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in US Dollars to my current "Amateur Radio"
mailing address as given on QRZ and
elsewhere (Ham Call : N9EWO) .
IMPORTANT NOTE : Reader
Contributions makes these reviews happen 100%
from now on . Without it, we will no longer be
adding any "new" reviews . Please help
out if you find my work here useful. Any $$
amount helps. THANK YOU and to all below
who have helped to keep this web page here and
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2012
Contributions : Jan 08 - Gary K. ,
Jan 06 - Sheng Z.
, Jan 05 -
Payman A.
2011 Contributions : Aug
12 - Dan G. , Jul
02 - Payman A. , Mar 30 - Mark
C. , Jan 25 - Dean B.
2010 Contributions : Dec 30 - Randy
M. , Dec 04 - Gary K. ,
Nov 29 - Henk V. , Nov
23 - James E. , Nov 18 - Payman
A. , Aug 21 - Rowland H.
, Aug 01 - Dean B. , Jul 20 - Huelbe
A.G. , Jun 16 - Dave S. ,
Jun 14 - Dan G. , Jun 06 - Dan
P. , Apr 19 - Randy
M. , Feb 07 - Antonio S.
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- DEGEN DE1128
CHINESE Owners Manual can be found here. To be sold as the (eton)
Grundig G2 "Reporter" in North America.
The eton
variant will use "white" backlight LED's
instead of green on the Degen (I like green
myself). The line in jack is a huge plus in my
view (just like on the DE1121). Will also be sold
in Europe as the eton "G2 Reporter".
Universal Radio in
the USA now has more infomation and new pictures
posted on the Grundig G2 "Reporter"
version . Selling price listed at $ 149.95
USD MSRP at this time . Should be for sale around
April or so in the USA ? IMPORTANT NOTE :
It appears that the Degen DE1128
version will be useless for
North American users as Eton has requested that
Degen restrict the "home model" MW to 9
khz steps only and also NO English display
support to protect G2 sales. So "evil-bay"
(ebay) will be NOT be the way to puchase this one
for anyone in North America.
Of course the HUGE plus with the G2 Reporter (over the Tecsun PL-398
MP) is that it will RECORD radio
reception "off air" just like with the
DE1126 and DE1127 .
IF I receive enough donations, I
will plan a "full page" extended Grundig
G2 Reporter review for late spring . I
will put any USD $$ donations torwards this
starting now . As I cover above....
from this point onward....If I do not receive
reader donations , I will no longer be adding ANY
NEW reviews . (Updated Jan 27)
- DEGEN DE1126
and DE1127 : We have updated and
restored the Degen DE1126 / DE1127
review (at the bottom of the DE1125 review page) and also I have updated my FREE 14
page PDF DE1126 / DE1127 "owners manual" . As we covered here there
are MAJOR CHANGES in which new versions of the
"Firmware Updates" MUST be done . We
totally BRICKED our DE1127 test sample as we did
the V 0.1.8 "FIRMWARE UPGRADE" wrong (no
English instructions). All of this is covered in
our NEW PDF manual. However Degen has removed
all Firmware Updates from the web page at this
time.
As we had covered over the last weeks, the "Chinese"
ebay dealer where our 1st Degen DE1127
sample came from could care less to make it RIGHT
for MY bricked sample. After a few emails to
Tecsun in Hong Kong , they did send us a DE1127
replacement (at no charge) with the latest V0.1.8
firmware installed. THANK YOU TECSUN !!
No major performance differences that I can
detect in this latest sample (except for "off
air" recording "tick tock" noise
is now on SW as well , see updated review). After
talking with Tecsun, there is a reset that can be
done to restore a dead 1126 or 1127 where the
firmware upgrade was done wrong. But is pretty
involved to get at the required 3 test points
located on the front side near the keypad area ,
and requires VERY fine soldering and eyes . I
tried and failed (too tight and small for my BAD
eyes). Again see my NEW updated
PDF owners manual for full details on this (480K
file). Note : My new version "4.0
manual" requires adobe reader 9.0 or greater.
More good news, with the donations
over the last weeks ("Thank
You" to Gary K., Sheng Z. and Payman A.) ,
we purchased a new
Degen DE1126 (and NO it was NOT via "e-vil
bay") , and has been added into the DE1127
review. The DE1126 has improved MW and FM
sensitivity over the 1127 to my ears. The 1126
has about a 6 inch longer whip (much thicker much
more durable too). The DE1127 is still a nice
very SMALL device , but the DE1126 works a bit
better and larger LCD (less self generated
crackle noise in "off air" record too).
Also the DE1126 has louder and richer audio (it
has higher audio amp output) , even with
headphones in use. In general the 1126 wins the
horse race for me . (Updated Jan 22)

The
Degen DE1126 . Best model in the series so far in
our testing .
However it's not without bugs. Please see the
review for information.
(N9EWO Photo)
- ZYCOMM HF7070
: Until we receive NEW SOLID information (even
some "real" pictures) I have decided to
TOTALLY remove the web page and all other content
connected to the long overdue ZYCOMM HF7070
DSP HF receiver . More than enough time
as passed in my view , and I now have to wonder (AGAIN)
if it's REALLY going to happen at all ?? Last
summer, the plan was to have 10 pre-production
samples floating around by now, but so far that
has not happened. Not even one decent picture of
the receiver have been made available. IF and
when we REALLY receive more information , I will
then restore the page . (Jan 02)
- We try the KK5DR
Icom PS-125 (power supply) fan modification
. Text located 3/4 way down the
old IC-756 PRO II page including a couple of new
pictures . The simple modification helps to
tame the LOUD fan noise. Hardest part it to
PROPERLY take the case apart. Lots of screws and
you could have a nasty problem if you remove the
wrong ones !! Of course this will VOID the
warranty. (Dec 20)
- Uniden's new
entry level BC125AT handheld scanner has been FCC
cleared. This new model is nothing that
great (just a low end scanner), however we discovered this
while looking at the FCC OET web page. It's where the scanner is
made : VIETNAM (yes Vietnam).
Now after talking with Dan VE4XWA, his NEW sample
of the BCD396XT P25 handheld
model was also made in Vietnam. He (and others
including the similar BC346XT
model) have had issues
with the outer plastic cases cracking (or near
falling apart for some) new out of the box. Make of this what you wish
, but this sure does not sound good to me. GRE
did clear up the PSR-800 front
panel issues and this was very good news ("thank
you" GRE), but I would not
count on Uniden even admitting to this ?? Mind
you as I have experienced with Uniden service
over the years and this is about par for the
course (near NO REAL customer service)....good
luck !! UPDATE : Reader reports to me that his BCD996XT
was also made in VIETNAM !! Perhpas the reason
why the way above average
"speaker failure" rate with Uniden
handheld scanners of late , including the Home
Partol 1 (who knows) ?? (Updated : Dec 19)
- Added Review
: GRE (GRECOM) PSR-800 digital handheld "scanner"
receiver. Our samples "battery cover"
cracked only a bit over 2 weeks old and GRE America were NOT going to cover
this under warranty. OK, after near 2 weeks of
email "run-a-rounds" , they finally
sent me a "replacement battery cover" (under
warranty). This did NOT happen until intervention
by the dealer. I take great care with all of my
electronics. Another bug is the wear marks on the
base keyboard plate have appeared (as it has for
many) . Update : This now has been fixed and
covered under warranty !!! Uses a "micro"
SD card . (Updated : Dec 14)
- Updated
Review : Updated text and added a new
photo (bottom) to the eton "e1"
LW / MW / SW / FM / XM Portable Receiver page . (Nov
23)
- Simple Way to
Tame the (discontinued) Yaesu VR-5000's Nasty
Overloading on HF / SW Bands". Add
an external variable attenuator . We now have
tested the somewhat expensive "Scanner
Master ATT-20" pre-made VARIABLE attenuator . It
works well and be sure and check
out the added light review on my "Yaesu VR-5000"
web page (located mid way down the page). A RF adapter is required
as the ATT-20 uses BNC connectors . Our thanks to
Dan VE4XWA for the tip and test sample. (Updated
: Sep 17)
- Added Review
: We review the standalone " Sangean DAR-101
" MP3 digital recorder . This is
a very nice little " flash " MP3
recorder at a great price. We had a bug with the
SD card(s), but fixed it. Turns
out Sangean does not do a proper card format
using the "on board" function (see
review) .
The DAR-101
features a built in 1 watt amplifier , 3 inch
speaker and phone stereo 1/8 inch "line in /
line output" jacks. Digital SPDIF (RCA)
output too. But again the amazing part is the
low "street price" price (at least
in the USA). This recorder is a nice departure
from the handheld ones we see about 99.9% of the
time . It's 192 kbps top MP3 setting is perfect
for high quality "off air" radio
recording and playback and works good for
music files too (even at the 128 kbps rate).
Built in "one event" timer in 12 or 24
hour format. Power is with the included a "linear-analog"
9 Volt AC adapter (Yes adapter has AC output ,
not DC) or 4 AA batteries , and when ni-mh cells
are used can be charged onboard. However , the
required SD or SDHC memory card(s) are not
included . With information direct from Sangean
USA : Recorder generated files , transferred to a
computer can only be done via the SD / SDHC card
, a direct USB cable connection is NOT possible.
This was a TOTAL change from the PRE-Production
Sangean advertising (information now
corrected on the company web sites) . The Male A type USB
connector found on the recorder is only for
PLAYBACK of files with a flash memory device . (Sep
14)
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