[A-DX] Fwd: Grundig 800 set, rx

["Wolfgang W. Bueschel" <BueschelW@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wen's interessiert ... 73 wb

Numero Uno, No. 1594 September 3, 2000


800 MILLENIUM WORLD RECEIVER - A MINI-REVIEW by Chris Lobdell

Last week I noticed a package at work that arrived from Grove. It  
was, at
long last, the Grundig 800 that I ordered back on May 11. Being a  
Friday, I
took it home and tried it out over the weekend. I must say that I was
pleasantly surprised.

One of the things I enjoy about this set is its "boom box size." The
readouts are easy to read, nice and large for this DXer's failing  
eyesight.
No strain here. The controls are very easy to use and see. Nothing
complicated here. To enter a frequency, press the numbers and then the .
button twice, or press the numbers and wait a couple of seconds and the
frequency will be entered. I did notice that instead of showing "USB" on
the LED panel, it shows "LISB." The "I" should have been placed  
closer to
the "L" to form a "U."

Frequency readout is to .0 kHz, but tuning in or zero beating sideband
signals is no problem. I didn't see or hear the Media Network review  
of the
set, but I found the tuning to be smooth, without any synthesizer noise.
It's quite relaxing to put your right hand through the protruding handle
and spin the tuning knob with your thumb while resting your arm on the
desk. The tuning knob does not have a counterweight, but it is solid,  
with
no backlashit stays where you leave it. If you are using the VFO to  
tune,
the SYNC will blink while tuning and will lock onto the station after  
you
have stopped tuning in a second of two. It locks very well, and I  
have not
heard it lose lock.

The audio sounds very nice, not the usually tinny audio that emanates  
from
my NRD-545. The 800 has full bass and treble controls. The three
filters2.3, 4 and 6 kHzwork in all modes. They sound quite sharp, and
compare favorably with the NRD-545 when rejecting adjacent channel
interference. The SYNC works independently of sidebands, that is, you  
can
select sync on the lower side band or upper sideband without retuning by
just pressing the USB/LSB button.

Sensitivity appears more than adequate. I couldn't find a signal on  
the 545
that couldn't also be heard on the Grundig. The AGC can be switched from
slow to fast attack by simply pressing the AGC buttonJRC please take  
note!
The Millenium 800 does not have any sort of noise blanker. I really  
don't
think this is a drawback, as most of these really don't work. I've  
got all
types of these on the 545 and none work on my local noise anyway. The  
set
also comes with a looooong whip antenna that swivels, and a set of full
size headphones equipped with a .125 headphone plug to fit the jack  
on the
receiver. A .25 adapter is included to use with sets so equipped. The
phones are quite comfortable, and when listening to FM give you stereo
reception. The lineouts are stereo as well. The output from the line is
sufficient to input into the line in of a cassette recorder. FM  
reception
sounds fine. I did not try the FM air band.

Overall, I'm pleased with the set and think it will be a good  
replacement
for my Sony 2010.

MORE ON MINIDISCS

1. GUY ATKINS: Chuck did the Minidisc format proud in NU 1593 with  
his fine
introduction of equipment and application for the DXer. A few additional
comments that I think are worth making:

MDLP Mode. A recently introduced long play mode of MD operation  
offers the
DXer the opportunity to record up to 320 minutes of STEREO audio on a
single disc. This is nearly 5-1/2 hours, folks! Due to the limitation of
MDLP there is no corresponding 2X monaural mode.

MDLP actually represents two new stereo modes, LP2 and LP4. Full details
may be found at this URL, which includes a link to the currently  
available
equipment which includes MDLP: <http://www.minidisc.org/mdlpfaq.html> If
you're thinking of buying MD equipment in the months ahead, watch for  
the
MDLP feature, especially if your DXing style includes long, unattended
recording sessions.

Note from Chuck: Sony has prmoised the long playing feature, but the
MDS-JB940 does not show it in the specs. Too bad, too.

Time/Date Stamp. Many, but not all, of the Sony MD recorders include a
"running" time and date stamp feature that is useful to the DXer for
extracting loggings and reception report details. After the current date
and time (UTC preferred) are entered on the appropriate Sony MD  
recorder,
the unit encodes the information on the disc itself in "real time." The
feature makes entering the time and date on the track title an optional
step, as it is retained separately by the time/date stamp. I believe  
that
the Aiwa portable MD unit that Chuck owns provides for a "static"  
time/date
stamp at the beginning of each track, but it is not the more useful  
running
time and date feature found on most of the Sonys. (The Sony MZ-R37  
portable
is one of the models without time/date stamp, as it is more of a
stripped-down, economy MD.)

As Chuck suggested, entering the correct, beginning UTC time and date  
into
each track's title is a straightforward way to account for this
information. However, the DXer planning his first MD purchase may  
want to
give priority to Sony for the convenience of this feature.

Keyboard Entry. A relatively inexpensive model of MD recorder that  
uses a
PS/2 keyboard for text entry is the Sharp MD-X5. This unit is a mini  
stereo
system that includes an MD recorder, CD player, AM/FM tuner and two
bookshelf speakers. Chuck's wise caveats about Internet purchases  
aside, a
seller on eBay (user ID = beerboy) frequently auctions brand new MD-X5
units. I had the high bid on one of these recently for about $175 US. I
have also seen the Sharp MD-X5 for auction at the commercial site
<http://www.onsale.com>

The PS/2 keyboard port is the number one reason I bought this model to
supplement my portable MD. Further details and a picture can be found  
at:
<http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sharp_MD-X5.html>

2. DAVE VALKO (HC-DX): Recently bought and have been experimenting  
with a
Sony portable MZ-R70 MD player/recorder. Amazingly small. I thought it
would be just the ticket for DXpeditions, but there are a few things I'm
not very pleased with. First of all, its rather noisy. "Chugs" about  
once
every minute, which is annoying when you're trying to concentrate on  
DX. It
has the option of recording in either stereo or mono, but defaults  
back to
stereo every time it's turned off. Recording in mono gives you 148  
minutes
on a 74 minute MD, which is a plus. I like the idea of labeling the  
tracks,
but it's time consuming. Time wasted when you could be listening. Its
understandable though . . . they certainly couldn't put a complete  
keyboard
on it! I suspect that with all the button pushing, they could wear  
out in a
short time. The unit isn't much bigger than a regular minidisc  
itself, and
looks kind of fragile. Granted, I'm just looking at the  
disadvantages, but
they are important to consider if it's going to be used while DXing. I'm
hoping to use it on some micro-DXpeditions this DX season.

3. TOM ROACH (HC-DX): The review of the Sony MZ-R70 MiniDisc is very
useful. I wonder how much of it applies to the Sony MZ-R37 reviewed  
by Bob
Tarte in the September 2000 Monitoring Times I just received  
yesterday. You
won't read about noise or "chugs" in that review, or about the joys of
actually writing a label on this tiny device. Do you know the  
differences
between the two models? I own a Sony DAT [TCD-D7], which has a
survivability rating of a delicate crystal goblet packet in a box of  
loose
boulders and shipped via stagecoach over a thousand miles of bad trails.
Thanks to your comments I will think twice before getting a MiniDisc,
albeit the case of the Sony MiniDisc recorder seems to have some nice
features. Can you use a microphone with your unit? If so, you could  
easily
"label" the cuts with time, date and other useful information. When I
record with the TCD-D7 I often patch in a time hack from WWV to show
exactly how much my internal clock has drifted from the correct time.  
Since
the MZ-R70 has an optical cable, maybe I could record tapes with the  
TCD-D7
and then copy the useful portions onto the mini-disc for posterity.  
Maybe
there is a larger "MiniDisc" unit that allows easier labeling and is
possibly a bit more hardy.

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