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unfortunately the Rattenempfänger (Target HF3, a 1990s design which was intended as a small ships radio receiver and has to be powered from a 12V accu) went kaputt at the weekend as a surge of electric got into its antenna circuitry (I’ve got the schematics for it but its all SMD components :cry:)
And the AM section of my Éton G4 packed up a while back (bizzare as there is nowhere near me transmitting high power at those frequencies; and the FM section was fine when operated inside ICR’s studios where there is a great big VHF TX on top)
Having read a few reviews from the OM’s globally (British, Germans and Americans all were favourable I got one of these – a Tecsun PL-880 designed in HongKong.
this was when it was still charging via a USB cable (which is a notoriously noisy power source); and usually I can barely receive ICR-FM at work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGewz9QLPcY
another video with a locally generated 😉 band II signal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKY0S0FfZfc
MF reception from Radio Maria Lopik Netherlands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKTX8-klFG0
these are all in my office where there are 3 servers also running full tilt, 2 network switches (all on unshielded cable) and 3 DECT base stations and all their power supplies; so radio reception conditions are not ideal….
And it can even provide a decent RTTY signal from Germany on LF using just the ferrite antenna
it arrives in an impressive “old skool” style protective carrying case (after all the idea of a portable receiver is that you carry it around with you) in brown fake leather (TBH it looks like something my Dad would have bought :wink:) and even comes with a log book (in English and Chinese), a frequency list (in Chinese),a quick guide to what all the buttons do and a world map of callsigns – but there are so many functions there are blogs with all the hidden ones. You even get stuff like reception bandwidth filters on AM and SSB that are usually only found on Japanese kit costing €500 or more…..
I’ve only briefly tried out the HF reception (as weatherfaxes aren’t transmitted between 16:00 and 18:00 for some reason) but it is sensitive even with the internal antenna, and comes with a extra wire antenna… might try 27 MHz (11m CB band) later to see if anyone still uses it as SSB/AM sets are now permitted in Europe raaa
Still amazed by the quality of this radio – as well as China and Romania being good and strong audio on HF; some German hams on 80m still transmitting with old morse key (so my software can only decode parts of it; but I think one guy said he was singing whilst clearing up the snow…
if I get a good reception path to Lopik free from local interference (difficult with all the gadgets in my house) RMNL on 675 with the AM audio filter at full 9.0 KHz bandwidth sounds almost as good as the studio recordings on Soundcloud. They had a youth programme with prayers in the chapel and I could properly hear the acoustics inside; and last night an more adult documentary where they were discussing sex and sexuality (I was surprised at the graphic detail of the terms they were using!)
the green thing is the 18650 accu. I had never encountered one before! It is like a giant AA cell but looks like a old 1970s torch battery (probably only my generation will remember what I mean) but is a rechargeable Li_ion accu.
They are indeed used in modern LED torches and you can buy them and their chargers seperately from many suppliers; so are not “locked in” to purchasing the proprietary design accu from the manufacturers
(those ones are not very good; the capacity is impossible to start with; about 2800 mAH max is what you get for these. Mine came with a 2000 or 2300 mAH accu; plenty enough for many hours of listening or decoding; as decoding is best carried out using a netbook running from the power of its own accu; avoiding QRM (interference) from the mains power lines)
still amazed at how good this radio is (as many other folk are; grown men in their 40s and above rarely take unboxing pictures – my set of these is is by far not the only one online)Even got a reasonable copy of the ice-chart from Sweden(?) via Germany (so thats where all the ice comes from!). These decodes are via 2009 era single core netbook running some sort of Ubuntu, fldigi and a Behringer UCA200 USB soundcard connected to the line out (these actually seem to have good filtering components to keep RF interference out of the radio which otherwise plagues soundcard decoding!)
still haven’t quite worked out how to store the frequencies in memory presets though; will need to download the full manual as the short guide is on the back of the world map it came with which I want to put up on the wall (and the other guide is in Chinese :laugh_at:)
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