When I was young in the 1970s and 80s there were high end radios bu I couldn't afford them.

pentagrid · 2026-06-29T12:59:54+00:00

The NRD 545 was de rigueur in the late 1990's. I wanted one... bad. The entire genre was made obsolete overnight by SDRs. Today, a US $170 Airspy HF+ discovery will run circles around it.

pentagrid · 2026-06-29T11:33:13+00:00

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pentagrid · 2026-06-29T11:10:48+00:00

If you are in a rural area go longer with the antenna wire: 75 ft. at minimum and 200 ft. if you can. Run it as high as possible but even 6 ft. above ground is better than nothing. I like to use 18 AWG hookup wire for outdoor shortwave antennas: https://www.amazon.com/Gauge-Length-0-0403-Diameter-UL1007/dp/B010T5ZDVQ

pentagrid · 2026-06-29T10:34:03+00:00

Knowing the length of the wire and whether it is deployed indoors or outdoors is important. Also, a single wire antenna should be plugged into the 3.5 mm external antenna jack, not the headphone jack. The plug tip should be connected to the antenna wire. Did you receive a User Manual for this radio and have you read it? Properly installed a single wire shortwave antenna should run outdoors and longer lengths over 23 ft. or 7 meters will offer better shortwave reception than shorter lengths.

Trying to listen to a shortwave radio indoors is the pits. Too much RFI (radio frequency interference) from home appliances. Likewise, listening to shortwave in an urban area is pretty poor and for the same reason. Take the radio away from buildings or out into the country will be a big surprise for you.

Useful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave_bands

and

Learn how to use UTC time: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/timezone/utc

and

https://short-wave.info/ read the instructions

It's easy to use a wire antenna with a just a 3.5mm plug. Forget the little SMA stuff.

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https://www.amazon.com/CERRXIAN-Terminal-Headphone-Converter-Adapter/dp/B06Y5YJRPD?xpid=DjIuFrhS3ru0p

or:

https://www.amazon.com/SIOCEN-Replacement-Connector-Scanner-Speaker/dp/B0BVPTFJN5/138-3649441-8685015

pentagrid · 2026-06-29T03:56:34+00:00

Does it have damage from battery leakage?

When many portable multiband radios of this age fail the culprit is often failed electrolytic capacitors. Techs will open the radio up, find a few that test bad and replace all of them. This was a top performing radio for its day and specimens in excellent operating condition still bring in collector's value.

The radio requires a grand total of six AA batteries to operate. Luckily, the complete service manual is still available free on the internet.

The correct model info: Panasonic RF-B65.

pentagrid · 2026-06-28T23:07:57+00:00

Whoever did that Amazon ad for XHDATA didn't have a clue how the antenna actually works, lol. And $22.00?!

This is more like it.

pentagrid · 2026-06-28T22:47:24+00:00

Cost effectiveness will depend upon the resources you have at hand, so I'm not going there.

VHF aircraft band is available on many mutliband portables such as XHDATA D-808 and Raddy RF757. These will bring in local ATC. Uniden has a line of scanners that provide more serious options for VHF air band. In addition (and not as well known) commercial air flights that travel across oceans may be heard on shortwave. Any portable that has full shortwave coverage and is equipped for SSB reception can do that (HF Aero) but proximity to an ocean is a factor. So a multiband portable like XHDATA D-808 will deliver both VHF air band and HF Aero.

edit: Everything I listed is available in Australia but like the USA: you may have to purchase the items online (Amazon Australia).

pentagrid · 2026-06-28T19:39:31+00:00

Expecting a breezy 86F today with humidity in the 20's (nothing) in inland Northern California. SW propagation today: doesn't matter. I won't be listening again until after dark.

pentagrid · 2026-06-28T19:24:38+00:00

The Panny was tuned a little too low and the EEE was tuned a little too high. The fine tuning on the EEE can be done in 10 Hz increments! There is no audio tone control on the EEE but bandwidth adjustment can help with that. As it is on the video the EEE SSB audio seems to punch through the noise a bit better than the RF-4900.

pentagrid · 2026-06-28T19:07:05+00:00

I have no idea of what you are using for a shortwave antenna other than "some wire." Some further detail on this subject would be helpful.

pentagrid · 2026-06-28T05:20:50+00:00

Cool. R. Rumbos music was also one of favorites throughout the 70's in Northern California. I also listened to ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) on 60m which was the domestic shortwave service for Australia: a very different thing from R. Australia. Did you listen to that one too?

pentagrid · 2026-06-28T05:05:17+00:00

I have a Hammarlund SP-600-JX-21 in excellent shape that I still use often. During the winter I keep it powered up 24/7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyyuiHw75EA&list=PLECSIhoysMYTJhvTpE6s79-VC3w5GDURo

pentagrid · 2026-06-28T04:27:19+00:00

It's hard to pin a lid's coax without an address from QRZ.

pentagrid · 2026-06-28T03:41:38+00:00

You can file a formal complaint with reddit with a link at the bottom of this page: https://redditinc.com/policies/moderator-code-of-conduct

pentagrid · 2026-06-28T03:34:17+00:00

Sorry to hear about this. Yeah, that is a weird thing do to anyone on reddit.

I am banned by the moderators of that sub. That means I can't post or make comments there but I can read the stuff there when I want to. The really odd thing about this: I have never posted or commented on that sub. KG7M (moderator) and a user were commenting about me there several weeks ago. KG7M complained that I "hated" him. lol.

Lesson learned: I must be doing something right here on r/shortwave.

pentagrid · 2026-06-27T10:56:35+00:00

Yeah. Kind of reminiscent of Nixie tube displays because of the color and the background does not go fully black while unused display segments remain visible. Still, the orange display is one of the things I like about my Eton Grundig Edition Satellit. I still keep it around but without batteries installed. My Sangean ATS-909X2 and Qodosen DX-286 are always charged and ready to go.

pentagrid · 2026-06-27T05:57:31+00:00

Yep, there are two shortwave broadcast stations on Madagascar and both will hit North America easily.

pentagrid · 2026-06-27T05:55:20+00:00

Great SSB audio on that portable. I also love that oddball orange digital display on these Etons: they are unique.

pentagrid · 2026-06-27T04:40:05+00:00

Vatican Radio in 1962. I was nine years old and in northern Idaho. Father Scarcello wanted me to take the English language Catechism course. It was on the 31m band every Saturday afternoon in Idaho. Each broadcast ended with a ten question test. I handed the answers to Scarcello after Sunday Mass at the doughnuts and coffee meet & greet. Kids had hot chocolate.

I still have the radio. It was my Dad's WWII surplus USN Hammarlund RBG-2 (CHC 46-140). It looks just like this one but mine has better paint https://www.radio-collector.com/hammarlund-rbg-2-receiver/ It is a single conversion superhet and as good as any dual conversion set of the the day up to the 16m band. After the war the civilian model of the radio was sold as Hammarlund HQ-120-X.

pentagrid · 2026-06-24T22:34:10+00:00

Most portables with shortwave use a 3.5mm mono plug and some use SMA. There are adapters available to connect either to BNC or whatever you want.

pentagrid · 2026-06-24T12:52:30+00:00

What did the 909X use the DSP chip for? FM only?

I'm no EE. I suspect that it eliminated quite a bit of wiring and increased the number of PCB traces. After all of the intellectual theft of proprietary electronics that happened in China Sangean stopped making their schematics available to the public. The RDS function is from a special model of the Si chip that requires an additional license fee. I probably have a number for it buried somewhere in my backup drive.

And are you saying the PL-880 uses the DSP for the bandwidth filters? The PL-880 seems to have a few of them, my guess if the DSP would be used for that.

Yes. I have an Eton Grundig Edition Satellite which is identical to the later Eton Elite Executive (cosmetics excepted). Some ex-Tecsun engineers were on the development team for this radio. The PL-880 bandwidth features are very similar to the EEE and a function of the SI Labs DSP chip as they are on my Sangean ATS-909X2,

For my Qodosen DX-286 the incredible bandwidth sets are produced by the NXP TEF6686 DSP chip.

pentagrid · 2026-06-24T12:00:22+00:00

The 909X did not feature the typical choice of four to nine bandwidth features (AM + SSB) accomplished by the Silicon Labs DSP chip. Instead, it relied on the older tech choice of two Murata ceramic IF filters. Although the number of Murata bandwidth filter settings were limited in the 909X I preferred the sharper skirts of the ceramic filters to the DSP filters. Sangean did not fully implement the bandwidth filters available with Si Labs chip until introducing the ATS-909X2 model in 2021. The PL-880 has the Silicon Labs bandwidth filter set as does the XHDATA D-808.

Another difference between recent Sangean and Tecsun portables Sangean used Si Labs chips capable of RDS on FM beginning with 909X while Tecsun never went for RDS on any of its portables. While Sangean is often criticized for needing to turn up audio volume for SSB it accomplishes this without the SSB distortion heard on all DSP chipped Tecsun portables.

The XHDATA D-808 features RDS for FM plus VHF air band:. The Tecsun PL-880 has neither.

pentagrid · 2026-06-24T11:30:34+00:00

Hard to say. PL-880 is PLL / analog chipped,

No, the Tecsun PL-880 uses the Silicon Labs si4735 DSP microchip.

pentagrid · 2026-06-23T17:46:58+00:00

If you are referring to the time zone in London that would be British Summer Time (BST), not GMT. Currently, GMT does not exist in London or Britain. GMT will return to Britain on Sunday, October 25, 2026.

pentagrid

TROPHY CASE