I just received my Digitech AR1945 yesterday directly from Australia. It arrived in only 3 days but at $72US, the import costs are steep. It arrives well packed and in a nice box. The radio is about the size of the Grundig 450 offering. It uses the same front mounted tuning dial as the 450 does. It feels heavy and doesn't sit perfectly straight but is better than the other offerings from these Chinese made radios.
The Digitech supplants the wobbly band and bandwidth knobs for buttons. This is a very nice change. The 5 watt speaker sounds amazing too. There is no dedicated light button, but you can set a switch so that all the buttons light up when you engage the radio. After much research, I do think this is a rebadged Redsun RP-3100 which I am not sure ever came to market?
FEATURES: Wow does the Digitech offer features! But...do they work? Well, yes and no. The Digitech takes SSB listening to a new level, splitting rhe fine tune first into 1/10th step and then for super fine tuning, it offers a 1/200th step that is organized as -0-99+99-0. This should allow the user to really pinpoint the signal. It doesn't. No matter how much I fiddle with the fine tune, I cannot get the "garbled" sounds out of the voices I hear. I was frustrated but not surprised.
On MW, below 900Khz, there is a buzz or grinding sound that accompanies your tuning efforts. Then...it locks onto a frequency and you are shocked at how well it locks on. It's as if there is an auto sync detector running in the background.
SW is good and much like the other offerings in this group. While FM sounds good, I would say its overall FM reception is average at best...similar to the Grundig 450 or CCRANE-SW.
I also have the Anjan DTS-10. I love the looks of the Anjan. With this one, there is a significant bug with the FM band but everything else works well enough. The Anjan uses a BFO tuning knob where the Digitech attempts to use dedicated USB/LSB button configuration. The difference is that the Anjan can clearly copy SSB without the garbled voices.
The Anjan is smaller. It has a cool display too. You can set the backlight on even in battery mode. I can see why Eton and CCrane will not offer so-called enhanced featured radios at this juncture. Too many bugs??? While the Digitech and Anjan offer a lot of bang for the buck, I personally cannot recommend them because each radio has its bugs. If you can live with these bugs, as I can with the Anjan's FM bug (I have plenty of FM radios), then go for it. They are cool novelties and I do plan to use them.
Tecsun has worked out sync, so I am hoping these guys will get it right too eventually. I think the market is ready for a higher end receiver.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Richard Griffith
I agree with you re the SSB. I aent mine vack for a refund.
Steve
Wellington
New Zealand
Posted by: Steve Rawdon | August 28, 2013 at 06:03 PM
Hi Richard,
I too have purchased the AR 1945. I've found the radio very sensitive on all bands and the selectivity is excellent. I agree totally about SSB,it can only best be described as dreadful! No matter how carefully you tune, it is almost impossible to resolve sideband satisfactorily. There is a huge decrease in sensitivity as well requiring the volume control to be turned right up. To me it looks like the AGC is being swamped by the BFO signal injection causing blocking and overload.Any readers comments on a fix would be appreciated. If you look carefully at the display, there is provision for a Synchronous Detector and it would be interesting to see if that can be activated in any way. I find the audio very good. To sum up, a great radio apart from that woeful ssb issue which should be addressed for the radio to become a sought after addition to any radio collection. Jaycar, take note! Perhaps Redsun of China can be contacted for an easy fix.
Phil Central West NSW
Posted by: Phil Ireland | September 18, 2013 at 10:57 PM
Hi Phil and Richard,
I bought the radio many weeks ago with the interest of FM DXing but returned it the next day as I found the FM IF filter a little wide (was getting bleed from my local community station in Hornsby with 2 directly adjacent dx stations - 99.9(2SWR)/100.1(2HHH)/100.3(2MCR)). Then again, this may be a placebo effect because of the good sensitivity.
I too found that SSB resolution was difficult to achieve but this was because the tuning logic was incorrect. I found when tuning down from say 10,000.00 kHz in 10Hz step mode, it would go to 9,999.00 instead of 9,999.99 so I would have to tune up to get back to where it should be. Out of interest, was this using the power adaptor? Wondering if there is spurious noise coming through the adaptor.
I have been racking my brain about buying it again as I have always wanted a traditional old school SW radio (what with SSB and Air as a bonus!). The warehouse it out of stock and customer service at Jaycar advises new stock is coming in on October 3. However, they will not advise if there are any revisions to the radio specs or firmware nor will they advise how I can tell if my local store has the new stock or original (as of last weekend, Jaycar Hornsby still had 2 in stock and the manager wasn't sure if they were getting any more as it was a slow seller compared to the AR1948). This and nobody really knows the origin of this unit. Is it really a Redsun?
Oh, the pain of it all.... :-)
Posted by: Avo | September 19, 2013 at 02:48 PM
I've lost my instruction manual. Would anyone be kind enough to scan and email me a copy of theirs? [email protected]
Posted by: ChrisD | June 26, 2014 at 02:07 AM
Well after reading all the reviews for the 1945,and since Im a long standing Single Side Band DXer,listening into many HF utility stations as well as Military,shipping and Aircraft,I decided I must buy and trial this receiver hence its many features and the UHF band.Well to my suprise,all bands worked very well,even the UHF air band I was listening to local air traffic no problem.But now here is the very disapointing problem.Very frustrateing indeed,because when I turned on the SSB mode to listen into my favourite utility stations,even with an outside antenna attached,and finely tuned down to the smallest step,yes all I got was a very faint gargle.I turned the RF gain up fully,turned up the volume,because once SSB mode is switched on,you loose all audio.What have the manufacturers done with this radio? Jaycar advertise it as "Ideal for Boaties etc for getting weather reports" Well the only weather reports this radio would be receiving would either be on the local MW broadcast band,or maybe the UHF air craft giveing Airport info.But certainly not via HF.So I have emailed Jaycar Austrailia head office sales team to investigate this very anoying problem.As with any SW portable receiver,its the SSB that puts the Silver lineing on it giveing it a True General coverage of the HF bands.Okay for thoughs who just DX SW,but to me,to get the full use of any receiver that already has the feature of SSB,it has to perform as such.I have other small general coverage portable receivers and SSB works very well.But with this new item that Jaycar is trying to sell,and over here in NewZealand,there is a great shortage of available portable true general coverage receivers,so when this came onto the market at Jaycar,one would have thought,it would make a nice new addition to the listening hobby of ours.I monitor SSB HF Aircraft and shipping across the Pacific,and this with all its features would have been a nice radio to own.So I wait now to see what Jaycar are going to do about them.They are a real failier,so hopefully there will either be a Recall,or they will be stocking a modified newer version,or a completely different brand.Ive also noticed,after I returned mine for a full refund,that the Jaycar stores are over stocked with this model,they simply are not selling.....I wonder why!!.
Posted by: james patterson | August 03, 2014 at 10:51 PM
No replies to my comments about the Digitech AR 1945 General Coverage/multiband portable receiver yet,sold from Jaycar NZ and Ausi.I hope others have bought and done a check with this radio so that we can read what they have to say.I would still like to re-own this radio because of its many features including the UHF Air band.Maybe the failed SSB BFO can be fixed?Thats the only thing that kills the performance of what could be a nice "Old School"radio from Jaycar.
Posted by: james patterson | August 18, 2014 at 11:08 PM
Hi again from James.I re-bought the AR 1945 because I was sure I could do something to improve the failing SSB mode.I think the first one I bought and tried was a real failure because the Air Band was very faint aswell as the SSB mode very garbled.No matter how much I tried to fine tune it with the tuning steps,I just couldnt get it right.So anyway I went ahead and bought another one,this time from a different Jaycar outlet.Decided to give it a good test and check that everything was working,Air Band on this one is definately alot clearer and louder on the telescopic antenna.I tuned SSB upper and lower and found a big difference there aswell.In fact I was somewhat shocked,as this radio acturly tuned in quite well,I was able to understand it this time.But one thing Ive noticed,is that when a closer station operates,the signal is quite loud,but if the other station is far away,it is quite faint.Understandable,but with my other portable rigs,the distant signals have alot more volume.Anyway I suprized myself on how clear this one is compared with the other one I had to return.But there left one problem with my new one.They all have a PAL connector female socket at the back for the antenna.I certainly didnt like this,so I took the back cover off,and drilled a large enough hole to take a normal Amature Radio type Coaxal female socket.All done,there is acturly plenty of room to do repairs and mods in the back of it.So now with the large coaxal socket,connected to my 100 ft long wire antenna,everything booms in,aswell as the good old Side Band.I can now listen to all my favourite SSB utilities.Ive also noticed,strangely though,that the UHF Air Band has greatly improved receiption with my long line antenna connected aswell,yet that connection only serves SW as far as I can see.This one has greatly improved AM and FM receiption as well,so just maybe,Ive managed to buy a good one this time.I also play my MP3 through the input and it works very well with the Bass and Trebble controls.So I think Ive scored myself a good radio at its price,at least this one works well!
Posted by: james patterson | September 09, 2014 at 07:40 PM
Hi all,
I had the opportunity to purchase the AR-1945 on special again after a hiatus of nearly 6 years to see if there was an improvement. Well I have to announce that I'm pleasantly surprised to find SSB works as it should. Using the fine tuning step set at the minimum setting, I can now resolve both LSB and USB. There is a need to turn up the volume in sideband mode but this is a minor annoyance. There is a lag and buzz on MW when tuning in but it disappears when the signal locks in. Perhaps a synchro detection is used. This is not evident on SW.
Sensitivity is superb and selectivity is good as well.
I'm now happy with my purchase. If anyone is looking at these radios, as always try before you buy.
Cheers..... Phil vk2gjf
Posted by: Phil Ireland | July 07, 2019 at 02:03 AM