Portables:
Best: 2010, great w/passive loops like RatShak set on Rubbermaid turntable per Terry Krueger's suggestion for maximo DF'ng & DX'ng. Excellent cruise ship conversation starter. Good RF gain control. Sync detector great for splits & avoiding adjacent doot-splats, hets, and flikes. My first set pronounced dead 1995. Keys kaput, still runs great. Buy many.
DX-398 take everywhere, good w/active & passive loops, advantage: uses AA NiMh batts. U/LSB approx 44 KHz increments emulates Sony 2010 Sync det, gets you w/in twenty KHz of sig. Effective RF gain ctrl, necessary for loops. Tight nulls. Buy several. Now.
DX-440/ATS-803A: Fine receiver, RF gain ctrl effective w/external antenna jack. Advantage of continuously variable BFO for offset tuning, selective fades, etc. Very tight nulls. Reliable. But two. Three. Five.
GE SR-III Purchased two, '93. As with others of vintage, a little alignment tightened peaks & greatly reamed sensitivity. Accuracy? Hopeless. Who cares? Sharpest nulls. Number one choice for beach & yard in which specifications mandate loud Latin music accompany bullwork in noisy environment. Run till doomsday on D cells. Maybe beyond. Time will tell.
Sony ICF-100 Great backup, good on BCB despite size. Much fun. Works w/loops. Use NiMh batts, stuff into micro camera belt case. You need this. And you shall have it. It will be your friend. Where you go, so shall it.
Original: Nova-Tech Pilot II LF/MF/HF & VHF Aero RDF receiver. Runs forever on 4 x AA's. Gift from family as reward for simultaneously receiving Ottis Elwood Toole Young Poets Award, graduating with honors from sixth grade & becoming draft eligible. Instructions: wrap wire around DF bar, ground one end, toss other out window. Opened horizons on BCB & other bands. Original set croaked ca. '80. Located several along w/couple simplified lil' bro's - Bendix Navigator 400. All work great. Can't compete w/new sets, but have sharp sixties hi-tech cachet along w/DF Level Meter. Awe inspiring. No bullshale appearance. James Bond took his along on travels as did I to Nassau. James Brown performed the Goodfoot Dance, but never on his Pilot II. Audio? Crisp, loud, clean, as one expects from analog.
Recommend you acquire - Available hamfests & e-bay: RDFs. Run forever on D Cells. I run Benmar 555A for main, Pearce Simpson Aqua Meter for backup. Audio strong, sets invariably sensitive, selective, well calibrated, invaluable for targeting directions as well as shooting bearings so as to aid in ID'ng.
Very useful for nulling local pests, hets, Flikes, Ju-Ju men, bubos, fecaliths, staghorns, other forms of interference.
Buy several. Buy them now. One never can be sure....
=Z.=
Paul Vincent Zecchino
Mananovatech Key, FL
BT
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