Need an AM radio with excellent reception

[silver_bacon]

If you're on a computer, you already have everything you need for internet radio, no purchase necessary - go to the website of the station you want to hear and click their "Listen Live" link, I'm listening a local radio station right now as I type this on my laptop.. (and if you get bored, listen in on tens of thousands of radio stations from around the world on Reciva: https://www.reciva.com/)

This is part of the joy of a netbook; you can tune in online to your radio station of interest, set the computer to remain on with the lid closed, and presto, you now have a lovely small table radio with no wires and perfect reception..

Netbooks are cheating :mecry:

I apologize that I have not come back for so long, I have been rather busy. You have all been very helpful.

I have not yet bought the C-Crane antenna. Do you know if the C-Crane is capable of helping old tube-radios? None of them have ferrite rods. My table-top Westinghouse has the inch-wide coil of wire on the back of the case. My Philco is capable of connecting an antenna directly, the Westinghouse is not. Both radios suffer from poor reception. They both have good sound, with the Philco having unparalleled sound on AM.

I am still considering the C-Crane for my S350DL, but if I could use it on tube-radios, that would give me another reason to buy it.

As far as expanding FM reception, which I mentioned a long time ago, I can not connect a rooftop antenna, so I am stuck with little antennas, amplifiers, etc.

 

[silver_bacon]

oops..

 

[StarHalo]

Netbooks are cheating :mecry:

Agreed, but for casual listening on a station that wouldn't be challenging anyway, it's a handy convenience. I still DX with my radios..

Do you know if the C-Crane is capable of helping old tube-radios?

Yes, I don't own any tube units, but one of the reviews of the CCrane used it on an older tube Zenith Trans-oceanic, which helped it greatly.

None of them have ferrite rods. My table-top Westinghouse has the inch-wide coil of wire on the back of the case. My Philco is capable of connecting an antenna directly, the Westinghouse is not.

They still have some method of receiving a signal, which can receive the amplified signal from the Twin Coil. Again, connect directly to minimize interference, connect by loop for maximum gain.

I am still considering the C-Crane for my S350DL, but if I could use it on tube-radios, that would give me another reason to buy it.

The CCrane will help your tube radios more than it will the S350, as the Grundig/Eton already has a large 8" ferrite antenna.

As far as expanding FM reception, which I mentioned a long time ago, I can not connect a rooftop antenna, so I am stuck with little antennas, amplifiers, etc.

I don't have a lot of experience with FM DXing, but the old-school wisdom is that the best indoor FM antenna is a whip mounted vertically inside a windowsill; CCrane sells a whip under the name "Fanfare", but it costs more than the Twin Coil..

 

[Ray_of_Light]

From time to time, I still do some AM Dxing.
The best radio for the purpose proved to be the ETON and the SONY; both uses the CXA1238 chip, which is excellent for the purpose.
There is a mod for the S350 DL which improves the IF stage, by replacing the two ceramic IF filters; check here for the mod kit:

http://www.kiwa.us/GrundigS350.html

It makes the S350 DL a real performer, you will not regret of the upgrade.

I have found the Sony ICF-SW11 to provide acceptable performance for DXing, but you need to find a way to couple an external antenna.

Six month ago I bought a Eton G3 which has a AM syncronous detector; since then I retired the Eton 350DL and the K-PO.

Regards

Anthony

 

[StarHalo]

Six month ago I bought a Eton G3 which has a AM syncronous detector; since then I retired the Eton 350DL and the K-PO.

The synchronous detector doesn't get enough credit or attention; any radio that has one of these will receive many more AM/SW stations that one without it. Stations that are physically impossible to receive become plainly audible just by flipping the sync switch.

After I got my Sony 7600GR (which has a sync), I'm not interested in a radio that doesn't have the feature..

 

[silver_bacon]

The synchronous detector doesn't get enough credit or attention; any radio that has one of these will receive many more AM/SW stations that one without it. Stations that are physically impossible to receive become plainly audible just by flipping the sync switch.

After I got my Sony 7600GR (which has a sync), I'm not interested in a radio that doesn't have the feature..

How do the radios with a synchronous detector, specifically the Grundig G3 and Sony 7600Gr, stack up against the S350DL?

 

[StarHalo]

How do the radios with a synchronous detector, specifically the Grundig G3 and Sony 7600Gr, stack up against the S350DL?

The S350DL relies on its large 8" ferrite antenna alone to pull a signal, so a weak signal by itself on the dial, with no other stations infringing on it, will come in a bit more strongly on the S350. The catch is if the weak station is being drowned out by a strong signal - say you're trying to tune a distant station on 870AM, but there's a local station on 880AM completely mowing down the weaker signal, you can kind-of sort-of hear it weakly in the background, but it's not legible. If you can't null out the stronger station by rotating your antenna/radio, then there's nothing the S350 can do in this situation, you will never be able to receive the weaker signal.

The 7600GR and G3 have modestly smaller antennas, so an in-the-open weak station won't come in quite as strongly as on the S350. However when you have the drowned-out signal problem, it's just a matter of turning on the synchronous detector - it's essentially a signal blocker that closes off any signals above or below the specific frequency you're trying to tune; so with the 870/880AM problem, you just turn on the Sync, set it for Lower Sideband (you want to hear the lower frequency and block what is coming in above it on the dial), and presto, the strong signal on 880AM completely vanishes. The weak station that was previously in the background suddenly sounds as though it's completely on its own on the dial, right out in the open. It works on AM and SW, and every time you "pull out" a station using sync, that's one more station you would have never gotten on a radio without the feature.

As for the G3 vs 7600GR, I really like the G3's feature set, but it has had some quality control problems, and isn't as solid or powerful a unit as the radio it replaced, the G5. The 7600GR is a classic, and despite entering its ninth year of production, Sony still has no plans on changing it. The Sony is my recommendation for the ~$150 price range.

 

[Radiophile]

The S350DL relies on its large 8" ferrite antenna alone to pull a signal, so a weak signal by itself on the dial, with no other stations infringing on it, will come in a bit more strongly on the S350. The catch is if the weak station is being drowned out by a strong signal - say you're trying to tune a distant station on 870AM, but there's a local station on 880AM completely mowing down the weaker signal, you can kind-of sort-of hear it weakly in the background, but it's not legible. If you can't null out the stronger station by rotating your antenna/radio, then there's nothing the S350 can do in this situation, you will never be able to receive the weaker signal.

A passive loop antenna will usually help with this situation by rotating to null the interfering station while peaking the desired station's signal. If both signals are in the same direction or exactly opposite each other from your position then you can't null, but you can still peak the desired signal. If you like to tinker you can make your own passive loop using varying gauges of wire which will limit the signal and audio bandwidth as the wire gets thinner.

However when you have the drowned-out signal problem, it's just a matter of turning on the synchronous detector - it's essentially a signal blocker that closes off any signals above or below the specific frequency you're trying to tune; so with the 870/880AM problem, you just turn on the Sync, set it for Lower Sideband (you want to hear the lower frequency and block what is coming in above it on the dial), and presto, the strong signal on 880AM completely vanishes. The weak station that was previously in the background suddenly sounds as though it's completely on its own on the dial, right out in the open. It works on AM and SW, and every time you "pull out" a station using sync, that's one more station you would have never gotten on a radio without the feature.

Wow! You love synchronous detection! Have you ever manually selected the opposite sideband? That's pretty much what synchronous detection does automagially, and you can do it with any radio that receives sideband as long as it doesn't use a BFO.

I'd hesitate to call synchronous detection a signal blocker because what it's doing is using the radio's sideband filter to slice the RF for best reception. It's less blocking and more filtering - like I do with my communications transceiver. I select the opposite sideband and the filter options for best reception.

 

[StarHalo]

That's pretty much what synchronous detection does automagially, and you can do it with any radio that receives sideband as long as it doesn't use a BFO.

The 7600GR uses a BFO.

I'd hesitate to call synchronous detection a signal blocker

I knew even as I was typing that simplified layman's definition that one of the technical folk would jump on it..

 

[Sub_Umbra]

The OP mentions that he owns a "GE Super Radio II." Wow. I'd find a ham to align it and try again. Cool rig.

OK, here's the counterintuitive part -- that's where some flame me for being a jerk (not totally uncalled for) and where some scratch their heads and thank me.

All of the antenna suggestions are fine except that they all share one problem -- adding an external antenna to most (if not all) of the radios mentioned does nothing to supress the noise coming into them from their original antennas. This is important because about 98% of what a good antenna does for MW DXing is blank out interference with deep nulls. In my experience when you hook up a fancy antenna to any MW radio with another antenna attached to it it doesn't matter how deep the nulls are in the new antenna if you're still picking up the noise from the original antenna....duh.

If you want to go with a great aftermarket antenna like a Kiwa Pocket Loop or the Ramsey SM-100 kit it's a bust to hook them up to radios that already have antennas that cannot be disconnected. Remember a good medium wave (AM) antenna actually picks up less, not more.

To set up a MW DX rig around a custom antenna you must first find a sensitive AM radio that has no antenna. Having gone through this myself decades ago I can save you some trouble. Buy a lab quality 12V dc power supply. Then buy a lower mid-range priced car radio. Car radios rock for MW DX because they are sensitive and yet very resistant to the electrical interference always present in mobile environs. It is also key that they have no antenna. Aside from their sensitive performance and their robust build quality, the fact that they have no antenna is a MW DXers dream come true.

With that gear you will be able to kick *** with whatever bleeding edge add-on MW antenna you can afford and the deep nulls you paid for in those snazzi new antennas won't have noise injected into the system as it would be if they were attached to any radio that still had it's own antenna.

The key here is to go away from this discussion remembering that a top quality add on MW antenna is valuable not because it picks up more but because it picks up less and you'll likely hose the whole effect by hooking up that pricey antenna to any rig that has it's own inferior antenna still permanantly attached.

 

[StarHalo]

buy a lower mid-range priced car radio.

I agree with the car radio idea to make a really nice tabletop or living-room unit; a set of high-quality car speakers mounted in a proper box(es) makes for a near audiophile listening experience.

But car radios don't really have the needed features for DXing, namely an attenuator (to make the antenna as strong or weak as needed) or band filters. It's true that they don't have their own antenna, but most modern radios, when connected to an external antenna, disable their internal one. Plus a good external antenna has a lot of placement options; the CCrane's modular design means you can set the antenna far away from the radio or even outdoors. As I noted above, I've connected the Twin Coil directly to my radio and set the antenna across the room - I can place my laptop right next to the radio and there's no noise.

I'd still love to one day do a modern boombox using a car radio though; a pair of 6x9" midranges and an 8" square subwoofer with its own amp, Li-Ion packs powering everything, it'd definitely sound like a car system..

 

[Sub_Umbra]

...But car radios don't really have the needed features for DXing, namely an attenuator (to make the antenna as strong or weak as needed) or band filters....

I must respectfully disagree. I have personally done a great deal of MW DXing with car radios hooked up to hot custom antennas as described in my post. I will grant you that performance may be enhanced by more expensive equipment -- but I very seriously doubt that anyone reading this could afford any rig that would outperform the equipment I've discribed by more than 3% (which would still be undiscernable anyway.)

And one could still add a DSP to the output for more control...

Good night all, hope this evening finds you all well,
Sub

 

[Radiophile]

I dunno man, I've listened to a lot of MW DX on car radios, and while they do a great job for driving around in a car, I'd never choose one of them over a communications receiver. Filter selection alone would dig out signals the car radio cannot. On my radio I can slightly vary the IF frequency so the filter curve is tunable to remove interference - you can't do that with a car radio. I can also vary the gain to exploit the sweet spot where an interfering signal drops to the floor and I can cleanly listen to that frequency that was getting hammered. And I always have the option of changing mode to SSB to totally eliminate wash from an adjacent frequency.

 

[Radiophile]

The 7600GR uses a BFO.

I don't think it does. I've reviewed it's features and it selects SSB as a mode, so I'm pretty sure it does SSB by filter selection and not BFO.

I've got an 818CS that does have a BFO, and I can tell you it's an inferior method for SSB reception. The bandwidth is the same as AM and doesn't do well to reject the alternate sideband.

I assume that all radios which have synchronous detection select sideband by filter and use this as part of the synchronous detection technique.

 

[StarHalo]

but I very seriously doubt that anyone reading this could afford any rig that would outperform the equipment I've discribed by more than 3%

I would agree that the car receiver is far more powerful than anything you could buy at your local store; but you're going to run into problems when DXing that a good receiver alone can't fix. If you were to compare the car head unit to a good shortwave receiver on stations that are out in the open, I'd wager your 3% difference figure would be correct. But if you were to compare the total number of legibly received stations, the shortwave's bag of tuning tricks give it a big unfair advantage, it would receive many more stations than the car rig.

I don't think it does.

The manual says it does. Using the SSB on a standard AM station nets the Daffy Duck effect, it's definitely not the same as the sync..

 

[lctorana]

Odd that we've had 35 posts on this subject, by Americans, who claim radio knowledge,

but nobody has mentioned the Zenith TransOceanic.

 

[Radiophile]

Using the SSB on a standard AM station nets the Daffy Duck effect, it's definitely not the same as the sync..

It isn't the same as synchronous detection, you then have to manually fine tune for best audio. Synchronous detection does that for you automagically. I believe the fine tune pot is on the same side as the synchronous detection switch, opposite the volume pot.

 

[Radiophile]

Odd that we've had 35 posts on this subject, by Americans, who claim radio knowledge, but nobody has mentioned the Zenith TransOceanic.

That's because the OP wants a radio with good MW reception. I can name several radios costing much less than a TransOcanic that are better on AM.

Don't get me wrong, they were and are fine SW radios and some were even the best in their day for the general consumer, but I'll take my TS450 over any of them now for shortwave, and any Superadio for MW.

Besides, the TransOceanic is heavily collected and even the less sought after models are still much more expensive than a Superadio. 15 years ago I decided against ever buying a TransOceanic because of the premium they demand. Even really poor condition examples sell for lots of money as parts radios to refurbish a shelf queen found in Grandpa's attic.

Fine radios - yes. Pretty radios - definitely. Great MW radios - not really.

 

[StarHalo]

but nobody has mentioned the Zenith TransOceanic.

The TransOceanic is a great collectible unit, but the bar for reception performance has gotten higher since then. They're not uncommon on EBay, but if you want something similar with better performance and collectablity, look into a Sony Earth Orbiter.

I believe the fine tune pot is on the same side as the synchronous detection switch, opposite the volume pot.

Yes, I've used the SSB successfully many times to listen to Armed Forces Radio; if you use it on a non-SSB broadcast, you just get the quack effect regardless of where you set it.

 

[filibuster]

In regards to the Superadio three versions have been mentioned. Is the Superadio III the one to go looking for or do the first two models stand out as better stock versions?

What about the RCA RP7887 compared to the older Superadios versions?