Eton Traveler III Grundig Edition part 2

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WA8ZTZ

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My previous post concerned LW and AM performance. Had an opportunity this afternoon to check out FM and SW performance. The antenna used on both bands was the radio's 17" telescoping whip. A good thing about the whip is that the base is double jointed so that the whip can be extended vertically when the fold out leg on the radio is extended so as to tilt the radio for better viewing... nice.

Scanned the FM band from bottom to top and was impressed with the performance, especially since this test was from the basement of my QTH. Received most all the stations that are normally heard on my Eton Field portable connected to an outdoor antenna on the roof of the house. The Traveller III has RDS capability but unfortunately many stations do not use RDS. It sure makes station ID (as well as song selection being played) easier for the listener. The only "DX" to be heard were some local fringe stations across the river in the Windsor Ontario area. Winter has returned here to Michigan, bitter cold today so no tropo. The FM DX is on hold until the next warm up. btw, as a side note, FM DX has become a real challenge in a major market area with all the wall to wall LPFM/translators clogging the band.

On the SW bands, performance was so-so. 6070 CFRX Toronto was a weak S2. The same station was S5 on my Alinco DX-SR8 with an outdoor antenna. WWV at 5000 was not heard but CHU 7850 came pounding in S9+. WWV 10000 was very weak but was S5 at 15000. Therefore, decided to give the 19 meter band a look see. Radio Habana Cuba was putting in a strong signal on both 15140 in English and 15370 in French. On 15390 Radio Exterior de Espana had a decent signal in Spanish. There were many weaker signals heard but did not have time to ID all of them. There were also a number of mixing signals that sounded like spurs of some sort???

Remember, these signals were all received from my basement with only the whip antenna on the set. Overall, for a reasonably priced pocket portable this is a lot of radio.
 

Boombox

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There were also a number of mixing signals that sounded like spurs of some sort???

Remember, these signals were all received from my basement with only the whip antenna on the set. Overall, for a reasonably priced pocket portable this is a lot of radio.

If you're getting mixing signals/spurs on SW (presumably from local MW stations) shorten the whip antenna until the interference recedes. You still should be able to hear the SW stations OK.
 
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