[Premium-Rx] A request for assistance in choosing a new receiver

[Charles Steinmetz]

Tom wrote:

>I'm interested in acquiring a military/commercial 
>receiver.  *   *   *   I found a very nice Racal 
>6790/GM  *   *   *   but I wonder if I should consider additional 
>makes/models in selecting my first general coverage receiver.

It very much depends on how you operate (what do you listen 
to?  SSB?  AM?  CW?  other?  voice?  utility?  broadcast?  digital 
modes?  which bands?  crowded band conditions and pile-ups?  do you 
tend to band-cruise, or jump to spot frequencies?  do you need/want 
memories and/or scanning?  etc., etc., etc.)

The 6790 is a horrible band-cruiser (its three tuning rates are way 
too fast, too fast, and way, way too slow), and its membrane keypads 
are (IMO) nasty.  Its mixers and IFs are noisy, and the filter 
switching (diodes on the filter outputs only) is leaky, so the narrow 
bandwidths are spoiled by excessive bleedthrough from the wider 
filters (particularly, the 16kHz filter and the wire link in the 7th 
position if it hasn't been removed -- if you remove both of these, 
it's reasonably OK).  It has no notch filter, passband shift, or 
other advanced signal-recovery features to dig signals out of 
difficult conditions.  So (IMO) there are lots of much better candidates.

My personal favorite is the Drake R8B (the "B" only).  I'm not fond 
of the rubber-matrix buttons (although they are much better than the 
6790's membrane switches), but IMO, everything else about it is 
better than everything else out there.  It sounds great, it has all 
of the tools you need to snag difficult signals (notch filter, 
passband shift, and the best synchronous AM detector ever made 
available commercially), and other than the rubber-matrix buttons, 
its ergonomics are the best I've ever used.

Of course, everyone has his or her favorite receiver, so you will no 
doubt get a wide variety of responses.

The Ten-Tec RX340 and JRC NRD-545 are worthy contenders with 
different operational trade-offs.  The Harris RF590 is a very capable 
receiver, but its ergonomics and lack of advanced signal-recovery 
features make it more like the 6790 than like any of the other three.

Best regards,

Charles