Siemens 311/350 vs WJ 8711, huge surprise on LW!

[@jetng962]

I am impressed at how this Siemens perform on LW, Dieselten!

[@ShawnDienhart]

That Siemens is amazing and looks brand new! Awesome equipment, thanks for the video as always.

[@justiceforall8574]

FANTASTIC what a great radio,Just love it.

[@maxal62]

Thank you for making this really fun and (at least for me, really educational) videos! And you have a great sense of humor! I have a very small collection of Zenith TransOceanic radios, some Telefunken, Philips, Grundig, an Eaton E1 and a Drake SW8. And just today I've found a Siemens E-311 for sale and it appears to be almost like new!

[@dieselten01]

@@maxal62 thank you for your comments. Hurry up and buy that E 311 before someone else does!

[@keithdensmore7766]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the WJ. in fact it is out performing the Siemens. A beacon has two frequencies, the carrier and the tone. When you tune to 365 you are tuned to the carrier. The tone is offset (I forget the offset, it's about 400 hz.). With a narrow filter you will either hear just the carrier (no tone) or the cw carrier (no tone) To properly tune a beacon use a 1.5 to 3.0 khz filter AM mode. Or, for dxing go into cw mode, 300 hz filter and tune to the cw signal. If you play around with that beacon on 365 you will see what I mean. Cheers, Keith

[@dieselten01]

Thanks Kieth!

[@dieselten01]

Keith, after thinking about this, why was the Siemens able to get the main signal at 365 on 300hz while on AM but the WJ could not? I did zoom in on the scope on the Icom 705 and saw the main carrier and the 2 side carriers

[@keithdensmore7766]

@@dieselten01 The Siemens got it because its filter is a little wider, enough to have it beat again the carrier and produce a tone.

[@IZ0MTW]

Hi Nick, no the WJ is not junk, is just more selective, hence filter is closer to ideal (vertical edges) than Siemes. 73

[@dieselten01]

Thank you! I can now see after reading the comments that my sense of humor sucks! I am always bagging on good radios just to get a rise out of certain of my friends/listeners. But apparently a lot of people take me seriously. I am not a Ham or a professional radio person, the whole basis of my channel is to have fun. So if I ever bag on one of your favorites in a future video please remember that I have a terrible sense of humor!

[@IZ0MTW]

@@dieselten01 ahaha no Nick I understand your sense of humor but I know (because you said so) you’re not an expert so maybe I took you seriously on that. Anyway, you have an arsenal there, examples of great receivers. and if you ever put some in the junk outside let me know. I have a good friend around there that would take it home for me ;) Best wishes Diego

[@dieselten01]

@@IZ0MTW Diego, I have a deal for you if you know how to repair these classic professional receivers. I have 3 broken ones. If you can fix them and make them work, I will give you the Kenwood 890. Broken- Racal 6778, Racal 6217, Ten Tec 340. I have videos on all 3

[@myradiovideos]

I love radios with Tubes!!!! One reason I own 5 Tube Checkers!!!! And 850 Tubes... 🙂

[@dieselten01]

Maybe my 890 needs to have it’s tubes checked? Perhaps then it might work

[@Kw1161]

Great job! 73!

[@ruhnet]

Beautiful set!!!

[@dieselten01]

Thank you!

[@tom-ehill2713]

Wow,, Government only type sets? I want the sat 800 by Grundig is all😊

[@xe1zlgg]

WJ more sensitive by a hair. Siemens... beautifull and natural sound.

[@myradiovideos]

OH, BTW, since the WJ is Junk, per you, place it in your trash can so I can come get it ASAP!!!! 🙂

[@TheShaunksread]

I love those old Siemens receivers and others that come from the same era where they were built like scientific instruments/Tanks. I still challenge you to test an AOR AR7030+ or even better the 7030+3 3rd anniversary edition with self calibrating filters that show the real bandwidth not just the spec, also the self tuning notch filter and wide PBS of =/+ 4.2Khz and I would also be so bold as to say the best sync detector of any receiver consumer or commercial and apparently a 3rd order intercept point of +35dB/m and a local oscillator phase noise level of =158dB/Hz I think it would stand up well against most commercial receivers, and it tunes realistically down to as near to zero Hz as possible allowing with the right aerial reception of those VLF "whistlers" but they did cost £1100 in 1993 I think it was. Well worth a look into even if just on KZbin Nick

[@dieselten01]

You have my interest peaked on the 7030+3. Is it noticeably better than the 7030+?

[@TheShaunksread]

@@dieselten01 I would say yes on a number of points as celebrating 3yrs of manufacturing the 7030+ they added 300 extra alpha tag memories, increased the quality of the wire input antenna jaws, increased the quality of the components in the 1st mixer chain and has adjustable sync detection from auto, manual wide and narrow lock range where you can use the =/+ passband shift range of 4.2Khz to get sync USB and LSB and anything in between, it gains fantastic audio quality with adjustable bass and treble in 1dB increments from =/+ 8dB, has higher tolerance components used throughout with a better filter selection from 2.1khz, 4.0khz 5.5khz and 9.5khz with extra places for up to another 2 filters and comes as standard with a metal cased 4.0khz where the normal 7030 has 2.1, 5.5, 7.0 and 9,5Khz with no gain from the small gap between the 5.5 and lower quality 7.0khz. The filters are measured and display the true BW not just the spec so according to temperature etc you can get 3.9-4.1, 5.4 to 5.5 2.1 to 2.2 with just the 9.5 being fixed, each time you run the filter calibration routine it also sets the injection settings so there is no difference in tone between USB and LSB the sound quality is amazing and comes with a nbFM mode for CB etc and apparently virtually tunes gapless from 0, so say 5Khz to 32Mhz........not to appear boastful I'd say and so have many reviewers that it has one of the best sync detectors of any and there's a noticeable large improvement in selective fading situations, I have no hesitation in saying that you'd find it the best sync detector of any receiver,,,,,,,,,,,it would be amazing to put it into competition with your other devices especially those with sync detection A.M. mode. There are a few videos on KZbin but not many of the +3 anniversary edition, it's well worth looking into any info you can find on it

[@dieselten01]

@@TheShaunksread I did some research and found a few 7030+ on ebay. That’s what I paid for my WJ! Wow! I would probably still get one except I absolutely despise the minimalist interface. I need buttons and knobs to ease my mind. Operating the Siemens 311/350 is actually therapeutic! At this point, I only tolerate minimalist radios on ones that can fit in my pocket! But that 7030+ comes very highly recommended! Thanks for your input

[@TheShaunksread]

@@dieselten01 I thought that would be an issue for you, it doesn't take too long to get used to the menu tree structure but I'm with you on the ease of use of a rx with knobs and buttons for all the major functions, funnily enough I had an AOR AR3030 which I think was a better SSB rx and it comes with a Collins mechanical filter for AM. They copied the 'Intel Inside' tag-line with a 'Collins Inside' sticker on top but I would love to have a 3030 now with the 118-137Mhz converter fitted for the airband....I traded my 3030 in PX for the 7030+3 but would love to have one now especially as it could run off AA batteries so you could go mobile and clip a short antenna to say a really long barbwire fence.

[@dieselten01]

@@TheShaunksread funny thing about AOR, I have a 5001D. It can do almost anything. But the interface is impossible to master. And the Sync and DNR are present, but make absolutely zero change/improvements to listening. They basically don’t even work, not even a little bit. I paid $4k for this thing, why couldn’t they put a decent sync on it? We know that they know how to do it.

[@myradiovideos]

Nick, I think you own a Collins R-390 Radio???? If you do then that would be the best test for the 311 radio. The R-390 has a reputation for being the very best when it comes to being Quiet!! It can gear things others can not. I REGRET that I sold my R-390 radio 5 years ago. It was still in original Factory Box, wood Crate. All Documentation as well.. But someone offered me a price I just could not refuse, 2X the value of most mint radios... When in the US Navy, they sent me to "A" school on how to repair these radios, we had 10 of them on the ship I was on.. If you have the R-390 time to see how well the 311 holds up to this radio.. My $100 said the R-390 will beat it badly... 🙂 Your Commercial Solid State Receivers are not bad, that is for sure.. But like most radio in this class, they do a lot of TRICKY stuff to reduce the inherit synthesizer noise to get a decent C/N measurement. Some engineers had some very good designs to work from as well as Available Parts. Some of these parts were on the forefront of design and quality, but that also came a very high $$$$ but when your the government, price can be no object.. So yes the WJ 8711 is a fine radio, not as good as a 890S, but close... I keep staring at the WJ, but still cant spot the spectrum scope????? 😞 Robert

[@dieselten01]

I do have a 390 but I don’t think it’s in perfect operating condition. I will play with it and see.

[@myradiovideos]

@@dieselten01 having a tube checker is a must if you have tube radios! 😊😊

[@batfalcononyoutube]

Hi Nick. Another interesting video again! I would like to know what kind of antenna spliter are you using. I am sure that many of us wander in RF waves the same way as you, so your choise matters.73 Michael from Greece

[@dieselten01]

Michael my Wellbrook antenna coax comes into a Stridsberg Engineering Multicoupler. They make several different models for different applications. They are multicouplers so no switches or levers to move. All radios have full signal all the time

[@batfalcononyoutube]

@@dieselten01 Quite expansive piece of equipment indeed! Do you remeber the model of the antenna?

[@buckygeer]

Do you occasionally sell a receiver? I am in the DFW area. Thanks.

[@rkmklz7562]

Where did U get These fantastic radios...?...that classic Siemans looks cool 😎....the W J is better!!!

[@dieselten01]

Ebay is your friend

[@buckygeer]

Didn't you review the Kenwood TS-890? What did you think about the receiver on it?

[@dieselten01]

It is an excellent receiver but geared mostly towards ham users. It is way more complicated to operate to it’s full capabilities than any Icom.

[@istein2]

neither Siemens or WJ are off Freq. .If you go back to your Icom 9500 band scan video, under comments ,it tells how to compare two different radios on Morse Code signals, but one has to Practice at it ,so it becomes Second Nature by writing it down on paper,so its in front of you,when you need it. just saying.

[@dieselten01]

Thanks Arnold!