Can anyone recommend a portable AC/DC radio for use in country areas. My caravan has a radio but struggles in some locations.
Cheers
David.
solarpanel4 said
05:01 PM Sep 16, 2013
TECSUN PL-390 Gray FM/AM/LW/SW/MW
This a radio I have been contemplating. Available off the net. at a reasonable price.
regards Jeff
Santa said
05:06 PM Sep 16, 2013
Have just been through a similar exercise.
I bought a radio from Jaycar about 12 months ago, shortwave/AM/FM, not bad but quite large, a few weeks ago after quite a bit of research I bought one of these from Amazon.
Seems to do quite a good job, it's quite a small unit, approx 180 x 112mm, tuning is by push button and takes a bit of getting used to, once you get right out in the sticks most radio's struggle a bit and benefit from an external antenna when operating on shortwave (Radio Australia etc) AM stations are best received at night, unless your close to a town/transmitter forget about FM.
Hope this is of some assistance.
woolman said
06:21 PM Sep 16, 2013
I have a Digitrech from Jaycar. Very good sound and reception. Runs on 240 or 6 d cell batteries. Was recomended by a electronics engineer friend and I now have to agree. He suggested to try out in store near computers and other electronic gear. If no interferrance then is good. Not many pass trhat test.
Is reasonably big though.
Neil
VKPORTABLE said
08:48 PM Sep 16, 2013
I have a Tecsun PL-600 great little radio.
You never said what stations you are interested in hearing, this may help somewhat. Do you want to listen to standard AM broadcast stations or FM. If it's the latter you might be pushing your luck a bit, you will definitely need a yagi and even then you may not get reception.
If it is AM you are after and have a portable radio already try this idea:
Get a roll of hookup wire (25 or 50m) from the likes of Jaycar, wrap a few turns of the wire around your radio and then run the rest out into a tree or other high support. This will improve your reception a lot.
VKPORTABLE said
03:35 AM Sep 17, 2013
I did forget to mention in my previous post that the ABC run three short-wave services for the top-end regions.
They can be heard easily in most locations across Australia. The transmitters are located at Roe Creek (Near Alice Springs); Katherine and Tennant Creek.
Here's the details:
Site Day Frequency Night Frequency Roe Creek4835 KHz 4835 KHz Katherine5025 KHz2485 KHz Tennant Creek 4910 KHz2325 KHz
Santa said
04:52 PM Sep 17, 2013
woolman wrote:
I have a Digitrech from Jaycar. Very good sound and reception. Runs on 240 or 6 d cell batteries. Was recomended by a electronics engineer friend and I now have to agree. He suggested to try out in store near computers and other electronic gear. If no interferrance then is good. Not many pass trhat test.
Is reasonably big though.
Neil
This is the radio I referred to in my post, I agree, it is quite big and heavy, the six D cells account for quite a bit of the weight and are not exactly cheap to replace, the Sony I replaced it with is much more compact and runs on 4 AA's, the down side is batteries need charging/replacing more frequently.
As others have said Tecsun have quite good reviews as well,
I went with the Sony as reviews seem to favour it over others and it's made in Japan, most others are made in China.
Santa said
07:02 PM Sep 17, 2013
VKPORTABLE wrote:
I did forget to mention in my previous post that the ABC run three short-wave services for the top-end regions.
They can be heard easily in most locations across Australia. The transmitters are located at Roe Creek (Near Alice Springs); Katherine and Tennant Creek.
Here's the details:
Site Day Frequency Night Frequency Roe Creek4835 KHz 4835 KHz Katherine5025 KHz2485 KHz Tennant Creek 4910 KHz2325 KHz
Thanks for the information Stewart, have located these stations by trial and error, is there a web site with more info?
The last is for RA and if you flick through those you should be able to find a few you can hear.
If you had a receiver that had SSB receive capabilities or a BFO to resolve SSB, such as the Tecsun PL-600 I could give you a good range of frequencies for interesting services to listen to whilst travelling, such as the RFDS, 4WD Networks, Police and Customs. Police still use HF in remote regions.
Customs can be interesting they use a mix of comms. HF, VHF, UHF, Inmarsat and Iridium. They also have the largest HF network in Australia besides the military. They have TX sites in: Port Hedland, Broome, Tullamarine, Lord Howe, Dampier, Carnarvon, Brisbane, Alice Springs and Townsville.
The last is for RA and if you flick through those you should be able to find a few you can hear.
If you had a receiver that had SSB receive capabilities or a BFO to resolve SSB, such as the Tecsun PL-600 I could give you a good range of frequencies for interesting services to listen to whilst travelling, such as the RFDS, 4WD Networks, Police and Customs. Police still use HF in remote regions.
Customs can be interesting they use a mix of comms. HF, VHF, UHF, Inmarsat and Iridium. They also have the largest HF network in Australia besides the military. They have TX sites in: Port Hedland, Broome, Tullamarine, Lord Howe, Dampier, Carnarvon, Brisbane, Alice Springs and Townsville.
Thanks for the links.
The Sony is able to clarify SSB, however I have no real interest in this type of thing, I bought it mainly to listen to RA news services and AFL broadcasts while in remote area's, it certainly delivers the goods in this regard.
As an afterthought the Jaycar radio is not able to clarify SSB.
Can anyone recommend a portable AC/DC radio for use in country areas. My caravan has a radio but struggles in some locations.
Cheers
David.
TECSUN PL-390 Gray FM/AM/LW/SW/MW
This a radio I have been contemplating.
Available off the net. at a reasonable price.
regards Jeff
Have just been through a similar exercise.
I bought a radio from Jaycar about 12 months ago, shortwave/AM/FM, not bad but quite large, a few weeks ago after quite a bit of research I bought one of these from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/188-0564628-4117526?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=sony%20icf-sw7600gr&sprefix=sony+icf%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Asony%20icf-sw7600gr
Seems to do quite a good job, it's quite a small unit, approx 180 x 112mm, tuning is by push button and takes a bit of getting used to, once you get right out in the sticks most radio's struggle a bit and benefit from an external antenna when operating on shortwave (Radio Australia etc) AM stations are best received at night, unless your close to a town/transmitter forget about FM.
Hope this is of some assistance.
I have a Digitrech from Jaycar. Very good sound and reception. Runs on 240 or 6 d cell batteries. Was recomended by a electronics engineer friend and I now have to agree. He suggested to try out in store near computers and other electronic gear. If no interferrance then is good. Not many pass trhat test.
Is reasonably big though.
Neil
I have a Tecsun PL-600 great little radio.
You never said what stations you are interested in hearing, this may help somewhat. Do you want to listen to standard AM broadcast stations or FM.
If it's the latter you might be pushing your luck a bit, you will definitely need a yagi and even then you may not get reception.
If it is AM you are after and have a portable radio already try this idea:
Get a roll of hookup wire (25 or 50m) from the likes of Jaycar, wrap a few turns of the wire around your radio and then run the rest out into a tree or other high support. This will improve your reception a lot.
I did forget to mention in my previous post that the ABC run three short-wave services for the top-end regions.
They can be heard easily in most locations across Australia.
The transmitters are located at Roe Creek (Near Alice Springs); Katherine and Tennant Creek.
Here's the details:
Site Day Frequency Night Frequency
Roe Creek 4835 KHz 4835 KHz
Katherine 5025 KHz 2485 KHz
Tennant Creek 4910 KHz 2325 KHz
This is the radio I referred to in my post, I agree, it is quite big and heavy, the six D cells account for quite a bit of the weight and are not exactly cheap to replace, the Sony I replaced it with is much more compact and runs on 4 AA's, the down side is batteries need charging/replacing more frequently.
As others have said Tecsun have quite good reviews as well,
I went with the Sony as reviews seem to favour it over others and it's made in Japan, most others are made in China.
Yep.
http://www.abc.net.au/reception/radio
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/waystolisten/abc-radio-shortwave-frequency-guide.pdf
The last is for RA and if you flick through those you should be able to find a few you can hear.
If you had a receiver that had SSB receive capabilities or a BFO to resolve SSB, such as the Tecsun PL-600 I could give you a good range of frequencies for interesting services to listen to whilst travelling, such as the RFDS, 4WD Networks, Police and Customs. Police still use HF in remote regions.
Customs can be interesting they use a mix of comms. HF, VHF, UHF, Inmarsat and Iridium. They also have the largest HF network in Australia besides the military.
They have TX sites in: Port Hedland, Broome, Tullamarine, Lord Howe, Dampier, Carnarvon, Brisbane, Alice Springs and Townsville.
Thanks for the links.
The Sony is able to clarify SSB, however I have no real interest in this type of thing, I bought it mainly to listen to RA news services and AFL broadcasts while in remote area's, it certainly delivers the goods in this regard.
As an afterthought the Jaycar radio is not able to clarify SSB.
Cheers
David.