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digital display for $10.00
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Ron and Others,
I had the chance to view John's SRF-39FP digital
display (from aade.com) in action, this week at Grayland, Washington. It
was very impressive, but when the $$ are added up, it may not make much sense to
purchase it, except perhaps as a curiosity.
For domestic DXing purposes, the SRF-59/39FP
analog family of units provide tremendous "bang for the buck," but not when
combined with a $69 add-on accessory. I'm sure John would agree with me
that a better solution would be to purchase a digital E100 or DT-200VX, and save
the cost of the digital conversion. Either of these units can be purchased
for less than the cost of converting an analog SRF-39/59 unit.
For split-frequency DXers, the SRF-39/59 family of
units is easy to modify for increased sensitivity, but their bizarre IF
makes conventional narrow IF filters useless, and useful selectivity mods
have yet to be designed. On the other hand, the digital Ultralights (with
their 450 and 455 kHz IF's) can all be modified for increased selectivity
AND sensitivity.
73, Gary
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John H. Bryant <bjohnorcas@...>
Ron,
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Thanks very much for bringing this display to our attention. Its very interesting. I was likely the one that mentioned that I'd added a digital display to an SRF-39. I've got an article about 2/3 done and will be posting it early in the week. The N3ZI unit turns out to be a partial kit for $10... a very good deal for some folks. A full kit with all parts is $30.00. It looks great and I'll bet that it works great on the receivers listed and a bunch of others. I'll guarantee, though, that it will not work as offered on the SRF-39/49/59 family, though. The Sony chip that is the heart of this family of radios uses some really spooky math and unusual relationships between what is on the chip and the rest of the RF section. Any digital dial accessory will require special programming that is unique for this family of radios.... The folks that I worked with, AADE, were kind enough to develop special programming for the SRF-39 family... I loaned them a set to base their work on. Their full kit is $49 and a fully assembled unit is $20 more. N3ZI's unit may be the better deal financially, but only if he is willing and able to do the chip programming necessary for his unit to work with the '39 family.... be sure to ask :>) I'll get that article up on dxer.ca and announced here by Wednesday. John B. Orcas Island, WA, USA Rcvrs: WiNRADiO 313e, Eton e1, Ultralights Antennas: Two 70' x 100' Conti Super Loops, West and Northwest i thought i read that someone here had added a digital display to the |
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C B
--- On Sat, 7/12/08, D1028Gary@... wrote:
From: D1028Gary@... |
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Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@...>
--- On Sun, 7/13/08, D1028Gary@... <D1028Gary@...> wrote:
Ron and Others, I had the chance to view John's SRF-39FP digital display (from aade.com) in action, this week at Grayland, Washington. It was very impressive, but when the $$ are added up, it may not make much sense to purchase it, except perhaps as a curiosity. For domestic DXing purposes, the SRF-59/39FP analog family of units provide tremendous "bang for the buck," but not when combined with a $69 add-on accessory. I'm sure John would agree with me that a better solution would be to purchase a digital E100 or DT-200VX, and save the cost of the digital conversion. Either of these units can be purchased for less than the cost of converting an analog SRF-39/59 unit. 73, Gary *** But given that my out-of-the-box DT-200VX is clearly less sensitive and less selective than my peaked-up SRF-59, that doesn't seem like a viable alternative. Nor is the ultimate price differential all that significant. I can't speak for the Eton, however it seems that from most reports it is better than the Sangean in both respects. 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: Modified Sony ICF 2010 barefoot Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live music scene in your area - Check out TourTracker. com! |
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Hello Russ,
Both the DT-200VX and the Eton E100 typically
could use some tweaking out of the box, a fact that we didn't know so well back
in January. Even when aligned (which involves significant disassembly on
both units), these digital models typically favor either high or low band in
sensitivity, but not both. The SRF-59/39FP models have more broad-banded
sensitivity, which is almost certainly related to the different way that analog
and digital "front ends" process incoming RF signals.
After considering how to solve this problem on the
E100, the "sliding coil" loopstick was created (almost jointly, by
John Bryant and me). This solves the lack of digital broadband
sensitivity by "aligning" the loopstick on each selected frequency--
thereby making the modified E100 far more sensitive than the stock unit.
73, Gary Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live music scene in your area - Check out TourTracker.com! |
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