Tuners?

yes, rotors require power. but your tuner also requires power, right? and it requires signal from your antenna? i am sure you don't have your tuner up on the roof, right? :)

the rotor controller can be at/near your tuner, plugged into the wall at/near your tuner. you just run the power wire up to the antenna rotor, the same way you run the coax antenna feed up to the antenna from the tuner.

doug s.

LOL - OK, I admit, I'm FM antenna-stupid. I just googled around and it doesn't look too hard. Jeez - just another 3 hours on the roof. :) Thank you for the info.
 
LOL - OK, I admit, I'm FM antenna-stupid. I just googled around and it doesn't look too hard. Jeez - just another 3 hours on the roof. :) Thank you for the info.
since you already have a mast mounted, it shouldn't take that long to mount the rotor and a new antenna; and the path for the wire should be relatively easy to duplicate. you'll spend more time deciding which rotor and antenna to purchase. and good yagi's seem to cost quite a bit more these days than in the past, especially compared to omni's. don't forget to also read up on proper grounding.

good luck; i think you will be pleased w/the results.

doug s.
 
Just thought I'd pop in and let folks know the dipole mounted up on the roof is working well. There may be a few stations I wish it could pull in better, but for the majority of stations I listen to, it's working well. I mainly listen to the local jazz, classical, and classic rock stations. Old man radio for sure!
 
Just thought I'd pop in and let folks know the dipole mounted up on the roof is working well. There may be a few stations I wish it could pull in better, but for the majority of stations I listen to, it's working well. I mainly listen to the local jazz, classical, and classic rock stations. Old man radio for sure!
a dipole will certainly work better than an omni, in most cases, as it's directional, in two opposite directions, 180 deg away from each other. as long as you don't have an interfering adjacent station in the opposite direction of the station you're wanting to listen to.

from what you've said so far, i suspect that most of your station choices are in one particular direction; if that's the case, you will still get better results w/a yagi, and if all the stations are in approximately the same direction, you won't need a rotor. but, if there's a station that's marginal, and you'd like to listen to it, a yagi that can be pointed directly at is is the way to go.

doug s.
 
I am late to this list but here are the tuners I have:
Harman-Kardon F-50-XK
Dynakit FM-3
Dynakit FM-5
Fisher 202-R AM/FM tuner
Fisher FM-200-B
Hafler DH-330
Harman Kardon TU-915
Kenwood KT-7500 (two of them)
Receivers:
E H Scott 800-B
Fisher 500-C
Hallicrafters SX-25
Philco 40-201
The E H Scott 800-B, Fisher 202-R and Hallicrafters SX-25 have excellent AM and/or SW tuning capability. The E H Scott 800-B has an excellent FM tuning section. Both the 800-B, 202-R and SX-25 have wide to narrow IF bandwidth choices depending on band being tuned and how crowded signals may be.
 
I realised that I hadn't mentioned my last tuner acquisition in this thread: a BW Broadcast RBRX Encore. I've been using it since the spring and it is SUPERB for DXing, due to 15 selectable IF bandwidths. Sound quality is top notch too. It's designed for rebroadcast use in tough signal locations but can also be used as a standalone tuner.
 
I realised that I hadn't mentioned my last tuner acquisition in this thread: a BW Broadcast RBRX Encore. I've been using it since the spring and it is SUPERB for DXing, due to 15 selectable IF bandwidths. Sound quality is top notch too. It's designed for rebroadcast use in tough signal locations but can also be used as a standalone tuner.
Gotta picture. Sounds like a tuner that id love to have.
 
Current list is
Onkyo T-9090 II
Onkyo T-4711
Sony XDR-F1HD
dxing monsters

Sold the rest
Kenwood KT-5020
Heathkit AJ-33
Heathkit AJ-41
Kenwood KT-5500
Yamaha TX1000 (2)
" T-85 (2)
" T-7 (2)
" T-1 (2)
" TX-950 (2)
" T-80
Marantz ST-S7
maybe some others...
 
Gotta picture. Sounds like a tuner that id love to have.

Here's a pic (not very good):

33787420214_9247b181f0_k_d.jpg
 
Nice, I did research it pricey little thing. What are you using for a antenna? I wonder how it'd perform with a magnetic loop? The tascam CD burner is also nice. I have a tascam cdrw 4u.

I use a 9-element beam hooked up to a Yaesu rotator. The Tascam CD recorder is used to record DX catches and upload them online. Useful if I need help with IDing a mystery signal.
 
Ahh so your dxing the FM band. I've done a bit of FM dxing but not much. I'm more of a am dxer than FM. Have you used it for am dxing.?
 
Ahh so your dxing the FM band. I've done a bit of FM dxing but not much. I'm more of a am dxer than FM. Have you used it for am dxing.?
No it doesn't do AM. I suspect AM DXing would be pretty much impossible here anyway due to multiple noise sources like Wi-fi routers, power line adapters, computers, etc.
 
Just sold my Sony ST-3000ES to a local guy who wanted it for his mother
Hated to see it go. Looked good and sounded great.

That leaves me with the Sony ST-SA5ES.

Before long Mike will have my McIntosh MR77 ready for me after a refurbishment, alignment, and deephasis change for the local broadcast standard. That will give me a matched set with the MA6200 integrated amp.

Probably keep the Sony as a spare.
 
The Kenwood KT-5020 has some rather glowing reports on the Tuner Information Center. I do not doubt that it will perform well. As digitally tuned analog tuners go, it is probably one of the best. One day I may look for one to try too. My best ones currently are my two KT-7500 tuners. I have a very strong local on and alternate frequency only 4.5 miles north of my house and my favorite station is over 60 miles south. I use a 9-element FM only antenna pointed at the desired station and so the local is hitting the back side of the antenna. The local station signal level is at -9dBm while the desired station is at -59dBm so it is a severe test of selectivity here.

Joe
 
About the two Kenwood KT-7500 tuners, as long as I keep them set for narrow bandwidth they both deliver consistent good sound and signal level from the desired weak station. They typically come in with full quieting and a great sound stage. Each example initially had problems. One had a bad RF Amp transistor and the other one had problems with the multi-gang tuning capacitor. Once each problem had been corrected and the IF aligned each unit performed exactly the same on the station I prefer. I used a BF998 DGMOSFET to replace the original shorted 3SK45. I had to use an adapter board to mount the surface mount BF998 device. The BF998 has just slightly lower noise figure, so it equals or betters the OEM device performance. Another person recently informed me that the BF998 is no longer available, so if I had to do the repair again another part search would be required.
Two KT-7500 tuners web.jpg
I recently restored a Fisher 202-R AM/FM tuner which has 6 IF stages plus the golden cascode RF stage using a 6DJ8 followed by a dual triode 6AQ8. It delivers full quieting on the desired station, but is mono. The detector in the 202-R is a more narrow bandwidth than Fisher's later tube type tuners such as the FM-200-B. It is recommended to change the ratio detector of the 202-R to the later type if going for a WX multiplex decoder to get the best results, however I suspect the wider bandwidth ratio detector is going to allow the alternate channel frequency to edge in and interfere. It does so on other wide bandwidth tube type tuners that I have regardless of brand. The earlier FM tuners and radios had a more narrow IF selectivity and detector selectivity than the later ones made for multiplex reception. The only other Fisher tube type tuner with 6 IF stages was the FM-1000 unit which also had a 4-gang RF front end using a 6DJ8 and two RCA Nuvistor triodes for mixer and oscillator circuits. Unfortunately the FM-1000 is said to not have a very good sound stage and just does not do justice to the sound compared to the Fisher FM-200-B - go figure. I plan to connect a Fisher WX decoder to the 202-R and see how that sounds and performs.
Cleaning web 02.jpg Outboard MPX web 01.jpg Rear panel cleaned web.jpg FM-200-B Jewel Positions Corrected web.jpg FM200B Tuner back in cabinet web 01.jpg
The MPX-65 shown is being modified to be a WX decoder using 12AT7 tubes instead of 12AX7 tubes. The last two images are of my FM-200-B tuner which has an excellent sound stage.

Modern solid state tuners with ceramic IF filters have a definite advantage over tube type tuners for selectivity in difficult signal conditions. The best units can even deal with strong adjacent as well as alternate channel stations. It will be interesting to learn how well a KT-5020 would do with the situation I have. I plan to keep watching for an example to acquire and test it.

Joe
 
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