Herculodge Hiatus from December 26th to December 30th

 

Family holiday activities will cause Herculodge to go on hiatus from December 26th to December 30th. I will go online periodically to remove comments from spammers, trolls, and petulant malcontents (which means I'll be removing my own comments!)

Herculodge should be back in full robust force on December 30th, hopefully. Best holiday wishes to all. 

Comments

[Paul]

Happy holidays to all and especially Jeff and family.

I suppose this posting is the annual Herculodge open mic ...

[Ken K. in NJ]

Well, you deserve it! No one does more for the radio-loving community on a day to day basis than you. Thanks to you and everyone else for the great tips and commentary this year, looking forward to more in 2011.

Happy Holidays to you and your family!

--Ken

[Angelo]

Hey, come on----it was one thing to take a few days away from the blog when your twins were born, but this absence is "not approved." Some of us are addicts here. I want to see radios, I want to see watches, I want to read about the bumbling management at NPR...come on, come back.

[Keith Beesley]

Thanks for providing this forum, Jeff. Happy holidays to all!

[David]

Hey Angelo... You asked for a watch, well here's a nice one, the Steinhart Triton 30ATM diver watch:

http://www.steinhartwatches.de/index.php?id=67&artnr=309&Sel_ID=9&lang_nr=1

Ok, it's a little pricier than an Invicta, but it is Swiss made! (It's currently on my wish list.) Christmas eve, I sent a question to Steinhart about the watch, and the President of the company wrote back at 9am Christmas morning... Now that's communication! He's definitely earned a future purchase from me.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you guys!

[Angelo]

David: Nice watch. Looks like it's built like a tank---very thick bezel. Roughly, how much would it be in dollars (425 Euros)? I guess we will have to swap watch and radio leads ourselves until Jeff gets back. I'll try to comb E-bay for radios later!

[David]

When you click on the UK flag at the top of the page, it translates the page to English, and shows the price without the 19% VAT, which is 358 EUR (or $470.05 in dollars). Shipping from Germany is another $39.39 (FedEx).

Right now, my watch collection consists of a Timex Expedition, and an Orient Mako diver (automatic). I know Jeff has moved to quartz timepieces as of late, but I still find something special about an automatic movement.

Definitely post any cool radios that you find on Ebay. I'll keep my eye out too...

[Angelo]

E-Bay 280607371538
This radio probably doesn't qualify as "cool" but it piggybacks on our earlier discussion of smaller, cheapie radios that run on "D" batteries. I've never heard of "Pearl River" but they claim the components are Toshiba. I still like the looks of my Tecsun better----and the Tecsun costs less too, and has 150 mW power vs. 100 mW for the Pearl River. But the Pearl River has shortwave, which my Tecsun doesn't have. I like the fact that these run on "D" batteries----very long service life.

[Doug T.]

My Grundig S450DLX arrived today.

Functionally, it is very similar to my Kaito KA2100 (= CCRadio-SW = Redsun RP2100). It has a slightly different case, and uses 9 battery volts rather than 6, but otherwise seems quite similar.

I am still testing, but my initial reaction is that it appears to be a slightly improved KA2100.

To my eyes, the S450DLX is much better looking than the KA2100, but it still has the same "cheap" feel to the knobs.

To answer questions:

(1) As far as I can determine, one can only cycle through the memories in one direction (same as KA2100)

(2) The sounds seems closer to the KA2100 than the S350.

[Paul]

It would be interesting to see the markings on the radio's circuit board, as an indication of who actually made this radio.

[Dylan]

Happy Christmas, and also eat vegetables, like manly men have always done:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12071424

[Gary]

Hi Doug,

Thanks for your comments on the S450DLX. When you get a chance, please compare the MW AM sensitivity on the low, middle and high ends of the band with your KA2100 and S350.

Thanks,
Gary

[Doug T.]

Paul, the S450DLX is manufactured by Redsun (and appears to be a Redsun design.)

Gary, will do the test you mention, and also on SW bands.

[Gary]

Thanks, Doug.

One more question: can the S450DLX run on AA batteries, as well as D batteries, like the Redsun RP2100 and its clones can? I use this feature on my CCRadio-SW; I just swap rechargeable AA NiMH batteries every two weeks (externally charged), so I don't have to deal with noise picked up off the power line by the AC adapter.

[Gary]

Angelo - Which Tecsun model are you referring to? The R-308?