Hi Jeff, I bought the Flex-1500 to use mainly as a mediumwave DXing receiver. The fact that it transmits is a bonus. Our local ham dealer said he has sold many 1500s to SWLs. As a DXing receiver it's $250 cheaper than the SDR competition and does the job very well. The 3000 and 5000 have even better receiver specs, but then you're paying for a lot more equipment than an SWL needs.
I've never heard much in the 137 kHz allocation but have already logged a few stations on 600m, which interests me greatly. I'll be keeping an eye on the band from now on. 73 - Ken ________________________________ From: Jeff Singer <jsin...@i1.net> To: 'Ken Alexander' <k.alexan...@rogers.com>; flexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012 11:41:48 AM Subject: RE: [Flexradio] The new 472-479 kHz band - REAL DX Ken, I was likewise surprised by your statement about successfully using the Flex-1500 to receive 600 meter ham beacons. I’ve read Flex discussion boards for several years. To the very limited degree that users comment on the lowfer receive performance of Flex radios, posts have always suggested the 3000 and 5000 are worthless below the BCB (and perhaps not great even on the AM BCB). I wonder what’s so different about the 1500 in that regard. I agree with KB6QXM that the upcoming allocation should once again “Spark” [his term] ham interest in lowfer radio so we “Don’t Sell Longwave Short.” Jeff K0OD From:Ken Alexander [mailto:k.alexan...@rogers.com] Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012 9:32 AM To: Jeff Singer; flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] The new 472-479 kHz band - REAL DX I'm surprised the Flex-5000 is so deaf. My 1500 receives perfectly well down to about 480 something kilohertz, then the bandpass filter clicks out and all heck breaks loose. Lots of room to hear most of the 600m band. I guess there's something different in the hardware...well, there's a ton different in the hardware! I built a simple lowpass filter that opens the longwave band up right down to 100 kHz. It probably works down further but there's not much down that far that can be decoded with one's own ears. "Don't sell longwave short." I see a new bumper sticker in there somewhere! :-) 73, Ken VE3HLS ________________________________ From:Jeff Singer <jsin...@i1.net> To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012 10:02:51 AM Subject: [Flexradio] The new 472-479 kHz band - REAL DX My Flex-5000 is utterly deaf below the U.S. AM broadcast band. Can't even pick uplocal airport Non-Directional Beacons. But I do some longwave listening with my old Kenwood TS-850/HF vertical and often hear European AM broadcast stations in the 150-200 kHz range even from my QTH inMissouri. Radio France Inter can often be heard from local sunset until sunrise in Europe on 162 kHz. The BBC station on 198 kHz is almost as loud. It's easy to assume that these signals are spurs from local AM stations but they make the very long trip using immense power, often above a megawatt. Evenvery low power 600-meter ham beacons around 500 kHz can be heard over most of the U.S. Don't sell longwave short. Jeff K0OD _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/ _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
