The last tabletop I owned was an R75, I never liked it as much as the R71. I enjoyed the older rigs, but there’s not as much on the SW BCB any longer. To be perfectly honest I enjoyed my FRG-7 as much as any shortwave tabletop. My lament was not buying a Drake R8 or R8A when the bands were still filled with stations.
Used tabletop rigs
- Thread starter PXR-5
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Token
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Most parts in most radios can still be found today. There may be a few percent of parts in an older radio that can no longer be found. This is a common problem for any radio older than a couple years old, and is really just a fact of using anything not in current production. If you don't do the work yourself it can often be harder to find someone to do the work than to find the parts.
Unfortunately, the selection of stand alone desktop HF radios today is extremely limited. If you don't buy a ham HF transceiver to use the receiver then the possible solutions, new, are few. One of the best stand alone receive only radios on the market today is the Icom R8600 (I have two of them myself), unfortunately because it is a wideband radio it is a bit on the expensive side for a dedicated HF radio. Don't get me wrong, it is very good, but the average street price these days is a tad over $2200, and that drives away many people looking for an HF radio.
The Alinco DX-R8T is OK, a decent radio but nothing to get excited about. Unfortunately the radio (particularly the knobs and buttons) just feel a bit flimsy and cheap to me. However, the cost is decent and the performance is OK. The SDR functionality can be a bit clunky.
And other than the R8600 and the DX-R8T, what other new receive only desktops are there for HF use? The R9500? Excellent, but way over kill and several times the price of even the expensive R8600.
There are a lot of good rigs on the used market, but of course you have the potential issue of picking up someone elses headache to consider. I love running older radios, from tube sets on up, and am very comfortable with them as I do all my own maintenance, but it is not for everyone.
T!
a29zuk
Member
The Palstar R30A is another receive only option. Even though it has Collins filters and is a quality receiver with great audio, it lacks some of the DX tools(PBT, CW filter, etc.). It is also pretty expensive for what it is, as it is almost twice as much as when I purchased one about 12 years ago.
Jim
Token
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a29zuk
Member
DX Engineering and Universal do not stock it anymore, so it is kind of under the radar. Mostly see it on Ebay or the Palstar site itself.
Jim
The question I had was "did it offer enough features (in today's market) to warrant spending $900?". The examples I've heard sounded great on AM, but the lack of synchronous AM was disappointing. The reviews (taken with multiple grains of salt) were pretty good.. But some of the service issues posted were not good.
I've bought a lot of tabletop HF radios over the last 20 years or so, and most of the problems with them haven't been the radios themselves, it's the amazingly bad packing that so many sellers do! I found a near mint Allied SX-190, not a great receiver by any means, but this one looked like someone just took it out of the box, and that big knob always attracted me. I begged the seller to take it to the UPS store to ship it, so it wouldn't be damaged. Well, you can guess what happened. It was put into a single cardboard box barely big enough for the radio itself to fit into. The knob was slammed and it arrived severely damaged. I got a full refund and hopefully, that seller learned a little bit about how to pack something. The next SX-190 wasn't as pretty as the first one, but it was packed perfectly and arrived in great shape. My Kenwood R1000 somehow made it from the West coast to Toledo packed loosely in a single heavy box, with some accessories underneath it, just loose, in perfect shape. I had pleaded with the seller to pack it well, and they said it was, but I just got lucky. I should have taken pics on some of the damaged stuff, they were amusing and anger generating at the same time. The biggest train wreck where something was damaged wasn't for an HF radio, it was for an an audio amp. It weighed 60+ pounds and was tossed into a box and it was smashed. On top of that, the seller had posted pics of another amp, so it was a scam anyway. Paypal gave me my money back, but I was out the shipping back.
Bad pic, but you can see the bent bottom panel.
Most of the receivers I've bought have been Icom R71a's, ranging from dead to mint, strippers to loaded up ones. Most of those seemed to be either in the original box, or taken to a store to be pro packed. I got them all working, and a couple of them I only sold because I was short of cash. Some of the reasons one of them was dead ranged from a simple ground wire being loose to a bad power switch. One had a bad 110V power supply, but wouldn't work on 12v either. I found a take off PS on Ebay for $25, and it came alive. One came loaded with every option you could get, and it looked brand new. No smoke smell, it had spent it's life running on 12v as the capacitors that cook on AC power were still nice and yellow, not tannish. The only thing it didn't have was the actual remote control, the remote board was inside, as was the speech synthesizer, All the filters, including the FL44. I did the audio mod (not the one where caps are replaced! That doesn't fix the issue, it just sort of covers it up), and I really regretted selling it.
Bad pic, but you can see the bent bottom panel.
Most of the receivers I've bought have been Icom R71a's, ranging from dead to mint, strippers to loaded up ones. Most of those seemed to be either in the original box, or taken to a store to be pro packed. I got them all working, and a couple of them I only sold because I was short of cash. Some of the reasons one of them was dead ranged from a simple ground wire being loose to a bad power switch. One had a bad 110V power supply, but wouldn't work on 12v either. I found a take off PS on Ebay for $25, and it came alive. One came loaded with every option you could get, and it looked brand new. No smoke smell, it had spent it's life running on 12v as the capacitors that cook on AC power were still nice and yellow, not tannish. The only thing it didn't have was the actual remote control, the remote board was inside, as was the speech synthesizer, All the filters, including the FL44. I did the audio mod (not the one where caps are replaced! That doesn't fix the issue, it just sort of covers it up), and I really regretted selling it.
Man I have my share of boat anchors here. They sure do make a room smell good (and toasty in the winter).
My experience with my IC-R8500 was loss of VHF/UHF sensitivity and a plain worn out VFO from years of dial spinning.
Icom flat out told me they quit supporting these radios and would not take it in for factory service.
But the rep on the phone turned me on to a former Icom tech in Georgia. I called and was told to send it to him. Of course I kept the box from when the Japanese air poured out of it years ago.
He flat out told me if the thing worked and needed an alignment, no problem. BUT if the preamp transistor or processor was borked, pretty much forget about it. I sent it and crossed my fingers. When it did come back it was just as amazing as the day I bought it.
In the meantime I bought an SDRPlay RSP2. Tried different software. Got used to using it.
Having a bandscope was cool. No filters to plug in. Pretty good sensitivity.
Everything is pricey these days. Comparing inflation, not so much. How much were those filters? Drift over time?
I fire up the Collins and Hammarlunds and even the Hallicrafters occasionally. I'm trying to still learn DSD+ for the RSP2.
The 8500 scans public service. But I really love my new IC-R8600....like alot!
My experience with my IC-R8500 was loss of VHF/UHF sensitivity and a plain worn out VFO from years of dial spinning.
Icom flat out told me they quit supporting these radios and would not take it in for factory service.
But the rep on the phone turned me on to a former Icom tech in Georgia. I called and was told to send it to him. Of course I kept the box from when the Japanese air poured out of it years ago.
He flat out told me if the thing worked and needed an alignment, no problem. BUT if the preamp transistor or processor was borked, pretty much forget about it. I sent it and crossed my fingers. When it did come back it was just as amazing as the day I bought it.
In the meantime I bought an SDRPlay RSP2. Tried different software. Got used to using it.
Having a bandscope was cool. No filters to plug in. Pretty good sensitivity.
Everything is pricey these days. Comparing inflation, not so much. How much were those filters? Drift over time?
I fire up the Collins and Hammarlunds and even the Hallicrafters occasionally. I'm trying to still learn DSD+ for the RSP2.
The 8500 scans public service. But I really love my new IC-R8600....like alot!
The R8600 was initially very tempting to me. Pop'd in at Universal several times to look at the one they had on display. But in the end, I saved quite a bit of $s by picking up a JRC NRD-535D. It fit my listening in that I rarely go above the HF frequencies so I wouldn't be taking advantage of the capabilities of the R8600. Maybe some day if I have a spare bit of change, I might talk myself into one. If I feel the need now, I have a choice of 4 SDRs that will permit me getting out of the HF bands.
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Mike
W8WCA
Member
I had an R8600 for a bit.
One thing that really surprised me was: It was very sensitive!
Not the best BW selections and I found I really did not go above HF often.
It was more sensitive than many of the Rx's I had at that time (Well except maybe my R4C and All Collins R390A)
(I had lots of old Rx's back then . . . .no tube Rx's now).
One thing that really surprised me was: It was very sensitive!
Not the best BW selections and I found I really did not go above HF often.
It was more sensitive than many of the Rx's I had at that time (Well except maybe my R4C and All Collins R390A)
(I had lots of old Rx's back then . . . .no tube Rx's now).
TailGator911
Silent Key/KF4ANC
I second the motion on the 746Pro, great extended rec in the HF/shortwave spectrum. Depending on propagation and dx it out-performs my R75 quite often. I have been neglecting some HF radios since I acquired the R8600. That radio is spot on and easy to dial in. None of my radios can compete with the Icom R8600, it is in a class of its own. The rec of the 8600 is phenomenal.
Over time I found that the filters are actually quite good. It just there is a learning curve coming from the plug in filter world to software filtering.
Combining the built in filtering with SDR software filtering this thing is phenomenal. It is a SDR world out there now.
TailGator911
Silent Key/KF4ANC
Personally, I don't know how I ever survived without Twin Digital Passband Tuning.
W8WCA
Member
The ones that are in it are good quality just not my choice of BW (and choices of BW's)
W8WCA
Member
a29zuk
Member
I paid $500 for it in 2007. I didn't have any quality issues with it except for a burned out light bulb for the meter. That probably happened about 3 years after I purchased it. I called Palstar and they sent me a bulb and I replaced the bad one.
Back then, with the audio quality, sensitivity, and Collins filters, I was and am still happy with the purchase. It also is, because it is portable, great to take to a park and roll out hundreds of feet of wire and do some DXing.
At present, at $900, I wouldn't purchase one, as it is a bit too steep in price.
Jim
Thanks, it’s still a viable RX. if the sensitivity and selectivity are as good as advertised.
a29zuk
Member
If you are interested here are the specs:
Dimensions 232mm W x 100mm H x 225mm D 9.13” W x 3.94” H x 8.88” D Weight: 1.8 kg (3.9 lbs)
Sensitivity 100 kHz to 2 MHz AM 2 µV SSB .5 µV 2 MHz to 30 MHz AM 1 µV SSB .5 µV max 10db(S+N/N)
Selectivity 45 MHz 8 kHz BW 455 Khz (AM) 6 kHz SSB 2.4 kHz
Dynamic Range >90 dB at 50 kHz from desired
Spurious Responses At 45 MHz > 65 dB rejection At 455 MHz > 90 dB rejection
Intermodulation Third order Intercept +15dbm
Frequency Stability +/- 20 Hz per hour –15°C to +50°C
AGC Range 1µV to 500 mV < 2 dB change Attack time < 3 ms Delay - slow < 4 secs Delay - fast <.5 secs
Audio 2 watts into 8 Ω 2% THD Distortion: 1 kHz signal AM at 60% mod. Depth < 1% SSB < .5%
S/N Ratio (AM Mode) 6 kHz filter ref. 60% @ 1 kHz 5 µV 20 dB 500 µV > 50 dB (SSB Mode) 5 µV 30 dB 500 µV > 50 dB
Power Requirement DC required 12 vdc@1A regulated Quiescent current 350 mA (with lamps) Typical current use 350-800 mA
The $900 price also includes the external speaker which wasn't included when I purchased the receiver.
The narrow filter and SSB can be used as ECSS on broadcast stations.
Also most reviewers complain about the processor resetting and the display defaulting to 150khz. This does happen on mine about once every 6 to 8 months. It is a non issue for me. There has been no explanation for it.
Jim
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Since it is in the price range, how does the RX side of the ubitx compare to some of the HF receivers? I am sure it will not compete with the kilobuck radios, but might be able to match some Eton or Tecsun options
pjxii
Member
I bought a Sony ICF-6800W to have the analog plus digital display. I got lucky, a previous owner corrected the known PLL problem (and added an extra audio output). Great radio but known to have failures.
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