CC radio plus

[timmer]

I know this may not be the proper forum, but does anyone have any experience/knowledge of this radio? I am searching for the BEST am radio I can find. Have heard that this is it. Any comments are appreciated.

 

[gcgrotz]

I have one of the older ones. It is pretty good, very good loopstick so you can turn it and null out stuff. Batteries lasted forever, they were a year past their shelf date when I finally had to replace them. The 1Khz tuning is great if you're DXing wierd stuff like africa/europe. Don't know where you are, you have to be near the coast to do that.

I have had a question for a long time about the external antenna terminals. there are 2 screws marked ANT. I can't figure out if they are a balanced input or one is ground the other hot. If anybody knows that answer let me know. OK, I admit I haven't really spent any time looking either. I'd like to try an external antenna this winter.

Anyway, it is a pretty good radio, resonably portable, sounds good. I'm not sure it is the best ever made, some of the old GE superadios were hot hot hot but didn't have digital readout. I have a Sony 7600 that seems to do almost as good on AM as the CCRadio, not quite as good nulling out with the loopstick but plenty sensitive. Nulling can be very important sometimes.

If you're really serious about AM DXing, the best I've ever heard of is something like the Drake R8 or the AOR 5000+ or even an old surplus R390. Check around for AM DX on Google too. And consider buying or building a loop for it.

Good luck, let me know how it turns out if you want to PM me.

EDIT P.S. Read the thread here about the Eton E1, some good links on loops and other MW resources.

 

[timmer]

Thanks for the redponse. I haven't decided yet whether to get one. I'm also wondering how well that external am antenna advertised on the ccrane website works. If I buy one of these cc radios, I might get one of the antennas as well.

 

[AG4WI]

I also have one of the older ones. Got it around 2003! It has always worked great. I have sit it beside other radio's and it will pick stations up and the other radio is just static.
You can get a used ham radio that covers from (o--30mhz) and it will work just as good plus a lot of things the CC-Crane does not have! LSB, USB, and AM, And some of them also covers FM.

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi Grotz and all,

To veer off topic just a bit since you mentioned the R-390, I must say it's not a receiver for the inexperienced DXer/ boat anchor restorer. It was made for AM/CW/RTTY reception (with an extremely rare RTTY adapter) which in all likelihood can be used as an SSB product detector. One must be familiar with such rigs to take advantage of it's superb sensitivity and selectivity, twist a knob in the wrong direction and you're lost.

As for proper restoration (not a one has everything working) and modification (some parts are simply so rare as to be unavailable, consider the ballast tube as a hen's tooth) one must be familiar with tubes and thier electrical specifications among a host of other ancient electrical circuits. Without the manual one can get lost on the road to Paradise, the satisfaction that comes from operating one of the best receivers ever made.

BTW, the companion transmitter is the BC-610 and believe it or not these behemoths were considered mobile. Well, in those days a mobile command post was a van akin to the famous "deuce 'n half" 2.5 ton truck and a 10KW generator trailer, those whip antennas could knock down a B-17 if you weren't careful. What' I'm getting at is to work a 390 you have to have the mind of Marconi and the body of Hulk Hogan, this old stuff isn't called "boat anchor" for nothing!