i thinki found my perfect shortwave receiver....

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dgarton

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Good one plus antenna

Yes, you got a good one...but ANTENNA is the KEY..
Doug
 

CLTX11

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dgarton said:
Yes, you got a good one...but ANTENNA is the KEY..
Doug


As he said, you need a good antenna to go with a good receiver. What are your plans for antenna and mount?
 

runslow

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You will love it. Lots of features at a reasonable price. The R75 is simply a very good receiver in it's class.
 

browning

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CLTX11 said:
As he said, you need a good antenna to go with a good receiver. What are your plans for antenna and mount?
not sure. what would you guys recommend?
 

nexus

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Wire dipole fed with 50ohm coax.

Get you some speaker hookup wire (zip cord type) 16 or 14 gauge should be good. Take about 40 feet of the wire off the spool and cut it. Now take the zip cord you have cut and separate it into two wires. You should have two wires 40 feet long for a total of 80 feet. To figure out where your antenna will be resonate at use this formula. 468/freq in mhz. the / is divided.

So 468/6 (mhz) = 78 (feet)

Anyhow 80 feet will get you pretty much in the ballpark for SWL listening, and ham/military etc.

Go to the hardware store and buy a piece of schedule 40 or 80 PVC pipe, about maybe 1/2 inch thick, and maybe 1" in diameter. Get a piece that is about 2 feet long (2 foot should do it) You'll want to get a screw in eyelet screw too... You'll need a drill as well.

What you'll do is first make the center-point for the antenna. Take the PVC and cut a piece off about 3 to 4 inches long. Now, take the eyelet screw and screw it into the surface of that 4" piece (this eyelet will provide the support tiedown or hoisting rope to your mast or tree limb etc.)

Take a drill, and on each end of the 4" piece drill a hole through both ends. Be sure and make the holes align up with where you screwed the eyelet in. These screw holes will be where your attach your wire and coax.

Take one end of the dipole (40 foot wire) and strip about 3" of the cover off and twist the braided wire into one solid piece. Place the uncovered wire through one side of the 4" pvc center-point. And then twist the wire back into itself making a loop through the holes you drilled. Do the same thing to the other side of the centerpoint with the other 40foot wire.

Now take your coax, 50 or 75 ohm. You'll need to strip the covering off about 6 or 8 inches. And then carefully upbraid the braided shielding. Try not to break any of them if you can. This will be a little time consuming, just take your time until you have all 6-8 inches upbraided. Once upbraided twist it into one solid piece of wire. Now take your knife exacto or whatever you have and cut into the dielectric leaving about an inch or so exposed so that you have something to keep the center conductor and braided wire separate. Once you've removed the dielectric from the center conductor, take the braided part and put it through one end of the hole of the centerpoint, and then you'll want to twist it all to the wire's exposed wire. twist it all together, and then solder it on. Do the same for the center conductor end of the coax, put it through the other side of the centerpoints hole and twist it all onto the wire. Solder it all together if you have a gun or iron and solder.

Now take the remaining PVC you have, and cut two pieces about 2 or 3 inches long. Drill holes into both ends of both pieces you've just cut. These will act as END INSULATORS. Take the other end of each wire dipole and run the end of the wire into one of the holes of the end insulator and twist it on so it stays in. Do this to both ends of the antenna wire. Now you'll use rope or twine or clothes line or whatever you have to tie off the ends to tree branch or house or some other structure.

Take some rope or clothes line or rope and tie an end into the eyelet on the center point, and take the other end of the rope and put it up a tree limb or mast etc. and hoist the center point up it...

take the ends of the wire with the end insulators and rope and tie off to support... The best thing would be to run the wires in opposite directions from each other. Don't run them close to each other. 45 degree angle would be ok too. Making an inverted V.
 

ka3jjz

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browning said:
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/commrxvr/0175.html

i'm not the greatest expert on radio, but this appears to meet my wants for a shortwave. specifically, digital readout, can get all HF, can get all necessary modulation modes (SSB, CW etc.) and can use an external antenna.

anyone have experience with this model?

To bring this back on topic (instead of antennas, which belongs elsewhere...) you can find a rather large list of links for receiver reviews on our Wiki - look at 'Scanners Receivers and Professional Radios' then 'Receiver reviews' on the right in the yellow box. I see my friend Al Johnson wrote a pretty nice review of the R75.....

73s Mike
 

browning

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just so i'm going to get what i'm paying for, the R75 can get everything between 30khz and 60mhz? i mean all modulation modes including LSB and USB? if i'm paying 600 bucks i don't want to miss a thing.
 

gcgrotz

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browning said:
just so i'm going to get what i'm paying for, the R75 can get everything between 30khz and 60mhz? i mean all modulation modes including LSB and USB? if i'm paying 600 bucks i don't want to miss a thing.

Correct! I have had one for several years and love it. Join the yahoo group and read the posts there also.

It also receives FM very well, I used to listen to the fire dept here on 46.46 until they moved to 800.

I have used mine with many antennas in many places but I can vouch for the PAR end fed as a very easy to install one-antenna installation. But it will pick up a lot of stuff with just 20-30 feet of wire stuck in the terminal on the back, throw it out the window to get started.
 

ryangassxx

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browning said:
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/commrxvr/0175.html

i'm not the greatest expert on radio, but this appears to meet my wants for a shortwave. specifically, digital readout, can get all HF, can get all necessary modulation modes (SSB, CW etc.) and can use an external antenna.

anyone have experience with this model?


Browning,.. If thats what you require in a shortwave radio, you can achieve that on half the price..

By all means the R-75 is an excellent receiver, but it may in fact be a lot more radio than you need.. You could get off paying $300 and get all of those same things... Look for a Grundig Satellit 800.
 
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