shortwave radio advice

ajhalpin

Hi,

I am looking for a good shortwave radio that can tune everything from 500khz - 30mhz. Want to be able to listen to hams dxing. I am trying to learn as much as I can about ham radio and would like to take the exam sometime. Can anyone recommend something decent and point me to where I might fid it. Budget is €100-€150. I seen some Realistic DX 150a's on ebay which can be picked up for about €40 plus shipping. I would prefer something old school that I can 'guess' tune. If anyone is selling anything of the like I would be interested.

Regards

AJ

watty

A second hand Sony ICF 2001D is good too. I have picked up US 80m on its telescopic aerial. It does 150KHz to 30MHz AM/CW/USB/LSB and synchronous upper or lower sideband AM to reduce co-channel interference. It also as AM VHF air band and Band II FM-VHF broadcast.

Make sure any radio has USB and LSB.

Avoid the small handhelds, they are only really any good 28MHz to 1300MHz.

you can put a request on http://www.techtir.ie too, about 1/3rd of the members are Hams. Check out the Supplier stickies here and on the other site. Some have S/H gear.

ajhalpin

Thanks Watty. I seen a brand new ICF 2010 still in its box go for nearly a grand on ebay the other day. If anyone wants to swap one for a new VX-7r let me know:)

PauloMN

+1 on what Watty says above. I think the Sonys are great little HF receivers for a starting point. I've a 7600G which bought new about 15 years ago - it works surprisingly well on HF SSB, even on the whip. No problem receiving 80m/40m/20m hams, HF aircraft comms etc.. My only negative point on them is the lack of memories - 10 on HF is just way too few when there's so many frequencies to store.

The 2001D has the added advantage of air band and rotary tuning which I gather you are looking for. Keep an eye out for Grundig and Roberts HF/shortwave radios also.

To be honest, if you're spending more than a couple of hundred euro, you might as well invest in a HF transceiver which you can use once you get your EI call. All modern HF transceivers have general coverage RX (at least 0 to 30MHz) and the receivers will generally be a step up in terms of quality over a portable HF radio.

ajhalpin

Thanks PauloMN. How do you rate the grundig Satellit 700. Iv'e seen a few on ebay. An elderly gentleman I know has a Philips/magnavox D2999 that he uses to listen to Radio 1 once in a while. He has no idea about its shortwave capabilities. I offered him €100 for it but he said he wouldn't sell it as it has sentimental value.

watty

ajhalpin wrote: »

Thanks Watty. I seen a brand new ICF 2010 still in its box go for nearly a grand on ebay the other day. If anyone wants to swap one for a new VX-7r let me know:)

Er... I'm tempted. But only my car radio comes close for LW. It's superb for R4LW (Limerick).

I have a VR500, which does 100KHz to 1300MHz, SSB, AM, NAM, FM etc. It's not as good at all on HF. The VR500 is no use on LW/MW without external roof aerial or longwire.

I had a FRG7700 and was very disappointed (sold it). Poorer than the FT101ZD and VR500. The VR500 does need an external variable attenuator if you are using it with a real HF aerial.


The FT817ND is also almost as good as FT897 / IC706 on HF receive, it beats the ICF2001D ( 450 Eur?) . But when you get a licence a QRP rig is only fun if you have a 100W base rig too!

Older base rigs only cover Amateur bands, even on receive. The newer rigs are all general coverage receive.

[ed: A quick ebay search suggests £85 to £100 for a typical ICF2010D / ICF2001D
also allegedly the version for Saudi Arabia lacks SSB, Air Band,
and also has some holes in the HF coverage as well ]

hbr

ajhalpin wrote: »

Hi,
I am looking for a good shortwave radio that can tune everything from 500khz - 30mhz. Want to be able to listen to hams dxing. I am trying to learn as much as I can about ham radio

Build one. It doesn't matter whether you know how to build one or not. You can always learn. That's the whole point of amateur radio.

Budget is €100-€150.

You could easily revise that budget to €5-15.

watty

not if you want SSB, decent overload performance and selectivity.

PauloMN

ajhalpin wrote: »

Thanks PauloMN. How do you rate the grundig Satellit 700. Iv'e seen a few on ebay. An elderly gentleman I know has a Philips/magnavox D2999 that he uses to listen to Radio 1 once in a while. He has no idea about its shortwave capabilities. I offered him €100 for it but he said he wouldn't sell it as it has sentimental value.

I used a Grundig radio probably over 20 years ago now, can't even remember the model but I do remember it being a very decent radio. Probably expensive though, and I'm not sure how easy they are to come by here.

If I were you, I'd pick up something like the Sony or a Roberts with SSB and enjoy a bit of listening while you study for the exam. Build a radio if you want, but to build something with SSB you'll probably end up spending more than if you pick up a good 2nd hand Sony/Roberts. You can learn a lot by experimenting with different antennas once you get a radio sorted also.

There's some ideas on this page:
http://www.ogormans.co.uk/shortwav.htm

I see the new version of my Sony has 100 memories which is certainly much better than the 10 on mine. If the RX is as good as it is on mine, I'd highly recommend it.

While you're studying for the exam, you can put a few bob aside for a TX. I got an FT-897 from the UK when the exchange rate was especially good and I'm delighted with it - has everything I need including wide RX.

hbr

watty wrote: »

not if you want SSB, decent overload performance and selectivity.

SSB filters are cheap. I recently bought two 8 pole units for €10. Even cheaper to build your own ladder filters from surplus crystals. This will give selectivity far better than Sony, Grundig etc... For strong signal handling, it is hard to beat a ring of four penny diodes, cost: 4p. You can actually beat it if you use a H-mode mixer based on a high-speed bus switch, but that could end up costing you a quid or more!

Another cheap approach is SDR using a computer and sound card. Ok, you probably won't get a computer with a good sound card for €15 (although you just might find one in a skip), if you already have a good computer, you already have almost everything you need. I built an 80M receiver with dual receiver, AM/FM/SSB/CW/PSK, advanced noise blanker and lots of other bells & whistles for about €7 if you discount the cost of the PC.

watty

you need good front end, very clean VCO/OSC,

you are on the the right tack with the rign diode mixer, but they need to be matched diodes and properly wound coils.

It's not trival and lot closer to €100 when done, especially if you want general coverage.

I have SW radio with no pre-amp and front end ring-diode mixer. 1st IF is 35MHz and 2nd is 1.6MHz. However it's very poor compared to FT817ND

Most modern radios use 65 to 70MHz or even more for 1st IF. A 42MHz to 900MHz cable TV tuner uses 1.2GHz 1st IF to get image rejection.

Going straight to 455kHz, you have a major image reject issue.

I've a had a couple of SoftRock SDR, but without adding a DDS they only do 48KHz band per crystal on most laptops/PCs. DDS, interface etc you are up into money.

A GOOD secondhand receiver is worth while.

Building is good, but making a decent SSB radio from scratch is not beginner stuff.

The FT897 is good. In fact on receive the FT857 and even FT817 are nearly as good.

Most domestic radios are no good for SW. In fact the ICF2001D/ICF2010D is the only worthwhile one I've ever used, and only if you get it €30 to €150 S/H.

ajhalpin

Hi Watty. Thanks for the advice. I managed to get a second hand FT817nd as you recommended. I need to get some kind of antenna for it now. I was looking into purchasing a junior g5rv off ebay and putting it up in the attic. Any thoughts on that?

AJ

watty

Waste of money
Google how a G5RV works.

either put a longwire out the back or a longwire in the attic. A G5RV needs a certain space and configuration.

It's a pair of wires of particular length, a balanced feed in middle, in free space, that forms part of aerial a particular length and then a balun/current choke and more balanced feed or coax any length. As much bellwire/ speaker cable/ washing line that fits in attic will work as well.

Differently physically mounted or on a different band a "G5RV" purchase is a €5 random wire or a dipole.

google end fed aerial wire matching. You need outdoor free space for a dipole or G5RV for HF.

allblacks

If you contact the IRTS (Irish Radio Transmitters Society) They will answers on how to become a Ham ideal equiptment etc.Phone Paul Martin 087-2523908 0r email paul@comma.ie.Hope this helps,a fellow Ham.

ajhalpin

Thanks for the advice fellas. Just one last question. Despite my best efforts to glean as much info on antennas from the web as I could I am confused about a couple of things. If I am using an end fed random wire, say electrical wire about 60 foot long, how do I connect it to the so239 connector on the back of my ft817. Should I connect it to a balun and run a coax feed line to the balun, and will I need an ATU if I'm just listening.

Regards

AJ

watty

1) You don't need an ATU (technically a Matching unit or Match Box) to listen, but it really improves signal. Even without an SWR meter, just receive you can hear the match (tuning) point.

2) have about 15 turns using insulated wire (say blue of 5A mains flex) wound on a 2" approx plastic tube. Connect one end to a wire to an earth spike (counterpoise) and other end to aerial (This is up at the end of aerial in air). wind 10 turns (say the brown flex from the mains cable you dismantled) on top. Connect one end to middle of coax and other end to outer of coax. waterproof connections with Amalagmating tape/pipe repair rubber tape.

Optionally put this end of coax between 3 turns to 6turns around ferrite bar, old LOPT core, ferrite ring or large ferrite clamp as current choke to reduce feed cable radiation.

Use a short coax feed cable if other than 80m, so you can tune (match) it. If the cable is too long the ATU will only "match" the cable and not the aerial and cable will radiate.

With a suitable ATU/Match unit this arrangement will "tune" from 160m to 10m, but best 80m to 20m

3) if the feed wire is short and you only on RX, connect an plug with short coax, short wire to outer to a ground spike and inner to the aerial wire.