Interference May be the Cause of Compromised SW on the Grundig G8

Addressing Shawn's report of bad SW reception on his Grundig G8, Mischa writes:

As a fellow owner of a G8 I'm curious as to why you classify its SW performance as that it really sucks. Actually, it's the best performing shortwave radio in my house (I also own a Sony-SW11, a Sangean ATS909, a Grundig Yachtboy 50 and a Tecsun PL310). After reading your comment, I'm now wondering whether I'm missing a whole lot of shortwave stations. How does the G8 compare to a G5 or G3? I'm thinking of buying one of these. Are they a major leap forward in terms of SW performance as compared to the G8? Mischa

But Brian, who also gets poor SW on his G8, writes that interference may be the cause:

RF from the local broadcasters in my area cause interference all over the SW band on my G8. The problem is worse on my G8 than on any other SW portable I own. My older Radio Shack DX-396 even does better on SW, and it also gets a bit of interference from local stations. None of my other SW portables have this problem. A dual conversion radio, such as the Kaito/Degen 1102, should serve most SW listeners more reliably than the G8. The Kaito 1102 is the one I go to for SW listening.

Comments

[TomWc]

I have had the same experience with the G8. I live one mile from a clear channel tower for WSB here in atlanta. It stomps all up and down the G8's shortwave band, but not at all on my S350DL. However, when I've brought my G8 up to the mountains, I've had great results.

[Shawn Patrick]

Yea, our one local radio station stomps everywhere on the G8 in the daytime, I can listen to it on 14000khz, 4700khz etc. And when I attach a antenna via a gator clip, the entire radio becomes useless on shortwave.

At night when our local station goes from 5000watts to 143watts, the problem isn't as bad. But the G8 radio can't pull weaker signals on shortwave either compared to the G6 or G5. But in defense of the G8, it is only a 50 dollar radio & comparing it to a G6 or G5 isn't real fair. When I get my WRX-911, it will be a fair comparison.

The G8 does fine on powerhouse shortwave monsters like Cuba, Romania, WWCR, and WYFR on 5950.

As for it being poor on longwave, that's probably due to the smallness of the radio. You usually need a large ferrite or a good loop antenna to draw in longwave beacons and the occasional LW broadcaster from Europe when conditions are just right.

[ix]

comparing to pl600 and DE1103 is fair, as theyre the same price. and are several times better on SW

im not aware of other low-IF DSP/SDR recievers than the SiLabs family. the GOOD ones that hams use either sample an entire 30MHz range or have a traditional 2 or 3-conversoin frontend that samples the last 192 or 455 khz or so

[Mischa]

That probably explains it indeed. I don't have any (very) local radio stations around where I live (the west of The Netherlands). And indeed LW sucks on the G8;) It's literally useless.

I'm not sure about the statement that it takes a large ferrite for good LW though: my analogue Sony ICF-SW11 does longwave very well. I receive all the usual broadcasters here (BBC4 on 198, RTL on 234, two other French stations on 162 and 216, Ireland on 252, sometimes even Algeria at night on 252 as well). The Sony is only a few centimers larger than the G8...

Now we're at it: I'm curious about LW performance on the G3. I've read somewhere that it's terrible. Does someone have experience with a G3 on LW in Western Europe?

Mischa

[Shawn Patrick]

ix,

Forgot all about the DE1103, that's the one that's the older brother of the G5 right, just a different display and was much cheaper in price if I remember correctly. That would be a fair comparison then.

I might try to see if I can get some youtube videos up comparing these Grundigs, if I can figure out how to do it right. If so, I'll share them with the blog.

I would like to get my hands on a really good longwave radio, finding airport beacons is kind of neat. Weird as my wife says but neat.

[Tom Welch]

Shawn, longwave radio is big in the UK and Europe but seldom heard in the USA. So it is not the radio you purchase but rather your location that makes a difference.

[Shawn Patrick]

Well well... I have an interesting result. I was listening to 5950khz around 2200utc which is WYFR booming in here. The Grundig G5 & 350SL both had images of this signal on 5050 and 5040 respectively of this signal. The G8 did not have an image I could find. The G6 didn't have an image either.

Our blowhard AM station here in town already had went to nighttime power when I did this little experiment, to see if it was local interference.

I think Tom had it right that powerful AM stations blow this thing apart on shortwave.

And more one thing, on the ultralight DX group, they've figured out a way to connect the G8 directly to your computer via a USB cable and do all sorts of things with it via your computer.

Very interesting.....

[ix]

longwave comes in every night near NYC on my Schaub Lorenz and its 200 mm ferrite

also the ferrite is in a nice 'breezy' location above all the copper traces and so on