Hi Paul/Jay/all:

Thanks for the posts. On the aspect of DSP sets, believe me we agonized over that, and came to the conclusion that such was the trend and likely future of these radios; not only the DSP filtering of the original PL-300WT (G8), but now selectable filters on even the modest PL-606. The decision was made to include this feature in the definition; otherwise, there may be no new desirable ULR products at some point if that's where the Asian manufacturers are going. Tecsun is churning out one new model after another with their new DSP chip, and Degen has perhaps a few decent single-bandwidth offerings, whereas Redsun and Sangean appear to lagging behind in the small radio category by not adopting this technology. Now if Sony were to jump in with their proprietary chip that is used in the XDR-F1HD tuner... :-)

If someone were to hack in and make a PL-606 into an SSB radio, in my mind that would be in the Unlimited class, similar in result to taking an analog set and positioning nearby to it another set with the same IF to get a beat note. I don't know enough about the inner workings of the DSP sets, but I suspect that that's all you could get, just a beat note (i.e., no selectable sideband reception - the tech gurus may have more info on this??). This would result in a good spotter, and perhaps a neat little NDB receiver, but you would have to be able to turn off the insertion of the BFO in order to get listenable audio, which may be tough and require being permanently tethered to a laptop. IMO, SSB-caliber results are more easily attained using a regen passive loop tuned to the carrier, and the receiver tuned to the desired sideband. At any rate, I think that as long as you start with an ULR, most augments or physical modifications (filters, antennae, etc.) are likely to result in an Unlimited receiver.

Thanks - Kevin S