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On 2015-11-09 2:07, Steve E. Bryant wrote:
> 2. "C Crane CCRadio-2E Enhanced Portable AM, FM, Weather and *2-Meter Ham Band*."
> My question is with regard to the second choice above.
> Does the 2-Meter Ham Band frequencies necessarily mean that the radio will 
be capable of picking up the stations that broadcasts the time signals?
> And the follow up question is: Which of the two radios would have the best reception for my purpose?

Steve, when you ask a question like that it's helpful to provide links
to Web pages so respondents can see exactly what products you're asking
about.

If I identified your #2 correctly, it doesn't get shortwave frequencies
so it's not suitable as a time standard. That leaves only #1.

Recently my 1980s Sony ICF-2010 died so I bought a Tecsun PL-660
portable because it has gotten good reviews. Price was $110 from
Universal Radio:

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/2540.html

I'm really pleased with it. At $110 you can't expect a high class radio,
but it's a fine value for the price. In some ways it's better than the
Sony, which as I recall was $300+ back in the 80s. Wide and narrow
bandwidth filters can be selected regardless of mode, and the narrow
filter sounds better than the Sony's. The latter killed too much of the
highs on AM for my taste.

The Tecson sync detector works, though there's noticeable tonal
difference when you switch between the upper and lower sideband. The
Sony wasn't like that. I suspect the reason is that the Tecsun only
tunes at 1 kHz steps vs. 100 Hz for the Sony, so you can't put it as
close to the carrier freq. But that's just a guess.

Happily there's a continuously variable BFO knob, so single sideband
voice can be made to sound right despite the 1 kHz tuning steps. And SSB
mode isn't just for single sideband transmissions! Very weak AM signals
can become readable in SSB mode. This trick works well on the Tecsun,
making CHU time beeps readable when nothing is audible in AM mode. (CHU
suppresses the lower sideband, so use USB mode, not LSB.)

With the PL-660 I can receive CHU on all frequencies (3330, 7850, and
14670) indoors with the whip antenna on an overland path of 1980 nm even
with the present mediocre solar activity. Two of those frequencies (I
forget which ones) use only 3 kw transmit power. Of course WWV is easy
with this radio.

One point in the Tecsun's favor as a time standard is that its signal
path is all analog. If a radio has digital signal processing there can
be a noticeable latency. That may be significant if you're using the
radio as a gold standard to verify by eye and ear that a time display is
dead beat with WWV. Or maybe you want to test how much delay you get on
a phone connection to WWV or the USNO.

The instruction book was obviously not written by a native English
speaker. Sooner or later you'll figure out what it's trying to say.

Happily, the radio is supplied with a set of precharged rechargeable
cells. They're covered with Chinese writing and the only clue that
they're rechargeable is the 1.2 V marking vs. 1.5 V for normal
alkalines. You can use the latter, but remember to turn off the function
that charges the cells when the AC adapter is active.

The clock setting function is stupidly designed, I think. Hold the clock
set button down until the hours flash. Use the tuning knob or keyboard
to set hours. Press button again. Now the minutes flash. Set minutes.
Press the Set button a third time to start the clock. So far, so good.
But if you leave the minutes unchanged for more than three seconds, the
clock starts itself!

To hack the clock precisely, you must dither the minutes back and forth
with the tuning knob until within three seconds of the tick. Then set
the correct minute, and press the clock set button exactly on the tick.

The radio feels solidly constructed, as good as the Sony in my opinion.
Unlike the Sony, it's small enough to hold comfortably for many minutes
at a time as you tune around for interesting signals. Though the user
interface has some annoying quirks, remember, it's only a $110 radio.

   

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