On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 06:35:36 -0700, Lee wrote:

I've been away from this stuff for many years and recently bought a
NRD-525 on EBay. I'm a little disappointed in the results I'm
getting. A lot of noise and not a lot of stations, although some such
as Tiawan are very clear. At this point my antenna is a 40 ro 50 foot
wire strung out to a tree in my yard. I've been told that the ICOM
R75 is better due to newer design. There is no way for me to try one
or even look at one other than to buy it. Is the R75 are better
reciever? I mostly just want to hear commercial stations from other
countries.

Thanks for your time.

The answer is simply "no."

Over the years, Japan Radio Company receivers have been among the best
available to SWL folks. The JRC rigs are popular with ships at sea,
and generally widely-used for commercial purposes.

I have an NRD 525, as well as an Icom 735, one of Icom's better
transceivers from the 80s & 90s, and considered to have a hot
receiver. Listening to the same stations, on side by side rigs, I
can't really hear much difference between the 525 and 735.

Another way to look at it: the list price on an R75 is $692 in 2006; I
paid around $1200 for my 525 back in 1988.

You might re-check and make sure you're operating the controls
correctly in regard to filter width at Wide or Aux; AGC at slow; RF
gain plenty high or all the way clockwise; make sure the Notch is off
and PassBand Spread is centered; the Noise Filter is off; the
ATTenuation is off; the mode at AM for most broadcast stations.

bob
k5qwg