Hi Gary,

 

     Your comments on the Durham Radio E100 are pretty typical.  I've had four Durham E100's for alignment, and these all act about the same.  Out of the box, high-band sensitivity is usually very good, but low band is usually anemic.  Low-band alignment (on the loopstick) usually improves the performance, but on two of four radios, I've had to cut plastic mounting brackets to peak the loopstick coil on a 600 kHz signal.

     The chirpy sound is normal--  a digital tuning anomaly shared by the C.Crane SWP and other small digital designs.

     As you noted, the SW antenna on an E100 really needs to be in the vertical position, or AM-band sensitivity will be reduced considerably.  This is true of all E100's.

     The stock ferrite bar on an E100 is really a mediocre flat design, very skimpy on ferrite.  Presumably, this is the reason why a Q-stick doesn't couple up with it very well.  A 7" loopstick transplant (extremely easy to do, by the way) improves performance considerably.  Have fun with your new radio!

 

                                                                                              73,  Gary DeBock