http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvYfXh_ZH0

In article . com,
says...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvYfXh_ZH0



I really wanted one after reading all the stuff written about it when I
first got bit by the higher end SW bug, it really sounded great. I had
nothing even approaching it though, so it would have been a major step
up, equipment wise.

But I was severely disappointed in it when I actually used one the first
time, then even more so a few minutes later when I played with a JRC
NRD-515. At that moment, every desire I had for a 6800 "Orange" was
dead. It took me almost two years before I bought my NRD-525, and
another year after that before I finally got my NRD-515. I still have
it, but the 525 has been replaced with a much later, improved one.

On top of it not being all that great of a receiver, the 6800 is pretty
damn ugly.

Nice video though. Miles ahead of the NRD-535 ones.

BDK

Yours must have been badly out of alignment. Properly set up, it's one of
the most sensitive as well as one of the quietest radios you'll ever have
the pleasure of using. It didn't get the reputation it did for nothing.

And some of us love the way it looks.


"BDK" wrote in message
...
In article . com,
says...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvYfXh_ZH0



I really wanted one after reading all the stuff written about it when I
first got bit by the higher end SW bug, it really sounded great. I had
nothing even approaching it though, so it would have been a major step
up, equipment wise.

But I was severely disappointed in it when I actually used one the first
time, then even more so a few minutes later when I played with a JRC
NRD-515. At that moment, every desire I had for a 6800 "Orange" was
dead. It took me almost two years before I bought my NRD-525, and
another year after that before I finally got my NRD-515. I still have
it, but the 525 has been replaced with a much later, improved one.

On top of it not being all that great of a receiver, the 6800 is pretty
damn ugly.

Nice video though. Miles ahead of the NRD-535 ones.

BDK

In article ,
says...
Yours must have been badly out of alignment. Properly set up, it's one of
the most sensitive as well as one of the quietest radios you'll ever have
the pleasure of using. It didn't get the reputation it did for nothing.

And some of us love the way it looks.

Well, it was brand new, about two days out of the box, and worked
exactly (As far as I could tell) like the one they had at Universal
Radio. The guy who bought the 6800W sold it when the 6800 Orange fever
kicked in for a small profit.

IMO, it got it's reputaion because at the time it was released, there
were few halfway decent new under $1000 receivers that were available
worldwide, and the Sony name. A name that has sadly been tarnished the
last few years. Deservedly so, IMO.

If you liked it, great. There are tons of receivers that I would have,
and still would pick over one, unless it was super cheap.

I think a lot of people like me think it's ugly because the front panel
is very "uniquely" laid out. Kind of like, "Put this knob here, and that
dial there...whoops, we forgot to put those buttons in! Oh crap, where
are we gonna put that other knob?"

BDK





"BDK" wrote in message
...
In article . com,
says...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvYfXh_ZH0



I really wanted one after reading all the stuff written about it when I
first got bit by the higher end SW bug, it really sounded great. I had
nothing even approaching it though, so it would have been a major step
up, equipment wise.

But I was severely disappointed in it when I actually used one the first
time, then even more so a few minutes later when I played with a JRC
NRD-515. At that moment, every desire I had for a 6800 "Orange" was
dead. It took me almost two years before I bought my NRD-525, and
another year after that before I finally got my NRD-515. I still have
it, but the 525 has been replaced with a much later, improved one.

On top of it not being all that great of a receiver, the 6800 is pretty
damn ugly.

Nice video though. Miles ahead of the NRD-535 ones.

BDK

The 6800 Orange model isn't a bad receiver. It would have been nice if they
would have had more selectivity at the 1st I.F. If it wasn't so hard to work
on, I would probably put a crystal filter in that area, but not in this
century.
It is not quite my worst receiver..........my Magnavox D-2999 is the worst,
with all of its birdies on the MW band. I got stuck with it as part of a
trade with the McKay Dymek Dr-22C that I picked up in the same deal.
The Dymek is a pretty good receiver; it uses a Mini-Circuits SRA-3H mixer
as the 1st mixer. This mixer is rated down to 40kHz, but unfortunately, the
phase noise from the synthesizer limits the usable sensitivity below 100kHz.
They should have used a post mixer amplifier instead of putting the RF
amplifier ahead of the 1st mixer. It could be that the low-pass and
high-pass filters in the preselector have such high insertion loss that they
needed to have that RF amp just to make up for the insertion loss.
I remember the DR-33..............they decided to "roll their own" with the
1st mixer on this unit. Sensitivity wasn't as good as the DR-22 receivers,
at least with the unit that I played with. I ended up replacing that mixer
with a TFM-1H and both sensitivity and IMD performance improved quite a bit.

Pete

"BDK" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...
Yours must have been badly out of alignment. Properly set up, it's one
of
the most sensitive as well as one of the quietest radios you'll ever have
the pleasure of using. It didn't get the reputation it did for nothing.

And some of us love the way it looks.

Well, it was brand new, about two days out of the box, and worked
exactly (As far as I could tell) like the one they had at Universal
Radio. The guy who bought the 6800W sold it when the 6800 Orange fever
kicked in for a small profit.

IMO, it got it's reputaion because at the time it was released, there
were few halfway decent new under $1000 receivers that were available
worldwide, and the Sony name. A name that has sadly been tarnished the
last few years. Deservedly so, IMO.

If you liked it, great. There are tons of receivers that I would have,
and still would pick over one, unless it was super cheap.

I think a lot of people like me think it's ugly because the front panel
is very "uniquely" laid out. Kind of like, "Put this knob here, and that
dial there...whoops, we forgot to put those buttons in! Oh crap, where
are we gonna put that other knob?"

BDK





"BDK" wrote in message
...
In article . com,
says...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvYfXh_ZH0



I really wanted one after reading all the stuff written about it when I
first got bit by the higher end SW bug, it really sounded great. I had
nothing even approaching it though, so it would have been a major step
up, equipment wise.

But I was severely disappointed in it when I actually used one the
first
time, then even more so a few minutes later when I played with a JRC
NRD-515. At that moment, every desire I had for a 6800 "Orange" was
dead. It took me almost two years before I bought my NRD-525, and
another year after that before I finally got my NRD-515. I still have
it, but the 525 has been replaced with a much later, improved one.

On top of it not being all that great of a receiver, the 6800 is pretty
damn ugly.

Nice video though. Miles ahead of the NRD-535 ones.

BDK

In article ,
says...
The 6800 Orange model isn't a bad receiver. It would have been nice if they
would have had more selectivity at the 1st I.F. If it wasn't so hard to work
on, I would probably put a crystal filter in that area, but not in this
century.
It is not quite my worst receiver..........my Magnavox D-2999 is the worst,
with all of its birdies on the MW band. I got stuck with it as part of a
trade with the McKay Dymek Dr-22C that I picked up in the same deal.
The Dymek is a pretty good receiver; it uses a Mini-Circuits SRA-3H mixer
as the 1st mixer. This mixer is rated down to 40kHz, but unfortunately, the
phase noise from the synthesizer limits the usable sensitivity below 100kHz.
They should have used a post mixer amplifier instead of putting the RF
amplifier ahead of the 1st mixer. It could be that the low-pass and
high-pass filters in the preselector have such high insertion loss that they
needed to have that RF amp just to make up for the insertion loss.
I remember the DR-33..............they decided to "roll their own" with the
1st mixer on this unit. Sensitivity wasn't as good as the DR-22 receivers,
at least with the unit that I played with. I ended up replacing that mixer
with a TFM-1H and both sensitivity and IMD performance improved quite a bit.

Pete


A friend bought a D-2999 at a hamfest, it was in new condition about 10
years old or so, and it went for a really cheap price. He kept it for a
while, but was very unhappy with it in general, except the audio was
pretty decent.

Ny friend's dad had an amazing collection of receivers, from the super
common Yaesu FRG's, to some German and Asian ones I have never seen
except for pics. I sure wish I could have grabbed a couple of them when
he died, and my friend sold most of them and his insanely huge
collection of parts. He had a mint Hammarlund HQ-180A that I wanted so
damn bad, but my tranny blew up on my truck and my dog was going in for
surgery, so I had to pass on all of them. He had some really great stuff
that I would really love to have now.

BDK


"BDK" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...
Yours must have been badly out of alignment. Properly set up, it's one
of
the most sensitive as well as one of the quietest radios you'll ever have
the pleasure of using. It didn't get the reputation it did for nothing.

And some of us love the way it looks.

Well, it was brand new, about two days out of the box, and worked
exactly (As far as I could tell) like the one they had at Universal
Radio. The guy who bought the 6800W sold it when the 6800 Orange fever
kicked in for a small profit.

IMO, it got it's reputaion because at the time it was released, there
were few halfway decent new under $1000 receivers that were available
worldwide, and the Sony name. A name that has sadly been tarnished the
last few years. Deservedly so, IMO.

If you liked it, great. There are tons of receivers that I would have,
and still would pick over one, unless it was super cheap.

I think a lot of people like me think it's ugly because the front panel
is very "uniquely" laid out. Kind of like, "Put this knob here, and that
dial there...whoops, we forgot to put those buttons in! Oh crap, where
are we gonna put that other knob?"

BDK





"BDK" wrote in message
...
In article . com,
says...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvYfXh_ZH0



I really wanted one after reading all the stuff written about it when I
first got bit by the higher end SW bug, it really sounded great. I had
nothing even approaching it though, so it would have been a major step
up, equipment wise.

But I was severely disappointed in it when I actually used one the
first
time, then even more so a few minutes later when I played with a JRC
NRD-515. At that moment, every desire I had for a 6800 "Orange" was
dead. It took me almost two years before I bought my NRD-525, and
another year after that before I finally got my NRD-515. I still have
it, but the 525 has been replaced with a much later, improved one.

On top of it not being all that great of a receiver, the 6800 is pretty
damn ugly.

Nice video though. Miles ahead of the NRD-535 ones.

BDK

On Aug 11, 10:46 pm, BDK wrote:
In article . com,
says...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvYfXh_ZH0

I really wanted one after reading all the stuff written about it when I
first got bit by the higher end SW bug, it really sounded great. I had
nothing even approaching it though, so it would have been a major step
up, equipment wise.

But I was severely disappointed in it when I actually used one the first
time, then even more so a few minutes later when I played with a JRC
NRD-515. At that moment, every desire I had for a 6800 "Orange" was
dead. It took me almost two years before I bought my NRD-525, and
another year after that before I finally got my NRD-515. I still have
it, but the 525 has been replaced with a much later, improved one.

On top of it not being all that great of a receiver, the 6800 is pretty
damn ugly.

Nice video though. Miles ahead of the NRD-535 ones.

BDK

It was a nice radio for it's time, and it ranked above the Panasonic
RF luggables in terms of performance but below a good tabletop. But
like the Panasonic units it is an outdated analog reveiver that relies
on fiddly tuning and a tacked on digital display. After 30 years the
many electro-mechanical contacts are likely to be less than reliable
in terms of performance.

In article .com,
says...
On Aug 11, 10:46 pm, BDK wrote:
In article . com,
says...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvYfXh_ZH0

I really wanted one after reading all the stuff written about it when I
first got bit by the higher end SW bug, it really sounded great. I had
nothing even approaching it though, so it would have been a major step
up, equipment wise.

But I was severely disappointed in it when I actually used one the first
time, then even more so a few minutes later when I played with a JRC
NRD-515. At that moment, every desire I had for a 6800 "Orange" was
dead. It took me almost two years before I bought my NRD-525, and
another year after that before I finally got my NRD-515. I still have
it, but the 525 has been replaced with a much later, improved one.

On top of it not being all that great of a receiver, the 6800 is pretty
damn ugly.

Nice video though. Miles ahead of the NRD-535 ones.

BDK

It was a nice radio for it's time, and it ranked above the Panasonic
RF luggables in terms of performance but below a good tabletop. But
like the Panasonic units it is an outdated analog reveiver that relies
on fiddly tuning and a tacked on digital display. After 30 years the
many electro-mechanical contacts are likely to be less than reliable
in terms of performance.



I'm shocked at how much stuff from back then still works fine. I
recently, for no real reason, bought an old cassette deck to replace the
almost identical one I bought in 1971 and used for over 30 years. One of
the direct drive motors died on it, and I couldn't find a replacement
for anything close to a sane price, so I finally dumped it after a year
of looking. A few weeks later, there was a nasty looking, but 100%
working one at the local Goodwill store. Price was $10. Damn.


The one I bought recently looks brand new, just like mine did, and it
works great. Even all the bulbs still work. Not bad for 36 years young.

I recently fixed a Yaesu FRG7 that had died due to solder joints
cracking. They were really easy to find with a Jeweler's Loupe and I had
it fixed and 100% operational in less than one hour.

My own project radio is an old Allied SX190 that works, but not great,
on all bands, except for 9.4-10MHZ, it blasts in, to the point of
overloading. There's something really obscure wrong with it in the
preselector someplace that I haven't found yet.

BDK

In article . com,
says...
On Aug 13, 3:41 pm, BDK wrote:
In article .com,
says...





On Aug 11, 10:46 pm, BDK wrote:
In article . com,
says...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvYfXh_ZH0

I really wanted one after reading all the stuff written about it when I
first got bit by the higher end SW bug, it really sounded great. I had
nothing even approaching it though, so it would have been a major step
up, equipment wise.

But I was severely disappointed in it when I actually used one the first
time, then even more so a few minutes later when I played with a JRC
NRD-515. At that moment, every desire I had for a 6800 "Orange" was
dead. It took me almost two years before I bought my NRD-525, and
another year after that before I finally got my NRD-515. I still have
it, but the 525 has been replaced with a much later, improved one.

On top of it not being all that great of a receiver, the 6800 is pretty
damn ugly.

Nice video though. Miles ahead of the NRD-535 ones.

BDK

It was a nice radio for it's time, and it ranked above the Panasonic
RF luggables in terms of performance but below a good tabletop. But
like the Panasonic units it is an outdated analog reveiver that relies
on fiddly tuning and a tacked on digital display. After 30 years the
many electro-mechanical contacts are likely to be less than reliable
in terms of performance.

I'm shocked at how much stuff from back then still works fine. I
recently, for no real reason, bought an old cassette deck to replace the
almost identical one I bought in 1971 and used for over 30 years. One of
the direct drive motors died on it, and I couldn't find a replacement
for anything close to a sane price, so I finally dumped it after a year
of looking. A few weeks later, there was a nasty looking, but 100%
working one at the local Goodwill store. Price was $10. Damn.

The one I bought recently looks brand new, just like mine did, and it
works great. Even all the bulbs still work. Not bad for 36 years young.

I recently fixed a Yaesu FRG7 that had died due to solder joints
cracking. They were really easy to find with a Jeweler's Loupe and I had
it fixed and 100% operational in less than one hour.

My own project radio is an old Allied SX190 that works, but not great,
on all bands, except for 9.4-10MHZ, it blasts in, to the point of
overloading. There's something really obscure wrong with it in the
preselector someplace that I haven't found yet.

BDK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It really depends on how it was used and stored. But I agree, some
radios can work like little 30 year old wonders and others can be a
real PITA because of noisy controls or band switches that only work at
one position 1/64 inch away from the detent.

I had great luck with a Realistic DX150B and speaker. A simple
realignment of the tuning dial resulted in a hot little radio for
$10.00 Same for a 1970 Panasonic RF5000b. OTOH a Kenwood R300 was a
lot of fun on the bands that worked but frustrating on the ones that
didn't.


I've emailed a couple of SX/AX-190 gurus and they seem to agree, since
my radio works like it's supposed to on the one band, it's almost
certainly the preselector, but I can't seem to find the problem. I
changed out all the old electrolytic caps to fix a bad hum problem, a
couple of the "styrol" caps and got it going well enough to barely pick
up stuff on every band, and then spent one night hitting every off
looking joint I could see, and it came alive on the 9.4-10MHZ band, but
remains semi deaf everywhere else. I kind of put if off to the side for
a while, but one of these nights I'll mess with it until I get it
working, and then it will go on the "look at a lot, don't use much"
shelf with my shockingly great modded to the max Hammarlund HQ-100.

BDK

On Aug 14, 12:38 am, BDK wrote:
In article . com,
says...



On Aug 13, 3:41 pm, BDK wrote:
In article .com,
says...

On Aug 11, 10:46 pm, BDK wrote:
In article . com,
says...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvYfXh_ZH0

I really wanted one after reading all the stuff written about it when I
first got bit by the higher end SW bug, it really sounded great. I had
nothing even approaching it though, so it would have been a major step
up, equipment wise.

But I was severely disappointed in it when I actually used one the first
time, then even more so a few minutes later when I played with a JRC
NRD-515. At that moment, every desire I had for a 6800 "Orange" was
dead. It took me almost two years before I bought my NRD-525, and
another year after that before I finally got my NRD-515. I still have
it, but the 525 has been replaced with a much later, improved one.

On top of it not being all that great of a receiver, the 6800 is pretty
damn ugly.

Nice video though. Miles ahead of the NRD-535 ones.

BDK

It was a nice radio for it's time, and it ranked above the Panasonic
RF luggables in terms of performance but below a good tabletop. But
like the Panasonic units it is an outdated analog reveiver that relies
on fiddly tuning and a tacked on digital display. After 30 years the
many electro-mechanical contacts are likely to be less than reliable
in terms of performance.

I'm shocked at how much stuff from back then still works fine. I
recently, for no real reason, bought an old cassette deck to replace the
almost identical one I bought in 1971 and used for over 30 years. One of
the direct drive motors died on it, and I couldn't find a replacement
for anything close to a sane price, so I finally dumped it after a year
of looking. A few weeks later, there was a nasty looking, but 100%
working one at the local Goodwill store. Price was $10. Damn.

The one I bought recently looks brand new, just like mine did, and it
works great. Even all the bulbs still work. Not bad for 36 years young.

I recently fixed a Yaesu FRG7 that had died due to solder joints
cracking. They were really easy to find with a Jeweler's Loupe and I had
it fixed and 100% operational in less than one hour.

My own project radio is an old Allied SX190 that works, but not great,
on all bands, except for 9.4-10MHZ, it blasts in, to the point of
overloading. There's something really obscure wrong with it in the
preselector someplace that I haven't found yet.

BDK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It really depends on how it was used and stored. But I agree, some
radios can work like little 30 year old wonders and others can be a
real PITA because of noisy controls or band switches that only work at
one position 1/64 inch away from the detent.

I had great luck with a Realistic DX150B and speaker. A simple
realignment of the tuning dial resulted in a hot little radio for
$10.00 Same for a 1970 Panasonic RF5000b. OTOH a Kenwood R300 was a
lot of fun on the bands that worked but frustrating on the ones that
didn't.

I've emailed a couple of SX/AX-190 gurus and they seem to agree, since
my radio works like it's supposed to on the one band, it's almost
certainly the preselector, but I can't seem to find the problem. I
changed out all the old electrolytic caps to fix a bad hum problem, a
couple of the "styrol" caps and got it going well enough to barely pick
up stuff on every band, and then spent one night hitting every off
looking joint I could see, and it came alive on the 9.4-10MHZ band, but
remains semi deaf everywhere else. I kind of put if off to the side for
a while, but one of these nights I'll mess with it until I get it
working, and then it will go on the "look at a lot, don't use much"
shelf with my shockingly great modded to the max Hammarlund HQ-100.

BDK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That's a wierd one...