[Premium-Rx] hf 1000A

[Michael O'Beirne]

Dear Eddy

Thanks for your posting.  You really do need to read the Short Wave Magazine 
article again.  It's for June 2001, pages 26 - 34.  I can send you a copy 
(and to anyone else, but please no stampede).

John's tests were undertaken under rigorous professional conditions with the 
usual battery of test gear from R&S.

He makes many positive comments such as the operating system and received 
quality of the audio but did not like the poppy AGC (a fault shared by many 
other receivers).  However, the receivers radiated like a lighthouse and 
there are spectrum shots to show this vividly.

In fairness to both views, it is evident that outside the lab and possibly 
outside the European blast of RF these sets are fine in practice and clearly 
their owners are highly satisfied.

We should also remember that these were relatively cheap sets compared to 
what WJ charged for their "normal" battleship construction quality, and fair 
bit less than the cost of competing professional radios.  As an example, the 
Plessey PR2250 of 1978 (over 12 years prior to the introduction of the 
HF1000) was about £7,000 (plus VAT of course), and there was heavy inflation 
during that period.  In his brief review of the 2250 in the TT column of 
RadCom, Pat Hawker suggested that it might be useful to find an oilfield 
before buying one:-).

As an example of Civil Service salaries, in 1971 (extracted from HMSO's 
CIVIL SERVICE LIST for that year) an Engineering Inspector in the Welsh 
Office was earning between £3,352 - 4,470.  Allowing for inflation, it will 
be seen that the PR2250 probably cost as much as this poor chap was earning 
in a year, so Pat's comment was not frivolous!

As for the effect of John's review on WJ's sales, Terry will no doubt tell 
us that their prime customers were US government agencies whose knowledge of 
Short Wave Magazine was probably minimal, if that!  As it is, the BBC's 
Monitoring Service (who probably did read SWM) bought the 8711A to replace 
their RA1792s and I have read of no complaints by them.  They are a fussy 
lot and would have done comparative tests, but then their major listening 
stations are inevitably sited in low noise environments.

73s
Michael
G8MOB


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eddy Waters" <elwaters at iinet.net.au>
To: <premium-rx at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2013 3:53 AM
Subject: [Premium-Rx] hf 1000A


> Hi Folks.
>
> I have a hf1000A here which I bought new, in 1996.
> It works very well, and is easily the best receiver I have ever owned.
> It outclasses a Ten tec RX340 which I have here as well.
> I remember reading a review of the HF1000 in an english radio magazine
> some years ago, in which the reviewer said the HF1000 was virtually 
> useless
> above 4 mhz due to some internal noise which was caused by touching or 
> turningg the tuning knob.
> I don't remember who the reviewer was now, and it was hardly inspiring 
> reading after I
> spent several thousand dollars buying one of these. The whole review was 
> completely
> contrary to my own experience with this radio. I wonder how many sales 
> were lost for
> watkins johnson, thanks to the load of tripe which the reviewer wrote.
>
> Eddy.