| General > General Technical Chat |
| Radio scanner/shortwave receiver recommendations |
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| jrmymllr:
--- Quote from: jasonRF on January 31, 2023, 04:50:48 pm --- --- Quote from: jrmymllr on January 31, 2023, 03:36:29 pm --- Very helpful. Point taken about the conspiracy-laden religious programming ;D What sort of antenna would one need to receive shortwave from other countries? I suppose one that can be strung through a 2nd floor bedroom might not be sufficient. I am a couple hundred miles from Canada so maybe those will work out. Setting up an outside antenna isn't going to happen due to aesthetic reasons and me not wanting to drill holes in my house. EDIT: I see at least one of these has what appears to be a potentiometer-based volume control. I'm going to avoid those. They seem to wear out and get scratchy unless it's a really good component. --- End quote --- Just to be clear, yes! A wire strung through a 2nd floor bedroom can be sufficient to receive some international stations. I live in New England and have never used a better antenna than that, yet I have received stations from Africa, South America, Asia and Europe. I have a couple of nicer shortwave radios (closer to $200) that have longer whip antennas, and have even received stations from all of those continents just on the whips. I suspect that EMI often limits my reception, and sniffing around my house with a tinySA has at least partially confirmed this. Would a better antenna help me pull in more stations? Of course. I suspect an outdoor antenna would help the most since it would be further from the EMI sources in my home. I like the transformer wire idea. I do understand your reluctance about volume pots. We have all been there. Of course, rotary encoders can have the same problem, and I have seen it on the frequency control on my old DDS signal generator and the volume control on my stereo receiver. Contact cleaner is usually a sufficient fix. jason --- End quote --- More good information thank you! True, the cheap rotary encoders can get dirty. Up/down buttons would be nice too. I forgot not everyone uses $15 optical encoders like I do in my projects :) |
| jrmymllr:
Has anyone used these ATS-25 receivers? They look interesting. |
| golftango:
i love the little belka unit but it wouldn't be for a beginner i don't think unless that beginner is willing to tackle some advanced topics in order to use it effectively. it's barely above the size of a small matchbox and yet the receive quality is that of a radio costing 10-20x as much. i find it amazing i can stow such a capable receiver in a shirt pocket and be able to receive anywhere. their latest model covers down to the lw band and up to 30mhz. for the scanner you'd have to specify desk/mobile/portable and trunking/non-trunking and whether you'd need any code overlays such as p25 or drm. but uniden would like be my answer for any of the above. /guy (73 de kg5gt | wqpz784) |
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