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Old 18th Apr 2018, 9:37 am   #19
G6Tanuki
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Default Re: A relatively cheap portable SW receiver with SSB/CW and analogue tuning?

Quote:
Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
The Vega Selena series have excellent AM performance thanks to a tuned RF stage, but adding a BFO isn't straightforward because of the interaction with the set's AGC. The Selenas are also big heavy sets for portable or travel use
Along with most 'broadcast shortwave' receivers of the era they are pretty useless for modern amateur-band reception: something like the 14MHz band occupies a few millimetres of the tuning scale and a quarter of a turn of the tuning-knob. Unless you've got micrometer-accurate fingers you'll have a real pain tuning SSB/CW even with an add-on BFO.

Local-oscillator stability's really not up to CW/SSB reception either.

There were some portable "scanner" type radios around a few decades ago which included HF-band coverage with CW and SSB capability: ICOM did one. Yes, they're digital but at least they don't drift 100Hz off your chosen frequency when you take your habd away from the tuning-knob.
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