25th Anniversary Passport Now Available!
2009 PASSPORT TO WORLD BAND RADIO
The 2009 Passport to World Band Radio is off press and shipping now, as always by fast Priority Mail/Airmail worldwide.
All copies are already on their way for those who ordered by this afternoon, and newly received orders are going out same day or next. The new edition’s two-page table of contents is here.
(Oops Dept., p. 41: “Taipei International” should be “Taiwan International.”)
October 24th, 2008 at 3:36 PM
Great resource as always.
The 2 page spread ad on the GRUNDIG 3 VOYAGER with usb/lsb/sync was interesting (hope it materializes); the sales operator at Etón had not heard of it (or the G8 TRAVELER). After putting me on hold, he said that they for sure would not appear in 2008.
Your review on the G6 AVIATOR cannot store single sideband mode. I have stored a number of aeronautical SSB stations as well as AFRTS stations, and the set brings them up in SSB mode when I go to the pages that I have defined for them.
I find that SSB is impacted for the AFRTS and aero’s in the 5 & 6 MHz region at night (in my Laredo, TX location) by overload…the audio is warbled, correctable somewhat by shortening the whip, or pointing the whip horizontally or downward. Oddly, Shannon volmet on 5.505 MHz was crystal clear with no degradation on a visit to Connecticut, recently.
Air band is severely impacted by intrusion of local mw/fm’s; it is luck of the draw if they hinder a frequency of interest.
MW is mediocre sensitivitywise, good selectivitywise. Unwanted phase noise? on a minority of frequencies…most apparent during daytime listening for fringe stations.
Richard “Heatwave” Berler, CBM
Chief Meteorologist
KGNS TV
Laredo,TX
Ed.: Thanks. Our G6 works differently from yours in that one respect: it doesn’t store SSB mode in presets. It was one of the first to be manufactured, so we’ll schedule a retest for next year to see if there have been any other tweaks.
October 26th, 2008 at 9:10 PM
Please see http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/stories/index.ssf?/base/living-5/1224752161222530.xml&coll=1 as I featured Passport in my bi-weekly radio column in the Syracuse Post-Standard.
Regards-
Lee
KI2K
October 29th, 2008 at 2:00 PM
You don’t have to publish this. I wanted to send you a message but couldn’t find your e-mail address. I have e-mailed RedSun China, and they informed me the RP3000/RP3100 has been scrapped. Do you want the e-mail confirming this? If so, e-mail me and I’ll forward it. Best, Jim jnixon05@gmail.com
Ed.: Thanks, Jim. As always, our email is mktg@passband.com, but this is certainly worth posting.
October 30th, 2008 at 4:14 PM
I wrote to Redsun, asking about the RP3100, and this is what I received – quite interesting!
–
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:51:54 +0800 (CST)
From: e-redsun
Subject: Re: Redsun RP3100 Purchase
Dear Paul,
Thanks for your email.
Redsun RP3100 is still under development, but currently design engineer is busy with RP2100 new version – smaller size, so now he has no enough time to continue this project. Just he only can use his spare time.
But we never give up RP3100, maybe it will be greater than your imagination.
Just be patient!
Kind regards, Jackie
Ed.: Likely the difference in the two replies lies in language issues. In our experience, Redsun includes few that know English, and the one or two that do are far from proficient. In short, they are writing as best as they can, but the result can lead to misunderstanding.
October 30th, 2008 at 6:40 PM
Degen DE1105 available outside China … as Muse M085R, quite the same set with just “MUSE” mark instead of “DEGEN.” Price is 45 euros in France (through French web sites, don’t know if any can export). Muse has a website: http://www.muse-europe.com. (Other small radios from Muse have no SW band).
Ed.: Thanks, Ray, for this interesting heads-up on expanded availability.
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:37 AM
I received my copy of Passport 2009 this weekend and immediately flipped to the review of the Wellbrook ALA 100M antenna, since I have one of those on order and professional reviews are few and far between. It was informative, but one thing jumped out at me.
The idea of building a PVC octagon loop seems great and I intend to copy it. You mention using 5-foot lengths per side, which by my math would give a wire loop element of roughly 40 feet in circumference. However, the rest of the review refers to using a 20-foot circumference loop, which would only be half that size, and in fact a 40-foot loop seems like it would be better suited to the original ALA 100!
Did I miss something in my reading of the review?
Ed.: Sorry to take so long to reply. Robert Sherwood was away from his field office, so a book had to be shipped to where he is at the moment so he could respond to your query as soon as possible.
Robert Sherwood replies: The writeup states that the ALA 100 is a 40-foot loop and the ALA 100M is a 20-foot loop, so overall dimensions should be clear. The star rating for the ‘100M also says it is a 20-foot loop.
Yet, I can see where there might be confusion: Under “Evaluation of New Model,” the text is ruminating about both the ‘100 and the ‘100M, even though this portion is at the end of the ‘100M review.
I am paraphrasing, but it says that for last year’s tests in Passport 2008 the ALA 100 loop was constructed as a square with 10-foot sides. Then it says the PVC was cut into 5-foot lengths and made into an octagon. This is also true, and it is still referring to the ‘100. It then talks about a massive wind storm blowing down the loop and breaking one of the (45-degree) elbows. This, too, is correct, and is still referring to the ‘100 as a 40-foot octagon.
Then it goes on to indicate that the ALA 100M is good in both fixed and portable environments. Too, the picture of the ‘100M is of a 20-foot octagonal loop, which of course has 2.5 foot sides.
Bottom line: The ALA 100M’s overall and segment lengths are each a half of those of the ALA 100: 2.5-foot segments for the ‘100M, 5 foot for the ‘100.
November 8th, 2008 at 1:11 PM
Message from Etón on another release of the Satellit 750. I wonder if this “new” release (after the initial few shipped out around September) have had any fixes and improvements. Can you inquire with Etón? From various Chinese websites it appears that Tecsun did some updates immediately after the S-2000’s initial release.
—
We have recently begun shipping the Satellit 750 to our retailers in
The United States, so we would like to inform you of the following
retailers with this model available for order immediately:
Universal Radio: 1-800-431-3939
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com
We will not have this model available for direct sales for about 3-4
weeks, so if you are interested in placing your order now, please
contact one of the above mentioned retailers. Thank you for your
patience and patronage throughout the years, and we look forward to
your feedback in reference to this highly anticipated release. If you
have any questions, comments, or concerns, please do not hesitate to
contact us . . .
Ed.: Etón replied this afternoon, indicating that the changes will be “cosmetic in nature and nothing major or substantial.” They promise more info as things unfold.
November 12th, 2008 at 3:16 AM
I have just received my copy of Passport 2009—as always a pleasure to read; thank you!
In your review of the Wellbrook loops, you make no mention of the ALA 1530S+. Is it possible to add its review to passband.com? It appears to have the same SW performance numbers/gain as the ALA 330S. But I don’t know about its MW performance.
Also if I understand it correctly from your reviews, the ALA 330S and ALA 1530 variants perform best under 8 MHz, and not so well if you live on the US West Coast. If I want a loop which does well across 3 – 30MHz (and maybe even MW) with an ICOM IC-R75 or Sony ICF-2010 or Etón E1, should I even consider these? I live in the US Pacific Northwest, and am about 20 miles from a few 50kW AM broadcast stations.
And finally do you have specs for comparative gains of Wellbrook antennas for SW and MW? Wellbrook’s site does not provide such information and one is left to second guessing which antenna is best for what type of user and under what conditions.
Ed.: This issue is active at Passport, as we’re about to commence testing of the new Wellbrook ALA 1530+. We’ll report on it here, although antenna testing takes considerably longer to complete properly than does testing of, say, receivers.
Comparative gain numbers can be woefully misleading, if not downright meaningless. What counts far more are signal-to-noise ratio, dynamic range, front-end selectivity and the like, with the ideal gain being unity with respect to a comparable first-rate passive antenna. Still, with any antenna the real lessons are learned from controlled firsthand use (we usually test at an urban location and separately at a rural location). Even in our in-house evaluating process, we use our own lab data mainly to help point us to the cause of any problem that may arise during hands-on testing—not to assess the unit’s merit. For us, homing in on the cause of a problem is important, as we can then tip off the manufacturer with some precision, giving it a chance to come up with a fix that benefits consumers.
As to your location, there will almost certainly be less stress than usual on an antenna amp’s circuitry along the Left Coast and 20 miles away from any mediumwave AM transmitters. This opens up the possibility of choosing a model that tends to overload, but has gain strong enough to merit mention in its Passport review; for example, the Dressler ARA 60 S. But as you are also interested in mediumwave AM reception, the ALA 330S would be a relatively inappropriate choice.
December 5th, 2008 at 7:36 PM
Another great issue – well done, indeed. One suggestion: please consider covering the Par Electronics EF-SWL antenna. The Par line is pretty amazing in performance, and the EF-SWL is made just for shortwave. Would be a worthy addition to Passport, and is a “fresh face”. I have no affiliation with Par – am just a happy user who would appreciate reading a review of the EF-SWL.
Ed.: Sorry for the late reply, Lee, and thanks for the suggestion. The EF-SWL is but one of a number of commercially available inverted-L antennas. You can also easily “roll your own” from parts from radio suppliers like Universal.
Inverted-L antennas can be set up with or without matching transformers, which in Peter-and-Paul fashion also introduces some signal loss. Alternatively, an inverted-L of modest length can be fed through an MFJ-1020C active preamplifier; this model is marketed as an active antenna, but outperforms MFJ’s various nominal antenna preamps/tuners.
These points are covered in Passport. Too, inverted-L performance, construction and erection details are thick and heavy in the RDI White Paper on passive antennas.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:30 PM
The Eton E100 and Grundig G6 are essentially the same size, yet the former is in the “Compact Portables” section of Passport and the latter is in the “Pocket Portables” section. Why is this?
Ed.: Mea culpa. We need to rethink what constitutes a “pocket portable,” as these should arguably be sized like ordinary cellphones and not bloated smart phones. This would thin the ranks of pocket portables, but as your comment suggests we need to be more decisive about this. Your thoughts about a compact-pocket size boundary are welcome.
December 17th, 2008 at 8:34 PM
Both the E100 and G6 will fit into a jacket pocket, but not a shirt pocket, and both of them are far smaller than some other “compact portables,” like the 7600GR and the G5. Maybe a “subcompact portables” category is needed to fill the gap between the “compact portables” and the “pocket portables.”
December 19th, 2008 at 12:46 AM
Here’s a quick comparison of my new Grundig G6 to my Etón E100:
The tuning encoder on the G6 started to skip after less than an hour of use, and the encoder is somewhat more difficult to turn than I would like—it’s not “feather light” like the encoder on the E1/E1XM. The encoder on the E100 has always skipped.
1) The face of the E100 is actually slightly smaller than the face of the G6.
2) The tuning meter on the G6 overreads on mediumwave AM. Even when a strong station is nulled, it shows 5 bars. This is not the case on the E100.
3) The G6 is much more sensitive than the E100 at the low end of the mediumwave AM band. (This is a known limitation of the E100.)
4) The tuning meter on the G6 underreads on FM. Many stations with stereo lock and minimal noise show 0 bars. Again, this is not the case on the E100.
5) The E100 is much more sensitive than the G6 on the FM band.
6) The G6 is slightly more sensitive than the E100 on shortwave.
7) I was unable to set the timezone on the G6 using the procedure in the manual, with either successive presses of the “8″ key or with the tuning knob. The timezone is permanently stuck on “ANC.” Even a reset didn’t help. Either my G6 is defective, or the procedure in the manual is incorrect.
9) Both radios have fairly good sound quality considering their size.
10) SSB works pretty well on the G6 (but see the question below). It’s too bad that the radio doesn’t remember the last offset position for the fine tuning when switching to the AM mode and back to SSB.
I expected a little more from the G6, so I’m somewhat disappointed. In my view, it’s not better than the E100 overall. Since the E100 is still available for about $50, I think it’s a better deal.
Now a question for you guys: With the G6, is it possible to independently tune both LSB and USB on an AM-mode signal? I tried SSB with some MW signals, but I could find only one “correct” position of the fine tuning. Presumably, this is one of the sidebands, so I’m not sure how to tune the other sideband. All of my other radios that tune SSB have a dedicated switch to change sidebands.
Ed.: Presumably you are referring to ECSS reception. Of course, with the Sony ICF-SW7600GR and Etón E1 portables this is moot as they successfully use synchronous selectable sideband. Otherwise, as a pretty solid rule of thumb portables don’t handle ECSS terribly well, if at all—even those with switchable sideband (LSB/USB) selection. Using a narrow bandwidth, if available, and detuning slightly in the AM mode is about the most practical alternative.
BTW, as you may have noticed from Passport’s tests, Degen’s tuning encoders bring up the rear by tending to skip frequencies and overshoot when changing tuning direction. Of course, Degen also makes radios for Kaito, Grundig and Etón, as well as under its own name. Apparently Degen doesn’t much care, as this problem has been around for over a year with nary any perceptible improvement.
December 19th, 2008 at 5:18 PM
So, can portables like the G6 and G5/E5, which lack an LSB/USB switch, tune to either sideband of an AM signal via SSB (ECSS)? As noted above, I wasn’t able to determine how to do this on my G6. I haven’t used a G5/E5, so I don’t know if it works the same as the G6 or not.
One more point: The encoders in my E100 and E10 skip as well, and I believe these two radios are built by Tecsun, so the marginal tuning encoders are not limited to Degen radios. I never noticed this problem with the E1XM, and I have used several units, so it must use a quality tuning encoder.
Ed.: Even Drake and other high-end receivers can have mechanical tuning encoder problems, especially where the surrounding air is polluted or smoky. Optical encoders are inherently more reliable, but even these can hiccup because of substandard software and/or hardware.
With a product detector and variable BFO, ECSS is usually possible even with a basic portable. In practice, though, the result is rarely worth the bother because of instability or other issues. A golf cart can get you to the shopping center, but who wants it?
This is why synchronous selectable sideband was invented—it’s easier to use and usually performs better than ECSS. Alas, Chinese manufacturers in their cocoons have yet to figure out how to do this properly, even though the IEEE had a session and report on this nearly 20 years back. Not to mention that in England and the United States individual engineers in their homes have long since created excellent sync sideband circuits.
You’ve got to remember just how Spartan these Chinese facilities are. For example, there is reportedly only one engineer who designs all the world band radios at Tecsun, Degen et al. It’s surprisingly rudimentary, but they work hard and they work cheap, like the Japanese did 60 or so years back.
December 19th, 2008 at 6:46 PM
Hopefully the Grundig G3 Voyager will have a working sync detector, including a DSB mode for listening to IBOC (HD) stations. If it’s built by Degen, as the G5 is, I guess this may be the first Chinese-designed sync detector.
Ed.: So it states at Universal Radio. We’ll see, but don’t figure on HD.
December 21st, 2008 at 4:05 PM
I meant that the G3 should have DSB sync, in addition to LSB/USB sync, to allow noise-free listening to IBOC (HD) stations; I didn’t mean that the G3 should actually decode HD. Using LSB or USB sync on HD stations results in high levels of digital hash, making listening unpleasant.
The only current portable that I’m aware of with DSB sync, in addition to LSB/USB sync, is the E1/E1XM.
January 31st, 2009 at 4:12 PM
Universal Radio now says the Grundig G3 is expected on 4/15/09. Will you be testing it and posting the results on this site?
Ed.: We’ll be testing it, likely after it has gone past its first production cycle so initial issues will have been worked out. It’s gotten to be practically a norm, now, that initial batches of Chinese portables have difficulties that are remedied in subsequent runs.
March 16th, 2009 at 2:15 PM
The email address for Caribbean Beacon (Anguilla) in Passport is WRONG…
Ed.: beacon@anguillanet.com, which is what is given in Passport 2009, is the latest email address we can come up with. Possibly the organization has decided not to deal with emails from the public since the death of founder Gene Scott?
May 23rd, 2009 at 3:12 PM
Can someone please answer the question of how on the G6 you can know which sideband you are on in SSB? The answers have been evasive and general – the G6 is stable, you can do ECSS, tuning in ’slow’ is in much finer increments than on other radios (20Hz!), so ECSS seems ok.
Also, the G6 review makes an error with respect to the battery meter: it has more than 3 levels – just because the full icon shows three parts does not means the “meter” has three levels. In fact the edges are also levels, and they disapppear as the battery is used.
Finally, and most importantly, the G6 may have selectable bandwidth in SW (2 bandwidths). The manual describes the megabass switch differently for AM/FM and SW, indicating that one position reduces interference and reduces fidelity for SW relative to the other. The description for FM just describes sound. The SW ‘news’ setting is the result one gets with a narrower bandwidth, and not just a ‘tone control.’ Any comment or actual knowledge of what this switch actually does for SW on the G6?
I generally find the Passport reviews very helpful, and have purchased many “Passports” over the past 20 years.
Ed.: Thanks for the query, Mark. The G6 isn’t visibly here at the office, but the lead tester was David Zantow, who kindly checked his records and replies:
“I have a picture of the internals of the G6 and it clearly shows just one bandwidth filter. That’s what my findings were when I tested it, too.”
Dave
June 14th, 2009 at 12:15 PM
if tuning up, and the pitch lowers, youre hearing USB (and vice versa). afaik G6 lacks passband shift or selectable sidebands. might want to try it on a crowded ham band and hear how it fares.
July 21st, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Hi all ,
“Gary Kinsman Said:
December 19th, 2008 at 12:46 am
” 7) I was unable to set the timezone on the G6 using the procedure in the manual, with either successive presses of the “8″ key or with the tuning knob. The timezone is permanently stuck on “ANC.” Even a reset didn’t help. Either my G6 is defective, or the procedure in the manual is incorrect. ”
I am a new G6 Aviator owner and i had the same timezone setting trouble.
I recently discovered a way to correct this :
Receiver “off”
First : Set or reset the AM bandpass 10/9 khz with the #5 key ( see the manual ) store it with the time/set key.
Two : Press the #8 key as in the manual and set your desired timezone with the #8 key or with the tuning button and store it withe the time/set key.
Hope it works for you as it worked for me….
best 73 and regards from LYON France.
Jean louis F6BNL
July 21st, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Correction :
I wrote above : “store” with the “time/set” key but it’s with the “page/time” key ….
Sorry for the mistake.
Jean-louis
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:55 PM
RE: Gary Kinsman above:
I bought the E100 (actually G100 from Universal) and found that the G6 slides (with little difficulty) into the G100 pouch.
I found the G100 overloads badly on MW and this with a 3-way sensitivity switch on the side! It doesn’t seem to work for the ferrite antenna.
G6 has better sensitivity and selectivity on FM, somewhat less sens on the high end of the MW band. G6 has better sound from speaker, G100 has more amp power and runs headphones better.
Here’s the odd part. I own the Grundig YB-550, which uses the same configuration as the G100. I love the ergonomics of the 550 but they didn’t translate well to the G100. I have the G5, which I found a little getting used to, but the ergonomics translate very well to the smaller G6. Then again, that’s part of being a radio geek.
Bottom line: I swapped the G100 for a G6 a friend had and we’re both happier with our respective units.
I’ll say this for Grundig, as Sony & Sangean have sat on their laurels for the past 10 years, Eton has been developing newer models that get better all the time. Will the G3 finally put Eton over the top of the ICF-SW7600GR? I’m sure those with the Sony won’t think so and, as much as I enjoy and respect Sony’s products, Grundig just makes a more enjoyable radio.