This just in …
I've had the opportunity tonight to spend some time really listening to the BC-348Q, and the more I use it, the more impressed I am. No, it isn't a Pro III by any means, but its worked great tonight for all my listening tasks …. SWL'ing and hamming on 75/40. Actually I tuned across 20 meters and while sensitivity was less, I still found stations to copy. As with similar rigs, the higher in frequency the trickier the tuning becomes (the dial increments become larger on the higher bands). Since there's not RIT or fine tuning, tuning in a SSB signal on 20 takes a little patience.
Already I'm wondering if I could mate a transmitter to the BC-348, something appropriate … like the old Novice handbook “slatboard transmitter” …. I actually have one of those that needs the power supply to be complete.
Of course, I do have other transmitters that would be easer to get on the air … those might be better choices. The slatboard txmtr would be more appropriate, given the fact that the BC-348 was a hugely popular postwar surplus receiver. I'm just happy to have one that works!
There are (as you can imagine) a lot of mods available for the receiver. I'm not particularly interested in any of them right now unless it will improve performance.
So now the question remains: Do I pull the SX-130 out of the library and make some preliminary checks (tubes, etc.) to see if I can improve its performance? Perhaps. On comparing the two receivers, its interesting to note that the SX-130 is also a single conversion superhet. Even with a product detector, should I expect better performance? Wouldn't hurt to check!
More ponderings later … 73 es CUL … de KY4Z … dit dit