Hello all

I may be buying a R75 shortly but have a question on its broadcast band
capacity. I have heard that the R75 is not a very good receiver for
listening to AM broadcasting because of its poor synch detector. I am
wondering if it is as bad as the reviews say it is or is it something
that can be overcome.
Also I am curious as to how the Eton E1 would compare to the R75 in
performance as I have heard good things about it as well. I am hesitant
in putting down $500 on a portable radio but would like to weigh all
the options before deciding which receiver to get

Thanks

In article . com,
"GP" wrote:

Hello all

I may be buying a R75 shortly but have a question on its broadcast
band capacity. I have heard that the R75 is not a very good receiver
for listening to AM broadcasting because of its poor synch detector.
I am wondering if it is as bad as the reviews say it is or is it
something that can be overcome.

It's an OK radio on some accounts but the AGC and sync circuits don't
function well and the audio sucks. Apparently the radio can be modified
to resolve these problems.

Also I am curious as to how the Eton E1 would compare to the R75 in
performance as I have heard good things about it as well. I am
hesitant in putting down $500 on a portable radio but would like to
weigh all the options before deciding which receiver to get

You don't have to modify an E1 for it to work right. I don't own an E1
but the specifications and features look good to me. Reports from
reliable people in the news group that have purchased an E1 are good.
Reports from reliable people in the news group about the R75 are not
so good.

Don't pay any attention to the Trolling idiots.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

GP wrote:
Hello all

I may be buying a R75 shortly but have a question on its broadcast band
capacity. I have heard that the R75 is not a very good receiver for
listening to AM broadcasting because of its poor synch detector. I am
wondering if it is as bad as the reviews say it is or is it something
that can be overcome.
Also I am curious as to how the Eton E1 would compare to the R75 in
performance as I have heard good things about it as well. I am hesitant
in putting down $500 on a portable radio but would like to weigh all
the options before deciding which receiver to get

This is a bit complicated, and may depend more on your electronic
abilities and how you like to use a receiver than the two radios.

The R75 is a very good receiver with some real faults. The sync det is
as bad as "they" say it is, essentially useless as delivered IMO.
There is a lot of info available on the Yahoo R75 group. The
sensitivity is reduced on MW, the AGC can use improvement, and the
fidelity needs some help (fidelity can impact your ability to ID a weak
signal by quite a bit). All these things can be addressed. A good
place to look for the mods is Kiwa Electronics:
http://kiwa.com/R75.html
You will see that you can send in the receiver to Kiwa to get the work
done or get the components in kit form. If you or someone you know is
comfortable doing this kind of soldering etc (I am not) then the
improvements can be made at relatively low cost. If you send it in the
cost is higher, plus shipping two ways. When done, the receiver is an
excellent SSB unit and a good AM unit, again IMO and from info from
others.
A real advantage of the R75 is that with the filters provided there is
great flexibility in bandwidth. Icom provides the ability to select
filters in two IF's both 9 MHz and 455 kHz. (It is a triple conversion
design) You can also adjust both if freqs using the dual passband
tuning controls. This gives the ability to smoothly adjust the
passband width, especially if similar filters are selected in both IFs.
You could do this, for example, with the two 2.4 kHz filters as
supplied. A good discussion of dual passband tuning can be found he
http://www.qsl.net/icom/xfilter.html
there is also useful info in the ARRL handbook.

The E1 is an amazing little receiver. It is not so easily modifiable
as an R75, but as delivered it doesn't need so much either. It is not
like a table top in that you can't add filters by plugging them in, for
example, but what is there is good. It doesn't have dsp, but if that
is important to you, it can be added to the audio out, albeit at a
cost. It is also not quite like a portable since it has no AM ferrite
antenna and no handle, but it works well on the whip and is pretty
easily carried due to the "rubbery" surface. The sync det is very
good.
If you decide to buy one, look around for a better deal than $500.
Refurbed units were recently available through Heartland for quite a
bit less, but no more I think. Maybe they or somebody else will get
more. Be sure to try the various search engines. You might ask at
Universal Radio what it would cost if you didn't want the "free"
Grundig radio they offer. Reports are that they will reduce the price
as an alternative. There is also a Yahoo group for the E1 with good
info.

You have to determine what you want in a receiver and how -you- will
use it. These are both good receivers that have both good features and
design compromises. (Don't they all!) Decide which best serves your
particular needs.
Keep in mind that whatever you read in groups or on sites (including
this post), the information is the writer's opinion and reflects where
they are coming from with respect to what they use the equipment for
and how they use it. Someone who does tropical band dxing would have
different needs than a low frequency beacon hunter or an amateur band
CW person.

Good luck, and hope that helps, Bob

In article telamon_spamshield-CE5C0F.21381414122006
@newsclstr02.news.prodigy.com,
lid says...
In article . com,
"GP" wrote:

Hello all

I may be buying a R75 shortly but have a question on its broadcast
band capacity. I have heard that the R75 is not a very good receiver
for listening to AM broadcasting because of its poor synch detector.
I am wondering if it is as bad as the reviews say it is or is it
something that can be overcome.

It's an OK radio on some accounts but the AGC and sync circuits don't
function well and the audio sucks. Apparently the radio can be modified
to resolve these problems.

Also I am curious as to how the Eton E1 would compare to the R75 in
performance as I have heard good things about it as well. I am
hesitant in putting down $500 on a portable radio but would like to
weigh all the options before deciding which receiver to get

You don't have to modify an E1 for it to work right. I don't own an E1
but the specifications and features look good to me. Reports from
reliable people in the news group that have purchased an E1 are good.
Reports from reliable people in the news group about the R75 are not
so good.

Don't pay any attention to the Trolling idiots.



The R75 is a much much better receiver than the E1. It's not even close.

BDK

Out of the box the R-75 for AM reception on the shortwave bands might
be disappointing, filters are just too wide and while the narrow filter
works fine, it is just too muddy for listening to AM programs. Not sure
about the complaints on the audio from R-75 users, IMO using the 6khz
and 15khz filters on AM the audio is nicer and cleaner than many other
radios I have used in the past in or about the same price range with
the exception of Drake R-8 series but that is a more expensive rig, the
S-AM does not improve anything, my Grundig Satellit 700 runs circles
around the R-75 on AM.
On SSB its a different story, I find this radio to be very good on SSB,
low noise floor, sensitive, selective with good clean audio and just
great overall performance, twin PBT works well and this radio can also
be used in SSB to dig out those weak AM stations in crowded bands I
think this is called ECSS.
I would eventually like to try an additional filter for AM and I wonder
what others have used in the 455khz open slot to improve AM reception?

These are just my impressions after a month of use and without any mods
or optional filters and I have not used the Eton E1

Gil

GP wrote:
Hello all

I may be buying a R75 shortly but have a question on its broadcast band
capacity. I have heard that the R75 is not a very good receiver for
listening to AM broadcasting because of its poor synch detector. I am
wondering if it is as bad as the reviews say it is or is it something
that can be overcome.
Also I am curious as to how the Eton E1 would compare to the R75 in
performance as I have heard good things about it as well. I am hesitant
in putting down $500 on a portable radio but would like to weigh all
the options before deciding which receiver to get

Thanks

Thanks to all the info...Will probably get the the R75 in the near
future...

Cheers

Greg

On 16 Dec 2006 11:41:04 -0800, "GP" wrote:


Thanks to all the info...Will probably get the the R75 in the near
future...

Cheers

Greg

With Icom's background in amateur radio, I suspect the r-75 is better
in the ham bands than it is in general sw receive. The Passport Radio
review seems to bear that out. My little Sony 2010 is better for sw
listening than my Icom 735... but the 735 is better at ham stuff.

Ya makes your choice.

bob
k5qwg

With the exception of the poor AM audio, the R75 is a good receiver throught
its whole tuning range, especially after you remove the MW/LW attenuator.
It is very good for dx, but because of the audio quality, I only turn it on
once or twice a year, and that is for about 20, minutes at a time. One of
these days, I will do the audio mods.
Even Icom's general coverage amateur transceivers do a good job throughout
their entire tuning range, once you remove the MW/LW attenuators. I had a
735 years ago, and it did work better than the Sony 2010.
I would suspect that something must not be entirely right with your 735. The
2010 is a very good receiver, but it is not in the class of the general
coverage amateur transceivers unless you take the AM Sync detection into
account.
Some of the older crystal controlled amateur band transceivers might not
work very well out of their normal tuning ranges, but that would be because
of the input bandpass filters that were limited to the amateur bands.
With the newer upconversion transceivers, this is no longer an issue since
suboctave filters are now being used in the front end. This allows optimum
performance over the entire tuning range of the radio.
I hope this helps.

Pete

"Bob Miller" wrote in message
...
On 16 Dec 2006 11:41:04 -0800, "GP" wrote:


Thanks to all the info...Will probably get the the R75 in the near
future...

Cheers

Greg

With Icom's background in amateur radio, I suspect the r-75 is better
in the ham bands than it is in general sw receive. The Passport Radio
review seems to bear that out. My little Sony 2010 is better for sw
listening than my Icom 735... but the 735 is better at ham stuff.

Ya makes your choice.

bob
k5qwg

On Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:12:57 -0600, "Pete KE9OA"
wrote:

With the exception of the poor AM audio, the R75 is a good receiver throught
its whole tuning range, especially after you remove the MW/LW attenuator.
It is very good for dx, but because of the audio quality, I only turn it on
once or twice a year, and that is for about 20, minutes at a time. One of
these days, I will do the audio mods.
Even Icom's general coverage amateur transceivers do a good job throughout
their entire tuning range, once you remove the MW/LW attenuators. I had a
735 years ago, and it did work better than the Sony 2010.
I would suspect that something must not be entirely right with your 735. The
2010 is a very good receiver, but it is not in the class of the general
coverage amateur transceivers unless you take the AM Sync detection into
account.

The 735 is fine, very sensitive. I was mainly referring to some of the
2010's scanning and tuning niceties, going to specific sw bands with
the punch of a button -- the 735 is more of a "stick shift" type of
listening rig to me, fine for ham band use, but the 2010 gets me
around to sw stuff easier.

One reason I still have my 735 after all these years is I don't think
the new rigs would be appreciably more sensitive at picking out weak
or crowded signals... :-)

bob
k5qwg

Some of the older crystal controlled amateur band transceivers might not
work very well out of their normal tuning ranges, but that would be because
of the input bandpass filters that were limited to the amateur bands.
With the newer upconversion transceivers, this is no longer an issue since
suboctave filters are now being used in the front end. This allows optimum
performance over the entire tuning range of the radio.
I hope this helps.

Pete

"Bob Miller" wrote in message
.. .
On 16 Dec 2006 11:41:04 -0800, "GP" wrote:


Thanks to all the info...Will probably get the the R75 in the near
future...

Cheers

Greg

With Icom's background in amateur radio, I suspect the r-75 is better
in the ham bands than it is in general sw receive. The Passport Radio
review seems to bear that out. My little Sony 2010 is better for sw
listening than my Icom 735... but the 735 is better at ham stuff.

Ya makes your choice.

bob
k5qwg