Some of the receivers I’ve owned …
I should begin this article by saying that I’m not a technical wizard and don’t have the technical expertise of our radio ham cousins – whose ability to fix and home-brew equipment fills me with both envy and admiration. I can use a soldering iron and fix fairly elementary things – but when it comes to circuit diagrams and design I have to gracefully bow out.
And some of these reviews will be quite subjective. By that I mean that I’m not into (able to?!) making scientific measurements of the performance of receivers I’ve owned. But then, I guess, one is never able to predict that unexpected rare DX catch either – if conditions are right you’ll make your catch anyway. I think that half of the fun of this brilliant hobby that we all love is our pursuit of the unexpected – which kind of rules out receiver reviews. But I’m going to press on anyway!
Incidentally, before you think I must have more money than sense (!) I don’t still own all of these – I’m a great ‘trader’ and like to experiment with sets before selling them on again, or keeping them if they’re worth it.
So here, roughly in order, are the sets I’ve owned over nearly 40 years of DX’ing …
SW/MW/VHF/Airband portable – Not Sure of Manufacturer – 1970
I’m rather embarrassed to say that I can’t remember the make/model of my first ever SW-capable set! It was one of those advertised in the back pages of the Sunday Express, and came with a fold down lid which had a world map on it. It was very like the Tokyo Panda pictured here – a pretty cheap and nasty set, but it did have an ‘external antenna’ connection, into which I was able to plug a few metres of thin aerial wire and run my first longwire antenna to my Mum’s washing line post from my bedroom window!
The fact that it was cheaply made and that even when quite new the tone and volume knobs made a horrible scratching sound was irrelevant really, because I managed to pick up Swiss Shortwave Merry Go Round and the Happy Station from Radio Nederland – and there was no looking back!
Codar CR70A – 1971
My first ‘real’ set. I unashamedly copied the guy who got me interested in DX’ing – a school friend – who had one of these. I saved my Saturday job money and bought one. A truly (considering the ‘budget’ price) great receiver at the time.
The Codar CR70A
Sensitivity great, selectivity OK, accuracy of read out pretty good until the draw string stretched! Had a nice inbuilt antenna tuner, novel at the time. Used to run it with the Codar preselector which made it even better. Solidly built, star performer. Also my first valve receiver – smelt great when new!! Quite cheap on Ebay now – would still be good value I feel, mainly for its sensitivity.
Eddystone EC10 – 1973
Never got on too well with this, though used to listen to the WDXC weekly DX programme from AWR Sines on it.
Eddystone EC10 – not great, for me anyway.
Quite good analogue readout accuracy, but overloaded chronically and not very selective or sensitive. Cost about four times more than the Codar above. Not money well spent!
Yaesu FRG 8800 – 1985
Had to take a break from serious DX’ing because of going to college, working in Cyprus and then living in a flat in London for a while. My least favourite receiver ever, pretty ‘deaf’ and seemed to generate its own internal RF interference.
My QTH at the time was hardly ideal, lots of electrical interference in London and only a short external antenna possible. But I was disappointed in this set.
Drake SW8 – 1993
Lived in Germany at the time and ran this with a reasonable longwire. Very disappointing, I’m afraid.
Really not very sensitive, and even the FM reception via the inbuilt telescopic antenna was poor. Budget set from a respected manufacturer but wouldn’t bother again.
AOR 7030 Plus – 2000
At this point in my DX’ing ‘career’ I went ‘buying secondhand for the first time – and this was a revelation. A quite superb set, very sensitive, excellent selectivity and filtering, lovely audio.
Fantastic set – lovely audio, great British quality.
Passband tuning is a real DX aid. Don’t believe what you read about it being difficult to operate, it becomes second nature. I used to run this set via my laptop and a brilliant free programme called RxWings, a great combination. Worth buying the ‘plus’ model over the standard, incidentally. A highly recommended classic.
Winradio G313E -2007
Without doubt my last ‘big’ new SW receiver purchase. I paid a lot for this and it will be my new receiver, and I need to explain that a bit. My job takes me all over the world – often at short notice – so I wanted a very portable top class receiver.
And it’s undeniably great – very sensitive, amazing RF filtering and passband tuning via software and very good DSP audio filtering, again, via the software. Switching modes (e.g. USB, LSB, DSB, ISB and AMS) can produce astounding differences in the intelligibility of the DX target, and it has great facilities for recording IF for later analysis/filtering.
Revolutionary .. and great performance
But .. there are important additional points here …
There are numerous rivals to this which may offer better value – the Perseus being the most notable. Rather like computers – where chips and associated hardware become cheaper really quickly – this style of SDR receiver is going to tumble in cost. I think it’s important to realise that software capabilities are easily changeable, but you are stuck with your hardware. In other words, the ability to record a bandwidth for later analysis is dependent on the hardware you initially purchase and is not easily upgradeable via software. Great though the Winradio is, it’s already been superseded in those particular capabilities by rivals.
This is a superb performer – though I would be interested in comparing it with the ‘junior’ model, the Winradio G303. Having read lots of comments on a Winradio ‘Net forum I subscribe to, I suspect there’s not a huge amount of difference.
And of course I can only practically compare it with other receivers I own (or owned) myself .. so read on for some eye-openers … !
Racal 1792 – 2006
I’m not going to write a lot about this set because you’ll read about my other Racal receivers below, and there’s a very comprehensive review of it in WRTH 2008.
But it’s a good second hand buy – as long as you absolutely ensure that the LCD display is good. These sets are known for having problems in that area. A great set, but ….
Racal 6790GM – 2007
… this is the bees knees! Let’s start by saying that I’m not a millionaire, and clearly this is going to be a second-hand buy anyway. You should be able to get one of these for about £300-£400 max. Yes, not cheap, but compared to the cost of an Eton E1 or top class new receiver, very reasonable.
Now – there are several things to say here. It’s a huge, cumbersome receiver which cries out for a rack mount, but if you can’t do that don’t be put off. It is, simply put, superb. Very sensitive and almost impossible to overload.
It doesn’t have any bells and whistles at all. Unlike its predecessor, the 1792 above, it doesn’t have any channel memory storage at all.
No bells and whistles .. but a top performer
What it does have though, is remarkable USB/LSB capabilities. It’s superb at resolving signals buried in static and rubbish just by a flick of that switch – astoundingly so. I run the same antennas on both, yet it frequently out performs the Winradio with really dirty signals – making the difference between a logging or not.
For MW Dx’ing it’s not quite as good as the Winradio or AOR – it doesn’t have passband tuning. But, in my opinion, MW DX’ing is more about directionality and nulling unwanted signals via the antenna and/or phasing than anything else. For me, the finest MW DX receiver I’ve used is the AOR 7030 – but the Racal 6790 is very capable too, given the right antenna system.
All round, it’s a really great performer – for top whack £400, probably less. But I must tell you about the ….
RACAL RA17 – 2007
It’s about 55 years old. It weighs about 80lbs. It has not one single computer chip or printed circuit board in its entire construction, never mind a digital readout. It has (from memory) 23 valves and will probably add a sizeable amount to your electricity bill – it consumes 100 watts when running.
But – in some respects, and for certain types of DX’ing – it is the finest receiver I’ve ever owned. And, even if it wasn’t, it is such a delight – and I really mean delight – to use that it would win anyway!
Cost – by the way – between £100 and £200 on Ebay, more on that later.
This beast – and all you will have heard about its weight and awkwardness is true, this is not a living room ornament! – is remarkable, providing you get a good one. And that’s important, to get a good one.
As long as you get a good one, the RA17 is awesome
Its sensitivity and abilty to find and resolve a weak signal is astounding. Mine easily out performs any receiver I’ve ever owned, again using direct comparisons with the same antennas. And it seems much better at rejecting local RF interference and crud which impinges on very weak signals, than my other receivers too. On the tropical bands, with weak signals, this is often more important than adjacent channel interference, which is usually not an issue.
It does have drawbacks – it doesn’t have true USB/LSB selection, only a BFO mode which is not ideal, though useable. Having said that, though, often simply ‘detuning’ the set from centre frequency will eliminate annoyances like nearby utility interference. In short – it can find signals which my other receivers simply miss.
In very crowded bands it will hold its own with careful tweaking – on the 3-5 Mhz bands where co-channel interference is not usually an issue, it excels.
A classic receiver – highly recommended.
It’s probably worth pointing out that, at today’s prices, the 6790 would cost about £10,000 and the RA17 would be nearer £20,000. Of course, technology moves on, but there’ll always be a place for real quality – how many Rolls Royces do you see broken down by the roadside?!!
So, as I say, as long as you get a good one, you’re potentially getting yourself a bargain!
