Has anyone checked out the Malachite (also seen as Malahit) radios? The noise reduction is impressive.
Portable radio AM dxing
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If you listen late afternoon, as dusk falls on time zones to your east, you'll often be able to pick up much more distant stations from the east. The local stations are still almost entirely ground wave because it's daylight but those to the east are in advancing darkness and you'll get a bit of atmospheric bounce. It translates to less interference from locals (on the right frequencies) and stations to the west and a better shot at hearing those more distant stations to the east.
It will probably take you a while to get used to what's where in your local area and where you'll be most likely to pick up the more distant stations.
As to night time performance, any halfway decent radio can pick up distant stations at night. It's really not the test of radio quality most people seem to think it is.
I agree but the radio can make it easier to make fine tune adjustments. I played around with it and the TERK antenna last night and was able to fine tune some stations I could identify from Chicago, Colorado Springs, and Atlanta (from Dallas). I switched to the 9khz setting and was able to pick up some other stations I could not identify. Setting the TERK to the right of the radio so I could pass my hand through the loop to make changes on the radio worked extremely well. Changing the radio frequency and then changing the knob on the TERK about the same amount really made a big difference and it easy to fine tune weak stations.
By the way, the EP Pro also makes a great external active speaker for my scanner (SDS100) and the bass/treble knobs provide very good control over the scanner audio.
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The Terk is unlikely to improve reception on the EP-Pro except under extreme conditions where you can combine the nulling ability of both antennas. The twin-coil adjustment knob on the EP-Pro already gives you the ability to peak the antenna output for the tuned frequency. The tuning knob on the Terk does exactly the same thing on the Terk. I think if you use the EP-Pro alone, adjust the TC for the tuned frequency, then rotate the radio to best isolate the desired signal, you'll get pretty much the same reception as you do when you bring the Terk into the picture. The Terk is great for use with radios that don't allow for peaking the antenna on the tuned frequency (older radios used to do that automatically), but with something like the EP-Pro or CCR2E/3 it's just duplicating capability already built into the radio. You'd need a much larger air core antenna to gather significantly more signal than the EP-Pro does already.
I'd suggest using the EP-Pro on its own for a few weeks until you're used to how it performs barefoot and then maybe try adding the Terk to the equation. You'll then be in a much better position to evaluate what additional capability the Terk is bringing to the party.
The two things that make a great AM radio are the antenna and the receivers selectivity. If you have a radio with good selectivity the antenna can be an easy upgrade. I just finished making a 16" long ferrite rod antenna and I'm blown away by its performance. I built it from specs here and also use a preamp with about 15dB gain and good high signal handling capability. Besides using a huge ferrite rod, making the ability to tilt is also very important to get the best null to see what may be hiding under a strong local station. This thing is sharply resonant and covers from below and above the AM broadcast band.
Video on how to build antenna and recommended parts:
Preamp I use, modified for lower freq range: 2x J310 Push-Pull Low-noise HF pre-Amplifier (30 KHZ - 30 MHZ) Built & Tested
Picture of my working antenna, subject to a few more revisions:
Video on how to build antenna and recommended parts:
Preamp I use, modified for lower freq range: 2x J310 Push-Pull Low-noise HF pre-Amplifier (30 KHZ - 30 MHZ) Built & Tested
Picture of my working antenna, subject to a few more revisions:
I love this kind of stuff
Try putting your EP on a cake decorating turntable and rotate it to peak desired signals and null unwanted signals.
Such a turntable is cheaper and more compact than a lazy susan. Probably can find one at a kitchen/bath or craft type store...
ask a YL, they'll know.
The real test of AM performance will be how well the radio receives a weak distant signal (especially when adjacent to a strong local station) during daytime when the signals are steady groundwave.
Such a turntable is cheaper and more compact than a lazy susan. Probably can find one at a kitchen/bath or craft type store...
ask a YL, they'll know.
The real test of AM performance will be how well the radio receives a weak distant signal (especially when adjacent to a strong local station) during daytime when the signals are steady groundwave.
...and selectivity (the ability to reject strong off-frequency signals)--especially in bigger markets where there's a broadcaster on almost every channel.
You can get a lazy-susan turntable, the swiveling part you'd use to make a full lazy-susan, at Home Depot for less than $5. That's what I use. Works great. I put a piece of that rubbery shelf lining under it so it doesn't slide on the table and another on top so the radio won't shift. It makes nulling a signal with accuracy so much easier. It turns easily but holds position well if the table is fairly level.
From your lips to the multitude's ears. While it may be fun to hear that station 1,000 miles away at night, it says virtually nothing about the abilities of the radio or the operator. My $12 used Sony pocket radio can get stations from 1000 miles at night. Day time I'd be lucky to get 100 miles with that thing unaided by external antenna.
FYI - If you google "Mesa Mike's List of USA AM Band Radio Stations" you can get a FCC list of all AM radio stations (4653 of them) along with the DISTANCE from your location and their BEARING from your location. You just enter your lat/lon coordinates and then download the delimited text file. I had to replace all the "|' delimiters with "," delimiters to get excel to read the delimited file correctly. Then I filtered the data using excel to weed out only those stations within 100 miles (or 250, or 500, etc) to make the list more manageable. This info helps identify the potential source of MW signals and also helps positioning the radio based on bearing to the source antenna.
Yes! Phenomenal list. (I just wish it included Canadian stations).
Indeed. I live 9 miles from the WTAM 1100 50kW transmitter site and just got a C Crane CCR3.
Last night after sunset I was trying to see what I could hear on 1090. I had to tune the CCR3 to 1087 kHz to get rid of the splatter but I could hear WBAL in Baltimore quite clearly and KAAY in Little Rock pretty well.
So it is somewhat de-sensed on the first adjacents to WTAM, but not as bad as I had feared and I could compensate with a slight volume boost. I couldn't detect any significant de-sense on the second adjacents. If they added really good Sync detection to this radio, that would really be something.
This radio seems to have been very well thought out. While the user interface is simplified, I think the choices C Crane has made regarding the needed compromises between bandwidth, fidelity, AGC time constants etc. are very well chosen. The "auto-tune" that tunes the built-in 8" ferrite antenna to the selected radio frequency is amazing. It's like if you had an automatic select-a-tenna.
One of the radios I own had a bit of a reputation for images and overload from local signals. I was curious how bad it could get so I found the transmitter site for the local 50kW station and drove there. When I was 100 yards from the antenna it was nothing but that station all up and down the dial. When I got a mile away it had dropped off to only affecting two adjacents on either side. At two miles it was just the adjacents. By three miles there was some impact on the adjacents but that could be addressed by tuning away a bit.
Kind of on the other side of the coin, I once connected my Wellbrook loop to my CCR2. I got nothing but the 50kW station with their transmitter about 15 miles away. If you hook too much antenna to the CCRadio it will blow the doors off it.
Kind of on the other side of the coin, I once connected my Wellbrook loop to my CCR2. I got nothing but the 50kW station with their transmitter about 15 miles away. If you hook too much antenna to the CCRadio it will blow the doors off it.
I noticed a similar situation here in the Chicagoland area: in the northern 'burbs I'd get blead-over on pretty much every frequency adjacent to a Chicago radio station (both AM & FM), making it practically impossible to check for band openings, but when I lived about 30 miles to the west the bleed-over diminished enough where I could take good advantage of listening to stations a bit further out. For example wit a turnstyle antenna in the attic, I got FM stations as far away as Rockford, IL and Milwaukee, WI.
I'm in the Chicago area now as well. Fortunately, I'm far enough from the blowtorches that they only interfere a little bit with their adjacents and that can usually be tamed by nulling the local.
When I first got a Sony HD Radio I did a band scan of FM. The radio came with a fairly standard dipole that was a bit longer than usual. I built a T stand for it using PVC pipe. The wings of the dipole were stretched out on the cross of the stand and I could rotate it by just twisting the pipe. (It was just slip fit, not glued.) I was shocked at being able to get two or three discernable signals on many frequencies and at the distance of a number of them. Many stations 100 miles away were coming in sounding like locals. That was one heck of a FM radio.
When I first got a Sony HD Radio I did a band scan of FM. The radio came with a fairly standard dipole that was a bit longer than usual. I built a T stand for it using PVC pipe. The wings of the dipole were stretched out on the cross of the stand and I could rotate it by just twisting the pipe. (It was just slip fit, not glued.) I was shocked at being able to get two or three discernable signals on many frequencies and at the distance of a number of them. Many stations 100 miles away were coming in sounding like locals. That was one heck of a FM radio.
Here's what I currently use for portable MW DXing.
I recently bought a brand new Sony ICF-P26 and returned it the next day. I was very disappointed since the Sony costs $39.99 + tax here in Canada. The FM selectivity was not good but I could live with that but on MW at night for casual DXing I found that the Sony wasn't even as good as the old 60 yr old Juliette transistor radio in the above photograph. It's ability to null out stronger stations next to a weaker station was not good either. Now I don't use a loop antenna so maybe that would've helped but using any cheaper portable AM radio I can still get 770 WABC (300 miles from my QTH) between 760khz and 780khz. With the Sony I could not no matter how I tried. My $20 Retekess V115 portable AM/FM/SW radio was better. Also the volume control on the Sony was terrible. I had to turn it up halfway before any sound could be heard and to my taste the audio wasn't that great. It's too bad because I had read and seen good reviews of the Sony. Maybe I got a bad one?
I currently have a Tecsun R-9012 AM/FM/SW and a Sony ICF-s10mk2 on oder from eBay so I hope to get some good results from these portables.
I recently bought a brand new Sony ICF-P26 and returned it the next day. I was very disappointed since the Sony costs $39.99 + tax here in Canada. The FM selectivity was not good but I could live with that but on MW at night for casual DXing I found that the Sony wasn't even as good as the old 60 yr old Juliette transistor radio in the above photograph. It's ability to null out stronger stations next to a weaker station was not good either. Now I don't use a loop antenna so maybe that would've helped but using any cheaper portable AM radio I can still get 770 WABC (300 miles from my QTH) between 760khz and 780khz. With the Sony I could not no matter how I tried. My $20 Retekess V115 portable AM/FM/SW radio was better. Also the volume control on the Sony was terrible. I had to turn it up halfway before any sound could be heard and to my taste the audio wasn't that great. It's too bad because I had read and seen good reviews of the Sony. Maybe I got a bad one?
I currently have a Tecsun R-9012 AM/FM/SW and a Sony ICF-s10mk2 on oder from eBay so I hope to get some good results from these portables.
That 60 year old Juliette probably cost many times what the Sony ICF-P26 goes for in equivalent time value currency. That it's still working today is a testament to the quality and care taken in its manufacture. One of the big weaknesses with small radios like that is the antenna. Ferrite rods are not widely known for their consistency, requiring tuning of each individual unit if you want the best performance. Since the whole idea of transistors was a big new thing 60 years ago, they probably did all they could to ensure each unit was properly tuned before it left the factory. Nobody's doing that today on a $20 retail radio. How could they? The manufacturer is probably selling them for less than $10 and making very little at that price. If you're adventurous you can take the radio apart, pick off the wax holding the coil to the ferrite rod, and then move the coil to peak it, waxing it back in place when you're done. If you want peak performance out of a cheap pocket radio, you're going to have to do that to virtually all of them.
I wouldn't hold out hope on the ICF-S10mk2. It was the worst pocket radio I've ever bought.
The best MW pocket radio I've used is the Sony SRF-T615. Great sensitivity combined with excellent nulling capability. Not terribly selective so this can be a problem if you live in an area with a lot of strong local signals. It also isn't available anymore and cost a whole lot more than the ICF-P26 you didn't like.
I wouldn't hold out hope on the ICF-S10mk2. It was the worst pocket radio I've ever bought.
The best MW pocket radio I've used is the Sony SRF-T615. Great sensitivity combined with excellent nulling capability. Not terribly selective so this can be a problem if you live in an area with a lot of strong local signals. It also isn't available anymore and cost a whole lot more than the ICF-P26 you didn't like.
Of course the old transistor I use is just for casual MW DX fun and I enjoy the challenge. I have another larger multi band receiver for serious DX. I am looking for something portable with analog tuning. I really wanted to like the Sony but here in Canada it's $40 + tax which where I live is a total of $46 and not $20 like at Walmart in the U.S. I couldn't justify the cost. I probably would've kept it if it was only $20. Like I said maybe I got a lemon? As for the Sony ICF-S10mk2 I have read good reviews on it and in fact many comment it's better than the ICF-P26 in terms of performance for a small portable radio. Obviously atmospheric conditions when listening play the biggest factor when trying to DX with any radio. Fortunately I do not live in a over saturated AM radio station market. My city has only 3 news/talk/sports AM stations. As for local FM I stopped listening to that 30 years ago.
Malachite DSP SDR Receiver 50KHz-2GHzcaught my eye (the real one from Russia, not the Chinese knockoff.) It has some awful good reviews on QRZ.
The 50 Khz to 200 Mhz split will do you justice, competitively priced too.
I already have some of the best of the best for my SWL post, Mortgage your house to buy it.
The 50 Khz to 200 Mhz split will do you justice, competitively priced too.
I already have some of the best of the best for my SWL post, Mortgage your house to buy it.
It's been my experience that radios with a low threshold to ownership are purchased in great numbers by people who are not experienced in DXing or in objectively judging the characteristics of the radio. Someone raving about the reception of a 50kW flamethrower at midnight from 500 miles away is a good example. Such reviews are of questionable value.
The ICF-S10mk2 I bought had significant trouble receiving local stations in daylight. Perhaps mine was a lemon. I wasn't willing to throw additional money at finding out.
In cheap shirt pocket radios one of the better options is the Sony SRF-39. It's not manufactured anymore but used ones in working condition can be found on ebay for under $20US. I bought one about a year ago for $14. It needs a tune up but works reasonably well. Headphone/earbuds only since it has no speaker. The SRF-59 is similar but the SRF-39 has a more robust tuner.
I did a bit of surgery on a SRF-59 once, adding a reduction drive to the tuning. It took about three full revolutions of the knob to go from 540 to 1700 but you could get any station easily tuned right on the money without going back and forth a dozen times. I picked up a couple reduction drives from a surplus place for a song. Doesn't make much sense to do it otherwise as the reduction drive will cost more than the radio.
With a loop antenna you can increase the selectivity of a portable that doesn't have terrific selectivity, by peaking the loop when it's farther away from the radio than you normally would place it. I've done this with Walkmen that had decreased selectivity with good success. In 2012-2013 I did most of my DXing with such a setup, using a Sony 1990's Walkman that had selectivity probably the same as the P26 (which I also have).
To DX it's probably better to use a digital with some selectivity, and headphone sound that you can live with (so you don't get listener's fatigue), otherwise you're going to have to work at it a bit -- which sometimes is just as fun. Most of my DXing anymore is on my DX398, DX375. or Panasonic RFB45 -- they're small enough to manipulate when needed, and an external loop is used when I need the signal boosted. Selectivity is good enough to DX near strong adjacents, and the headphone sound is good enough to where I don't feel like I'm living in midrange land.
To DX it's probably better to use a digital with some selectivity, and headphone sound that you can live with (so you don't get listener's fatigue), otherwise you're going to have to work at it a bit -- which sometimes is just as fun. Most of my DXing anymore is on my DX398, DX375. or Panasonic RFB45 -- they're small enough to manipulate when needed, and an external loop is used when I need the signal boosted. Selectivity is good enough to DX near strong adjacents, and the headphone sound is good enough to where I don't feel like I'm living in midrange land.
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