I have been looking at the R350D, and would like to hear from other
owners their opinions, pros and cons, and whether they think it's
worth the asking price. Also, how about the accessory speaker,
is it worth the $100?

The only thing I can see that I don't immediately like is the LCD
display, it looks kind of shabby to me and looks like it may
be hard to read and low contrast. I really miss the vacuum
flourescent displays, anyone make receivers with them anymore?

Anybody out there own one? Thanks for your help.

Jim

wa5dxp wrote:
I have been looking at the R350D, and would like to hear from other
owners their opinions, pros and cons, and whether they think it's
worth the asking price. Also, how about the accessory speaker,
is it worth the $100?

The only thing I can see that I don't immediately like is the LCD
display, it looks kind of shabby to me and looks like it may
be hard to read and low contrast. I really miss the vacuum
flourescent displays, anyone make receivers with them anymore?

Anybody out there own one? Thanks for your help.

Jim



I own an earlier series RX 350. The display is backlit, and is very
easy to read. And at least on my rig, it's configurable, to display, or
not, some pieces of information according to taste.


The only downside I've encountered is the audio through the internal
speaker. Using an external, it's very good.


Performance is quite good. Use is intuitive. Between AR-7030+ and
RX-350, the rest of my arsenal gets used sporadically.

bpnjensen wrote:
The only downside I've encountered is the audio through the internal
speaker. Using an external, it's very good.

Performance is quite good. Use is intuitive. Between AR-7030+ and
RX-350, the rest of my arsenal gets used sporadically.

Peter, the information commonly encountered on this radio is that (1)
it suffers quite a bit from intermod products, and (2) TenTec does not
give it the software upgrade support it originally promised. Have you
found this to be true?


I've found no greater number of birdies, or intermod products with
this rig than I have with any other. It's actually pretty quiet. And on
my antenna system, devoid of overload. Despite the 5kw regional a couple
of miles from here, I have encountered no reception problems caused by
cross modulation, intermod, or overload.

I haven't seen any firmware updates since 2002. But, then, I've not
found any reason for them, either.


I use it every day, alongside AR-7030+ and have not found it lacking.

I understand that there are those who don't care for it. Then, again,
there are many who don't care for the AR-7030 series, either.

D Peter Maus wrote:
bpnjensen wrote:
The only downside I've encountered is the audio through the internal
speaker. Using an external, it's very good.

Performance is quite good. Use is intuitive. Between AR-7030+ and
RX-350, the rest of my arsenal gets used sporadically.

Peter, the information commonly encountered on this radio is that (1)
it suffers quite a bit from intermod products, and (2) TenTec does
not give it the software upgrade support it originally promised. Have you
found this to be true?


I've found no greater number of birdies, or intermod products with
this rig than I have with any other. It's actually pretty quiet. And
on my antenna system, devoid of overload. Despite the 5kw regional a
couple of miles from here, I have encountered no reception problems
caused by cross modulation, intermod, or overload.

I haven't seen any firmware updates since 2002. But, then, I've not
found any reason for them, either.


I use it every day, alongside AR-7030+ and have not found it
lacking.
I understand that there are those who don't care for it. Then,
again, there are many who don't care for the AR-7030 series, either.

There are some reasons for firmware upgrades and Ten-Tec admits to that
much. For instance, the timer doesn't work as advertised, the FAST AGC
setting 'pops' badly and you have to select a 3000 Hz bandwidth in AM
because the system always displays the half width, so 3000 Hz is really
6000Hz, 6000 hz is really 12 Khz and 8000 Hz is really 16 KHz! Get it? Me
neither. That said, the receiver works very well and has built-in noise
reduction and auto notch filters. I use mine alot!

--
Brian Denley
http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html

had one and sold it after 1 month. I wouldn't own one just based on my
experience with Ten-Tec while I had it. and I thought it had problems, maybe
it was the design and maybe it was the unit I had. If TT truely had the
legendary support everyone says they have, they would have checked it for
me. however even though it was only a couple months old, they wanted $50 to
check it out because I wasn't the original owner. that sounds like pathetic
customer service on an over $1000 product.

also notice that they are still late with their RX-400. the company is an
overall loser. even my friend with the RX-340 doesn't like them

It sounds to me like the family ownership is a bunch of jerks. they can't
keep good employees and it shows.



"wa5dxp" wrote in message
...
I have been looking at the R350D, and would like to hear from other
owners their opinions, pros and cons, and whether they think it's
worth the asking price. Also, how about the accessory speaker,
is it worth the $100?

The only thing I can see that I don't immediately like is the LCD
display, it looks kind of shabby to me and looks like it may
be hard to read and low contrast. I really miss the vacuum
flourescent displays, anyone make receivers with them anymore?

Anybody out there own one? Thanks for your help.

Jim

I have an RX-350 (not the "D" model which simply added a 12 kHz output
jack on the back for DRM reception). I modified my RX-350 slightly to
add the 12 kHz output jack to the back of mine.

I have had this receiver for more than two years now and I really
think that it's a fine unit. The ability to easily connect it up for
DRM use was the original reason I bought it and it performs very well
for DRM use. I regularly listen to Radio Luxembourg during the early
morning hours using the DREAM free DRM software receiver running on my
computer.

As far as being a good shortwave reciever, I think that it's very
good. Although the Synchronous Detection on it is pretty useless (it
loses lock at the drop of a hat), it does extremely well receiving AM
(shortwave broadcasts) in SSB mode (ECSS). Since the bandwidth and
PBT controls are functional in SSB mode, I simply tune shortwave
broadcast stations in SSB mode, selecting the upper or lower sideband,
whichever gives me less interference. The tuning is rock stable (it
doesn't drift at ALL) so stations tuned in SSB mode are rock stable.
Since I can choose the 8 kHz bandwidth in SSB mode, I can listen to
shortwave broadcast stations in high-fidelity without any fade
distortion, eliminating any interfering stations by selecting the
opposite sideband.

I live about a block away from the transmitting sites of 5 FM radio
stations and about a mile away from a couple of 50 kW AM radio
stations. The RX-350 has never been bothered by these stations.

As far as receiving ham and utility stations, since the bandwidth is
infinetely adjustable, it does a fine job of cutting QRM/QRN and
allowing rock-stable reception without any drift.

The passband tuning is very effective and operates similarly to the
Drake 4245 (a commercial version of the R-7A) that I also own. The
noise reduction circuit is quite effective.

In fact, when it comes down to it, when I have the choice of listening
to my Drake/Sherwood SE-3 synchronous detector combo and the RX-350, I
usually use the RX-350 since it pretty much always out-performs it in
terms of fidelity and in terms of adjacent station selectivity.

I do have a SLIGHT problem with my RX-350 in terms of the display.
After a couple of hours of use, the display darkens and "smears"
somewhat. It doesn't hurt the receiver at all, and the display still
works, but I'd make damned sure that TenTec has fixed the problem on
the receiver that you buy. Get a WRITTEN warranty against this
problem.

I've heard that TenTec service is lousy and that they don't care at
all about their customers. They haven't updated the firmware for the
RX-350 is several years, despite their advertisments to the contrary
on their website. Thus, reviews of this reciever have been mixed
since apparently there's quite a bit of "sample diversity" depending
on which receiver you happen to get.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask....

Fred E.
Detroit, MI



"wa5dxp" wrote in message
.. .
I have been looking at the R350D, and would like to hear from other
owners their opinions, pros and cons, and whether they think it's
worth the asking price. Also, how about the accessory speaker,
is it worth the $100?

The only thing I can see that I don't immediately like is the LCD
display, it looks kind of shabby to me and looks like it may
be hard to read and low contrast. I really miss the vacuum
flourescent displays, anyone make receivers with them anymore?

Anybody out there own one? Thanks for your help.

Jim