Sidebar Sidebar
  • You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.

MVT-7100 vs ATS-505 vs DX-394

A

andy29

Member
Jan 3, 2010
13
1
13
36
United Kingdom
Hi everyone...

I've been bitten by the bug of listening to utilities and amateurs on HF, but I only have a Yupiteru MVT-7100. From personal experience and reviews on the internet though, it seems to do a very job for a handheld scanner.

I don't have much money to spend, and I was having a look at the Sangean ATS-505 and the Realistic DX-394. I know that both have people who hate them and people who love them. Which one is more worthy of £100 or so? Or do you have any recommendations for better ones around the same price? Are portable receivers generally not as sensitive etc. as non-portable ones? Or are neither of them not going to be much better than the 7100? Thanks for any help :)
 

Portable radios in general are MORE sensitive than table top radios if they are a quality set. Portables have developed to the point now that SWL is a very doable activity with just a portable and (maybe) a passive antenna to make up a nice set up.

This is good info to teach the SWL new to the hobby.......
John Wagner's Shortwave Tips & Tricks

Joe Carr Tech Notes

Radio reviews......
Modern Shortwave Receiver Survey - Table of Contents

IMO the top two portable on the market today....
Sony ICF-SW7600GR, Sony ICFSW7600GR

(the 909 here)
Sangean ATS-818CS Sangean ATS-909
 
Thank you Nightshade. Some interesting stuff there! That Sony sounds fantastic, especially considering the price you can get it new for.

I see what you mean about the sensitivity. With the scanner, I always have the attenuator switched on because otherwise it is overloaded by the signal. I presume a 'proper' receiver like the Sony or the Sangean will be able to take more signal before getting overloaded?
 
andy29 said:
Thank you Nightshade. Some interesting stuff there! That Sony sounds fantastic, especially considering the price you can get it new for.

I see what you mean about the sensitivity. With the scanner, I always have the attenuator switched on because otherwise it is overloaded by the signal. I presume a 'proper' receiver like the Sony or the Sangean will be able to take more signal before getting overloaded?
Click to expand...

The naked truth about Sony is be careful about overload. Be VERY careful!!

The Sony I mentioned comes with a clip on antenna that is about all that is safe to use so it's really a package deal. Amazon often can be the cheapest place to buy the Sony. (one point: the speaker on the sony is best for voice only. You'll need to add some shielded [computer speakers are great for this] external speakers to get good music sound from it.)

The Sanegan 909 is available "hopped up" with an external antenna port installed. This is a conversion of the 909 that has me slobbering :drool: to buy one
even tho my Sony is great......... Super Sangean 909
NOTE: My comments about overload still apply to the unmodified Sanegan 909.

(do you ever own enough radios :headbang )
 
Last edited:
Heh, yes I think that Super 909 is a bit much for me right now :D

The speaker is okay, I don't listen to music on shortwave much...

When you say about the antenna being safe to use, do you mean that it can actually damage the radio? The tips you posted the link to earlier say that it 'can ruin them' - is that what it means? Is it just portables?
 
andy29 said:
Heh, yes I think that Super 909 is a bit much for me right now :D

The speaker is okay, I don't listen to music on shortwave much...

When you say about the antenna being safe to use, do you mean that it can actually damage the radio? The tips you posted the link to earlier say that it 'can ruin them' - is that what it means? Is it just portables?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can "blow" the front end of a portable much easier than a regular table top radio. The reason is portables have MUCH greater sensitivity in order to capture signal to listen to. Table tops have robust parts to allow for the use of antenna arrays that really grab signal.

An amplified (active) antenna (will "shout" in the portables "ear" instead speaking normally). This is why portables (Sony in particular) don't do well
with much added antenna at all. To be fair Sony does such a good job that adding much of any antenna will be gross overkill for capturing signals. This is why the Sony 7600GR comes with its' own "extra" antenna.

Signal is: a combination of radiated energy and noise that when captured turn in to voltage that the radio reads. To much signal = to much voltage. To little signal = not enough voltage to read.

That's thing as I know it to be and see it. YMMMV
 
Ah ok. I understand that. In the end I just want one which will be able to make use of a longer long wire if I ever make it so, rather than hitting a limit and getting drowned out. At the moment I have a random wire going once diagonally across my garden, but as I've probably said, that plus the 7100 appears to do a surprisingly good job.

How much do you use the attenuator with your 909?

You know what, at the price it is, I'm starting to fall in love with the little Degen/Kaito 1103. I see some people on eham.net have used it with a decent long wire and it seems to be able to cope with it fairly well.

YouTube - Degen DE 1103 VS Sangean ATS 909

YouTube - Degen vs Sangean
 
I have a Kaito 1103 and really like it. It has a great MW section in it as well as the SW bands. RF performance is pretty darn good on this little guy. The interface is a little weird and the audio is not as good as either my Grundig Yachtboy 400pe or my Sangean 909.

One thing I love about the Sangean 909 is the ATS feature. This is fantastic for traveling. It scans for and automatically programs in the strongest stations in your area for you. The Sangean has better audio than the 1103, but the 1103 has a better MW section and better overall selectivity and dynamic range.

I would think that the 7600 would be as good or better RF-wise as any of these portables, and I would love to have the syncronous detection that the Sony has.
 
Hmm. I mean I pretty much only listen to utilities and anything but AM broadcasts, so I could probably live without the sound quality, scanning, memory naming and synchronous detection etc. Yes I saw about the volume and the controls. And the virtual analogue display whatsit looks like a bit of a waste of room, but a fun toy, and probably actually quite handy to see where in the band you are. Would look good sat next to my 'normal' shortwave radio which has a real one ;)

Just a quick look:

1103 - £48 new from Hong Kong
Sony - £99 new from the UK
ATS-505 - £95 new from the USA
ATS-909 - £150 new from the USA
or some table top receivers but these are more than the 909.

Arrgh! It's the 1103 putting a spanner in the works, I was so close to getting that Sony!
 
andy29 said:
Hmm. I mean I pretty much only listen to utilities and anything but AM broadcasts, so I could probably live without the sound quality, scanning, memory naming and synchronous detection etc. Yes I saw about the volume and the controls. And the virtual analogue display whatsit looks like a bit of a waste of room, but a fun toy, and probably actually quite handy to see where in the band you are. Would look good sat next to my 'normal' shortwave radio which has a real one ;)

Just a quick look:

1103 - £48 new from Hong Kong
Sony - £99 new from the UK
ATS-505 - £95 new from the USA
ATS-909 - £150 new from the USA
or some table top receivers but these are more than the 909.

Arrgh! It's the 1103 putting a spanner in the works, I was so close to getting that Sony!
Click to expand...

Get the sony and don't look back. While the other radios you mentioned are Ok at the prices sony 7600GR's are today there is no reason not to buy it and a whole lot of reasons to buy it. Remember you get a a second wire antenna WITH the sony that will add much to the signal capture while doing no harm. This antenna also frees you from having to guess about a wire antenna. Get the sony and enjoy! :D

P.S. while you can agonize over which radio is best it's important to know that Dollar for dollar the sony always kicks the other radios to the curb. There simply is no better radio for the price.

http://stephan.win31.de/sony7600.htm
 
Okay then. In the end I went with the 1103 as I'm not exactly rolling in cash and I couldn't justify the extra 40 odd quid for the Sony to myself. You do get an antenna with the 1103 too. Looking at the reviews I'm still completely torn between the two. You two are doing exactly the same thing :D I really don't know if I've done the right thing and so in a week and a bit's time I will find out.

Nightshade, I haven't ignored what you've said, when I am able to spend more money I will come back to this. The less I spend now, the more I'll have to spend in the future etc. It's quite possible that the 1103 will end up as a radio for travelling as the Sony would have been too nice to do that with. I've had thoughts of getting a licence too...
 
IMO, you got a nice radio for a nice price. Enjoy it, see if the hobby is something you want to continue with, and by all means use this forum to learn and study if you decide to advance in the hobby. :D
 
andy29 said:
Nightshade, I haven't ignored what you've said, when I am able to spend more money I will come back to this. The less I spend now, the more I'll have to spend in the future etc. It's quite possible that the 1103 will end up as a radio for travelling as the Sony would have been too nice to do that with. I've had thoughts of getting a licence too...
Click to expand...

No worries, mate. No worries at all.

Just enjoy the journey in SWL since one can never have to many radios.
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.


      Top Bottom
      Back