Looking to buy an Alinco

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mainetrunk

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Hi guys, I've been interrested in the 0-25 mhz range for a while. Every time I bought a SCANNER, I had to learn the hard way they dont scan that range. Well, after a few Radio shacks best, as well as Uniden, I went looking through the WEB for that receiver. Alinco is a foriegn radio? And are they THAT good that E-bay has next to retail prices for them? The one's I liked in the tech specs dept, as well as finances, are the dj-x200 and dj-x30 & 30e.. Put it blunt, what kind of good receiver can you get for less than $200? I want reception, not 5,000 options, just alpha tag, PL and 0-25mhz good reception, thx
 

ermin

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Hi guys, I've been interrested in the 0-25 mhz range for a while. Every time I bought a SCANNER, I had to learn the hard way they dont scan that range. Well, after a few Radio shacks best, as well as Uniden, I went looking through the WEB for that receiver. Alinco is a foriegn radio? And are they THAT good that E-bay has next to retail prices for them? The one's I liked in the tech specs dept, as well as finances, are the dj-x200 and dj-x30 & 30e.. Put it blunt, what kind of good receiver can you get for less than $200? I want reception, not 5,000 options, just alpha tag, PL and 0-25mhz good reception, thx

Hello

Since you already have a few scanners why don't you forget the DC to Daylight receivers and get a good HF receiver like a Sony SW7600GR or a Sangean ATS-505. Great radios that do single sideband too.

73

Ermin
 

mainetrunk

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I saw your radio's, if you say they ARE GOOD, then so be it. I take it the more freqs you can scan, the more money, aka--0-25,mhz $71, Alinco, 0-1300mhz, $100 plus here Amazon.com: Sangean ATS-505P FM Stereo/MW/LW/SW PLL Synthesized World Receiver: Electronics I'm not %100 positive I want 0-25 only, vhf and uhf would be nice too, but like you said I Do HAVE GOOD SCANNERS ALREADY, pro 106's unidens, other RS products, maybe I should stay 0-25 mhz, on my next radio, vhf, and uhf take up space. Thx, 1,000,000.... Any other GOOD brand names, please drop them, here or PM me, thx...
 

n5ims

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I tend to agree that it would be best to only have HF on your HF radio (that 0 - 25 MHz figure you quote). With multiple specialty radios (if you can call a scanner a specialty radio), you can listen to your local PD's high speed chase with a gang of bank robbers on your scanner at the same time you're tuning around the SW bands listening to people in the Philippines talking about the damage from the giant tycoon and what assistance they need on the new Alinco. With a full range model you'll probably miss the chase while playing around with your new toy and kick yourself when you watch the news.

Think of it this way, the HF radio can be optimized to work very well on HF and not have to muck up the circuitry to deal with the other modes and frequency ranges to limp along over the very wide 0 - 1300 MHz range. Kind of like having a Porsche or having a Porsche that will also haul a 55' long, 8' wide, 12' tall refrigerated trailer.

Generally HF is pretty much AM or SSB. The scanner frequencies are pretty much FM or digital (with a very few AM signals like the aircraft band). Not much overlap there. Yes, you may find a few hams on 2 meters using SSB ("How's this rig sound to you. I put up a new bipolar antenna so the signals are facing the right way finally. Gotta run, the XYL's got the chow on. Seventy-thirds to you and yours.") and a few FM signals way down near the CB frequencies (your scanner will work on those though!). The scanner will scan quite a bit faster (100s per second vs 10 per second for an HF rig, if it scans at all).
 

majoco

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Shortwave radios that receive the frequency range from say 100kHz to 30MHz are a totally different animal to your VHF/UHF scanner. For a start, they very seldom 'scan' as you understand it - to scan and stop on an 'in use' frequency is often not possible as the signal is not strong enough to stop the scan - then the signal may fade out and your scan will start again. The best you can do is show a band of frequencies on your computer screen and pick a station. Read the wiki about SDR's. Alpha tags are pretty useless as the same frequency may be used by more than one broadcaster over 24hours - even utility stations change frequencies during the day due to changes in propagation and they often change 'on the fly', not scheduled.
As to buying a shortwave radio, you'll have to decide what you want to listen to - broadcast stations on AM or utilities (aircraft, marine etc) are usually on upper sideband, amateurs use all sorts including digital data and slow-scan TV.
Don't expect to hear the world all the time - middle of the day is usually poor, evenings are good, you'll have to find the right frequency band for the time. Most of the broadcast stations target a specific area and language - just 'cos the guy is speaking Spanish doesn't mean it's coming from Spain! China broadcasts in Arabic! Download a good frequency list that's updated frequently (every other day perhaps!) like EiBi and it's viewer...http://www.eibispace.de/...and you' be off to a good start.
The more you listen to shortwave and become accustomed to what you're hearing, the more enjoyment you'll get out of it. If you think it's like scanning, then you'll be disappointed.
As to good receivers - what do you want? How much you wanna spend? Portable, desktop, proper communications receiver?? and you'll need to erect an outdoor antenna 50feet long or so to get the best reception. Start off with a good portable with a whip antenna, Tecsun PL-660, Degen 1103 are pretty good - an NO, they don't do VHF/UHF!
 

mainetrunk

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Thx guys, 1st let me say, my friends wife is from the Phillipines, just went through HECK about the family she left there, ON TRACK-- I want 1 for just those reasons. Now a days you don't klnow WHAT is going to happen. I figure shortwave is better than the PD for chat. I do have a firegroup in Maine. But, thats kinda limitted, so-- shortwave. A man once said " don't talk! Listen!" My new hobby, hahahaha. Thanks all, anew wave of scanning for me, and inexpensive. FACT, this forum got me thinking about it in the 1st place. Now, a whole new set up, thx again!! R
 

zz0468

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...Put it blunt, what kind of good receiver can you get for less than $200?

To put it even more blunt, "good" and $200 are mutually exclusive, when talking about HF receivers. But at that price range, you're best looking for something used, and old.

I want reception, not 5,000 options, just alpha tag, PL and 0-25mhz good reception, thx

You generally don't get alpha tags with HF receivers, certainly not "good" ones. And PL isn't used on HF at all.

My idea of "good" would concentrate on specifications like sensitivity and dynamic range, good frequency resolution and accuracy, appropriate filters for CW, AM, and SSB modes, overload immunity, and so on. You don't get that with so called 'wideband' receivers that cover HF through 1 GHz.

One thing you're going to find here asking generic questions like "what's good" is, you'll get a bewildering variety of answers. Good to me is nothing less than surplus commercial or government grade receivers. Watkins-Johnson, Racal, Mackay, Harris, etc.

Some amateur grade radios qualify as "good" or better. The Elecraft K3 fits that description.

All are well above the $200 limit. If you stick to that, I'd suggest you find something older, perhaps even with tubes in it. In my experience, the newer consumer grade receivers in that price class are junk, and not worth the money. But you'll find guys here who think they're just fine and will say they're "good". Raise the price limit to about $500 and you'll have a lot of GOOD radios to chose from.

Good luck! Shopping for radios is fun. =)
 

mainetrunk

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Oh yeah, fun shopping, well, I just got back from Radio Shack, got their world receiver. $80.00... Havent even opened it yet, here goes nothing
 

mainetrunk

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RadioShack Synthesized World Receiver : Shortwave & multiband radios | RadioShack.com Here is what I got, so far, tuning through 120, 90, 75,, 60, 49, 41, 31, 25, and 21 meter range with no hits, I see why you said it is not like scanning, hahahaha. WoW! What a toy, granted it is cloudy and 10:15 am here, worst part of day approaching,. Cant wait to hear something good, at least a voice, am set on local mode, will figure it out. Thanks for the wiki info.. May have to start a different forum, I came, looked, thought, and now received the sw radio. Besides, you gotta walk before you can run, right now I'm crawling, lol.Thanks again guys!
 

scannersnstuff

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i've had 2 communications receivers in my time. imho,both terrible performers. the alinco dj-x2000. one expensive pos. the other, an alinco dj-x30, another less expensive pos. sold them both. i would like to have my uniden br330t back. only source now, has them for $495.00. friggin' ridiculous. thats just me though. i find that public safety/general scanning does it for me. if i want news, i'll listen to radio/tv.
 
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ka3jjz

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Maine there are a couple of rules that you need to understand when listening on HF;

a. A great deal depends on propagation - that is, how signals travel from a transmit site to you. As we are approaching winter, frequencies below 9 Mhz will propagate better at night, above that during the day. The reason is our sun, and how it interacts with out ionosphere. Take a gander at the following site (you'll need a flash player to see it...), as it's a good basic introduction...

Propagation Primer - Flash Movie by AE4RV

b. A 20-30 foot hunk of wire will improve reception - don't go overboard with the length. Radios like these will tend to overload if too much wire is put on them. It's easy to diagnose - you start hearing MW stations on the SW bands if you use a big antenna, chances are you are experiencing overload

c. It would be helpful to know what it is you want to hear. If you're looking to keep up with the schedule changes that are constantly happening with HF stations, I would recommend the DXLD Yahoo group run by well known DX personality Glenn Hauser - he often publishes schedules from major broadcasters among other things. That's one of the better places to find out what broadcasts might be heard from the area of the Philippines. But keep in mind that propagation is going to play a major role here - both our areas must be in darkness (below 9 Mhz) or in daylight (above that) to have a shot (and before the other folks flame me for forgetting things like grey line, let's try to keep this simple for now...). ALWAYS consider this before seeing if a target station is one you might be able to hear. Keep an eye on Spaceweather.com as well - they often have notices of flares and other goings on in the sun that can wreak havoc with HF propagation

Mike
 

mainetrunk

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Oh, what to hear, I guess I just wanna hear that infamous wideband of freqs blow 25mhz. Ever since I found this- Digital Sounds Audio Reference I just wanted to hear the sounds of the world, outside of York, Cumberland, Strafford, counties without hearing public safety.. I got tired of the other sounds in that catagory. Aka-Nexden, Mototrbo, I guess I want to hear it all before I go. I wish I knew you had that 200x, Thats the next 1, or x30...Thx all,,,PS, I got the Grundig s4500dlx instead of R-S, it wasnt even 1 star out of 10
 
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nanZor

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I want reception, not 5,000 options, just alpha tag, PL and 0-25mhz good reception, thx

The Alinco DX-R8T 0-30mhz receiver would serve you well. It is a nice receiver in it's price range. Memories, alpha-tags, scanning (if you really want to do that on HF and know the limitations) are there. I really like mine for what it is, although the ergonomics of the buttons is kind of tight at times. If you have no problems with a scanner keyboard, then this won't bother you at all. :)
 

mainetrunk

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Actually, I wanna scan from 0--5,000 mhz. This Grundig is great on radio stations, still waiting to hear ham.. Not to mention, this thing has gaps while doing a search, I miss out on 22,000---26,000khz, and a few other gaps as well. I'm gonna call the company after luch. Thx though
 

majoco

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Perhaps you should have bought a Winradio....

WiNRADiO WR-G39DDCe 'EXCELSIOR' Receiver

....The WiNRADiO WR-G39DDCe 'EXCELSIOR' is a high-performance HF/VHF/UHF/SHF software-defined receiver with a frequency range from 9 kHz to 3500 MHz, with two independent channels of 4 MHz wide instantaneous bandwidth available for recording and further digital processing, plus a 16 MHz wide real-time spectrum analyz
 

majoco

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Perhaps if you looked at my charts of frequency bands you may have a little more luck than haphazardly "Scanning" the bands. No serious HF radio user just scans from 520kHz to 30Mhz expecting to hear everything at the same time. I suggest you look at the RR Wiki on propagation.
 

mainetrunk

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I saw the list, thank you, I am just on search mode, getting hits but no takers. Not to mention it skips from 7500 to 9500 as well as 6300 to 7100 on SW1. Wideband. SW2 and 3 are quiet any way, tonight is my 3rd night rolling that dern knob and playing with the gain, DX, which makes it extremely sensitive. It will stop on 5 star static. Thanks all, good advice, just MY bad timing.. ( good thins come to those who scan, I mean wait. ) I just noted all your freqs are in my radio, but get missed when it is doing the search, goes right around them, against my will... Hmmmmm
 
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