[Premium-Rx] HP-3586 discussion

[Cecil Acuff]

I think it was a given that front end filtering of some sort was mandatory. 
A low pass such as one of the BC filters commonly available or even better a 
tunable preselector of some sort.  My intended purpose was to DX NDB's and 
for that purpose usually it is recommended that AGC be defeated anyway due 
to it's hang time and the inherent noise in that part of the band.  I'm not 
familiar with the HP but the W&G has a 25 Hz, 1.9 Khz and 3.2 Khz filter 
selection while in demod.  It appears to have a fixed BFO that I hope to 
find adjustable.  Right now tuning up or down 1.025 Khz from carrier places 
the CW id in the 25 hz bandpass.  Sensitivity is manually adjustable down 
to -110 dbm.  With it's digital tuning system the 1.025 Khz offset can be 
dialed in and it can be step tuned in 1 Khz increments up and down the band. 
It also has a flywheel continuous tuning that you can spin a few times and 
it will just about cover the entire 50 Hz to 10 Mhz bandspread in the coarse 
setting.  It will also demodulate USB and LSB but it defeats the filter 
selection in those modes and defaults to some wide setting. (too wide)

The thing is portable and battery powered if needed but weighs probably 30+ 
lbs.  My guess is it's shielded better than most receivers since it's a 
reference level piece of test gear.

I logged several beacons last evening in the Caribbean, Mexico, TX and TN 
from coastal MS.  Not bad for it's first use.  It's my opinion that it can 
be made to perform as well as anything I have used in that part of the 
spectrum but I didn't want to reinvent the wheel if this is already being 
done by others...so in that vein if there are others doing this that have 
applied external devices as mentioned above or have other ideas contact me 
off list and we will continue that discussion there.

Cecil Acuff

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Donaldson" <wa1qhq at yahoo.com>
To: "Cecil Acuff" <chacuff at cableone.net>; <premium-rx at ml.skirrow.org>
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 9:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Premium-Rx] HP-3586 discussion


>I do not have first hand knowledge of the W&G SPM-15
> but have studied the schematics of the HP-3586 with
> the intention of picking up a used one cheap to play
> around with. After my review of the design of 3586 I
> decided not to purchase one. The 3586 and I believe
> most selective level meters lack AGC which I find to
> be almost mandatory also the filters in the 3586 were
> nothing special and I do not think the selective level
> meters strive for superior front end performance in
> terms of noise figure and overload performance, as
> long as the front end of the selective level meter
> meets the dynamic range requirements it is adequate
> for its' intended use. I would not put even the best
> selective level meters in the same category as a
> premium receiver or even a non-premium receiver they
> are two different things.
>
> --- Cecil Acuff <chacuff at cableone.net> wrote:
>
>> This is a timely and interesting discussion for me,
>> but not wanting to
>> exceed the groups bandpass on subject matter, I pose
>> the
>> question...(non-rhetorical)
>>
>> I'm currently working to press a W&G SPM-15 into
>> LF/VLF service.  It
>> certainly cost as much as many of the Premium
>> receivers we use and may turn
>> out to perform better down there, with some
>> adaptation, than many of the
>> Premiums.
>>
>> Would the discussion here of ideas to make these
>> into a usable NDB DXing
>> receivers be off topic? (I realize it's not on the
>> list.....might talk about
>> that too!)
>>
>>
>> Cecil Acuff
>> Gulfport MS
>> WB5VCE
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>> Premium-Rx Mailing List
>> To Post: premium-rx at ml.skirrow.org
>> For Info:
>> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/premium-rx
>> Visit the Website:
>> http://kahuna.sdsu.edu/~mechtron/PremRxPage/
>>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
>