Achtung! Its the one and only Shortwave Radio Uberthread!

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Canuck-Errant: Oct 28, 2003; MOOD: BURNING - MUSIC: DISCO INFERNO BY THE TRAMMPS; Grimey Drawer

Stuntman Mike posted:

Do any of you guys have experience with the Grundig GS350DL? I did notice in the first post that a few people bought it.

I like the look of it better than the G5 (knobs and dials instead of buttons!), and it IS cheaper.

Then again, WHY is it cheaper, really. I can't see much of a difference, except that the G5 says specifically that it receives "shortwave (1711-29999 Khz) with SSB", and all the GS350DL says is "AM (520-1710), FM (88-108), and Shortwave coverage from 3 to 28 Mhz". That SOUNDS like the same thing, but is it really? It sounds like the GS350 doesn't do SSB. Is SSB worth the 50 bucks USD?

I so confused.

Well, SSB lets you pick up numbers stations, all sorts of electronic broadcasts... if that's not important to you, and you like listening to world radio stations, you can safely ignore SSB.

# ? Jul 16, 2007 23:08

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 08:40

Stuntman Mike: Apr 14, 2007; The saucer people are coming!

Canuck-Errant posted:

Well, SSB lets you pick up numbers stations, all sorts of electronic broadcasts... if that's not important to you, and you like listening to world radio stations, you can safely ignore SSB.

Oh. Thank you for clarifying, that definitely sounds worth the 50 bucks. Too bad though, I liked the look of the 350.
I guess what I REALLY need to do is get a G5 and mod it with knobs! :suicide:

VVV Ah, that's interesting. Hurm, decisions decisions. The 350 does sound really nice.

Stuntman Mike fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Jul 16, 2007

# ? Jul 16, 2007 23:13

Dog Case: Oct 7, 2003; Heeelp meee... prevent wildfires

Stuntman Mike posted:

Do any of you guys have experience with the Grundig GS350DL? I did notice in the first post that a few people bought it.

I like the look of it better than the G5 (knobs and dials instead of buttons!), and it IS cheaper.

Then again, WHY is it cheaper, really. I can't see much of a difference, except that the G5 says specifically that it receives "shortwave (1711-29999 Khz) with SSB", and all the GS350DL says is "AM (520-1710), FM (88-108), and Shortwave coverage from 3 to 28 Mhz". That SOUNDS like the same thing, but is it really? It sounds like the GS350 doesn't do SSB. Is SSB worth the 50 bucks USD?

I so confused.

The 350 also doesn't have memory presets. It's basically an analog radio with a digital frequency display. It does sound really nice though.

EDIT: It also gets crazy battery life out of the 4 D cells. I had one for about 8 months (just sold it in SA Mart!) and the first set of batteries lasted that entire time, with about an hours use almost EVERY DAY of that 8 months.

Dog Case fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Jul 16, 2007

# ? Jul 16, 2007 23:21

blugu64: Jul 17, 2006; Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?

Dog Case posted:

The 350 also doesn't have memory presets. It's basically an analog radio with a digital frequency display. It does sound really nice though.

EDIT: It also gets crazy battery life out of the 4 D cells. I had one for about 8 months (just sold it in SA Mart!) and the first set of batteries lasted that entire time, with about an hours use almost EVERY DAY of that 8 months.

I've got a 350, which I was under the impression was a 350DL when I bought it. It takes 4 D cell batteries and even though I listen to shortwave easily every other night, and listen to at least 2-3 hours of Coast to Coast AM on it (Most excellent AM/MW reception too!) the battery display on it still hasn't gone down! I'm using a pack of Evereadys I bought for $1. As has been said if you just want to listen to world band radio and AM/FM, /and/ if you don't mind having to manually tune in each station you want to listen to, then it's excellent rig. If you do mind, or want SSB then buy something else. If you do buy the 350 buy the 350DL; I don't know how much better the 350DL is but they're pretty much the same price and the 350 drifts around like it was going out of style. Though interestingly enough it gets much more stable after it has been on for 30 min or so. If you've got any other questions about it feel free to ask; I'd be more then happy to try and answer them about this radio.

Dog Case posted:

EDIT: It also gets crazy battery life out of the 4 D cells. I had one for about 8 months (just sold it in SA Mart!) and the first set of batteries lasted that entire time, with about an hours use almost EVERY DAY of that 8 months.

This man speaks the unabashed and awesome truth; and for modern electronics it's pretty wonderful! And much as described it is just an analog radio and the knobs while sexy can be imprecise and/or jumpy unless you've got a surgeons hands.

blugu64 fucked around with this message at 06:15 on Jul 17, 2007

# ? Jul 17, 2007 06:11

Canuck-Errant: Oct 28, 2003; MOOD: BURNING - MUSIC: DISCO INFERNO BY THE TRAMMPS; Grimey Drawer

Stuntman Mike posted:

Oh. Thank you for clarifying, that definitely sounds worth the 50 bucks. Too bad though, I liked the look of the 350.
I guess what I REALLY need to do is get a G5 and mod it with knobs!

VVV Ah, that's interesting. Hurm, decisions decisions. The 350 does sound really nice.

I know what you mean - I really like the look of the 350, but instead I got an �ton E5 (rebranded G5) when I realized that spinny turny knobs are pretty, but they're not really essential to what I was planning on using the radio for. I mean, numbers stations! Tuning in to secret stuff that I can't hear on my dad's old beat-up multi-band radio! Presets so I can listen to Cuban jazz in the evenings without having to memorize the frequency!

_{but yes secretly I wish the E5 had turny spinny knobs and maybe some more dials and maybe some little metal bars on it and was bigger and...}

# ? Jul 17, 2007 07:11

blugu64: Jul 17, 2006; Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?

Canuck-Errant posted:

_{but yes secretly I wish the E5 had turny spinny knobs and maybe some more dials and maybe some little metal bars on it and was bigger and...}

Make sure you include a 'Lock' button in your secret desires. Without it you'll accidentally bump the knob and send your radio off frequency all too often.

_{Ya that's why I fell for the 350}

# ? Jul 17, 2007 07:39

Hunter2 Thompson: Feb 3, 2005; Ramrod XTreme

Hey guys, taking the thread a little off topic here, but has anyone tried building a transmitter? I've seen several VERY simple plans which are really an audio transformer and a crystal oscillator with a 9 volt for the power supply. I tried making one, but I think my crystal oscillator is bad as I can't hear anything and it gets very hot. Good thing I ordered about 9 new ones from FOX as free samples. They should get here soon and I'll report back once I have some results.

I know there are more complex designs, but I'm short on components and want to do this on the cheap. I read somewhere that class C amplification would be the most efficient, but I don't specifically know what that is. When I get some parts (maybe from my work) I'll try to build some of the more developed designs.

# ? Jul 17, 2007 07:49

blugu64: Jul 17, 2006; Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?

meatpotato posted:

Hey guys, taking the thread a little off topic here, but has anyone tried building a transmitter? I've seen several VERY simple plans which are really an audio transformer and a crystal oscillator with a 9 volt for the power supply. I tried making one, but I think my crystal oscillator is bad as I can't hear anything and it gets very hot. Good thing I ordered about 9 new ones from FOX as free samples. They should get here soon and I'll report back once I have some results.

I know there are more complex designs, but I'm short on components and want to do this on the cheap. I read somewhere that class C amplification would be the most efficient, but I don't specifically know what that is. When I get some parts (maybe from my work) I'll try to build some of the more developed designs.

I havn't yet, though I probably will at sometime. Though I'd bet the guys in the ham radio thread would either be willing to help out or point you in the right direction/to good resources.

# ? Jul 17, 2007 07:56

ValhallaSmith: Aug 16, 2005

meatpotato posted:

Hey guys, taking the thread a little off topic here, but has anyone tried building a transmitter? I've seen several VERY simple plans which are really an audio transformer and a crystal oscillator with a 9 volt for the power supply. I tried making one, but I think my crystal oscillator is bad as I can't hear anything and it gets very hot. Good thing I ordered about 9 new ones from FOX as free samples. They should get here soon and I'll report back once I have some results.

I know there are more complex designs, but I'm short on components and want to do this on the cheap. I read somewhere that class C amplification would be the most efficient, but I don't specifically know what that is. When I get some parts (maybe from my work) I'll try to build some of the more developed designs.

You can get a Softrock40 in two bands for 30$. Its an SDR based radio so you would need a halfway decent soundcard. 192khz sample and 24-bit is perfect but it can work with 48khz at 16 bits. I built the receiver only version which is 10$ and it worked ok, though I don't have a very good soundcard for it. Also I think I did something wrong putting it together but I finally got an oscilloscope so hopefully I can fix it soon.

So I guess it depends on what you are looking for. Right now I'm in a mood to build test equipment so I'm working on a 10$ low noise 0-30V 1.5A power supply kit.

# ? Jul 17, 2007 08:18

Elijah: Jul 13, 2004; how do i red title

Does anyone know any good wacko conspiracy theory programs that air on a regular basis? That's the stuff I really like to listen to, but I've only found it once, when I was listening to Adventist World Radio.

# ? Jul 18, 2007 18:25

Shastao: Jan 10, 2006

Elijah posted:

Does anyone know any good wacko conspiracy theory programs that air on a regular basis? That's the stuff I really like to listen to, but I've only found it once, when I was listening to Adventist World Radio.

WWCR (World Wide Christian Radio) sometimes airs conspiracy type stuff, they're one of the strongest stations I can get where I am.

WWCR transmitter schedule

# ? Jul 18, 2007 21:54

Halah: Sep 1, 2003; Maybe just another light that shines

Shastao posted:

WWCR (World Wide Christian Radio) sometimes airs conspiracy type stuff, they're one of the strongest stations I can get where I am.

WWCR transmitter schedule

Yeah, they're probably one of the best. I found one a couple weeks ago but I'll be damned if I can remember the name.

Side note: Got a QSL from Radio Sweden today!

# ? Jul 18, 2007 23:51

Stuntman Mike: Apr 14, 2007; The saucer people are coming!

Canuck-Errant posted:

_{but yes secretly I wish the E5 had turny spinny knobs and maybe some more dials and maybe some little metal bars on it and was bigger and...}

And Nixie tubes! Oh god that would be awesome. Some company needs to build a true retro shortwave radio, but with all the high-tech innards.

Elijah posted:

Does anyone know any good wacko conspiracy theory programs that air on a regular basis? That's the stuff I really like to listen to, but I've only found it once, when I was listening to Adventist World Radio.

What band does Coast To Coast play on :v:

(just joking guyz I love Coast to Coast :haw:

)

So yeah. OP, you can add $150 CDN to the financial drain counter, I asked my dad for the G5 for my upcoming birthday in a few weeks. :woop:

Edit: I've got a question, just out of curiosity: What's above the 30Mhz mark for shortwave. All the radios I've seen go from receive from about AM108 to 30000khz. What's above that? Anything?

Stuntman Mike fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Jul 19, 2007

# ? Jul 19, 2007 00:06

Halah: Sep 1, 2003; Maybe just another light that shines

Stuntman Mike posted:

Edit: I've got a question, just out of curiosity: What's above the 30Mhz mark for shortwave. All the radios I've seen go from receive from about AM108 to 30000khz. What's above that? Anything?

The space from 30 to roughly 300 mhz is known as VHF (Very high frequency) and is beyond what is known as "shortwave". Among other uses, 88-108 is the commercial FM band. If you're in the US and have a local station using channel 6, you can usually hear the audio around 87.5 or 87.7 FM. You can hear really old-school cordless phones and baby monitors around 45-50 mhz. Most scanners start their coverage at 30 mhz.

Edit: Wiki does a good job breaking down the VHF spectrum.

Halah fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Jul 19, 2007

# ? Jul 19, 2007 00:31

Stuntman Mike: Apr 14, 2007; The saucer people are coming!

Halah posted:

The space from 30 to roughly 300 mhz is known as VHF (Very high frequency) and is beyond what is known as "shortwave". Among other uses, 88-108 is the commercial FM band. If you're in the US and have a local station using channel 6, you can usually hear the audio around 87.5 or 87.7 FM. You can hear really old-school cordless phones and baby monitors around 45-50 mhz. Most scanners start their coverage at 30 mhz.

Edit: Wiki does a good job breaking down the VHF spectrum.

Oh, okay. Hmm. Interesting. So it isn't like I'm missing out or anything, then.

Thanks.

VVVVV 2.4 Ghz? Christ, that's the frequency of my cordless phone. Niiice.

Oh, out of curiosity, would emergency services radio frequencies be picked up by shortwave radios? Because that's just icing on the cake. Crazy preachers AND the police band! :v:

Stuntman Mike fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Jul 19, 2007

# ? Jul 19, 2007 03:09

potato of destiny: Aug 21, 2005; Yeah, welcome to the club, pal.

Stuntman Mike posted:

Oh, okay. Hmm. Interesting. So it isn't like I'm missing out or anything, then.

Thanks.

There are receivers that can do both shortwave and VHF (and AM/FM, longwave, UHF, etc.) called "wideband receivers". I've been pining after a few of them, but they all seem to start at around $500, and I've heard that such multitasking receivers tend to trade the ability to receive drat near any signal with a general across the board suckiness at any particular thing. Frequency ranges on some of them go from 100 kHz all the way up to 2.4 GHz.

# ? Jul 19, 2007 03:25

blugu64: Jul 17, 2006; Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?

Stuntman Mike posted:

Oh, okay. Hmm. Interesting. So it isn't like I'm missing out or anything, then.

Thanks.

VVVVV 2.4 Ghz? Christ, that's the frequency of my cordless phone. Niiice.

Oh, out of curiosity, would emergency services radio frequencies be picked up by shortwave radios? Because that's just icing on the cake. Crazy preachers AND the police band!

Police generally (at least around dallas) stick to UHF and 800mhz systems. However they're trunked; which effectively means that no regular radio can listen to them. You'd need a trunking scanner to listen in.

Ninjitsu EDIT: Dallas City Police Communications are UHF and untrunked; however most of the surrounding municipalities are UHF/800MHz trunked systems.

blugu64 fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Dec 27, 2007

# ? Jul 19, 2007 03:40

Halah: Sep 1, 2003; Maybe just another light that shines

Stuntman Mike posted:

VVVVV 2.4 Ghz? Christ, that's the frequency of my cordless phone. Niiice.

My ham license allows me to transmit well into the Ghz range. The FCC, in its tests asks questions about pointing antennas at people because, well, the #Ghz range is about where the average microwave oven cooks food. :v:

# ? Jul 19, 2007 06:26

Elijah: Jul 13, 2004; how do i red title

Stuntman Mike posted:

What band does Coast To Coast play on (just joking guyz I love Coast to Coast )

Where do I find it on shortwave? I found the affiliates list on their web site, and all I see are AM/FM stations.

# ? Jul 19, 2007 08:35

cytro: Nov 30, 2003

update to the financial drain: I picked up a Eton E5 today for $70, tax free at the military PX on base.

# ? Jul 19, 2007 20:08

overflow: Dec 20, 2001

meatpotato posted:

Hey guys, taking the thread a little off topic here, but has anyone tried building a transmitter? I've seen several VERY simple plans which are really an audio transformer and a crystal oscillator with a 9 volt for the power supply. I tried making one, but I think my crystal oscillator is bad as I can't hear anything and it gets very hot. Good thing I ordered about 9 new ones from FOX as free samples. They should get here soon and I'll report back once I have some results.

I know there are more complex designs, but I'm short on components and want to do this on the cheap. I read somewhere that class C amplification would be the most efficient, but I don't specifically know what that is. When I get some parts (maybe from my work) I'll try to build some of the more developed designs.

Are you talking about making your own HAM type transmitter, or something say, you could start your own pirate station with? If one were so inclined, that is.

# ? Jul 19, 2007 20:25

Elijah: Jul 13, 2004; how do i red title

cytro posted:

update to the financial drain: I picked up a Eton E5 today for $70, tax free at the military PX on base.

Doh! I wish I would have known that PXes carry them.

# ? Jul 19, 2007 20:59

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Elijah posted:

Where do I find it on shortwave? I found the affiliates list on their web site, and all I see are AM/FM stations.

AFAIK there is no SW outlet for Art.

# ? Jul 19, 2007 22:26

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Elijah posted:

Doh! I wish I would have known that PXes carry them.

Makes sense that they do, since AFRTS broadcasts on SW again.

# ? Jul 19, 2007 22:45

Cmosfm: Apr 15, 2005; Don't Stop Believin'

I just got my radio and I'm having a hard time finding anything. Is it better to search with or without SSB on? Also, what are the most active frequencies. I'm using a Degen DE1103.

EDIT: And Ham Radio conversations, which is best for those?

Cmosfm fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Jul 20, 2007

# ? Jul 20, 2007 01:28

grellgraxer: Nov 28, 2002; "I didn't fight a secret war in Nicaragua so you can walk these streets of freedom bad mouthing lady America, in your damn mirrored su

blugu64 posted:

Police generally (at least around dallas) stick to UHF and 800mhz systems. However they're trunked; which effectively means that no regular radio can listen to them. You'd need a trunking scanner to listen in.

Police in a lot of major metro areas in the US are now using digital trunking radios (unencrypted). I believe there's only two scanners which can handle that, one of them is the Radio Shack Pro 96. It goes on sale periodically for $400, but those cock puffers normally want $500 for it.

http://www.radioshack.com/sm-5500-channel-digital-trunking-handheld-scanner--pi-2036238.html

73

# ? Jul 20, 2007 02:30

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Cmosfm posted:

I just got my radio and I'm having a hard time finding anything. Is it better to search with or without SSB on? Also, what are the most active frequencies. I'm using a Degen DE1103.

If you're using the built-in signal seek function, AM is your best bet.

If you're looking for things to listen to right now (~0200 UTC), start at 6000 kHz and slowly move upward. You'll hit tons of signals, some of them even in English!

Cmosfm posted:

EDIT: And Ham Radio conversations, which is best for those?

Manually tuning around the ham bands. Again, 0200 UTC, start at 3600 or 7125 kHz and tune upwards, you'll run across SSB signals pretty quickly as those are the 80 and 40 meter phone bands, respectively.

edit: haha post 666 in this thread!

# ? Jul 20, 2007 03:10

Stuntman Mike: Apr 14, 2007; The saucer people are coming!

nmfree posted:

If you're using the built-in signal seek function, AM is your best bet.

If you're looking for things to listen to right now (~0200 UTC), start at 6000 kHz and slowly move upward. You'll hit tons of signals, some of them even in English!

Manually tuning around the ham bands. Again, 0200 UTC, start at 3600 or 7125 kHz and tune upwards, you'll run across SSB signals pretty quickly as those are the 80 and 40 meter phone bands, respectively.

edit: haha post 666 in this thread!

What's so special about 0200 Zulu time? Is it just because that's right now, or is that usually a good time for finding stuff?

# ? Jul 20, 2007 03:13

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Stuntman Mike posted:

What's so special about 0200 Zulu time? Is it just because that's right now, or is that usually a good time for finding stuff?

nmfree posted:

If you're looking for things to listen to right now (~0200 UTC)

# ? Jul 20, 2007 04:36

Elijah: Jul 13, 2004; how do i red title

I went to RadioShack today and bought 100 feet of 22-gauge speaker wire. I split it in half (double-stranded) and soldered it to a 1/8-inch plug. Ran some outside along my window frame, and I have the rest kind of criss-crossing my ceiling. It's greatly improved the reception of my E5. I just caught the sign-off of Voice of America on 6045, broadcasting out of Thailand. I was never able to pick up VOA before.

Edit: DAMNIT GENE SCOTT, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD. SHUT UP.

Edit #2: Yes! I'm picking up WWVH along with WWV! The time stations have numbers you can call to listen to the broadcast, so I called the Hawaii one just to make sure, and it matched up with what I was hearing.

Elijah fucked around with this message at 07:39 on Jul 20, 2007

# ? Jul 20, 2007 06:38

StarkRavingMad: Sep 27, 2001; Yams Fan

I got a QSL yesterday from Radio Japan, so you can add them to the list of stations that will send you one just for emailing them a reception report. Got a postcard, a little form-foldy return envelope thing that looks like I'm supposed to use it to send in another reception report, and a small brochure. I can't read anything but the QSL postcard since it is all in japanese.

nmfree posted:

If you're using the built-in signal seek function, AM is your best bet.

If you're looking for things to listen to right now (~0200 UTC), start at 6000 kHz and slowly move upward. You'll hit tons of signals, some of them even in English!

I strongly suggest anyone who went through the trouble of getting a radio order the Passport to World Band Radio, it has listings of stations by frequency/time in a big chart so you can identify any normal (i.e. non-ham or numbers station) signal you hit, and also a little "TV Guide" like section where you can go and see what international stations are commonly broadcasting strongly at any time and what frequency they are usually on. It's really nice when I'm going to bed at like 11 PM PST and don't feel like screwing around scanning for stations, I can just look and say "Ok, I have Radio Havana on 6180, Radio Taiwan on 5950, and Radio Australia on 13535, what do I feel like listening to?"

This link is good for finding what numbers stations/morse code stations might be broadcasting right now.

Anything other than that like ham radio or aviation you just need to find manually by dialing around and seeing what you get. I've really only found a couple strong ham broadcasters on SSB, I think my area isn't very good for it. I found one guy once who was super-strong, and after listening to him describe the crazy rear end series of antenna he had set up, I guess I could understand why. But I only heard him once and never found him again.

StarkRavingMad fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Jul 20, 2007

# ? Jul 20, 2007 19:43

overflow: Dec 20, 2001

For those of you having trouble pulling in signals, check out this instructional page on how to build your own magnetic loop antenna:

http://www.kr1st.com/swlloop.htm

Great for apartments or other places with lots of interference. I'm building one this weekend, I'll update everyone as to how it goes. Listen to the sample sound on his page; it's ability to pull in signals is pretty amazing.

# ? Jul 20, 2007 23:57

Elijah: Jul 13, 2004; how do i red title

By the way, I guess you should add $11.43 to the financial drain for my antenna supplies.

# ? Jul 21, 2007 02:25

givepatajob: Apr 8, 2003; One finds that this is the best of all possible worlds.

Add $150 to the fund. I got a Grundig G5 from my finance for my birfday.

# ? Jul 21, 2007 02:59

Hunter2 Thompson: Feb 3, 2005; Ramrod XTreme

overflow posted:

Are you talking about making your own HAM type transmitter, or something say, you could start your own pirate station with? If one were so inclined, that is.

Well I guess it would be pirate, although I plan on getting a ham license soon. I work on the days our local club meets, though

. I made a very very weak transmitter today using a crystal oscillator timing chip I snagged from work. The audio quality was very good but range was about 6 inches from the antenna, heh. It obviously needs some amplification, although now I have an excellent way to merge the audio and the carrier.

I should have some RF amplifier samples coming soon in the mail, maybe I can figure out how to use them with this.

# ? Jul 22, 2007 08:14

Capnbigboobies: Dec 2, 2004

What do you guys think about the DE1102 radios selling on ebay from china? It seems like it has a good feature set (SSB) and good reviews. I am thinking for around 60-70 It could be a solid value.

# ? Jul 22, 2007 10:50

Andohz: Aug 15, 2004; World's Strongest Smelly Hobo

Got my E5 today and set it up on the balcony at around 13GMT. After just a few minutes I got some russian station that after some tuning was recieved with half decent quality. Since I don't speak russian I have no idea what it was though.

Then found some german stations coming in strong and one italian station. Then a gigantic rain storm rolled in over my town, ruining everything

Gonna try again when the sun sets if the rain ever stops, so far it's been great fun

EDIT: GOOD NEWS FOR EUROPEANS

I just found a station in milan, italy that broadcasts the american hellfire and brimstone preacher programs a few hours a day. So it's not just for you americans anymore!

http://www.nexus.org/NEXUS-IBA/Schedules/IRRS-SW_A07.html

I just entertained my flatmates by tuning it in whilst we were smoking on the balcony and there was a rabid preacher screaming about how The Fear would fill our souls when we were diagnosed with terminal cancer or when our wife said she didn't want to see our face again and wouldn't go to church with us. :ssj:

Andohz fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Jul 22, 2007

# ? Jul 22, 2007 16:50

mawrucre: Feb 8, 2004

Capnbigboobies posted:

What do you guys think about the DE1102 radios selling on ebay from china? It seems like it has a good feature set (SSB) and good reviews. I am thinking for around 60-70 It could be a solid value.

I talked about the DE1103 one page ago. Here it is again

commonbrick posted:

The two companies selling on ebay right now include a power adapter for the country it is shipped to (American adapter if shipped to US, British if shipped to Britain, etc), the buttons are in English, and the manual is in Chinese but they include a CD with the manual in English. The DE1103 is about $80 shipped to your door, no taxes, the cheapest KA1103 I could find was more than $80 and didn't include taxes and shipping and handling. It gets very good reviews with 4.7/5 on eham with over 37 votes.

http://www.radiointel.com/review-degende1103.htm
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4288

Basically, if someone is looking at a KA1103 they should get the DE1103 since they are the exact same radio, one is just cheaper. I'm still waiting for mine to make it to me from China .

My DE1103 cost $73.90 total (shipping from China included) so you can add that to the list OP. Compare that with KA1103 where the cheapest I've found it is around $100 shipped. It seems to be a nice radio. It even comes with rechargeable batteries. How many electronics come with batteries nowadays? Not just any old batteries, but rechargeable ones. Keep in mind the KA1103 and DE1103 are the exact same radio the only difference is mine says Degen on it, and the one from Kaito will cost $30 more and say Kaito.

Saturday night I picked up Radio Netherlands from the Netherlands Antilles. How much will the fact I am in a basement affect my reception? I have a feeling standing outside late at night with a long antenna extending from my radio and headphones might attract the wrong kind of attention.

# ? Jul 22, 2007 20:46

AstroZamboni: Mar 8, 2007; Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

Back from my sabbatical The entire purpose of my absence was to avoid Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows spoilers, so I was avoiding the internet at all costs. It worked, and I was able to read the book completely unspoiled.

I'll edit the OP tomorrow morning.

# ? Jul 23, 2007 02:15

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 08:40

Danton: Nov 10, 2005; by Ozma

Got the radio last thursday, works great. The manual was in english and so are the buttons, so go Degen if you're looking at the 1103 and save yourself $30. The wire antenna that came with it isn't much better than the whip in my apartment, although up on the roof I was pulling in a bunch of carribean stations (Cuba, RTI from Okeechobee, presumably Radio Netherlands was coming from the Antilles). A few questions though:

My windows have bars over them, would that interfere with the wire antenna?
Can I use the grate over my window to increase the signal, maybe by putting together a new wire and just attaching it to the grate?
I'm thinking about picking up the Degen DE31 amplified loop antenna (Radio Intelligencer says it's at least comparable to the Sony ANLP and it's currently $21 shipped on ebay right now), would that help more than, say, stringing a long wire up to the roof?

# ? Jul 23, 2007 20:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Achtung! Its the one and only Shortwave Radio Uberthread!

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