Best Bang for the Buck Shortwave Radios with SSB Capability

Omega-TI

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Yup, it looks like a Mini-B to me. I wonder if licensing rights were a main factor in the use of that type to keep costs down?

image.png

... so if his PC or charging adaptor only has a C type output, and he already has a dual Type C cord... there are always adapters like this...

Adapter.jpg
 

ka3jjz

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There are quite a few sites where you can get reviews of various levels on portables; and they sometimes do talk about receiving sideband. Nonethe;less if you are looking for a portable HF radio, these sites should be on your list. From our wiki...





Mike
 

Omega-TI

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Well, everyone has an opinion, and you can take anyone's review(s) with a grain of salt, but I found one guy that made me pleased with my former radio purchase.


His comment, "The Eton Elite Executive is a stellar performer, but it falls over and is clumsy to use with the snap-on case." Well, I 3D printed a stand and never use the case, so...
 

K4EET

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Edit: a customer at Amazon posted a review and he says his radio, received in July, 2024, does have a USB-C jack.
That is probably the review that I saw. The question now is this. Does that reviewer know what the differences are in USB connector designations and were they correct in identifying it as a USB Type C? None of the OEM’s documentation show or mention a USB Type C connector.
 

13dka

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This is a parallel recording of the same transmission from Shannon Radio on 13,264 kHz USB. In other words it's the exact same transmission both radios receive, and I only play them consecutively so you can hear the difference. The first radio is probably one of the radios hit worst by the Si474x chip's AGC quirks (this is reportedly a bit better on the more recent radios with that chip) - the other one is the 2022 Belka v3 set to not pull up the noise so much.

Just putting that here so you can draw your own conclusions out of it, given the original asking price of IIRC $160 w/o shipping & taxes not being a whole world apart from all the other SSB portable offers. Listen to it a few times and imagine you want to listen to both radios for 3 hours.


(If you think the second audio clip was turned up louder - it's actually peaking 0.2dB lower than the D-808-clip. It's just the XHDATA's AGC letting the attack transients pass, causing hefty peaks in the radio's audio stages and the AGC pulling back the gain late and far too much then lowers the overall loudness.)
 
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ratboy

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My sister likes the Tecsun PL330 I gave her last Christmas. She had a lot of "What is this I'm hearing on XX.XXX USB??" type of questions in the beginning, but soon her hubby had it firing into the audio input on their PC and was looking at WEFAX stuff.
 
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