Hi Rob,

 

     Well, I'm now part of the new group too, brother!  Glad your E100 arrived, and I think you will find it gives your SRF-T615 a stiff challenge on the high end.  For the rest of you, if you have interest in an Eton E100, consider buying one from Durham Radio in Ontario.  They are selling units which have a loopstick coil that can be peaked for top low-band performance, unlike other E100's out in the market.  Rob and I got our E100's on an eBay auction for $27.01.. the ultra-steal of the century, for this top quality model.

 

                                                                                              73,  Gary DeBock 

Hi Guys:

Just signed up for the new group...hope to be a regular contributor, and
user of the group.

Also....today I received another NEW ULR today.....an ETON E-100. Purchased
via EBAY from a store in Oshawa, Ontario.........via Gary Debock in
Washington!! Radio made a 4000 Mile trip to get to me 120 miles from where
it started!! it's a long story....but it's here....and I'm happy to get
it!! Gary also did a Tune up on the BCB reception for me before he shipped
it....so it should be all set to go!!

Looking forward to communicating with ALL ULR Users ....here on the New
Ultralight DX Group!!

73......ROB.



Robert S. Ross VA3SW
Box 1003, Stn. B.
London, Ontario
CANADA N6A5K1

Antique/Vintage Radio Enthusiast
Amateur Radio Stations VA3SW/VE3JFC

Defy Physics.....Play Table Tennis!! (Ping Pong with an Attitude)
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«

--- In ultralightdx@..., Robert Ross <va3sw@...> wrote:

Hi Guys:

Just signed up for the new group...hope to be a regular

contributor, and

user of the group.

I just got the info on this group and signed up. I've been collecting
ULRs for the past few months and have been having a ball with them. My
current lineup includes the SRF-39/39FP/49/59. I just took the Sangean
DT200VX on a trip to Texas and had a blast picking up Mexican stations
at night from the hotel room.

Looking forward to some good discussions...

Brett Saylor
Central PA

Hi Everyone, just signed up and looking forward to the enjoyable
involvement with the group


73

Allen Willie VO1-001-SWL
St. John's, Newfoundland
SRF-M37V , SRF-59 , SRF-39FP

Hi Guys:

Nice to see Allen, Brett, Gary and John already on the list
here.......hopefully the rest of the gang will straggle their way over here in due course!!

With the addition of the New ETON-100 which arrived here today from
Washington State........my ULR STABLE now consists of the following
Radios.......

SONY SRF-59..............................2 Gary Debock Aligned/Tuned Up
Models .

SONY SRF-39 Prison Radios.........2 Gary Debock Aligned/Tuned Up Models.

SONY SRF-T615...........................1 Factory Stock Model from JAPAN.

ETON-100.....................................1 Gary Debock Aligned/Tuned Up
Model.

Hope to add more Rigs as they become available.........or they find me!!!!

I will be heading to the ODXA RADIO CAMP next weekend (April4-6)...and all
of the above radios will be going with me.....should have enough ULR's
there to let Everybody try one out!!!! Maybe we can convert a few people at
the camp and sign them up for this new reflector as well!!

At one point of my "CRAZY COLLECTING CAREER"....I owned over 500 different
Transistor Radios from the 1950's and 1960's....the little Pocket
Transistors we all grew up with. Many of these sets were NON WORKING
sets....but were collected just for the Fun and Beauty of the Early sets
from Sony, Toshiba, Zenith, Hitachi etc. That collection of Transistor
Radios has been sold over the Years.....but I fear I may be on the way to a
NEW COLLECTION......of "ULR's"....which I guess are just a Newer version of
the Old Pocket Transistors!!! What a vicious circle....

Anyway.......that's what I'm using here for ULR DX.....but I must admit
that I tend to stick with the T615 Sony for most of my DX....as the Digital
Readout makes the whole exercise so much more enjoyable. Maybe the New
Eton-100 will prove just as nice with it's Digital Readout and 200
Memories. It's little bigger and HEAVIER than the T615 however.....it still
fits into your pocket....but it will make the Fabric SAG a little! HIHI.

As Gary mentioned we got our ETON-100's for a ridiculous Price of $27.01
via an EBAY Auction......Right Place....Right Time for once in my Life!!
HAHHAHHAHA...

Unfortunately I have been experiencing a Loud BUZZ at my QTH for the last
week or so......don't know if it's something here in the house...or one of
my Neighbours.....haven't tracked it down yet. Only noticeable when I
orientate the ULR's in a NORTH/SOUTH direction. Hope it either goes
away....or I can at least track it down and remedy it!!

OK Guys...lets fill up my Mailbox with ULR Postings!!!

73...ROB.

Robert S. Ross VA3SW
Box 1003, Stn. B.
London, Ontario
CANADA N6A5K1

Antique/Vintage Radio Enthusiast
Amateur Radio Stations VA3SW/VE3JFC

Defy Physics.....Play Table Tennis!! (Ping Pong with an Attitude)
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«

Hi all:

Count me in! I look forward to hearing and talking about this
fascinating niche of the DXing hobby with you all.

Kevin Schanilec
Bainbridge Island, WA


--- In ultralightdx@..., Robert Ross <va3sw@...> wrote:

Hi Guys:

Nice to see Allen, Brett, Gary and John already on the list
here.......hopefully the rest of the gang will straggle their way

over here

in due course!!

Hello fellow ultralight dxers,

Thanks for the invitation to join the utralight dxers
group. Worked today on using the SRF 39 fp with the
Space magnet ferrite loop antenna. Increased signals
during day light hours, now need to try it on skywave
signals are night.

Denns,
Salmon Creek, WA

Good morning all!

just to say 'hello' to the group.

I am not good at logging, but two receptions with a SFR-59 were really nice
and memorable to me:

2006-07-08 0851 Netherlands Antilles - TWR 800KHz (R Transmudial in SS and
PP). Heard PP id in my apartment in Porto Alegre (30S 51W). ''Barefoot
mode''. SINPO 32322.

2005-11-14 0600 Virgin Islands - WDHP 1620KHz. An fulll hour of nice jazz
music. Heard in Ilha Comprida beach in southeast Brazil (25S 48W). Used an
auxiliary external ferrite antena called 'RGP3'. SINPO 43333.

Both were head about 2 or 3 years ago. The distance was ~ 3200 miles/5100km.
One can say those are not really difficult (TWR runs 500-600KW, reception at
beach is wonderful), but they were really distant-receptions :)


Huelbe Garcia
Porto Alegre, Brazil
30S 51W

Although I'm doing limited DX'ing lately due to lousy conditions and
not enough time, (and that means Ultralight as well) I've signed up for
this list - mostly so I don't miss anything <g>



Russ Edmunds
Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL )
[15 mi NNW of Philadelphia]
40:08:45N; 75:16:04W, Grid FN20id
<wb2bjh@...>
FM: Yamaha T-80 & Onkyo T-450RDS w/ APS9B @15'
AM: Hammarlund HQ-150 & 4' FET air core loop


____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for last minute shopping deals?
Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

Wonderful night for Transatlantic signals as I heard many very
strong considering the recent solar flare activity. Glad to be a
part of this new group and will keep the logs coming .

73
Allen Willie VO1-001-SWL
St. John's, Newfoundland


As follows all heard with the SRF-39FP BAREFOOT


22:09 UTC - 1539 khz - GERMANY , Evangeliums Rundfunk w/ interview
by 2 men, mention of Hamburg ; very strong

22:12 UTC - 1550 khz - ALGERIA , Western Sahara Radio Nacional w/
commentary in arabic , slow arabic song ; fair

22:15 UTC - 1467 khz - MONACO , R. Maria France via w/ English
religious program , alternating quotes in English and Arabic ; good

22:17 UTC - 1557 khz - FRANCE , France Info w/ man in french
commentary, ID ; good

22:21 UTC - 1575 khz - UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, R. Farda w/ arabic pop
type song , ID ; good

22:24 UTC - 1476 khz - AUSTRIA , ORF R. Austria , w/ light classical
music ,
german talk ; fair

22:28 UTC - 1512 khz - BELGIUM , Wolvertem w/ song by Lobo , woman
announcing in Dutch or Flemish; good

22:30 UTC - 1503 khz - IRAN, Tehran City Radio w/ chants, persian
talk, middle eastern music ; very strong

22:40 UTC - 1323 khz - CYPRUS, Zygi BBC Relay w/ french
programming ; good

22:44 UTC - 1521 khz - SAUDI ARABIA , Duba BSKSA w/ arabic chants
and commentary ; good

22:57 UTC - 1440 khz - LUXEMBOURG, China Radio relay Marnach w/
Chinese language lessons in English and Chinese ; very strong

23:00 UTC - 1548 khz - KUWAIT , Radio Sawa w/ pop song "I'm so
lucky" , arabic talk, news item about USA ; very strong (will post
recording soon)

23:06 UTC - 675 khz - NETHERLANDS , R. Maria w/ lite gospel music
and programming ; good

23:12 UTC - 684 khz - SPAIN , RNE1 Barcelona w/ "Monday,Monday " by
the Mamas and Papas then spanish, good

23:26 UTC - 1593 khz - KUWAIT , VOA Relay , english program woman
talking about Wisconsin , VOA ID ; fair

23:30 UTC - 1310 khz - CIWW, Ottaw, Ontario w/ oldies song "Grease"
and Oldies 13-10 ID ; good then faded out


73
Allen Willie VO1-001-SWL
St.John's, Newfoundland

Allen,

Great going.  I don't know the TA dial very well, but the Iranian logging (with a SRF-39FP, no less!) is pretty amazing to this cowboy!

John B.

Friends,

Its gratifying to find that we have over 25 members in less than 24 hours. Welcome to everyone! As moderator, I intend to mostly be invisible.... this is your site and your group to use to increase your own (and our mutual) enjoyment by DXing with these wonderful little radios. Some of us are interested in DXing with ultralights in a totally stock "barefoot" format, while others are interested in trying to get the most possible out of the basic ultralight receiver circuit. Both groups learn from the successes of each other.

Although this group and our files and message areas will be very useful to each of us, I'd strongly encourage you to regularly visit the Ultralight files area of dxer.ca. There is a treasure-trove of excellent information there. If you haven't gone over things there carefully, be sure to visit soon. If you aren't familiar with that site, it is at http://www.dxer.ca The Ultralight files area may be accessed from a button in the upper left of the home page. PLEASE NOTE, there are other Ultralight resources at dxer.ca. Look at the hyperlinks on each side of the home page.

My own role here, beside being an active participant, is that I'll act as file and photo librarian, keeping those areas in some kind of order and culling them from time to time, should we start running out of space.

I have several more things that I should talk about.... mostly about those photos and files... as well as a few other housekeeping chores, but I'm going to put those off until early next week. We are right in the middle of doing a major remodel to our house of 30 years here in Stillwater. We have several crews coming in (carpet, roofers, glaziers, plumbers) in the next few days and I'm also re-tiling the bathrooms myself while the rest of this happens around me. My time at the keyboard and radio will return to normal in about a week. In the meantime, the ultralightdx site is working well, so we are off and running.


John B.
Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA
Rcvrs: WiNRADiO 313e, Eton e1, NRD-535(kiwa-mods) + flocka Ultralights
Antennas: 700' NE/SW mini-Bev, Wellbrook Phased Array (pre-production version)

To Dave Kenny, Huelbe Garcia and Others,

 

     Concerning the Chinese factory alignments of the recent SRF-59 units, it is typically not accurate, and new units are usually not as sensitive as possible.  After performing 38 SRF-59 alignments for others in North America,  I have discovered that the smaller coil on the loopstick is almost never in the optimum position to peak a 600 kHz signal, and this simple adjustment can make a huge difference in SRF-59 sensitivity.

 

     The disassembly of the SRF-59 is a little tricky, and the dial reassembly causes problems for many people.  For someone in North America, I can easily align the SRF-59's (or SRF-39FP's) for free (with return postage paid), and would be happy to do this for anyone in the world, if you can send the units to me here in the USA.  Completely defective units are rare, with the most common problem being a noisy tuning capacitor which induces static whenever the frequency is changed.  This happens only on about 10% of the units, but it is incurable without an impractical tuner replacement.

 

                                                                                                 73,  Gary DeBock

 

                                                                                                 Original "Ultra-fanatic"  

Hello Ultralight-DX friends,

It is a great idea to open this group. I come from the Crystal Rx hobby
as probably many of you.
I live in Switzerland and I am proud to own
a SFR-39, SFR-49 and SFR59. Two of them had to be aligned by me and now
reward me with fine reception. Recently I bought an SFR-T615, but I
must admit, that it is inferior to the analog classics. Adjacent
channel separation is better on the SFR-59 series.
This is very important where I live, because the European AM Band is
full of power stations.
I live in an appartement without outdoor antenna and ground. So I
like to go outside with an SFR-59 and enjoy clear reception free from
electrosmog interference.

Peter

Peter,

WELCOME to the ultralightdx group and our community!!!  Those of us in North America have been having so much fun with these little wonders that we are doubly excited by a new DXer from across he ocean!  Be sure and take a look at the List of Ultralight Firsts and Records on the dxer.ca site. It is primarily a list for dxers in the Western Hemisphere, but the "world-wide" section is open to the accomplishments of DXers anywhere.  If enough Europeans become active in ultralighting, we'll have to help get a European-oriented list started.

For those of us from the traditional MW DX hobby, its doubly exciting to welcome another member from the world of crystal set DXing... we obviously have much to learn from the xtal crowd, for sure!

John B.
Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA
Rcvrs: WiNRADiO 313e, Eton e1, NRD-535(kiwa-mods) + flock of Ultralights
Antennas: 700' NE/SW mini-Bev, Wellbrook Phased Array (pre-production version)







At 12:18 PM 3/28/2008 +0000, you wrote:

Hello Ultralight-DX friends,

It is a great idea to open this group. I come from the Crystal Rx hobby
as probably many of you.
I live in Switzerland and I am proud to own
a SFR-39, SFR-49 and SFR59. Two of them had to be aligned by me and now
reward me with fine reception. Recently I bought an SFR-T615, but I
must admit, that it is inferior to the analog classics. Adjacent
channel separation is better on the SFR-59 series.
This is very important where I live, because the European AM Band is
full of power stations.
I live in an appartement without outdoor antenna and ground. So I
like to go outside with an SFR-59 and enjoy clear reception free from
electrosmog interference.

Peter

John B.
Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA
Rcvrs: WiNRADiO 313e, Eton e1, NRD-535(kiwa-mods)
Antennas: 700' NE/SW mini-Bev, Wellbrook Phased Array (pre-production version)

I've got two SRF59s but both are defective. One has a dial that only
tunes up to about 1550 kHz on MW and to about 107 MHz on FM.

The other is completely deaf and even reception of local AM stations
is poor and noisy.

It seems that quality control on these radios is not good.
Unfortunately I bought them via eBay so can't return them.

Does anyone know if these radios can be aligned to improve
performance? Any details would be welcome.

73s Dave Kenny
UK

Hi Again Huelbe,

 

     Please don't worry about English here-- if I had to write in Portuguese, it would be a true disaster.

 

     The SRF-59 (and SRF-39FP) loopstick does have both a larger and smaller coil, but only the smaller (movable) coil is necessary for alignment adjustment.  The larger (fixed) coil is glued in place, and is not designed to be moved at all.

 

     For alignment, remove all wax bonding the smaller coil to the ferrite bar, and tune in a signal around 600 kHz on the low end of the band.  Using a wooden probe, move the smaller coil about 5 mm either way from its original position, to find the spot of maximum signal reception of the 600 kHz station.  After finding this spot, either glue the coil in this position (if it has corrected the radio's sensitivity problem) or proceed to adjust the upper left trimmer capacitor on the tuner to peak a 1400 kHz signal (for full alignment).  My own alignment procedure is to peak both adjustments repeatedly, until no further improvement is gained.  Then, I glue the loopstick's smaller coil in the peak position, and reassemble the radio.

 

     The alignment procedure usually gives a big boost in SRF-59 sensitivity, and should be considered by all owners to ensure maximum DX performance.

 

                                                                                     73,  Gary DeBock

Hi Dave, good day.

I also bought a SRF-59 (from a chinese seller) at eBay with a few problems.

The AM receiver had poor selectivity and images/mirroring about 100khz apart
from strong stations. The FM receiver started at 81MHz (I can hear the audio
from TV channel 5).

In my case, alignment by ear of the AM sector made the receiver work nice
again.

The service and alignment manual for SRF-PSY03 (it's identical to SRF-59)
was made available by our ULR fans at www.dxer.ca, under menu Ultra-light
file area.

For alignment procedure, you will have to move coil L5 over the ferrite rod.
As it has a kind of glue/wax, I am not sure what is the best way to remove
it. John Bryant (at the list-next-door UltraLightHotRodding) used a hair
dryer.

Good luck!

--hg

Hello Peter,

 

     Thank you for your introduction, and let me join John in welcoming you to the growing worldwide Ultralight DX team.

 

     Your impressions of the Sony SRF-T615 were also noted during my 2008 Shootout review (posted on dxer.ca), in which the selectivity was found to be worse than that of the SRF-59/39FP analog units.  However, for those North American DXers fortunate enough to live in quiet locations, the SRF-T615 (with its superior sensitivity) has proven to be very popular.

 

     John and I are both thrilled that crystal radio enthusiasts are joining our Ultralight DX ranks, and we also are very pleased that the MWN articles have inspired serious European interest in pocket raidio DX.  Please keep us informed about your DX accomplishments, and we wish you the best.

 

                                                                                                    73,  Gary DeBock 

Hi Gary,

thank you for your prompt reply your offer to make alignment for other
ULR-fans.

In your experience, is it enough to change the position of the smaller coil?
Or is it needed to also work at the bigger coil?

I found the smaller coil very easy to move around. However, I have no idea
how to move the bigger coil over the ferrite core. I think some soldering
work is necessary.

(just to make clear to all friends in this list: SRF59s have one ferrite rod
with two coils - the one to the left has almost two-times more wire than the
one to the right. Bryant and Gary, however, concluded it is electrically one
coil with taps.)

Huelbe

P.S.: I really apologize if my english does not 'sound' well. As I have
never lived abroad, perhaps my text may have expressions and grammar
constructions that are not-polite, rude or uncorteous. This is not intended.
:)