New -> Sangean ATS-909X

[MaximumVerbosity]

Recording to SD would be fantastic, but not this model. It does have line out, which is fine. I record to my digital recorder and that works. Interestingly, also has an aux in. Which is great, as now I can listen to my digital recorder with some audio instead of its very tiny speaker.

Don't think it can do memory scanning... that's not in the manual and don't see a way to do it. However, it will scan the VFO.

Just tried the scanning on 19m. About as functional as on my 2010 or any other SW receiver. For my purposes, its useless unless only looking for very strong signals.

I have squelch set to off and told it to scan. It scanned and stopped on relatively strong signals, S5 or so. I can see it skipping over lesser signals. Went back and verified there was something there other than noise (the s-meter still works while scanning).

Cranked the squelch up to 6 and told it to scan 19m. Works as advertised... skipped the weaker signals and stopped on a nice strong one. Increasing the squelch works as expected.

Works as advertised on FM & MW too.

The scanning on my amateur transceivers works just as well... useless. But then I'm normally digging around for weak signals, not only looking for the the S7+ ones.

 

[mondomusique]

Very nice user review Max Verb. I like that you compared the 909X to the highly regarded Sony 2010 portable.

I would also like to see the 909X compared to one of the Chinese portables based around the Silicon Industries SI4734 radio chip. The SI4734 is a lot of radio on a 3mm square chip and the shortwave performance is said to be impressive. I was initially hoping the 909X portable would use the SI4734 and add in front end filtering and DSP implementation of SSB reception, something the Chinese portables have not offered. As it is, I'm not sure what innovations the 909X brings in terms of radio electronics inside the case.

 

[MaximumVerbosity]

I know there's a DSP in there that they say does stuff better... but no details. Read something recently that the DSP was only used on FM.

As far as any other new advances... can't really tell. I got this because I'm going on a trip and wanted to take a SW radio with and didn't want to take the 2010 (in case it got damaged/stolen/etc). While I like the 7600GR, wanted something better. Last summer was going to get the Super ATS-909, then stumbled across rumblings of the 909X, so waited.

Been listening to 19m & 16m all day and its been fine. Still comparable to the 2010 in terms of signal strength. Audio is still good, but needs to let a little more of the highs through. Even listened to RFI on 21690 for a while... worked great, at times even better than the 2010 with sync on. Yeah, checked both radios to verify that.

The sun is well on its way down now and won't be long until time to drop down to the lower bands and revisit them.

 

[merlin3rd]

Ats 909x

For more new information on this shortwave receiver try this Yahoo group about the 909X.
ATS909X : Sangean ATS-909X

 

[MaximumVerbosity]

Its dark and an update on the performance of the lower bands

9655 kHz
- 2010 w/whip full scale. SINPO 55445.
- 909X with w/whip, about half scale. SINPO 45344 . Plug in the ext wire antenna and its nearly full scale with 55545.

That is pretty much the story for the 31 & 41m bands. The ext wire ant brings the level on the 909X up to that of the 2010 just on the whip.

On 49m, the wire brings it up to about to about 90% of the strength on the 2010. Even without the wire, the station is still plenty listenable, just a little more noise and occasional fading (where the 2010 is clean & less fading).

2500 kHz:
2010 has about 3/4 scale some noise and plenty fine to tell the time. 45444
909X with whip only is about about 1/2 of the signal, but still hear it fine. 35343
Interesting thing... plug in the wire ant and lots more noise and _less_ signal. Yes, the signal actually drops.

3330 kHz:
2010 is about 3/4 scale. SINPO 35242.
909X... about 1/4 scale. SINPO 35232. Sounds pretty much the same. Adding the ext ant brings in more signal and SINPO is 35433.


So, down to around 3000-ish it looks like need the wire to pull in enough signal to match the 2010 on the whip. But, can get by on the whip only on the 909X. Signal will be less and a little more fading for signals down near the low end of the power, but still usable.


Now anxiously awaiting more technical reviews of it. Also want to see if this is by design or perhaps a firmware update will fix this. There are two holes on the bottom for "digital input" that the manual says is for factory use and absolutely no use to us. FWIW, my firmware is 1.18.

While I had the question of should I return it and get something else, I've decided to keep this. While not perfect, its still very usable.


merlin3rd- thanks for the link. Very interested to see what others think as well.

 

[iowabassplayer]

Anything that comes out of Bob Crane's mouth is to be taken with a grain of salt.

I thought he was wonderful!

 

[pm4hire]

Yes, that Bob Crane is indeed wonderful!

 

[daytripper]

I'm waiting for a DAR-101 to arrive from Amazon. I'll post some comments after I've had a chance to put it to use with my Yaesu.

 

[E-Man]

Don't think it can do memory scanning... that's not in the manual and don't see a way to do it. However, it will scan the VFO.

My bad, I was confused with another receiver that I am interested in.

Just tried the scanning on 19m. About as functional as on my 2010 or any other SW receiver. For my purposes, its useless unless only looking for very strong signals.

I have squelch set to off and told it to scan. It scanned and stopped on relatively strong signals, S5 or so. I can see it skipping over lesser signals. Went back and verified there was something there other than noise (the s-meter still works while scanning).

Cranked the squelch up to 6 and told it to scan 19m. Works as advertised... skipped the weaker signals and stopped on a nice strong one. Increasing the squelch works as expected.

Works as advertised on FM & MW too.

The scanning on my amateur transceivers works just as well... useless. But then I'm normally digging around for weak signals, not only looking for the the S7+ ones.

Thanks, I had heard that before. A working memory scan would be the cats meow for my shack.

 

[E-Man]

I'm waiting for a DAR-101 to arrive from Amazon. I'll post some comments after I've had a chance to put it to use with my Yaesu.

With my noisy receiver, I had to run the DAR-101 through dsp for the vox to work properly.

Also, just a heads up, there is no supplied SD card.

Overall, I find the unit works very well for my needs.

 

[dremka]

My first impression is similar to MaximumVerbosity, it's also worth to mention a great improvement on FM band in comparision to the previous 909w - I live near 5 x 60 kW ERP transmitting tower and there is no images and spourious on 909x FM band, only Onkyo T-4670 can handle it on my location, all other radios (including 909w) are overloaded, so I suppose DSP processing involved in FM band.
Sometimes as MaximumVerbosity wrote keys not registering when pressed. I also have a problem with rotary knob - it has notches and should register on clicks but mine do it between them in two positions - it's a little bit annoying as it sometimes randomly changes eg. frequency...