Radioshack DX300

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specman

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No way, keep your Pro-95 or sell it directly for cash. The DX-300 can be had for $50-$80 in good shape.

Not a bad general coverage receiver, but you'll likely get frustrated with it for HF Milair listening which is all in single-side-band. The DX-300 will do that but you'll find yourself doing a lot of dial twiddling and constant adjustments.

If you want to simply get your feet wet in SWL listening this might not be a bad receiver to start with considering the low cost, but I guarantee you'll be looking for something better if you get serious about Military or Utility stuff.
 

DX-300

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Yes, the radio does cover all those freqs and can do USB as well as LSB for amateur radio below 14.000MHz, take it from the expert here *grin*. As for the trade of the Pro 95 for the DX-300 I don't know about that. Like Specman said I'd keep the Pro-95.
 
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KEVPRO95

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Ok the whole thing here is. My pro-95 is used, and I almost never use it anymore. So I figured why not trade & try something new?

My Uniden785 can cover all the scanning coverage I need for my area.
 

DX-300

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Ok I see, I thought it was something like that, just wasn't sure. Then I guess it isn't such a loss if your not using the Pro-95 at all anyway IMO, up to you though.
 
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Bucko

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I had a DX 300 not long after they came out and I can tell you that it is not very stable ( drifts off freq ) but it will at least get you started in the world of shortwave. Myself no way I would swap a 95 for a DX 300 but its your radio.......
 

specman

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KEVPRO95 said:
Ok the whole thing here is. My pro-95 is used, and I almost never use it anymore. So I figured why not trade & try something new?

Not doubting your motives, but I suggest a used Pro-95 is worth a lot more than a DX-300. Sell the Pro-95 somewhere else and go ahead and buy the DX-300; use the rest of the cash and get other goodies like an antenna.
 

KEVPRO95

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Well, my PRO-95 has some worn out keys. and the antenna works, but needs to be replaced.

I figure it's a even trade. I have seen PRO-95 for selling under $100 on ebay.
 

specman

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KEVPRO95 said:
Well, my PRO-95 has some worn out keys. and the antenna works, but needs to be replaced.

Well in that case you might as well get what you can for it... :)
 

KEVPRO95

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:) That's what I thought. I mean it's a nice portable scanner, and all features are working. So it's still a nice unit. A new rubber duck antenna is alittle $$. So it's a good trade I believe. I just want feedback from people on what they think.

I want to listen to military stuff, and uscg,etc....Like the shortwave freqs used during the bad hurricanes down south last year. They lost their normal comms units, so they used HF freqs I believe.

If I had this unit I could of listen to them....right?

Also....I want information on antennas for this unit. My friend says it has a antenna, but it's ok. So chances are I will be looking into another one. I can't attach anything to the outside of my house though.....all feedback is welcomed.
 

specman

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KEVPRO95 said:
I want to listen to military stuff, and uscg,etc....Like the shortwave freqs used during the bad hurricanes down south last year. They lost their normal comms units, so they used HF freqs I believe.

If I had this unit I could of listen to them....right?

Also....I want information on antennas for this unit. My friend says it has a antenna, but it's ok. So chances are I will be looking into another one. I can't attach anything to the outside of my house though.....all feedback is welcomed.

Yes, you can receive all those things with this radio.. but forget about using anything other than an outboard antenna with it. Small whip antennas are generally only good for catching high-powered Shortwave broadcasters and little else.

You can't put up any kind of exterior antenna? That will be a big problem for what you want to do. Is this due to some Homeowner's Association restrictions or other limitations? There might be some other creative solutions available... fill us in on what your home is like (is there a second storey, access to attic etc.)
 

KEVPRO95

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Ok I have access to a attic.

The landlord doesn't allow anything attached to the outside of house/roof. I have put my magnet mount antenna on my AC on the 2nd floor. My apartment is 2 floors. Plus the attic/crawl space.
 

specman

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KEVPRO95 said:
Ok I have access to a attic.

The landlord doesn't allow anything attached to the outside of house/roof. I have put my magnet mount antenna on my AC on the 2nd floor. My apartment is 2 floors. Plus the attic/crawl space.

Okay, so you might have a few options. Being on the second floor is good. Here's a few ideas:

- Wire antenna in the attic. Suspend along the longest dimension in the space. You can use some pretty fine wire for this and it should be easy to route down to your radio.

- Loop antenna; again you might be able to locate this in the attic or it even may work well in your room. They tend to be narrow in bandwidth though, but in your case one designed around your frequencies of interest may work. Loops are bi-directional so it might mean that you need to turn it to get a particular station.

- I've seen and used temporary wire antennas that were simply draped out a second floor window at night and rolled up before morning. In one case I saw this done using something similar to a fishing rod and a weight at the end of the wire. Works fairly well and is near invisible at night.

- See if your landlord would allow a wire to go from your window to a tree or similar. Again small gauge wire can be used and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb
 

K2GOG

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if you get rid of the PRO-95, you may need to change your screen name :)

I had a DX-300, It was really huge. As long as the temperature is stable it should not drift tooo much.

It was an ok radio for its vintage, but I ended up selling it and puttign that money towards somethign newer.
 

KEVPRO95

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kc2gog said:
if you get rid of the PRO-95, you may need to change your screen name :)

I had a DX-300, It was really huge. As long as the temperature is stable it should not drift tooo much.

It was an ok radio for its vintage, but I ended up selling it and puttign that money towards somethign newer.

Ya I know I would change my name...LOL

I don't have $$$ for another toy. So thats why the trading works out great right now.
 

K2GOG

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USCG and airforce woudl be the two largest targets I woudl think, or atleast for me, but navy and ground forces may be good also.

try the following to start. usualy these are pretty active in the CONUS

all are USB

5696 USCG
8983 USCG

11175 USAF and others
13200 USAF and others

also, maybe just even leave 11175 on all the time, you are bound to hear something sooner or later. I plunked my DX-300 on 11175

I am sure you can find more on the Wiki or in othe rthreads, but thats a start.
 

specman

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That MilAirComm site you posted earlier is a good place to start, not to mention the UTE wiki on this site.
 
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