SSB receivers

[ffiill]

I have been on the look out for an SSB receiver for some time and primarily have been watching NASA TARGET HF3 receivers on e bay.
However not only are they expensive new at around £200 plus but they often sell at a premium of £80 plus ish second hand.
Whilst there are plenty of good quality all band portable communication receivers about problem with many of the cheaper ones is that they only cover shortwave broadcast bands and dont cover the whole short wave range unlike the Nasa Target.
I then came across the Eton/Grundig G3 which has total coverage across short wave reception and also the the Eton S450DLX which is described as a field radio.
Both can be had for about £85 and both are capable of listening in on all marine frequencies and receiving Weatherfax transmissions.

 

[maby]

I have a Sony which is very similar and not at all bad. The stability is good, but selectivity is probably not as good as the NASA radios. Depends on what you want it for - if just general monitoring for curiosity, then the Eton/Grundig/Sony is fine - if you want it for safety critical applications, then I would probably spend a bit more.

 

[st599]

Buy a Degen de1103 for about £35.

It is stunningly sensitive.

 

[maby]

Buy a Degen de1103 for about £35.

It is stunningly sensitive.

The killer with almost all cheap radios is selectivity. The reviews of that Degen all praise its sensitivity, but talk about selectivity at 10khz - a serious SSB radio is offering selectivities of 3khz or better. It does look very good value for money and probably one of the best deals for casual monitoring of the SSB bands, but, again, probably not something you would want to rely on for safety critical applications

 

[Pye_End]

The Sony - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-ICFSW7600G-ICF-SW7600GR-World-Radio/dp/B00005ML49/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t is well worth considering.

 

[Conachair]

Buy a Degen de1103 for about £35.

It is stunningly sensitive.

+1. Before i knew anything about antennas a 1103 provided weatherfax from Carib - UK. Just with the ext antenna jack croc clipped into FM radio aerial. Works fine, not a great button layout but all you need is there. Gone ham route now but before heading off again will make up some leads to use the degen for wFax using ham antenna and signalink external laptop soundcard.


Much as I like nasa their hf3 really is pretty awful. Gave mine away to an impoverised cruiser.

 

[phanakapan]

Not totally on topic, but just done the Atlantic with a NASA Target receiver- worked allright I s'pose, picked up most of what I wanted to listen to- and received one or two wx's: but if I had more money I would definitely definitely get a transceiver, as just lurking on the various SSB nets has been very unsatisfactory - I really want to transmit as well. FWIW.

 

[whipper_snapper]

My old man is selling a Yaesu FT-817 which is a low power transceiver. THe transmit side is very low power, but it could be used as a nice all band receiver.

If anyone is interested, let me know, I will be in the uk in a week or 2 so could put it in the post.

 

[Poignard]

What about the Lokata? Were they any good?
I have one of these that I have never used and I wonder if it is worth eBaying it?

 

[ffiill]

Just tried out my Eton g3 second hand off e bay.
9.30 am;strong solar activity;internal aerial;and last but not least hemmed in with mountains.
The only open horizon above about 30 degrees being between south and south east.
UK weatherfax no problem;Med and UK nets OK;Boston weatherfax no signal;Rio de Janeiro audible but unuseable;Wellington NZ something transmitting but could be spurious.
The fact that you can just input frequencies numerically is great.
Also it will fit in a jacket pocket.
Next will be a home trial on 30 plus foot of horizontally polarised wire.
Worth every penny of the £40 it cost me on E Bay!

 

[widgeon]

+1 for the Degen 1103. It gave me excellent reception throughout the Fastnet Race and in the Med. I haven't yet tried it for serious ocean sailing though.

 

[agurney]

I had a Sony ICFpro80 and it gave great SSB reception, as well as decent coverage of other bands. It failed following a flood, and I replaced it with a Nasa Target SF3. A mistake.

The performance of the Sony was much better than the Nasa, and I believe other Sony ICF models have similarly good performance. I also have an AR8000 wide band scanner which is poorer than the Nasa for SSB.

I use SSB for WEFAX and NAVTEX. The best way I've found to decode from the Nasa is to take a tap off the loudspeaker and feed that into a laptop's sound card.

 

[st599]

Sony discontinued SSB a few years ago. Grundig are now Eton and have poor QC.

The Degen is the one to get.

 

[Pye_End]

Sony discontinued SSB a few years ago. Grundig are now Eton and have poor QC.

The Degen is the one to get.

The Sony ICF-SW7600GR that I linked to above is SSB and gives excellent results.

Recent threads on weatherfax from various cheap receivers are here:

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=301936&highlight=Sony

and here:

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=227868&page=3