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Re: DX750 - 1494kHz - 2AY
Paul Blundell
Thanks Dan. I have logged it in the past. Last night I tried with my 3" FSL, still nothing. On Wed, Oct 21, 2020 at 12:51 PM Dan Merta <dnmerta0@...> wrote: Hi Paul --
Paul |
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Initial Review of the Tecsun PL-330
I bought mine a week ago through eBay for about $80. Aliexpress also had/das them for a few $'s cheaper, but some sellers cannot ship to USA. The Box indicates 3/2020 build ver. 1. No serial number in the radio, or as a tag. Instruction manual in Chinese.
It sets up as my older Tecsun DSP's as far as time, and the English buttons are concerned. Placement of the buttons are a bit odd, and these function buttons are a bit small. Nonetheless things went smoothly. The "dial light" is a pleasant yellow, not too bright. The included battery is at least partially charged, and shows 2 of 3 bars right now. The case itself is good looking and of a solid build. For as light-weight as it is, it does not feel cheap. The buttons have a nice tactile feel to them, as opposed to a squishy feel. The rotary encoders for frequency and volume are a bit slow without a lot of indent. The reception of AM-BCB is as good as the original PL-310, and better than the PL-310et I borrowed. I will say that the 330 is NOT a daytime DXer, and the 310 was also weak in this respect. This in regards to a habitually noisy suburban environment in Cent. CT USA. 1030 WBZ Boston (150mi) weak with hash, and WGY 810 in Schenectady, NY (140mi) non existant. WWKB Buffalo 1520 (225mi) illegible in the hash... 550 WGR Buffalo did better but still poor. Pointing the radio towards New York City (80-100mi) garnered good reception of 540 WLIE, 660 WFAN, 880 WCBS, 740 WNYH, 1010 WINS, and 1130 WBBR. Fair to poor on 820 WNYC. WWRL on 1600 didn't get here midday, but WWRU 1660 did, though fair. All these receptions were made offsetting the intended channel by 1kHz to avoid Soft-Mute. Skywave RX at night brings out the Eastern USA with exeptions due to co-channel. All Chicago-5 heard well here 670, 720, 780, 890, and 1000. 650 WSM, and 750 WSB after 9PM, and KWKH and WDFN on 1130 duke it out behind big-sig WBBR on 1130. 1120 KMOX St Louis, KDKA Pittsburgh, KYW Philadelphia, CJMS 1040 Montreal when nulling WHO Des Moines and WVON Avon, NY. CHLO (ex-CIAO) Brampton, ON and R. enciclopedia Cuba on 530. Nighttime is the right-time for DX. No KOA or KPNW, or WWL just yet... its early in the season. FM is just as good as it gets with DSP, picks up clean signals with meter readings like 03:01,02:00. If its there the PL-330 and PL-310 will get'em. SW gets here too. I don't find too much different than an originaal PL-310,and a bit better than the "et" model. Being high-powered, all thats needed is that the transmitter is pointing in your direction. From here in the N. E. USA RRI, REE, CRI, and Greece all get here. Time signals on 3330, 5000, and 10000 all have their better reception periods, 3330 CHU is best almost all night here. USB/LSB both work very well with the 330, a feature not found on the PL-310/et/380. This is where the extra $$'s go. And IMHO its worth it. Having owned a Grundig G5 (Degen 1103-PLL clone), aviation weather could be heard from NY/Gander and Trenton (Canada) military routinely. But the 50Hz increments were a bit coarse for "dialing it in". And Shannon (Ireland) Volmet was rather weak with volume bump needed. The PL-330 has a 10Hz tuning step, and does dial it in nicely. New York Aviation is off-air/silent, so only Gander gets here, and it does better than the G5. The mild surprise is Shannon Volmet gets here with improved legibility and signal. Trenton mil-Volmet has been dicey as reported in other "io" groups, and it did come in weakly once in several tries. It did have a weak meter reading with hash. Shannon had weak hash and Gander mild hash. If you want USB/LSB reports are the PL-365 and this PL-330 are both worth the extra US$30. For SYNC detection the PL-660 shines... the PL-330 DOES NOT. Much like Long Wave, its a selling point, nothing more. At least for US$70-80 I don't feel ripped-off. If I were buying a PL990(x) or H501, I'd be VERY dissatisfied to the point of returning it. As for the Amateur bands, I'll leave that to the Amateurs that routinely receive such for their opiniion. As a civilian, I'll step aside. But I do think that the SSB on this model is worthy at least. So there are my opinions as a newling to the PL-330. Its a good 4 of 5 with a little plus for the SSB, and a little minus for the SYNC and LW band. Regards Paul S. in CT FN31nl |
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Re: DX750 - 1494kHz - 2AY
Dan Merta
Hi Paul
There's nothing about a closure on it's website. And the live stream is working. I'll try to listen from my Melb QTH tonight. It usually doesn't come into here very well. Dan. |
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Re: Tecsun PL-330 available
Yup, thats what I interpreted it to be. Its obviously looking for processed audio input.
Regards Paul S. in CT FN31nl |
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DX750 - 1494kHz - 2AY
Paul Blundell
While undertaking my DX750 project, I have come across a strange situation. 2AY on 1494kHz seems to be MIA.
Over the past few days and nights, I have been trying to hunt this down with no luck so far, it is the only station in Australia on this frequency (black circle) and I am able to hear other stations which are close to this in frequency (green circles) Does anybody know if they are having issues or have gone off the air? Paul |
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Re: ODP: [UltralightDX] The RADIOWOW R-108 is in the Amazon Prime-Day deals for $41.57
Paul Blundell
Thanks for the ideas, I might give this a try with some of my radios. Paul On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 5:38 PM mediumwavedx <desertbilly@...> wrote: I was thinking one might put some gold or brownish colored cellophane over the display. That would reduce the brightness and also eliminate the bluish tint. Sounds silly but it might work! Now, where can we find that? --
Paul |
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Re: The RADIOWOW R-108 is in the Amazon Prime-Day deals for $41.57
mariusz.dorota@gmail.com <mariusz.dorota@...>
That what i was thinking, but in the end I decided to open radio unit. It is easy to open, but then you have to separate pcb from Keys and finally take off white sticker with aluminium foil which cover the led. When you do this you can Simply change led to any 3mm led whatever color and brightness you want - there’s a lot of space to solder it or if you don’t want to mess with solder gun you can paint the led or cover it with some sort of filter. Overall not a very difficult task but a lot of tiny screws to deal with
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Wysłane z iPhone'a Wiadomość napisana przez mediumwavedx <desertbilly@...> w dniu 20.10.2020, o godz. 08:38:
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Re: Tecsun PL-330 available
mediumwavedx
The CD1622CB seems to be a dual channel audio amp. The Chinese do make a Si4735 look-alike called a KT0936M. Has LW/MW/FM/SW. Similar specs.
Bill |
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Re: ODP: [UltralightDX] The RADIOWOW R-108 is in the Amazon Prime-Day deals for $41.57
mediumwavedx
I was thinking one might put some gold or brownish colored cellophane over the display. That would reduce the brightness and also eliminate the bluish tint. Sounds silly but it might work! Now, where can we find that?
Then it hit me that those grayish cellophane packets that ICs come in for experimenters might do it. I recently bought some parts and I had some so I tried it. It works. Some packets are darker than others and work better. I'd hate to tear into my new little radio just yet! Bill |
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Re: Tecsun PL-330 available
Paul Blundell
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On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 3:10 PM Paul S. in CT <dxrx@...> wrote: I have reports from aliexpress users that the chipset is a "CD1622" Chinese variant to the SiLabs 4735. --
Paul |
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File /1. Start Here/An Introduction To Ultralight MW Radio DXing_2020.pdf uploaded
#file-notice
main@UltralightDX.groups.io Notification <noreply@...>
The following files have been uploaded to the Files area of the main@UltralightDX.groups.io group. By: Paul Blundell Description: |
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Re: Tecsun PL-330 available
I have reports from aliexpress users that the chipset is a "CD1622" Chinese variant to the SiLabs 4735.
I'm not prying mine open just yet. But I may get around to an external 26650 size LiIon alternate power source. This size in the range of 4000-5000 mAHr. Regards Paul S. in CT FN31nl |
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Re: Soft mute disable
Regarding Soft-Mute on the SW Frequencies.
It appears that there is a way to defeat the Soft-Mute in my Tecsun PL-330. A bit tricky, and found it by listening to SW after AM-BCB. 1.) Tune-in to your fave AM-BCB station, and set the Fine Tune to 1kHz, then tune 1kHz above/below to defeat the Soft-Mute. 2.) Change bands to SW and tune-in to a time-signal station 3331, 5001, or 10001 kHz... note the deliberate offset of 1kHz. Make sure Fine Tune is still engaged. On my PL-330 the signal reading looks like 31:00. By tuning to correct frequency, the signal reading is 31:14. Note the 00 of the original reception. Now alter the tuning 1kHz, and the display should show 00 again. I then checked Radio Romania Int'l (RRI) on 7375kHz and the soft-mute was disabled when offset. I then shut off the radio with this trick enabled, and upon power on the softmute was still disabled. But then I wonder why the set did not defeat the soft-mute when originally tested last week. It could be that I did not engage the Fine Tune AND offset by 1kHz. Not sure... but this works now. It may only apply to my model, but worth a couple of minutes to check. Regards Paul S. in CT FN31nl |
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Re: ODP: [UltralightDX] The RADIOWOW R-108 is in the Amazon Prime-Day deals for $41.57
Paul Blundell
Regarding the brightness of the display, what is the best way to reduce this? One of my radios "lights up the room" when used of a night time.
Paul |
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Long Term DX Project - 19/10/2020
Paul Blundell
Date: 19/10/2020 Time: 23:30 Location: Home, Launceston Tasmania Notes: A late night session at home. Using just my TEAC PR130 barefoot, I was able to log all 10 stations. The 3 x 50KW big guns of 3WV, 3RN and 3LO all hit excellent signal levels and 2CR on 549kHz was not far behind this. 3KND on 1503kHz struggled a little early in the session but later on it hit good signal levels.
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Re: ODP: [UltralightDX] The RADIOWOW R-108 is in the Amazon Prime-Day deals for $41.57
Agreed, the display is very bright and has a slight bluish tint to it which might offend some people. I'm an older guy (73 soon) and don't see so well unless the brightness and contrast is turned up so the display works well for me.
The unit does indeed have some weird birdies as many of these small DSP units do. One notable one on 1400 KHz, but often it settles down and disappears after staying on the frequency for awhile. Not sure what causes this.
I don't find the single band switch objectionable. In a way it's less confusing for me. The CCrane Skywave has AM and FM on a separate button, so you can go directly there with one press. The R-108 just puts everything on one carousel button. When you carousel around to shortwave it lands you on the previous SW band you were tuned to. That's OK, let's say it was 41 meters. But to get to the next SW band, the 31 meter band, you have to manually enter a frequency in that band's range. In other words, I don't see a way to carousel through the individual shortwave bands. Maybe I'm missing something.
On the dBu readings, at least for the early Tecsun radios (310, 380), the mediumwave RSSI dBu value was the actual voltage across the ferrite loopstick, input to the preamp. On shortwave, it was taken at the output of the preamp. This is per Scott Willingham, one of the designers of the Si473x series, reported in a review I did on the PL-380 many years ago. I didn't ask about FM, but is most likely at the output of the preamp. Newer radios may measure mediumwave dBu at a different point, but I suspect the cheaper DSP radios still take the mediumwave dBu value off the loopstick. Larger DSP radios like the PL-880 have the chip downline, so the measurement is taken from that point. The handy thing about this with these little units is you get a direct comparison of the loopstick's receive efficiency on mediumwave (and longwave too). I wish CCrane would have included the RSSI and SNR dB values on the Skywave's display.
Audio quality is outstanding.
Sensitivity better than my PL-380, but about equal the my Skywave.
It's a definite keeper for me. Bill |
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Long Term DX Project - 18/10/2020
Paul Blundell
Date: 19/10/2020 Time: 15:30 Location: Home, Launceston Tasmania Notes: A mid afternoon session with a mixed bag of signals. 3RN on 621kHz hit excellent signal levels with 3LO on 774kHz also being received at good signal levels. The top end of the band was pretty much dead (as I would expect) with only the HPON stations on 1341kHz and 1422kHz providing any trace of a signal.
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Re: Review - Digitech AR-1733 DSP MW/FM/LW/SW/Air World Band Radio Receiver
Paul Blundell
Thanks for the information. As I use headphones for most of my listening, I have not noticed the issues with the AGC, maybe you had an early model / faulty unit? The great thing about this hobby is that we can each use what works for us. Paul On Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 1:02 AM Michael Schuster <schuster.ma@...> wrote: While It's great that this radio has continued to work out well for you, I am somewhat puzzled by the love. --
Paul |
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Oklahoma TP DX 10-18-20
Richard Allen
TP DX was somewhat in the tank here this morning. 567 JOIK poor at 1238. 558 unID heterodyne (no audio) at 1220. 594 JOAK very poor with KXSP 590 QRM at 1202; poor at 1236. 702 JOKD poor NHK2 at 1226. 747 JOIB very poor at 1151; fair briefly at 1240 LSR. 774 JOUB fair in KSPI 780 splatter at 1156. 972 HLCA barely audible TS at 1200; poor at 1204 and 1247. 891 unID heterodyne at 1223. 1566 HLAZ poor s/on to Japan at 1230; poor at 1245. Skywave SSB with 8-FSL. Good DX all, Richard Allen, near Perry OK USA. |
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ODP: [UltralightDX] The RADIOWOW R-108 is in the Amazon Prime-Day deals for $41.57
mariusz.dorota@gmail.com <mariusz.dorota@...>
I would say R-108 display is way too bright, it real bothers me in the night, so I decided to change or paint lCD led. Switching bands on r-108 is tideous as it is done with one buton, there’s also strange high pitch noise on FM when listning on low level thorough headphones. Other that that it is very good receiver, sensiivity on MW is better than pl-310, on fm pretty the same (though pl-310 propably has some stronger preamplifier because dbu meter shows higher numbers on tecsun), sw i think is better on r-108, on the other hand LW is better on pl-310
Wysłane z aplikacji Poczta dla Windows 10
Od: mediumwavedx
I got mine two days ago. I'm extremely happy with it.
The build quality is very good. Excellent sensitivity on medium wave. Shortwave is good too. I'm also enjoying the air band. Buttons work well and are not as stiff as the PL-380. I'm hoping they will hold up as the radio ages. It has a beautifully-lit display which is very easy to read.
It does everything the C. Crane Skywave does plus more and was about half the price at $41. The R-108 has the ability to display the RSSI signal strength and SNR signal-to-noise ratio too, which the Skywave does not. For a DXer and one who like measurements, this is essential to me.
Bill
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