This last Sunday I was a so booored that I had nothing better to do than play with my radios (What else?) so I did a competition among them to find the best performer on shortwave with the help of my trusty digital generator RE 107

About the Signal generator SG
RE Radiometer 107 Synthesized Signal Generator
The brand is RE and the model number 107 I don´t know much about it because it was a blind buy from Ebay but it seems to be very accurate like a lab equipment, I don´t know if its output is calibrated or no in dB but it gives readings from a maximum +22.9 to a minimum of -119 dB ?... The RE brand is a little obscure but there are places which sell it, like this http://www.recycledgoods.com/products/R ... rator.html

The Test
The test consisted in a 15,600 Khz signal with 10% of modulation of 400 Hz injected directly into the terminal antenna and lowering the signal until my ears can not hear it anymore, in cases where I got weird readings I retested it 1,2,3 times until the readings were consistent. There are some models which I have various samples and I tested all of them to get a better idea of their performance. All of my radios are calibrated to their maximum possible; some have mods to enhance its sensitivity, I added some comments next to the model. The number in the performance column is a negative number as read from the SG, it´s the minimal signal strength detected by the radio and my ears, so the radio that could detect the minimum signal is the most sensitive one and the performance table is ordered to reflect that.

For a webpage with picture links go to this place:
http://www.radiorus.net46.net/HOW%20GOO ... 0IS%20.htm

THE RESULTS
Brand Model Notes Performance
Sony CRF5100 Earth Orbiter -118
Magnavox 90AL999 aka Philips AL990 -116
Realistic 12-759A Patrolman 9 -111
CCRadioSW CCRadioSW aka Redsun RP2100 -110
Panasonic RF2200 Sample 3 -108
Sony ICF5900 Sample 1 -108
Sony ICF5900 Sample 2 -108
Sony ICF5900 Sample 3 -108
General Electric 7-2990 Made by Panasonic -107
Panasonic RF2900 Modded -106
Sony TFM8000W Super Sensitive -106
Panasonic RF1260 -105
Eton Grundig S350DL aka Tecsun BCL3000 -103
Panasonic RF2200 Sample 2 -103
Zenith D7000Y Transoceanic -103
Panasonic RF1180B Australian Model -100
Panasonic RF2900 Stock -98
Panasonic RF2800 Modded -98
Panasonic RF2600 Modded -98
Panasonic RF1150 -97
Panasonic RF2200 Sample 1, broken ? -94
Grundig 1400SL Could it be broken ? -72

Commenting the results
Although the signal was injected directly to the terminal antenna the results are consistent with their performance in the real world, also the frequency was a difficult one had I chosen a lower one all the radios would have performed like super radios, regular shortwave transmission occur at lower freqs like from 6 to 12 khz and are mostly heard in the evenings and nights, those from around 15600 khz and above are heard at midday.

From the result we have some surprises and some deceptions, in the former group we have:
Realistic Patrolman 9 (not all Realistic radios are bad eh ?),
Panasonic RF-1260 (Cheap radio)

And in deception group we have:
Grundig 1400SL (I really like this radio, could it be broken ? It has a great sound ! ),
Panasonic RF-2800 (I did a RF mod to this radio and it´s very sensitive but in frequencies below 12 Khz, I suspect I have a Miller capacitance problem here).

Some guy made a comparison between the transoceanic D7000Y and the Sony CRF-5100 and his conclusion were that his Transoceanic was the best and I was so excited that I bought one too but although my sample is good, it´s no better than my Sony despite of having changed all transistor with newer ones seeking to improve RF performance which I think I´ve achieved but it´s still not in the same league as the Sony, perhaps the sample of this guy it´s not good ? If you have them both please comment about this.

Conclusion
Now that you see what a boring day can do, it´s time to enjoy the radios and forget the tests until I get more radios to update this table. Please comment about this work I really like to hear some input from you.

ALI (Huesby)
Sorry about my English but it´s the best I can do.

Does anybody know how to properly insert a table in this place ?

Interesting results. It's also interesting that the Panasonic RF2200 and Sony ICF5900 are similar. Both the RF2200 and ICF5900 were introduced the same year -- they were competing radios.

[Edited out a mistake]

Your English is fine... where are you from? Oh, the Magnavox... I just want it!

Rich

That is a nice photo of you listening to your radio, Huesby. Which radio is that?

Nice sunshine in the background, too.

Renton481

It´s a Panasonic RF-2600 nice radio but.....It´s pretty mediocre, well at least my sample, I don´t know what else to do it to improve its sensitivity.
About the place It´s a pretty nice and solitary beach located near Alvarado, Ver, in the Gulf of Mexico, far from any radio transmitter, the closest one is about 30 miles. From that place it´s possible to hear AM radio signals coming across the Gulf of Mexico like signals at 740, 1200 kHZ from Houston and 1530, 1700 kHZ from McAllen AT MIDDAY EVERYDAY !!! It´s about 600 miles as the crow fly. While Dxing you could eat some seafood captured locally with a Corona beer . I wonder if it would be possible to hear AM radio signals coming from Europe at dawn, maybe someday I could go there at that time.

Huesby said:


Your best bet would be France Inter from Allouis on 162kHz (2Megawatts) - unfortunately most (or all?) of your radios won't have the Long Wave Broadcast band.

Huesby,
From what you've said, that beach location appears to be a great AM DX location -- trying for Europe early in the morning would be worth a try. From looking at the map, the only thing between Alvarado and Europe is a lot of sea water (and a bit of Florida).

I've only been to the Gulf of Mexico once -- to Grande Isle, Louisiana. I tuned the AM band with a GE boombox (which was a good performer) and I heard Radio Reloj, and several other Cuban signals, and numerous Spanish language signals that unfortunately I didn't have the time to try to ID. From that short DX session I got the impression that the Gulf Coast is a good area for DXing.

The Panasonic looks like a cool radio. I like that era of radios, with their big analog bandspread dials. I have a Sony 5900W that works great on AM, but no longer works on SW (I think the problem may be an intermittent connection in one of the switches, but I'm not sure).

Chris -- Renton481

The bandswitch on my Sony ICF-5900W became a problem about a year after I bought the radio (new). Actually there are two of them. Warning - do not spray them with a typical contact cleaner. If this gets on the alignment trimmers, it will melt the plastic between their plates (it isn't mica). Instead, I used a few drops of DeoxIt D5 into each switch. Work them back and forth a few time but do not use the radio for 3 days to allow the D5 carrier fluid to evaporate. No damage will be done if you try the radio but the alignment will be way off. After 3 days, the alignment will return to normal and the switch should work fine for many years.

Dave

Keep up such good work,Huesby

As of now the Panasonic RF 5000 which I posted the fix on here plus the big JVC RC-838WII boombox which I got 2 of them.

These are the radios that I'm using now.I got others buried somewhere .I got to dig them out and check them.

Thanks Ali for starting the thread on the RF5000 It hepl me get it up an running.

WELCOME TO THE FORUM !
Where are you from ?



Share your JVC's pictures !

Hi Ali.

I'm in the USA in Connecticut .


This one is my original which I got in 1982 new at the fleamarket.Which I use everyday in my bedroom.Payed $200 for it.



This one here which I use in my studio. I picked it up last year at the fleamarket for $25 dollars.It needed a good tune up and it needs a new tweeter on the left side.




The SW band works great on these radios. I got the service manual and schematics for these radio's.

Hello friend,
I am from Bikaner,India.

Nice lookin' boomboxes ya got there, WPPC. I have a boombox with SW, it works pretty well, also. Will never get rid of it.

Thanks.LOL .You got to be a bodybuilder to put one of these on your shoulder.They are very heavy.

Nice pictures ! I bought that JVC 30 years ago for a cousin (75 Dls) in Metex Inc. from Laredo Texas and I always wanted one for myself but I never could afford it, I liked its sound very much. It amaze me how much they cost now than when they were new, the JVC brand is bigger now when it´s almost dead than before.

Share pictures of your radios Vimal they are welcome here ! Does India have its own brand of radios ? Share with us !

OK,Huesby,
I will do that,once I make out how to do that.

I tried this with most of my SW transistor sets. I used my Boonton 102C signal generator which I believe to be accurate.

DAK MR101s _________-99 dbm
Zenith TO 3000-1 _____-104
Ge Monitor 10 ________-112
Philips 22RL798_______- 112
Grundig satellit 210 ____-114
RS DX440 ____________-123
Sony CRF330K ________-126

I was a little surprised that the DX440 beat out the Grundig. I don't know how picky to be about deciding whether I could hear the modulation or not. I decided to switch the modulation on and off and see if I could hear it come and go. I recorded the lowest level at which I could clearly hear it going on and off (IE: there was no doubt). I used the speaker, not a headset and 1KHz modulation which is better than 400hz for my lousy ears.

I didn't dig out the Mohican or an Allied set that I have. Oh, and I just spotted a GE world monitor across the room that I forgot about. Out of all of the radios I tested, the only one that I think might be working below par is the TO. It's just never lived up to my expectations and I'm not sure if it is working right or not.

Good idea for a fun experiment, Huesby. Maybe I'll drag out the other three and add them to the list.

Tony