[IRCA] Palstar MW550P/Drake R8

[mwdxer@xxxxxxxxx (Patrick Martin)]

Hi Everyone,

As many of you know, I am quite pleased with the performance of the
Palstar MW550P. Last night DX conditions were not too good. A few
Pacific stations were in but not too hot. However, there was one
interesting situation. I have a local on 840 khz, KSWB Seaside, 8 miles
away. They run 500 w ND at night. KSWB is old rock, so they slop.
Fortunately their modulation is generally not too high, but still splash
on any antenna with a lobe to the South of me. Unfortunately, using my
EWE antenna has exactly that, a lode to the S/SW, right through KSWB. So
in the past hearing a split on 837 or 846 is not an easy task. With the
EWE I get about S9+35 DB on KSWB I was playing around with the Palstar
MW550P last night with and without it. You can put the unit in the
bypass mode. I was tuning by KSWB and they were playing "Don't Let Me Be
Misunderstood" by the Rolling Stones, that is puts out a fair amount of
slop. In the bypass mode, I noticed a het on 846 khz, but no audio I
could tell, just splash. I kicked the unit in the presellect mode
peaking it on 846 khz, in popped audio from Kiribati. Lots of splash,
but I could hear the music, and talk in Gilbertese. Infact enough, if I
wanted to send a CD for a report, it was good enough for a QSL! I would
kick the unit back and forth, in and out of the bypass mode. The same
was true each time I tried it. The MW550P in narrow has sellectivity on
2 khz and the adjacents are down. I think I mentioned that 10 khz from a
strong signal, I will be down 20 DB. Since the Drake R8 has a wide open
front in, this does make a world of difference. It Drake would have
added a good high Q presellector in the front end as they did on the
SPR4, it would have made a big difference. Again I am sold on the
MW550P. No doubt about it!

73,

Patrick 

Patrick Martin
Seaside  OR
KAVT Reception Manager

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