In the world I occupy things are always becoming disorganized so I am impressed when someone comes along who can make sense out of the world and explain it.
Wow.
The Eton/Grundig Field Radio looks like a real winner!
We owe gratitude for not letting us dismiss it due to our misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, I have demoted the Grundig SATELLIT 750 because of poor audio. and restored the C.Crane Radio Plus which at least has become familiar after several years of use as a station minitor.
This isn't over.
Sharing Engineering Research
It is my opinion that the designers of the Grundig SATELLIT 750 applied a loudness contour to the audio sound.
In a moment I will give a Wikipedia link explaining "Loudness Compensation" for those unfamiliar with the concept.
For many years some glitzy audiophile equipment included "Loudness" switches for the reasons explained in the link.
Cheaply designed audio sections of consumer radios include a fixed loudness curve to please the ear of unprofessionals who have no skill for analyzing sound, which is why many are apt to think the SATELLIT 750 sounds fine.
The audio is also distorted in the SATELLIT, not by much, but just enough to add a ragged edge somewhere in the crossover range between upper midrange and tweety highs. This may be a by-product of a power supply imperfection, nothing more than a wall wart whose buzz can be heard on the loudspeaker when the volume is turned down... seemingly an AC hum inter-modulated by a switching frequency.
Over on Radio Jay Allen's Radio Review Website I noticed he'd reviewed the Grundig SATELLIT 750 so I did a read.
O.K., THAT explains why I thought my AM1550 transmitter was over modulating!
After trying several of the radios Radio Jay noted that when the receivers displayed a frequency, like 1550 kHz, they were actually detuned several notches and could only be center tuned by off-setting the frequency reading on the LCD!
Besides trying to compensate by reducing my transmitter modulation, I also acused Stereo Tool the software audio processor of going goofy. Everything I listened to had splishy sibelance.
RadioJayAllen Gives it to the SATELLIT 750
On an accompanying thread I've been building a column titled "Shaping the Sound to the Transmitter", about the audio frequency limitations of various kinds of transmission.
Talking about AM radios, music stations are apt to focus their attention on wide-bandwidth to pass the maximum possible fidelity to the listeners, but the typical AM receiver isn't designed to reproduce so much bandwidth making the channel over-splash nothing more than interference to adjacent channels where DXers might be trying to hear far away signals.
One approach worth considering is an all out promotional campaign encouraging listeners to upgrade to better receivers.
If only it were that easy. As already revealed in this thread finding decent radios is like looking for haystacks.
Life is smoother for stations like KDX because we broadcast talk which comes across on little radios.
I'm taking the knee because pledging allegiance to a flag does nothing to improve radio.
KDX Radio Gets Slick
Ebay had the right price for a ROLLS HR78X Tuner so we went ahead.
Last night we installed the tuner at our Control Point, where eventually it will have its own audio amplifier and a precision monitor loudspeaker.
As an interim measure we are using the Aux capability of the C.Crane Radio Plus, the outgoing station monitor, which functions as a temporary amp/speaker.
The ROLLS includes a smallish AM loop antenna which can be set in any position for best reception and a neat FM dipole suitable for wall hanging.
Today we are monitoring the KDX transmitters on the new tuner and it's perfect, because we have a good engineer, of course.
There's a certain amount of AM band noise being generated by the computing system, so we'll extend the loop antenna a few more feet to our indoor bamboo tripod tower.
The loudspeaker will require a suspended mount arrangement which I have yet to design and bulid, and having one more project is the way it goes.
It will look swell in your room!
Advertising Script
DHR says "It will look swell in your room!
That line shows you understand good salesmanship.
When the customer demonstrates their interest in a product by mentioning it, you get them to visualize the product in their room. That doubles the customer's inclination to buy.
Back in my stereo equipment sales daze when a customer wanted to buy a new cartridge and stylus my question would be: "What kind of turntable do you have?" That way I knew what way to steer them. It never failed. Well maybe a couple of times it did.