Readers of rec.radio.shortwave may be interested to check out my lastest
posting on my SDR-1000 blog. I had the opportunity last week to do a
"hands-on" comparison between a Winradio g313e receiver and my Flex-Radio
SDR-1000. My friend and I concentrated on medium wave DX ability of the
rigs, both for daytime DX with the locals at full power, and prior to
sunrise for trans-Pacific MW splits.

I will also soon be posting an entry unrelated to the SDR, but hopefully
still of interest to radio enthusiasts-- the results of a direct "A-B"
comparison between a Kiwa-hotrodded Sony ICF-2010 and an Eton E1 portable.

The blog URL is below.

73,

Guy Atkins
Puyallup, WA USA
www.sdr-1000.blogspot.com

Guy Atkins wrote:
Readers of rec.radio.shortwave may be interested to check out my lastest
posting on my SDR-1000 blog. I had the opportunity last week to do a
"hands-on" comparison between a Winradio g313e receiver and my Flex-Radio
SDR-1000. My friend and I concentrated on medium wave DX ability of the
rigs, both for daytime DX with the locals at full power, and prior to
sunrise for trans-Pacific MW splits.

I will also soon be posting an entry unrelated to the SDR, but hopefully
still of interest to radio enthusiasts-- the results of a direct "A-B"
comparison between a Kiwa-hotrodded Sony ICF-2010 and an Eton E1 portable.

The blog URL is below.

73,

Guy Atkins
Puyallup, WA USA
www.sdr-1000.blogspot.com

If you are talking 5 ft on a side for your Wellbrook loop, then your
results are similar to mine in that this seems to be all the ALA 100
will take without losing gain on the high end of the HF band.

How do you bring the wires back to the ALA100? I came up with two
possibilities:
http://www.lazygranch.com/images/radio/3loop1.gif
http://www.lazygranch.com/images/radio/3loop2.gif

The advantage of 3loop2 is that you don't have wire that is
perdendicular to the rest of the loop.

Also, what is the spacing between your loop wires?

Getting back to the SDRs, it would have been a more interesting review
if an analog radio were thrown into the mix. Also saving some audio
clips would be useful.

Hi Miso,

My Wellbrook ALA 100 uses connections that are closer to what you show in
your first image (3loop1), but the lead wires are fairly short. I have
positioned the windings on one "side" of the vertical support pole, and the
protective box with the ALA 100 inside is on the other side, as close as
possible to the ends of the windings.

I am using 3 inches spacing between turns, which is what Andy Ikin of
Wellbrook recommended when I asked for his opinion on the project.

On the SDR radio comparison, I didn't include any audio clips as the results
were so close. I suppose the clips could have demonstrated the audio
*quality* difference, but I didn't think of that. Maybe when I next on a
DXpedition with John he and I can record something; we may be back at the WA
coast next month. Come to think of it, I can probably get an audio clip from
him of some DX we both listened to and recorded during the last DXpedition,
such as 2YB Wellington on 783 kHz.

I didn't included my modded R-75 analog receiver in the Winradio/Flex-Radio
comparison, as I've already covered it in detail in former comparisons in
the blog.

73,

Guy


wrote in message
oups.com...

If you are talking 5 ft on a side for your Wellbrook loop, then your
results are similar to mine in that this seems to be all the ALA 100
will take without losing gain on the high end of the HF band.

How do you bring the wires back to the ALA100? I came up with two
possibilities:
http://www.lazygranch.com/images/radio/3loop1.gif
http://www.lazygranch.com/images/radio/3loop2.gif

The advantage of 3loop2 is that you don't have wire that is
perdendicular to the rest of the loop.

Also, what is the spacing between your loop wires?

Getting back to the SDRs, it would have been a more interesting review
if an analog radio were thrown into the mix. Also saving some audio
clips would be useful.

Hi Brian,

Neither the Winradio or Flex-Radio models have any attenuation in the
mediumwave range, nor on any other band that I know of. I do know the
Flex-Radio folks clearly state "full sensitivity" throughout it's frequency
range, and in some forum postings their representatives have mentioned "no
attenuation" on any frequency a few times in the 2+ years I've followed the
SDR-1000's development. My experience bears this out.

During the comparison, John and I also did some checks in the tropical
bands, and found the radios very, very similar on those frequencies too. In
fact, at home I use the SDR-1000 much more for tropical band DXing than I do
for medium wave, as the trans-Pacific stations are not heard regularly here.
I'll mention, though, that once in a while I find my modded ICOM R-75 more
sensitive on a DX signal, but the SDR-1000 often has better copy due to the
cleaner sounding reproduction. Then there are rare times that the R-75 is
clearly the winner on HF. It never hurts to have more than one receiver and
more than one antenna around!

Miso-- my comparisons to the ICOM R-75 are here and there throughout the
blog. Two to look up, however, are from March 26th and April 16th, 2006.

Regarding the ALA 100 loop: if I recall, Andy didn't think more than 3 turns
would be of any benefit. I don't think he mentioned any max. total wire
length. I wasn't planning on using more than 50 feet, as that's around the
maximum recommended for a large single-turn loop (non-rotating :^) The
nice thing about the ALA 100 model is the flexibility for experimenting with
various shapes and dimensions. The new ALA 100s also have a higher dynamic
range/IP3 preamplifier than the older Wellbrook models like the ALA 1530.

73,

Guy


"Brian Denley" wrote in message
. ..
It would be nice to see a comparison of shortwave comparison as some
receivers are intentionally attenuated in the MW band.

George, I don't have much experience tuning longwave, so I can't comment on
the two receivers used for this band. I do know there are some LW
enthusiasts using the SDR-1000, but they're in the minority of Flex-Radio
users like I am.

Regarding the audio filter in the g313e, thanks for the reminder. We did try
this facility with the Winradio, as well as the audio equalizer in the
SDR-1000. I didn't think the Winradio's audio filter added any benefit to
helping increase intelligibility of weak signals, over what the excellent
DSP filter already provides. Perhaps we weren't using it in a way that helps
dig out an ID on weak signals. The SDR-1000's equalizer definitely helps me
to boost the critical midrange voice frequencies at times; I have a favorite
setting I use about 80% of the time when DXing. For most of the receiver
comparisons, though, we turned off both the Winradio audio filter and the
Flex-Radio's audio equalizer.

Guy


"George Bell" wrote in message
news:44be3386.16323640@news-server...

The G313e performs well down to 10 kHz. See
http://www.winradio.com/home/g313e.htm
(click on Technical Specifications botton right, specs below 150 kHz)

From my own experience, this is probably the best receiver for LF
experimentation currently available.

George

Guy Atkins wrote:
Hi Brian,

Neither the Winradio or Flex-Radio models have any attenuation in the
mediumwave range, nor on any other band that I know of. I do know the
Flex-Radio folks clearly state "full sensitivity" throughout it's frequency
range, and in some forum postings their representatives have mentioned "no
attenuation" on any frequency a few times in the 2+ years I've followed the
SDR-1000's development. My experience bears this out.

During the comparison, John and I also did some checks in the tropical
bands, and found the radios very, very similar on those frequencies too. In
fact, at home I use the SDR-1000 much more for tropical band DXing than I do
for medium wave, as the trans-Pacific stations are not heard regularly here.
I'll mention, though, that once in a while I find my modded ICOM R-75 more
sensitive on a DX signal, but the SDR-1000 often has better copy due to the
cleaner sounding reproduction. Then there are rare times that the R-75 is
clearly the winner on HF. It never hurts to have more than one receiver and
more than one antenna around!

Miso-- my comparisons to the ICOM R-75 are here and there throughout the
blog. Two to look up, however, are from March 26th and April 16th, 2006.

Regarding the ALA 100 loop: if I recall, Andy didn't think more than 3 turns
would be of any benefit. I don't think he mentioned any max. total wire
length. I wasn't planning on using more than 50 feet, as that's around the
maximum recommended for a large single-turn loop (non-rotating :^) The
nice thing about the ALA 100 model is the flexibility for experimenting with
various shapes and dimensions. The new ALA 100s also have a higher dynamic
range/IP3 preamplifier than the older Wellbrook models like the ALA 1530.

No, the bad thing about the ALA 100 is the flexibility. Dammit, I keep
fiddling and fiddling with it. ;-)

Is Andy Ikins email address a secret? I don't see it on the website.


73,

Guy


"Brian Denley" wrote in message
. ..
It would be nice to see a comparison of shortwave comparison as some
receivers are intentionally attenuated in the MW band.

wrote in message
ups.com...

Is Andy Ikins email address a secret? I don't see it on the website.

I just use the address on Wellbrook's home page, which is "info@" or
"sales@" or similar.

Guy