Count in another DX-160 owner

[ridgescan]

what a neat little tabletop. I just hadda have it. And it runs fantastic. It s quirkiness is fun, its face is neat to look at. Audio sucks, it's drifty in AM but surprisingly stable in SSB, the meter is way overly generous. As RS is going down, I am at least glad I got hold of one of these for posterity.
Anyway, adding another neat receiver to my humble collection.
If you guys own one too, sound off here! Let us in on some juicy tips or whatever I see a ton of mods all over the net-
fun fun fun!

 

[Token]

In this picture are DX-100 (top), and (L to R) DX-200, DX-150A, DX-150, DX-150B, DX-160. I also have, but not pictured, a DX-75, DX-300, and DX-302.

T!

 

[a29zuk]

It was my first "communication receiver" back in the 70's when I was a teenager. We would use graph paper to plot the bandspread with a known signal on each end of the bandspread spectrum(i.e. WWV 15000 at 0, BBC 15450 at 86). Then follow the line on the graph to give us the frequency in between. That graph was our analog frequency readout! We had one made up for each shortwave band.

Ours had the same frequency drift but after a half hour or so it wasn't quite as bad.

Enjoy the receiver Ridge,
Jim

 

[ridgescan]

T-another winning category collection. Nice!
Jim thanks a lot cool memory of your 1st one. Right as I type I have 1430 KYNO out of Fresno playing oldies on the DX-160. Already digging the 70s vintage feel here. This radio has a nice RF gain that smooths out those MW flutters and fades. It really does a good job for what it is.

 

[Boombox]

I have one, and don't use it enough. Use my Realistic TRF a lot more...

The DX-160 has sharp tuning on SSB, works similar to passband tuning (even though it's *not* passband tuning... it's the way the BFO tunes that makes it act similarly) -- you turn the BFO control further to the left or right than necessary for clarification, it sharpens the selectivity.

And yeah, I have to crank down the RF gain to keep the BFO from pumping. But you can hear a lot on the ham bands with the radio.

I use mine mainly for MW. Sounds tinny, but better on headphones than it does through its speaker.

Awesome radio for the time, and still works well on MW or LW if you use the right antenna.

A simple antenna tuner will reduce the images on the SW bands. Otherwise, I just ignore the images when they occur.

Love that lit dial, too!

 

[ridgescan]

+1 Boombox-the audio, it's like listening to SW over the phone

 

[ridgescan]

I know you all have seen a million of these but here'a a shot of mine at the bedside

 

[Boombox]

Wow, that's a clean looking 160. Glad you're having fun with it.

Mine was my first serious comm receiver, first one with BFO. Used to turn the lights off at night and listen to R. Australia or R. Japan, and enjoyed SWLing / MWDXing by the lighted dial & bandspread.

I tried two mods. One my uncle suggested. There's a resistor across the MW antenna coil. R62, 33K. That can be removed. I noticed the bandwidth on MW was a little sharper. No negative effects.

Another one I tried was one suggested in the IRCA DX Monitor. Where you change the stock RF / IF gain (it's really sort of an RF gain / AVC amp control) into a pure RF gain control. You do this by disattaching a wire (?), adding a resistor to ground somewhere. It was easy enough for a non-tech like me to do.

Supposedly it was to make the IF gain more "linear", but it didn't improve anything. If anything, it made SSB more difficult to 'ride' or monitor, and it didn't make the radio perform better -- only worse, if I recall -- the RF gain control was less useful. So I undid that mod and never looked back.

The only issues I ever had with mine were the bandswitch needing exercising a few times, and once the LW band went out -- a wire from the bandswitch to the PCB needed touching up. Solder joint. Nothing major.

The main tuner, as you may be able to tell, has metal and plastic sheets for tuner gangs. If you ever need to clean it -- use canned air. Don't let tuner cleaner anywhere near it.

I heard a lot of hams with my 160, and quite a few SW stations. Like another poster says, I made a sort of chart -- using the log numbers on both the main dial and the bandspread, to get in the ball park readout wise. But mostly I just tuned into stations like R. Australia by ear.

I heard WWL, WLW, WCCO, WLS, WSM, WBBM, KORL, and got a few other decent MW catches with it (here in the PNW), all with a 60-80 ft. wire. Logged a few tropical stations, too.

Got a LW beacon 380 miles away in Oregon using a spiral loop.

Don't have a pic of mine. Maybe I'll clean up the radio shack and take a pic of it.

Fun radio.

 

[ridgescan]

Pics!! Thanks for the tips BB. It looks like the previous owner(s) didn't have much of a go at this radio. It's pretty pristine for its age. I wonder if it was gifted to someone but they didn't get into it. Well it's in a home where it is appreciated now
in fact if you look at my updated shack pics above, you could say my QTH is a home only radio freakazoids will appreciate!

 

[a29zuk]

I have one, and don't use it enough. Use my Realistic TRF a lot more...

The DX-160 has sharp tuning on SSB, works similar to passband tuning (even though it's *not* passband tuning... it's the way the BFO tunes that makes it act similarly) -- you turn the BFO control further to the left or right than necessary for clarification, it sharpens the selectivity.

And yeah, I have to crank down the RF gain to keep the BFO from pumping. But you can hear a lot on the ham bands with the radio.

I use mine mainly for MW. Sounds tinny, but better on headphones than it does through its speaker.

Awesome radio for the time, and still works well on MW or LW if you use the right antenna.

A simple antenna tuner will reduce the images on the SW bands. Otherwise, I just ignore the images when they occur.

Love that lit dial, too!

Gee Boombox, I did sell my DX-160 years ago but I still have my Realistic TRF. Sounds like we ran along the same path of DX lore.
The stability and image rejection wasn't too good on the 160. But then again it was only a single conversion receiver. The selectivity was ok but it was a pretty sensitive receiver. We had a lot of fun with it.

The receiver looks great, Ridge.

Jim

 

[ridgescan]

Thank you Jim! It is a fun little radio. Been using it daily to the almost neglect of the others here in rotation. The single fault with it that sort of annoys me, is that 700milliwatt audio but hey I tell myself "you hear it fine don't ya?" I saw a couple audio mods in Yahoo but I will just leave it be, do an alignment to the bands, and just enjoy it for what it is

 

[a29zuk]

Yeah, the audio wasn't very good, either. But we had younger ears back then. We used headphones most of the time when DXing.

Jim

 

[Arkmood]

Sold my DX 160 at a hamfest to a guy who wanted to use it as his bedside radio (maybe it was ridgescan:wink,but kept the matching speaker. It worked super with the RS DSP

 

[ridgescan]

Unfortunately it wasn't me-I bought mine at a "White Elephant Sale" held annually that me and my girl attend every year (22 yrs now!) out in Oakland, Ca.
She goes her way, I go mine and I recheck the "Electronics" dept like every 1/2 hr. Saw this gem and snagged it. Smuggled it to the checkout and out to truck's backseat floor hoping my girl was on other side of warehouse during this-she was
Once I got it set up in the shack and she saw it she liked it, but then popped me on the head cause I was being sneaky LOLL
PS I have two of those SP150s but am using a center channel speaker that sounds fuller with that sucky audio.