[Premium-Rx] Longwave Receiver Recommendations?

[sm0aom at telia.com]

TRF receivers work as good as others, as long as their limitations are
understood.

Regarding the actual performance differences, the main aspect for a LW receiver
is the selectivity. Sensitivity or noise figure are secondary, as long as the antennas are above "minimum size".
When a reasonable compromise of antenna size is made, the large-signal performance is also somewhat secondary, as long as you do not live "next-door" to a transmitter site.

In my soon 40 years of professional practice, long-wave receivers have mostly been encountered in maritime/naval and SIGINT roles.

In the maritime services they were mostly used for 500 kHz watch-keeping or traffic channel, 
with quite small antennas, often long-wires or active antennas, the SRT AA300 was one common type.

The most common receivers were Drake RR-1 and Skanti R-5001s.
When the networks were reorganised, the RR-1 became phased-out and we standardised on the R-5001 for
fixed frequency use and the SRT CR302 for frequency-agile use.

Naval users had the Racal RA-117 with the LF converter RA-137 well into the 80s, but they were phased out 
in favour of the CR302 during the late 80s.  Submarine communications used RA-117 + RA-137s and some custom-built receivers for receiving shore-to-ship broadcasts.

When submarine LF/VLF Morse broadcasts were abandoned in favour of MSK some 20 years ago, 
the Navy purchased a British-made high-performance receiver+modem system from a manufacturer whose name has escaped me.

Most SIGINT people with interest in LW used the receiving system integrated in the Plath Watson-Watt DF equipment,
sometimes supplemented with CR302 or CR91 receivers.

If there are many strong out-of-band interferers, it is advisable to have a tunable preselector in-front, such as the one integrated into the Skanti R-5001. 

It was impossible to distinguish any performance differences by just listening, 
comparing the R-5001 and the SRT PS300 and CR302 combination on long-wave, despite the 1:4 price difference.


73/
Karl-Arne
SM0AOM


----Ursprungligt meddelande----
Från : premium-rx at mailman.qth.net
Datum : 2020-04-02 - 16:15 ()
Till : premium-rx at mailman.qth.net
Ämne : Re: [Premium-Rx] Longwave Receiver Recommendations?

How about the RAK and RBA ?    They are ancient TRF boatanchor receivers 
with regen detectors, but many people have been amazed at how well they 
can perform. There is no mixer noise or birdies, unless you turn the 
regen up too much.  I had one about 50 years ago, and with a good 
antenna it was amazing.   In many ways, especially it's internal noise 
floor, it  was better than an R-389.

       Bruce Gentry, KA2IVY


On 4/2/20 7:38 AM, Clemens Ostergaard wrote:
> And as long as we are mentioning boat anchors, let us not forget the RCA
> SRR-11, with its range of 14-600 kcs and its 28 soldered in tubes. (and
> wonderful mechanical construction). Used to have one but let it go, because
> I could not establish the requisite antenna.
>
> Clemens
>
> On Thu, Apr 2, 2020 at 2:31 AM Heinz Breuer via Premium-Rx <
> premium-rx at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
>
>> How about the AEG E 1800A, the later DSP version of the E 1800/3?
>> Also don’t forget the boatanchors R-389/URR, Telefunken E 108 LW and
>> Siemens E 311 e2 with E 350 longwave adapter or even a Lorenz Lo 6L39 which
>> is the longwave version of the pre WW II short wave receiver Lo 6K39. This
>> is a TRF receiver with six tuned circuits.
>>
>> I have several of the receivers above (unfortunately no Lo 6L39) but my
>> location in the middle of severe man made noise from my neighbors by
>> switchmode power supplies, Chinese cell phone chargers and powerline
>> ethernet adapters makes reception difficult.
>>
>> vy 73 Heinz DH2FA, KM5VT
>>
>>
>>
>> Von meinem iPhone gesendet
>>
>>> Am 02.04.2020 um 00:16 schrieb Edward via Premium-Rx <
>> premium-rx at mailman.qth.net>:
>>> Greetings to the Group!
>>>
>>> I have built up quite a collection of Premium Rx and would like to know
>> what you would consider as the ideal rx for reception of the Longwave band.
>> I have high hopes for this, as I put up a couple of antennas that are quite
>> suitable for LW. I am also in the Middle East and hope to hear some
>> Europeans and N African stations, plus NDBs.
>>> I plan to dedicate 3-4 Rx for this so pls give me your top 3-5 choices
>> from the following:
>>> -WJ HF-1000A
>>> -WJ 8711A
>>> -WJ URR-74
>>> -Harris R-2368
>>> -Racal RA-3791
>>> -Racal RA-6793
>>> -Racal RA-6790/GM
>>> -Hagenuk RX-1001M
>>> -AEG E1800/3 (aka Telefunken)
>>> -Telefunken E-1501
>>> -JRC NRD-93
>>> -JRC NRD-75
>>> -Drake RR-3
>>> -Collins 651-S1
>>>
>>> Plus some SDRs.
>>>
>>> Thanks & 73,
>>> Ed NI6S/7Z1ES
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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