PM local time. And the 6, 7, and 9 MHz bands in the morning before 9 AM local. Mark Zenier Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com) |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
|
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
I'm still lost on the X. At most you might let the wire slope from top
to bottom, but X implies to me that you are wrapping the wire over itself. Radio Australia is a killer signal on the left coast. Are you east coasters getting it relayed? |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Hello.
Try this tomorrow night, indoors (in front of your window) with the whip antenna only. Make sure your SSB control is "off." Between 0100 - 0200 UTC (8 - 9 PM ET) tune to 6165 kHz (R. Nederland) and 11935 kHz (R. Japan). Both of these are relayed from the Netherlands Antilles. Between 0200 - 0400 UTC (9 - 11 PM ET) tune to 5975 kHz (BBC). This is relayed from French Guiana. If you cannot hear any of these, send your radio back for exchange (NOT "repair") as DOA. It is defective. Best, Joe |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
I think so, but I'm not sure what exactly is being done. It would sure
help to have a diagram. wrote: That's what I thought yesterday too.X would cancel out a lot of signals,,, wouldn't it? cuhulin |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
James Douglas wrote:
Can you receive any of the time signals. Try 10K, 15K, etc Only 3330 from Canada, and that is *extremely* static-filled. None of the other time signals come in. Not a single one from the US (5, 10, 15, 20) -P |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Indeed you are correct. The X did lead to the wire crossing itself so
- after smacking myself on the forehead - I rearranged it. I unfurled the reel and simply ran it from the upper left corner of my window, across the top and down the righthand side to my radio. The reception on 3330 - my test at the time - did improve slightly, but it remained nevertheless extremely static filled. Still none of the other time signals were received. I've reread the manual a million times, rechecked the radio just as many and everything is absolutely as it should be. -P |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Joe,
Extremely helpful advice, as is all the other discussion in this thread! Unfortunately I was out for most of the evening and didn't have an opportunity to test this. I will be at the window during these times tomorrow though. On a seperate note, I should mention that each time that I've tested all of these myriad frequencies I have been thorough insofar as I have tested with every combination of antenna (built-in, reel and none) and also on both power from the wall as well as battery power - and yes, they were fresh. The advice that I'm seeing here, though my problems are not yet resolved (many, many variables to test) is priceless and my thanks go to you all. I hope that others may be able to gain information from these messages as well. -O |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
I dont know how much money that Yachboy radio cost and I think somebody
said Amazon sells the Sony 7800 GR radios for about $129.00,a good price for a very good radio.What I would do is send the Yachboy radio back to the store for a refund and buy a Sony 7600 GR radio.(whenever you buy something like that,always save the box and packing materials and of course your sales receipt for at least a month or two in case the product might be defective and you might need to send it back for a refund) Then you would have a much better radio.Only my opinion. cuhulin |
Quote:
The previously mentioned suggestion of taking the radio outside for a walk is an excellent tip. This is how I achieve the best reception. What exactly are you hearing when you step through the 49m or 31m bands at night? Any faint voices? What kind of noise? A good test signal for you since you're in the USA is the WWV (http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/stations/wwv.html) broadcasts on 2.5 mhz, 5 mhz, 10 mhz, 15 mhz, and 20 mhz. 5 mhz is the most reliable for me in the evening (over here in northern California). Use the daytime/nighttime recommendations in your radio manual to determine which frequency is best at any given time. For very up-to-date shortwave frequency listings, give www.primetimeshortwave.com a try. You'll have to learn how to convert local time to coordinated universal time (aka UTC). Search for listings labeled "NA" (North America), although reception of stations broadcasting to other regions is possible. One of my favorite broadcasts is Radio Havana Cuba: 0500-0700 UTC: 6 mhz, 6.06 mhz, 9.55 mhz, 9.82 mhz, 11.76 mhz |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
The previously mentioned suggestion of taking the radio outside for a
walk is an excellent tip. This is how I achieve the best reception. Thanks for the tip. I did indeed take it outdoors - out on a pier into the lake - and the change in reception was hardly noticeable. Then for safe keeping I drove quite a distance outside of town to the middle-of-nowhere VT - no mountians, no woods, just a big open field - with the same results. What exactly are you hearing when you step through the 49m or 31m bands at night? Any faint voices? What kind of noise? 31m - nothing. 49m - occasional extremely static-filled voices. Absolutely nothing that would be considered intelligible. A good test signal for you since you're in the USA is the WWV (http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/stations/wwv.html) broadcasts on 2.5 mhz, 5 mhz, 10 mhz, 15 mhz, and 20 mhz. 5 mhz is the most reliable for me in the evening (over here in northern California). Historically I don't receive any of them, though this afternoon I just barely received the 20mhz broadcast - but again, completely filled with static and almost unable to be heard. I do get the 3330 time broadcast from Canada, but it too is not exactly well received. One of my favorite broadcasts is Radio Havana Cuba: 0500-0700 UTC: 6 mhz, 6.06 mhz, 9.55 mhz, 9.82 mhz, 11.76 mhz I suspect that would be one of my favorites as well. ;-) Unfortunately I have tried and tried - those seem to be common hours for me to be trying - and have not been able to get it. Spoke with Grundig tech support today and they didn't have too much too offer. Very nice people, to their credit, but because of all the variables involved they were unable to say if it sounds more like a receiver hardware problem or just general reception issues. I'm going to continue testing this evening. Due to the return policy of the company it was ordered from (universal radio) I need to decide quickly if I'll be returning/exchanging it. The question that comes up is that, if I do exchange it, would I be better off upgrading to a different radio? Aesthetic appeal aside, the Eton E1 seems to have good reviews everywhere. But is the difference in sensitivity enough to justify the extra money? I'm also interested in, eventually, tracking down some of the SSB traffic around my area. I have an international airport down the road, coast guard virtually next door and a city full of people. The YB isn't picking up anything there either when in SSB mode, but then, it got poor reviews on that aspect. Would the E1 be any better? -P |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Regarding the international airport, your interest would be in
international air traffic control, which does use HF. You can google around for MWARA frequencies. I have them for the left coast. I haven't tune them in ages, but will do so tonight for the hell of it. It's like air traffic control, but the pace is much slower since there isn't that much traffic. I have the older Sony 7600. It works fine on shortwave broadcast. The VFO resolution isn't fine enough for sideband, though it does have a analog control to tweak it in (clarifier). If you expect to do sideband, you need a radio with two filter bandwidths (at the very least). Using the wide filter for AM lets too much noise through on sideband. wrote: The previously mentioned suggestion of taking the radio outside for a walk is an excellent tip. This is how I achieve the best reception. Thanks for the tip. I did indeed take it outdoors - out on a pier into the lake - and the change in reception was hardly noticeable. Then for safe keeping I drove quite a distance outside of town to the middle-of-nowhere VT - no mountians, no woods, just a big open field - with the same results. What exactly are you hearing when you step through the 49m or 31m bands at night? Any faint voices? What kind of noise? 31m - nothing. 49m - occasional extremely static-filled voices. Absolutely nothing that would be considered intelligible. A good test signal for you since you're in the USA is the WWV (http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/stations/wwv.html) broadcasts on 2.5 mhz, 5 mhz, 10 mhz, 15 mhz, and 20 mhz. 5 mhz is the most reliable for me in the evening (over here in northern California). Historically I don't receive any of them, though this afternoon I just barely received the 20mhz broadcast - but again, completely filled with static and almost unable to be heard. I do get the 3330 time broadcast from Canada, but it too is not exactly well received. One of my favorite broadcasts is Radio Havana Cuba: 0500-0700 UTC: 6 mhz, 6.06 mhz, 9.55 mhz, 9.82 mhz, 11.76 mhz I suspect that would be one of my favorites as well. ;-) Unfortunately I have tried and tried - those seem to be common hours for me to be trying - and have not been able to get it. Spoke with Grundig tech support today and they didn't have too much too offer. Very nice people, to their credit, but because of all the variables involved they were unable to say if it sounds more like a receiver hardware problem or just general reception issues. I'm going to continue testing this evening. Due to the return policy of the company it was ordered from (universal radio) I need to decide quickly if I'll be returning/exchanging it. The question that comes up is that, if I do exchange it, would I be better off upgrading to a different radio? Aesthetic appeal aside, the Eton E1 seems to have good reviews everywhere. But is the difference in sensitivity enough to justify the extra money? I'm also interested in, eventually, tracking down some of the SSB traffic around my area. I have an international airport down the road, coast guard virtually next door and a city full of people. The YB isn't picking up anything there either when in SSB mode, but then, it got poor reviews on that aspect. Would the E1 be any better? -P |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Well, looks like, after speaking with some folks on the phone and
reading more online, that the E1 wouldn't necessarily be any better. Looks pretty, of course, but seems like the extra cost is due to the XM capability. Still testing the YB. |
- kaito-an-03l-shortwave-antenna.jpg (0/1) (yEnc) New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
In article . com,
wrote: Though I'm not a non-technical person, my area of expertise - or even moderate knowledge - does not rest in the realm of shortwave radios. However, I've always had an interest in pursuing the subject, and towards that end my wife was kind enough to buy me a Grundig Yacht Boy 400PE for the holidays. My problem is this. After reading the entire manual, reading the Passport text and taking the plunge into the world of sw radio, I'm having trouble getting reception for stations that I would expect to get. I live in the northeast United States (northern New England). My condo is on the third (top) floor of a 15 unit building. My living room window looks out onto a massive lake with no building in the way through an 8 foot by 8 foot window. I have placed the receiver in this window and even covered the window in an X pattern with the external reel antenna. Nevertheless, I can't get even a single station that Passport recommends in the "First Tries: Ten Easy Catches" section. I've been listening at night and the band that Grundig recommends as "Good all night everywhere" in the 400PE manual - the 31m band - doesn't have a single frequency that comes in for me. Neither does the 41m band - also recommended as good all night in Northeastern America. The best I've been able to manage are two frequencies in the 49m band - one of which appears to be China Radio International on 5950. Neither of these are terribly clear at that, and the best reception that I've been able to get is with WWCR. Does anyone have any recommendations? Being new to this, I don't know what I should reasonably expect. Should I expect to be able to pick up a variety of things with moderate clarity. I know that this is all variable on many conditions, but realistically, what should I be expecting here? Thanks for your help. Try a descent antenna ... probably a clip-on wire antenna would work well enough until your skill improves and you graduate to something more sophisticated. http://www.ccrane.com/antennas/short...03l-shortwave- antenna.aspx ----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==---- http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups ---= East/West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =--- |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
|
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
|
- kaito-an-03l-shortwave-antenna.jpg (1/1) (yEnc) New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
In article ,
third0f3 wrote: Snip This is a text based news group. Do not post other types of files here like HTML or jpg images. I'm surprised you were able to do that. -- Telamon Ventura, California |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
David wrote: The XM capability only adds a few dollars (less than 5) to the cost of the radio. The XM smart antenna option for $50 has the actual satellite receiver on it. The E1 itself is just the human interface. What I meant was that the XM-ready nature of the E1, actual XM hardware costs aside, is what makes this radio so significantly more expensive than some of the other high-end portables. My research seemed to indicate that the E1 wouldn't offer significantly better reception on the SW bands than the YB 400PE, so for a difference of $350+ it's not a worthwhile investment. Please do correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I came to undertand. -P |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Progress!
Thanks go to Telamon for posting a timely message. I grabbed my radio and went out into the park. Not hard to do, as I live essentially in one. I walked between 50 and 100 yards into the middle of the park, sat down on a bench and fired up the radio. I tooled around the 49m band as Telamon suggested and I'm pleased to report that the results were extremely encouraging. Not sure why I wasn't having better results the other night when I was miles away from nowhere... I've recorded the success below, with a small "key" to indicate exactly what I mean by my terms. Telamon, you mention the static hiss which you say should go away when I tune into a sw station. The hiss and static has never in any of my tests, including this one, gone away. I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but as some people actually listen to music via sw, I'd have to say that either it should if the signal is strong enough else those users have a strong tolerance of poor quality music signals. When people talk about strong, clear signals and reception, are they in fact indicating that there is no static? Okay, here it goes. This was 6:16 to 6:46pm local time (EST), so not "too" long after sunset. ********************** TIME: 23:16 to 23:46 UTC CLEAR = strong voices, no distortion or interference (always some static) OKAY = decent, intelligible voices with significant static BORDERLINE = heavy static, able to ocassionally hear clear voices but majority is not clear enough to be understood. NOTHING = complete unintelligible static FREQ OUTSIDE INSIDE 5950 clear okay 5960 okay nothing 5975 okay borderline to nothing 5990 borderline borderline to nothing 6000 clear okay to borderline 6030 okay to borderline nothing 6055 okay borderline to nothing 6075 borderline nothing 6090 okay to borderline borderline to nothing 6165 clear borderline to nothing Outside I was using nothing but the whip antenna. Inside, I have a reel antenna. I have yet to look up the frequencies to see what I caught. There were also several frequencies that the auto tuner decided to stop on, though there was nothing to be heard. I did not record these here. -P |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
|
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
|
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
David wrote:
You are very mistaken. The YB-400 is a 20 year old design. It lacks dozens of advanced features found on the E1. David, I understand that there may be many "features" that the E1 has that the YB-400 is lacking, but are you saying that at the very core of the reception issue, the E1 would outperform the YB-400. Out of the box, if I were to put an E1 next to my YB-400 with the same reel antenna or a 30ft long wire, would the E1 grab more signals and grab them more clearly? As you have undoubtedly read, I don't get even the strongest BBC signals in the park away from all interference on a good night with the current YB-400. Do you think I would with the E1? -P |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Telamon wrote:
The good news is you made a step in the right direction and you are picking some stations up. It was very encouraging, but now I'm back on the fence of the radio problem vs. reception problem issue. I was beginning to swing towards the radio problem side of things seeing as how I haven't been able to get even the strongest signals. The bad news is that you listened at a time and band that should have provided the strongest signals you can encounter and the result was kind of weak. Conditions have been good tonight so I expected that you should have done better. And likewise, I too was hoping that it would have been better. There are simply too many variables to easily pinpoint the issue. You have probably become aware by now that listening to SW takes a little more effort No doubt, though I suspected that. I must confess that it's been fun trying to ascertain the problem, but it would be oh so more delightful if I new that I wasn't dealing with a defective radio - both the manufacturer and the retailer are unwilling to make a call one way or another. I would have infinitely more energy in trying to hunt down stations and hatch elaborate antenna plans if I new that there was definately a possibility of a positive outcome. As it stands, I may be trying to start a car with no engine - all the while worrying about the path I'm going to travel. Assessing your results so far I don't know what you were listening to on 5950 as I don't see a strong signal to your area at that time. In Passport. That does not mean that things have not changed but you need to listen long enough to identify the station as local strong AM broadcast stations can over load your radio and show up in the SW bands. I couldn't find anything either, be it in Passport or on the web, and that left me a bit confused. Your suggestion that it's an AM station sounds like a strong possibility, as it consistently gives me better signal than anything else. 5975 should have had the BBC on it and it should have been good reception. Argh! You see, this is what is starting to rub me the wrong way. I'm having trouble with even the biggies. How could I possibly hope to find anything more exotic... 6160 if you had waited a little longer 6160 should have had a good signal from radio Netherlands. I should have checked the schedule. :-( One tip here is that your radio has a sensitivity switch on the side. For SW you will probably want that switch to be in the "DX" position. If that switch is in the local position that will cause the radio to be insensitive and you will not hear much on it. All of the switches - DX/LOCAL, WIDE/NARROW and SSB On or Off are set as they should be. DX, WIDE and OFF. Well, you need to make another try at this. Indeed. And I will be taking your 9 point checklist with me. I'm not going to sleep - and that's probably meant literally - until this is solved. Basically if you can get a AM broadcast station well in your apartment then the chance of getting a SW station well in your apartment improve. That's just it, the AM stations do in fact come in well in the apartment. I've just retested to be certain, and even without the reel antenna there are a million of them that come in strong and crystal clear - as I would hope that some sw stations would eventually come in. Is this indicative of anything? The work continues. And thank you for your help in all of this. -P |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
It's like fishing for signals.
cuhulin |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
I suggest you buy another YB-400 from a store that will let you return
it for a full refund. Use a credit card so you don't have to pay for it immediately. When you get the second YB-400, compare it to the one you have now. This will give you a definate answer to the shortwave reception problems. |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
Pete...
Send the radio to Universal, tell them you believe the radio is defective and have it checked or just exchange it. If you exchange it, ask them if they will test the new unit before they send it to you. I don't know if they'll test a new one out of the box like I suggested but they should. Universal will exchange the radio for you if it is defective I believe within 30 days with no penalty. A Sony 7600 may be available from them for about the same money and even though I have not played with one, I've heard a lot of good things about it. It also has a sync detector on it which will help with AM broadcasts. Keep in mind that the best radio in the world won't make up for a bad reception area or a bad antenna. The worst radio with the best antenna will be better than the best radio with the worst antenna. Think of it like this.... What will a $4000 stereo receiver sound like with $50 speakers? Maybe I'm elaborating too much but my point is that the antenna is the key. Just for kicks I picked up my Yaesu VX 5 http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/1795.html (a very small handheld radio/transmitter) which tunes basically from the AM broadcast band up through the shortwave bands and well beyond the UHF band. It is also a transmitter. The antenna that I have on it currently is about a 1.5 foot long whip cut for roughly 146 megahertz. It is "electrically" way, way, way too short for shortwave listening. However, tuning through it now I pick up some far away stations in Europe and parts unknown. I hear this as I sit surrounded by all sorts of interference generating devices in my second story bedroom. This is less ideal than any scenario you have described thus far and it is for this reason that I believe you may have a bad radio. It happens sometimes. Again, I'm not sure what city you live in but maybe there is someone that is on here that lives nearby that could assist you. I would be more than happy to but I am in Texas and it's just a little bit too far away from me. Another suggestion is to see if there are any ham radio stores in the area you could take the radio by and have them give it a look. Personally I would contact Universal Radio before your time runs out. Please don't give up! "HFguy" wrote in message news:qZsof.2940$0z.2246@trndny02... I suggest you buy another YB-400 from a store that will let you return it for a full refund. Use a credit card so you don't have to pay for it immediately. When you get the second YB-400, compare it to the one you have now. This will give you a definate answer to the shortwave reception problems. |
New User - New Receiver - Reception Questions
|
| All times are GMT +1. The time now is 10:15 AM. |
|
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
RadioBanter.com