Ultralight DX

[Mark (M7MHY)]

Good evening all,

The Ultralight DX niche is something that interests me very much in the radio listening hobby, both on SW and AM. Does anyone else on the forum enjoy this part of the hobby? I've not seen any mention of it during my short time here.

Tonight I'm facing off a couple of great UL receivers against one another, the Radiwow R-108 vs Tecsun PL-380.

Unfortunately conditions aren't too favourable tonight from my location in Edinburgh, Scotland - so pulling in the transatlantic DX's is proving difficult. I'll settle for the BBC World Service coming in loud and clear from Ascension and the usual suffocating of China Radio International and Radio Romania on 7310!

73,
Mark (M7MHY)

 

[secret squirrel]

Not recently for the SW, but I can remember for Christmas of my 13th birthday, my parents got me a 5 inch black/white portable TV that also had AM/FM/SW receivers. Analog everything. This would have been around 1985-1986 era and my father has a hunting camp about 1 hour west of State College Penna. I remember finding is totally fascination listening to BBC at night on SW on that little box. Beside the CBs, I run an outside antenna for my antique scanner Realistic Pro-2001, first Radio shack scanner with a CPU. I picked up a SDR USB- I have not spent much time with so far, but plan to hook it up to an external antenna. Enjoy your the time with your receivers.

 

[Grunddiigg]

So which radio faired better? I've heard that the PL-380 is a good radio but haven't read anything on Radiwow R-108. The ultra lights are definitely interesting considering how good performance is with portables these days.

 

[Dmans]

Can't shed any light on the topic and don't mean to de-rail the thread but as a 13 year old with his first transistor radio, I used to listen (with the mono earphone) when I was supposed to be going to sleep to the King Biscuit Flower Hour from a station in Arkansas (I grew up in Bayou La Batre, AL) and have been hooked on radio every since.

Back to the regularly scheduled program.

73
David

 

[Mark (M7MHY)]

So which radio faired better? I've heard that the PL-380 is a good radio but haven't read anything on Radiwow R-108. The ultra lights are definitely interesting considering how good performance is with portables these days.

There really isn't too much in it in terms of selectivity and sensitivity, although I'd say the PL-380 edges it ever so slightly. The Tecsun benefits from ETM (easy tuning mode) too, which is fantastic for quickly pulling in stations with minimal effort, it simply cycles through the entire band (I've only tested this on SW it's it's fantastic) and stores any found stations, to quickly scroll through with the tuning wheel once the cycle has ended. Both receivers have LW capability, however the R-108 does have airband where the tecsun lacks. Sound quality on the Radiwow is like nothing I've heard before on such a small radio, it's simply not beaten by anything I've come across so far. All in all if you're looking for an airband capable ultralight receiver with fantastic sound quality, then the Radiwow R-108 should be top of your list. However if like me, you already have other radios/options for listening to aircraft and such like - then I'd choose the Tecsun PL-380, for the handy tuning mode and that tiny bit of extra sensitivity.