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#1
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it sounds like the E1 is better than I thought it would be, this one
could go down in history as a classic. I wonder if the Degen 1108 will be even better since it will have the E1 to jump off of. many of the complaints I have read seem to be of the "misunderstood" nature and if the designer was present to answer them would actually make sense. I believe that even though the set has XM circuitry, it is a bonus for american users and that the set was really designed for a global market and that is the reason for the antenna connector that is a pain for the US user. notice the choice for the FM range in the setup options. I have a feeling that they left out the ferrite antenna because the set is too big to rotate and they wanted it to be more omnidirectional for the average user and that anyone that cared to MW DX would not be stupid enough to use a built in rod and would use at least a hardwire connected select-a-tenna for max signal gathering. with a set of this awesome performance, ECSS is a waste of time. ecss is overrated because of the work involved in accurately tuning the signal for proper audio fidelity reconstruction and PHASING ! with the sync performance that is available ECSS sould be forgotten and use that selectable sync. even though I have no immediate plans to buy an E1, I will still study the manual. when I can get one for around $300 used, I will pick one up. |
#2
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The most important thing about any radio,in my opinion,is
Antenna,Antenna,Antenna and if that radio only has a so so Antenna,at that price,new,,, I will wait and see if one shows up at the Goodwill store where I can buy it for about two or three dollars. cuhulin |
#3
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Hi Mike,
It is not a matter of stupidity to use an internal loopstick antenna. It is quite possible to design a portable radio with a loopstick antenna that has MW performance that at least equals a good communications receiver that has an external amplified loop antenna connected to it. I have just finished up a prototype this evening that does just that. It is an easy matter to have facilities to switch the antenna out of the circuit the way that Grundig has done with their Satellit receivers for several years. It is also very easy to bypass the switching altogether and merely wind a small coupling loop around the ferrite for an external antenna connection. 5 to 10 turns of Litz wire would do the trick. The E1 is a very good radio, and I will probably pick one up in the next year or so. Is it worth the money they are asking for it? Probably. Will the price come down after the initial wave of sales. Hopefully. The radio does have XM circuitry, and I know that XM radio was a big purchaser of the Analog Devices AD607 demodulator chip that I based my Sync detector on, so if this is the case, this could be a very good radio indeed. A friend of mine did play his E1 over the phone and it did sound good.......quite a bit of gain. He told me that he didn't have any IMD problems, so it sounds like a winner. Pete "mike maghakian" wrote in message ... it sounds like the E1 is better than I thought it would be, this one could go down in history as a classic. I wonder if the Degen 1108 will be even better since it will have the E1 to jump off of. many of the complaints I have read seem to be of the "misunderstood" nature and if the designer was present to answer them would actually make sense. I believe that even though the set has XM circuitry, it is a bonus for american users and that the set was really designed for a global market and that is the reason for the antenna connector that is a pain for the US user. notice the choice for the FM range in the setup options. I have a feeling that they left out the ferrite antenna because the set is too big to rotate and they wanted it to be more omnidirectional for the average user and that anyone that cared to MW DX would not be stupid enough to use a built in rod and would use at least a hardwire connected select-a-tenna for max signal gathering. with a set of this awesome performance, ECSS is a waste of time. ecss is overrated because of the work involved in accurately tuning the signal for proper audio fidelity reconstruction and PHASING ! with the sync performance that is available ECSS sould be forgotten and use that selectable sync. even though I have no immediate plans to buy an E1, I will still study the manual. when I can get one for around $300 used, I will pick one up. |
#4
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![]() "Pete KE9OA" wrote in message ... Hi Mike, It is not a matter of stupidity to use an internal loopstick antenna. It is quite possible to design a portable radio with a loopstick antenna that has MW performance that at least equals a good communications receiver that has an external amplified loop antenna connected to it. I have just finished up a prototype this evening that does just that. It is an easy matter to have facilities to switch the antenna out of the circuit the way that Grundig has done with their Satellit receivers for several years. It is also very easy to bypass the switching altogether and merely wind a small coupling loop around the ferrite for an external antenna connection. 5 to 10 turns of Litz wire would do the trick. The E1 is a very good radio, and I will probably pick one up in the next year or so. Is it worth the money they are asking for it? Probably. Will the price come down after the initial wave of sales. Hopefully. The radio does have XM circuitry, and I know that XM radio was a big purchaser of the Analog Devices AD607 demodulator chip that I based my Sync detector on, so if this is the case, this could be a very good radio indeed. A friend of mine did play his E1 over the phone and it did sound good.......quite a bit of gain. He told me that he didn't have any IMD problems, so it sounds like a winner. Pete "mike maghakian" wrote in message ... it sounds like the E1 is better than I thought it would be, this one could go down in history as a classic. I wonder if the Degen 1108 will be even better since it will have the E1 to jump off of. many of the complaints I have read seem to be of the "misunderstood" nature and if the designer was present to answer them would actually make sense. I believe that even though the set has XM circuitry, it is a bonus for american users and that the set was really designed for a global market and that is the reason for the antenna connector that is a pain for the US user. notice the choice for the FM range in the setup options. I have a feeling that they left out the ferrite antenna because the set is too big to rotate and they wanted it to be more omnidirectional for the average user and that anyone that cared to MW DX would not be stupid enough to use a built in rod and would use at least a hardwire connected select-a-tenna for max signal gathering. with a set of this awesome performance, ECSS is a waste of time. ecss is overrated because of the work involved in accurately tuning the signal for proper audio fidelity reconstruction and PHASING ! with the sync performance that is available ECSS sould be forgotten and use that selectable sync. even though I have no immediate plans to buy an E1, I will still study the manual. when I can get one for around $300 used, I will pick one up. Good morning Pete I agree. The more and more I use this radio the more I LOVE it. It's a pleasure to use. Just a pleasure. The sync on it is fabulous. Couple that with the superb PBT and it's just fantastic. The display is just great to look at. The sensitivity is right up there with the better rigs. The radio also has a "DX" button for extra gain on weak signals. I think the DSB {double side band} actually works as good as the Lowe HF-150 even though in the beginning I thought the Lowe was much better. It still is a bit better, but it seems to do more on this radio then the 150. I can hear the difference using it. With the 150, it seems the lock range is much tighter. You have to really hit the needed signal perfectly to get it working and it's easily lost. With the E1, it's easier to use that feature. As Mike pointed out, ECSS isn't really needed on this rig though I still like to use it for fun and when it's neccessary. Now, many people are saying they will wait for later production runs before buying. I have a contrarian view on this. That Eton knows the first batch out will spread the news on how good or bad their radio is and tell the tale. That these first users and reviewers will set the tone for future sales. They know what happened with the 800 and they know people will be looking for the same thing to happen again. So, I decided to go with the first batch. I know they payed very, very close attention to QC on this one imho. I would be more skeptical to buy later runs then the very first batch out. If they only added DRM, it would have been a monster. But, I have a feeling XM had something to say about it. Why give people so many more options then going with XM sat programming? But, they had to include AM/FM and SW. I bet their is a easy mod for DRM once the radio gets dissected by the pros like you! ![]() Have a good one Pete! Lucky |
#5
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![]() Lucky wrote: If they only added DRM, it would have been a monster. DRM = QRM Die DRM, die. dxAce Michigan USA http://www.iserv.net/~n8kdv/dxpage.htm |
#6
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Hi Lucky,
I am glad you are happy with the E1. I hope you don't feel bad if I say I am a little skeptical, so I will ask this question in the most innocent way: What other radios do you have/have you played with? Many thanks for your informative reviews. They are helpful. RK |
#7
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![]() "rkhalona" wrote in message ups.com... Hi Lucky, I am glad you are happy with the E1. I hope you don't feel bad if I say I am a little skeptical, so I will ask this question in the most innocent way: What other radios do you have/have you played with? Many thanks for your informative reviews. They are helpful. RK Thanks RK. I now own 11 radios. 1] Icom R75 2] Lowe HF-150 3] Kenwood R-5000 4] JRC NRD-525 5] FRG-7 6] Ten Tec 320-D 7] FRG-7700 8] Degen 1103 9] Nasa Target HF3 {Nav-Fax 100 in U.S.} 10] Great Cond Kenwood QR-666 that later became the R-300. 11] Eton E1 ![]() So, I have a sense of quality and features etc. But, I'm not a super pro like some of the other guys in here that have been doing this for years. Lucky |
#8
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Hi Lucky...
Thanks for your input on the E1. I'm curious to know how this radio is on battery consumption, so if you run it off of cells, let us know how it is with regard to battery drain. Is the display always illuminated, even on battery power? I've had my eye on the E1 for quite some time and anticipate eventually buying one. It's good to see Eton reviving this class of radio. If it's all it purports to be, then it seems that its performance could well be a notch or two above the '2010, SW77, and Sat 700. The $500 price tag might seem a bit much to foot, but let's face it, it's not a matter of whether or not its performance is superior to a similarly priced R-75 but rather whether one is in need of a high quality and truly-portable portable, laden with numerous features not to be found in the under $200 class that dominates the portable scene. Let's face it, the SW77 retailed at $469.96 in its day (and it only had two bandwidth filters and certainly had no passband offset). For folks like me, where indoor conditions are a nightmare due to local noise conditions, something like the E1 is a godsend: a nice, state of the art, fully featured, self-contained portable, sized such that it can easily be carried along on outdoor listening excursions. I guess that with the XM option available for this receiver, it's inevitable that this radio will take the heat of the sat-radio opponents of this group. Personally, I would have preferred Sirius over XM with this radio... I'm a Sirius subscriber myself, but it's not as though this in any way diminishes my enthusiasm for shortwave. All the best, folks. Thanks again, Lucky. j.a.mulc. |
#9
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![]() "Lucky" wrote in message ... "rkhalona" wrote in message ups.com... Hi Lucky, I am glad you are happy with the E1. I hope you don't feel bad if I say I am a little skeptical, so I will ask this question in the most innocent way: What other radios do you have/have you played with? Many thanks for your informative reviews. They are helpful. RK Thanks RK. I now own 11 radios. 1] Icom R75 2] Lowe HF-150 3] Kenwood R-5000 4] JRC NRD-525 5] FRG-7 6] Ten Tec 320-D 7] FRG-7700 8] Degen 1103 9] Nasa Target HF3 {Nav-Fax 100 in U.S.} 10] Great Cond Kenwood QR-666 that later became the R-300. 11] Eton E1 ![]() What, no SAT 800? So, I have a sense of quality and features etc. But, I'm not a super pro like some of the other guys in here that have been doing this for years. Lucky |
#10
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Anytime Lucky!
It sounds like they might be using that AD607 for the Sync function. My Sync detector has a very wide acquistion range. You would almost think that you are tuning with an envelope detector, save for the fact that you don't hear the effects of selective fading. I am glad that it is working out for you. A fellow in the Chicago area picked up one of these radios.......he was perturbed that it didn't have a loopstick, but he is a radio collector so it isn't as much an issue as it could be. Pete "Lucky" wrote in message ... "Pete KE9OA" wrote in message ... Hi Mike, It is not a matter of stupidity to use an internal loopstick antenna. It is quite possible to design a portable radio with a loopstick antenna that has MW performance that at least equals a good communications receiver that has an external amplified loop antenna connected to it. I have just finished up a prototype this evening that does just that. It is an easy matter to have facilities to switch the antenna out of the circuit the way that Grundig has done with their Satellit receivers for several years. It is also very easy to bypass the switching altogether and merely wind a small coupling loop around the ferrite for an external antenna connection. 5 to 10 turns of Litz wire would do the trick. The E1 is a very good radio, and I will probably pick one up in the next year or so. Is it worth the money they are asking for it? Probably. Will the price come down after the initial wave of sales. Hopefully. The radio does have XM circuitry, and I know that XM radio was a big purchaser of the Analog Devices AD607 demodulator chip that I based my Sync detector on, so if this is the case, this could be a very good radio indeed. A friend of mine did play his E1 over the phone and it did sound good.......quite a bit of gain. He told me that he didn't have any IMD problems, so it sounds like a winner. Pete "mike maghakian" wrote in message ... it sounds like the E1 is better than I thought it would be, this one could go down in history as a classic. I wonder if the Degen 1108 will be even better since it will have the E1 to jump off of. many of the complaints I have read seem to be of the "misunderstood" nature and if the designer was present to answer them would actually make sense. I believe that even though the set has XM circuitry, it is a bonus for american users and that the set was really designed for a global market and that is the reason for the antenna connector that is a pain for the US user. notice the choice for the FM range in the setup options. I have a feeling that they left out the ferrite antenna because the set is too big to rotate and they wanted it to be more omnidirectional for the average user and that anyone that cared to MW DX would not be stupid enough to use a built in rod and would use at least a hardwire connected select-a-tenna for max signal gathering. with a set of this awesome performance, ECSS is a waste of time. ecss is overrated because of the work involved in accurately tuning the signal for proper audio fidelity reconstruction and PHASING ! with the sync performance that is available ECSS sould be forgotten and use that selectable sync. even though I have no immediate plans to buy an E1, I will still study the manual. when I can get one for around $300 used, I will pick one up. Good morning Pete I agree. The more and more I use this radio the more I LOVE it. It's a pleasure to use. Just a pleasure. The sync on it is fabulous. Couple that with the superb PBT and it's just fantastic. The display is just great to look at. The sensitivity is right up there with the better rigs. The radio also has a "DX" button for extra gain on weak signals. I think the DSB {double side band} actually works as good as the Lowe HF-150 even though in the beginning I thought the Lowe was much better. It still is a bit better, but it seems to do more on this radio then the 150. I can hear the difference using it. With the 150, it seems the lock range is much tighter. You have to really hit the needed signal perfectly to get it working and it's easily lost. With the E1, it's easier to use that feature. As Mike pointed out, ECSS isn't really needed on this rig though I still like to use it for fun and when it's neccessary. Now, many people are saying they will wait for later production runs before buying. I have a contrarian view on this. That Eton knows the first batch out will spread the news on how good or bad their radio is and tell the tale. That these first users and reviewers will set the tone for future sales. They know what happened with the 800 and they know people will be looking for the same thing to happen again. So, I decided to go with the first batch. I know they payed very, very close attention to QC on this one imho. I would be more skeptical to buy later runs then the very first batch out. If they only added DRM, it would have been a monster. But, I have a feeling XM had something to say about it. Why give people so many more options then going with XM sat programming? But, they had to include AM/FM and SW. I bet their is a easy mod for DRM once the radio gets dissected by the pros like you! ![]() Have a good one Pete! Lucky |
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