[R-390] Poor man's R389

ToddRoberts2001 at aol.com ToddRoberts2001 at aol.com
Mon Mar 13 21:17:21 EST 2006


In a message dated 3/13/2006 9:04:11 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
chacuff at cableone.net writes:
It has been suggested that for beacon hunting on LF the AGC should be 
disabled on receivers that have AGC, mainly because of the atmospheric noise 
in that part of the spectrum.  Static crashes would keep the radio 
desensitized due to constant AGC action.  That being said frequency 
selective voltmeters are a great choice.  I think with the proper mods they 
make excellent  LF/VLF receivers.

Hi Cecil, the atmospheric noise on LF is exactly the reason why I couldn't 
live with a receiver with no AGC on LF. After a few lightning static crash 
spikes take out the level meter or after a while they would take out your speaker 
or your ears if using headphones unless you use some kind of limiter to protect 
your ears. Also it is very tedious when tuning with no AGC to have to 
constantly adjust the input attenuator to keep from overloading or banging the level 
meter everytime you tune across a beacon signal or other signal down there. A 
nice AGC enabled VLF radio like the R-389 is the only thing I can live with on 
LF/VLF. 73 Todd WD4NGG


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