REVIEW DEGEN Shortwave radio with SSB.
With this product I guess the chinese are taking on the famous
Sony IC 7600 series at 1/3rd the price, but is it 1/3rd the radio ?
On day 1 it looked like 1/3rd the radio to me as the LCD display seemed
vague with wrong elements on making it hard to read. Just before
sending it back , I read the manual and deduced that this was because
flat batteries were present in it, dragging down the voltage.
I had assumed plugging in the charger for the units Ni-cad batteries would have
charged them, however this is a tricky radio and you have to manually select
charge and enter the number of hours for it to charge.
You have to do this every time it requires charging.
The radio, a model DE1103 $149 + delivery from AVCOMM
Sydney was recently
reviewed in Silicon chip. It read very
well, had all the features
needed at the right price so I ordered one.
In many ways its a Sony copy with about the same features and dimensions.
It came with all you'd expect -> Nicads with recharger, earphones , and
long external antenna that may be plugged into the radio.
Generally speaking it is a neat package.
It covers AM and SSB from 100khz to 30Mhz , and FM from 75-108mhz, and
has 256 memories and could be used for example to store all the VKS frequencies
such that they can be scanned - or tuned thru in a block very quickly.
It also has an inbuilt clock with ability to turn the radio on and off.
PERFORMANCE AM & FM
Well this is what counts and first it has a generally pleasant sound
courtesy of a 77mm speaker and is quite nice to listen to on AM or FM and includes a 2 position wide/narrow switch to reduce noise.
This switch changes the IF banwidth from 6 to 4 khz on AM, and is used as a sort
of tone control to.
It has adequate sensitivity at 10uv, and even provides a line out for sound recording.
We were in the bush checking out the old SEC rd NE of Glenburn(vic) and
this radio pulled in the station's at the same level as our Nissan patrol car radio.
This puts it way above your normal portables, but not in the
"Communications receiver" class.
SSB PERFORMANCE
Most radios in this class do not have this feature, so its a bonus and
listening in to 4wd outback chats on VKS737, or CB radio, showed that
the unit could work
well but suffers from local interference (suburban noise)
more than it should and in my opinion performance here is only adequate.
It has acceptable freq stability and tuning, but the Sony variant
has synchronous detection and is less distorted in the presence of noise.
I would not buy this radio for SSB reception alone.
EASE of USE
Its a little tricky to get used to using this radio as some controls
are multiple use and you have to select a function first.
E.G. To change the volumne, you press VOL then operate the main tuning knob.
After a few seconds of non use
the knob reverts to its normal main tuning function.
Memory storage also requires a definite technique not clearly explained in the manual.
CONCLUSION
Overall a
well priced pleasant product 80% as good as Sony at 1/3rd the price.
I found it very useful to program in my favourite frequnecies and be able to tune
thru them in a flash and to not have to run back to the car radio, or have its volumne
up so loud as to annoy others when
camping.
Its 2 seperate alarms, enable it to switch on as an alarm clock in the morning
and also at VKS sked time later in the day.
IMHO the Degen is worth the money and a great asset to have at around a
campsite.
Robin Miller 11/2/2007