Actually, for $130 - $150, I would have gotten the Sony 7600GR, with
Sync Detc...

I have several Sony portables and love most of them. Unfortunately I have
to agree with you in ALL respects about the 7600GR. Sorry, Joe...



"lsmyer" wrote in message ...
I have already tried the 7600GR and I wasn't impressed. To me, it wasn't
nearly sensitive enough, plus it has NO tuning wheel, which for me is a
definite negative. As far as the sync detection goes, it worked, but it
was really noisy and whistly. And if memory serves me well, the sound
quality is very weak.

Thinking I might have received a lemon, I sent back my first one, got a
replacement and it was just the same, so I sent it back as well. Two
years later, I ordered a third one, and it was no better. I sold it on
ebay.

In my opinion, the 7600GR is way over-priced and way over-rated. For my
tastes, the E5 is the radio I wished the 7600GR had been.

That's interesting - I heard that the 7600Grs sync detc injects some
noise and that it doesn't lock onto weak signals very well. As with
all filters, the audio quality suffers, even cheap/bad PLL circuitry
injects some noise. The S350 is s typical example, where the narrow /
wide and low-pass filters have little effect and only muffle the audio.
I tried the S350 and it was the cheapist piece of crap radio, so for
AM DXing I just bought a $25 PLL RS radio that performs, as well as,
the S350. Too many radios are over-hyped - hell, my car radio received
everything the S350 could. The CCradio and SRII are over-hyped, as
well...

LOLOLOLOLOLOL ROTFLMAO!
Be careful what you ask for. He'll show you !




"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
...
Joe Analssandrini wrote:

Also, please remember - I'm NEVER wrong. I'm PERFECT. Just ask me -
I'll tell you*. ;-)


I'll have to see the nail holes before I believe you.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

What is there to gloat about - spending $150 on a radio, when there is
nothing of interest on SW anymore ?

No wonder that author of this message post wants it removed in three
days, and not have it archived - I would be embarressed too, for
bragging about spending $150 on this radio !

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

If he has all of the right nail holes, I'll need to see the bloody
cross next! ;-)

Sorry, Mike, I sold the cross on Ebay.

Best,

Joe

Joe Analssandrini wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

If he has all of the right nail holes, I'll need to see the bloody
cross next! ;-)

Sorry, Mike, I sold the cross on Ebay.

Best,

Joe


If you were perfect you would have never let it go.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

In article .com,
"Joe Analssandrini" wrote:

Hello.

While Drake's synchronous detection circuit is generally excellent,
when it is locked on variable-strength signals, it often "warbles."
While this is not often noticeable on a "talk/news" program, it is
often VERY noticeable on music. (It is often noticeable on the Voice
of Russia - whose signal is often quite variable - musical shows;
it's also noticeable on the Voice of VietNam's musical shows as well
as Radio Bulgarias's and others.) The pitch of a note changes
annoyingly - as if the music was "sour-ing." If you own one of these
receivers, try it for yourself on a musical show.

Snip

That does not happen on my Drake R8B and I don't recall that happening
on the R8 I used to own. Could be you are not tuned exactly to the
station. Put the radio in CW mode with a larger than default filter to
zero beat the station and then switch back to AM sync to see if that
warbling goes away. If that does not fix it then the Drake might need a
tune up or you have another adverse reception problem like an
additional on channel slightly off frequency carrier.

If you have it enabled the 7030 will auto tune itself so you won't see
that problem.

I own both radios and the sync performance is comparable between the
radios but for the side band selectable feature on the Drake, which the
7030 does not have.

By the way a station you can hear a warbling 1 to 2 KHz tone on is
Italy's RAI International. The tone changes with the modulation. It is
very distinctive sound and once you hear it you can easily identify that
station within seconds despite not knowing the language.

Another practical test (and example) is when the BBC (and a few other
stations) shifts transmitters on the same frequency. There is then no
signal for 10 - 30 seconds. My Grundig Satellit 800's lock will
generally not re-engage - with the radio's AGC set to "slow" and the
sync "on" - when the new transmitter comes on the air (I cannot say
wthether the Drake R8B or SW8 exhibits this phenomenon as I have not
personally heard it on those sets) but my AOR's ALWAYS does, and
perfectly too, with no delay.

I have had the Drake sync drift to the on channel noise or some faint
off frequency carrier in the temporary absence of the BBC station
switching over. Sometimes it reacquires rapidly, other times it drifted
off due to the presence of other weak off frequency signals and then it
whines a bit before it re-locks. I have not had the 7030 in this
listening situation so I don't know how it would behave for sure but I
expect it would not be much different than the Drake.

You can't expect the radio to recover from a no carrier for 30 seconds
quickly when you have sync engaged and the AGC on slow. Normally for AM
I have the AGC on fast unless the signal is rapidly fluttering. The
fluttering is usually due to polar propagation. Slow is normal for SSB.
Normal lock time on the Drake R8B is something like 1 to 2 seconds.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

Joe Analssandrini wrote:
Hello.

While Drake's synchronous detection circuit is generally excellent,
when it is locked on variable-strength signals, it often "warbles."
While this is not often noticeable on a "talk/news" program, it is
often VERY noticeable on music. (It is often noticeable on the Voice of
Russia - whose signal is often quite variable - musical shows; it's
also noticeable on the Voice of VietNam's musical shows as well as
Radio Bulgarias's and others.) The pitch of a note changes annoyingly -
as if the music was "sour-ing." If you own one of these receivers, try
it for yourself on a musical show.

I've had two R8B's in the past six years. I've listened to hundreds of
hours of music and never heard what you're describing. I did hear
something like that on an R8 which was made in the early 90's but that
model had a completely different sync' design than the R8B.

This occurs on the Grundig Satellit 800, the (later-production) Drake
SW8, and the Drake R8B, all of which use the same circuit. (I do not
own the Drake receivers, but I have heard them, and this effect, at
friends' houses and at my own house.) This, in my opinion, is NOT
really a "major flaw." How often does one listen to music on SW
nowadays? Once in a while, my personal Grundig Satellit 800 will
"almost" lose lock on a deep fade. Only twice that I can remember (in 6
years of ownership) has it actually lost lock.

However, this NEVER occurs on my AOR AR7030 Plus which "locks"
perfectly and completely and which, in over two years of ownership, has
NEVER lost lock.

Neither have my R8B's. Sometimes it will take a second or two to lock on
a station but once locked it never loses it, even during a deep fade.

Another practical test (and example) is when the BBC (and a few other
stations) shifts transmitters on the same frequency. There is then no
signal for 10 - 30 seconds. My Grundig Satellit 800's lock will
generally not re-engage - with the radio's AGC set to "slow" and the
sync "on" - when the new transmitter comes on the air (I cannot say
wthether the Drake R8B or SW8 exhibits this phenomenon as I have not
personally heard it on those sets) but my AOR's ALWAYS does, and
perfectly too, with no delay.

As I said, the R8B sync' can occasionally take a second to lock,
particularly under the circumstances you describe above. It depends on
how well the sync' circuit is aligned.

With my Satellit 800, I must turn off the sync and then turn it back
on, also setting the AGC to "fast" when doing this and only after the
sync circuit locks can I turn the AGC back to "slow." Two of Drake's
service technicians have told me that this is normal behavior so I
should presume it is the same with the Drake-branded sets. Again, I do
not regard this as a "major" problem (how often does it actually
happen?), but note that it can be overcome. Certainly AOR has done so.

The Sony ICF-SW7600GR's sync circuit is far below those two in overall
quality. Yet, it too generally performs well. After all, a portable
owner is not really trying for exotic DX and, on the types of signals a
portable handles well, Sony's sync circuit makes a BIG difference in
the quality of the audio. Selective-fading distortion has always been a
"bane" of SW listeners as well as MW DXers and this circuit can totally
eliminate that form of distortion.

Others may disagree with me or find Sony's (or any other) sync circuit
to be of little use. (However I firmly believe those users do not know
how to properly use it.) But the circuit can be turned off if the user
does not want it on a particular transmission and I feel it is FAR
better to have this circuit when desired than not to have it at all.
Especially since there is now no price "premium" charged for it, why
buy a comparably-priced portable radio without the circuit?

I recall seeing posts on this group where listeners say they don't care
about having a sync' detector on their receiver because they can not
hear any significant improvement in the audio quality with one. I don't
get that. The improvement seems obvious to me. This does not include the
R-75, which has a poorly designed (defective?) sync' detector.

But I digress. Having compared Drake's synchronous detection circuit
and AOR's side-by-side, I can confidently state that, while Drake's is
excellent, AOR's is superb.

Is the difference between excellent and superb equivalent to "far ahead"?