Thomas Dickens schrieb:

All,

I recently saw the review of the Degen 1103 and am interested in
buying one. I already have a DX-440. I'm just getting back into the
hobby after a long absence. Has anyone compared these two receivers?
Could I expect similar performance,

Most likely so, with the Degen having better strong signal handling and
lower oscillator phase noise (the ATS-803A was a Typical '80s Noize Box
in that regard). It apparently also shines on FM, with very good
overload rejection.

or possibly somewhat better in the
Degen? The DX-440 seems to suffer somewhat from spurious signals on
some bands.

The '1103 is not free of images either, though its image rejection is a
bit better than that on the venerable Sony ICF-SW7600G(R) (which you may
want to pick instead if you value SSB more and can make use of a
sideband selectable sync detector).

Stephan
--
Home: http://stephan.win31.de/
PC#6: i440BX, 2xP3-500E, 704 MiB, 18+80 GB, R9k AGP 64 MiB, 110W

Thomas Dickens wrote in
:

All,

I recently saw the review of the Degen 1103 and am interested in
buying one. I already have a DX-440. I'm just getting back into the
hobby after a long absence. Has anyone compared these two receivers?
Could I expect similar performance, or possibly somewhat better in the
Degen? The DX-440 seems to suffer somewhat from spurious signals on
some bands.

Thanks in advance,
Tom


Note: I use ATS-803a and DX-440 here interchangeably since they are
practically the same radio.

I have the ATS-803a and the DE1103 so I can speak to this somewhat. For
shortwave listening, they are comparable. If I can receive something on
one, I can receive it on the other. Sound quality is similar, the bass
is slightly deeper on the ATS-803a. The speaker on the DE-1103 is quite
powerful for its size. I should note that my antenna is a single 20
foot horizontal wire in a detached garage away from my house, fed
through a transformer on an FT-43 torroid. Thus, I have no idea if
either would overload or not with a "real" antenna.

On MW, they both are comparable as well, but the small size of the DE-
1103 allows for easier rotation (on my desk, anyways) for optimal
reception. The ATS-803a/DX-440 has the benefit of turning off the MW
ferrite antenna when you plug in an antenna wire--on my desk, next to my
noisy computer, this allows me to silence the high RF interference
inside the house, and receive the signal from my (coax fed) wire antenna
instead.

The ATS-803a has a quirk where the tuning knob behaves strangly--at
least mine does--jumping 100 khz at a time sometimes, so the DE-1103 is
easier for me to use for manual bandscanning. I found some stations in
the day (22,19,16 m etc) that I missed before with autoscan. However,
it does get stuck in band segments (by design) and you have to hit the
band + button to jump to the next. To scan between "bands", you must
enter a frequency in the segment, and then use the knob to scan.

I don't know about the BFO's, they both seem to fine-tune as easily and
zero beat as easily, but except for a few HAMS, most SSB signals here
are so weak that I can't tell if either is any good. AFRTS, for
example, is tunable but too weak to hear.

As to FM, I have no idea, except that they both "work." They both
receive weak FM stations equally as far as I can tell.

Overall, the main advantage of the DE-1103 over the ATS-803a is its size
and portability. Also, the faux-analog display can help people like me
who don't have the bands memorized. The main advantage of the ATS-803a
is that a full service manual is available with full schematics, and
with the exception of a few components, if it breaks, you can probably
fix it, or someone else can. Also, the ATS-803a has massive batteries
that last for ages.

One final note, the Degen 1103 behaved very strangely when I received
it--it would only receive on even frequencies (i.e. 5000 not 5001), and
would lock-up a lot. I was almost ready to send it back when I tried
different batteries, in this case Energizer 2100 mAh NiCad's. Now,
everything works fine. I compared the batteries that came with it with
others, even with the AA's that came with my Degen 1102, and the 1103's
batteries they are about 0.6 mm shorter each. I suspect a weak battery
compartment spring and the shorter length was causing poor contact.

Oh, the Degen batteries? They are happily in my digital camera and
working fine.

Hope this helps.

Thanks to you all for taking the time to respond with your
experiences! Looks like I will be ordering the Degen any day now. Two
other things - I have noticed that, especially when I first turn it
on, the DX-440 needs to be tuned to 1 kHZ higher than the actual
frequency to get the best signal (e. g. WWV peaks on 10001). Also, it
seems noisier when using batteries as compared to the AC adapter - a
grounding issue?


Best regards,
Tom

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 02:38:13 GMT, Conan Ford
wrote:

Thomas Dickens wrote in
:

All,

I recently saw the review of the Degen 1103 and am interested in
buying one. I already have a DX-440. I'm just getting back into the
hobby after a long absence. Has anyone compared these two receivers?
Could I expect similar performance, or possibly somewhat better in the
Degen? The DX-440 seems to suffer somewhat from spurious signals on
some bands.

Thanks in advance,
Tom


Note: I use ATS-803a and DX-440 here interchangeably since they are
practically the same radio.

I have the ATS-803a and the DE1103 so I can speak to this somewhat. For
shortwave listening, they are comparable. If I can receive something on
one, I can receive it on the other. Sound quality is similar, the bass
is slightly deeper on the ATS-803a. The speaker on the DE-1103 is quite
powerful for its size. I should note that my antenna is a single 20
foot horizontal wire in a detached garage away from my house, fed
through a transformer on an FT-43 torroid. Thus, I have no idea if
either would overload or not with a "real" antenna.

On MW, they both are comparable as well, but the small size of the DE-
1103 allows for easier rotation (on my desk, anyways) for optimal
reception. The ATS-803a/DX-440 has the benefit of turning off the MW
ferrite antenna when you plug in an antenna wire--on my desk, next to my
noisy computer, this allows me to silence the high RF interference
inside the house, and receive the signal from my (coax fed) wire antenna
instead.

The ATS-803a has a quirk where the tuning knob behaves strangly--at
least mine does--jumping 100 khz at a time sometimes, so the DE-1103 is
easier for me to use for manual bandscanning. I found some stations in
the day (22,19,16 m etc) that I missed before with autoscan. However,
it does get stuck in band segments (by design) and you have to hit the
band + button to jump to the next. To scan between "bands", you must
enter a frequency in the segment, and then use the knob to scan.

I don't know about the BFO's, they both seem to fine-tune as easily and
zero beat as easily, but except for a few HAMS, most SSB signals here
are so weak that I can't tell if either is any good. AFRTS, for
example, is tunable but too weak to hear.

As to FM, I have no idea, except that they both "work." They both
receive weak FM stations equally as far as I can tell.

Overall, the main advantage of the DE-1103 over the ATS-803a is its size
and portability. Also, the faux-analog display can help people like me
who don't have the bands memorized. The main advantage of the ATS-803a
is that a full service manual is available with full schematics, and
with the exception of a few components, if it breaks, you can probably
fix it, or someone else can. Also, the ATS-803a has massive batteries
that last for ages.

One final note, the Degen 1103 behaved very strangely when I received
it--it would only receive on even frequencies (i.e. 5000 not 5001), and
would lock-up a lot. I was almost ready to send it back when I tried
different batteries, in this case Energizer 2100 mAh NiCad's. Now,
everything works fine. I compared the batteries that came with it with
others, even with the AA's that came with my Degen 1102, and the 1103's
batteries they are about 0.6 mm shorter each. I suspect a weak battery
compartment spring and the shorter length was causing poor contact.

Oh, the Degen batteries? They are happily in my digital camera and
working fine.

Hope this helps.

Thomas Dickens schrieb:

Thanks to you all for taking the time to respond with your
experiences! Looks like I will be ordering the Degen any day now. Two
other things - I have noticed that, especially when I first turn it
on, the DX-440 needs to be tuned to 1 kHZ higher than the actual
frequency to get the best signal (e. g. WWV peaks on 10001).

Plain ol' crystal aging. These tend to drift off their original
frequency as they get older. I'd suspect the one in the 2nd LO here,
since it has the highest nominal frequency. Realignment should fix that.

Also, it
seems noisier when using batteries as compared to the AC adapter - a
grounding issue?

Hmm. Maybe it is - I've only experienced reduced sensitivity on my 7600G
when not operated on mains, but no increased noise per se.

Stephan
--
Home: http://stephan.win31.de/
PC#6: i440BX, 2xP3-500E, 704 MiB, 18+80 GB, R9k AGP 64 MiB, 110W