Tecsun PL-606 External Ferrite Loopstick Mods

As the PL-606 has the same antenna jack as the PL-310ET I though I'd take a look and see how easy it would be to carry out the modification.

Actually more straightforward on this set. Unfortunately, when I removed the rear cover, I found the internal ferrite bar in two pieces. I've repaired this using superglue which has worked for me on other ferrite rods.

The end results on LW are as impressive as the 310. On MW, despite trying two different coils (500µH and 200µH), results at the lower end of the band showed an improvement but at the top end the performance appeared worser than the internal ferrite bar.

Conclusion? Definately needs the mod for LW but quite adequate for MW.

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Tecsun R-9700DX Teardown

I've seen a lot of favourable comments on this analogue SW radio via various YouTube channels, along with it's sibling the R-9710. Sold in some (USA?) markets as the Grundig Yacht Boy 250. Exact specifications and schematics have evaded me so far, however I did find a teardown and comparison at RadioIntel.com from which I've borrowed this photo: Photo from http://www.radiointel.com/review-review-tecsunr9700dx.htm It appears to use dual-conversion on shortwave with a fixed crystal local oscillator (see the 10 crystals above the bandswitch). One feature is that the tuning on the short wave bands tune the opposite direction to the AM and FM bands. Here's my (incorrect) guess of how it works. AM band IF is 450kHz (from the orange block filter) AM local oscillator tunes 975kHz - 2160kHz. The image of the AM band (1425kHz - 2610kHz) is used as a tuneable first IF for the shortwave bands. Each band is 600kHz wide so it probably uses 2000kHz - 2600kHz. The SW ba...

Tecsun R-9710 Teardown

Although I've been itching to get my hands on the Tecsun R-9700DX, I wasn't really aware of it's smaller sibling, the R-9710 until I saw this review on the Two Hands and a Radio YouTube channel. Two Hands made the observation that the shortwave bands tune in the opposite direction to the AM and FM bands, which made me go and do a quick check other Tecsun analog radios. I found the R-9700DX also has this inverted tuning feature so some Googling later and I've located a teardown of the R-9710 plus other sets. The original article is in Chinese but you can view it through the magic of Google Translate . R-9710 teardown from http://www.leowood.net/sbdp209.htm Note it has eight crystals around the bandswitch for that fixed-crequency first local oscillator. Add the schematic found at http://www.fmdiy.com/ReadNews.asp?NewsID=305 More dead links to maintain unfortunately.

Tesco RAD-108 AM/FM/Shortwave portable radio review - American Style

I sent one of the RAD-108s over to Two Hands and a Radio for a YouTube review. Update - looks like 2H has taken his YouTube channel down so this is no longer available. Here is mine, a poor substitute. It didn't do too well on the American AM broadcast band, probably due to tuning in 9kHz rather than 10kHz steps!

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