You Won't Believe What Happens When You Test a Cheap R10 Shortwave PLL Receiver Kit

[@Kw1161]

The reception reminds me of tuning my “Radio Shack” crystal radio kit near a MW antenna farm. 73! Have a great day!

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Yeah, exactly. The circuitry in this thing is pretty much as unfiltered as that crystal set. RJ

[@dayleedwards3521]

As below, you need to tune on 5KHz increments to center the station. The tune up procedure should happen on a weak station, you are overloading the receiver. These are fundamental mistakes you have made. The radio itself lacks any IF selectivity, but you got what you paid for. Anyone with even a slight understanding of radio principles would recognise its shortcomings just by studying the schematic before even building the kit.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Thanks for your input. Check out the follow-up video where I go over this. And yes as I said I knew to not expect much from this receiver based on its design. As an extra class ham who has been designing my own radios for more than forty years and having taught electronics, I would classify myself as someone with more than a slight understanding of radio principles. It was purchased for the fun of building and seeing how bad it would really perform. I think you have misread the situation. RJ

[@dayleedwards3521]

@@LynxElectronicsLab I have been unable to find a schematic, but the radio appears to have an IF freq of 10.7 megs with a broadband front end. This in itself dooms itself as a serious contender . The IF bandwidth will be at least 50kC wide and any front end image rejection is non existent. The radio chip is a generic entertainment type IC, the PLL section likely a hodgepog of frequencies into the mixer. An interesting video though, thank you.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Yes, I agree. I think even if I remove the crystal resonator and jumper a 3 pole crystal filter of say 5KC bandwidth it would likely help greatly but still would not be a good receiver. RJ

[@keithhutch999]

You tuned the receiver between shortwave stations Short life stations are spaced kilohertz apart Go back, select a clear station, preferably matched with your other receiver then get your screwdriver out again

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Thanks for the suggestion, while in the video you only see a few minutes of me playing around with it. As is normal the video gets cut down to keep from them being 3 hours long and boring the viewer to death. In real time I spent about 3 hours over two evenings playing with it and showed my viewers a kind of best I could get from it. No matter how you do it you only hear extreme strong signals. When you do it always has other signals mixed in. The circuit is just an awful receiver design. In my video named “can we mcgyver a receiver on the bench” That receiver thrown together with a hodgepodge of random parts performed far better. And it was just a tool to show how mixing allows you to guide the frequency you want through a IF filter to get what you want. RJ

[@johnwest7993]

For the noobs, sensitivity is the easiest thing in the world to add to an insensitive receiver. Superegenerative receivers from 100 years ago were as sensitive as anything today. But at some point a sensitive receiver simply makes atmospheric or electronic component noise louder. Selectivity is a fundamental problem, and a lot of the expensive circuitry in modern receivers is essentially to ensure appropriate selectivity.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Thanks for sharing. RJ

[@daniellbrinneman]

You need to duplicate your mono audio on the video editor and pan one full left and the other pan full right to create stereo audio.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Thanks, already took care of it on later videos. RJ

[@Homer19521]

FT-710 is the best value in ham radio today.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Thanks, yes very good value indeed. Big bang for the buck. RJ

[@l.a.2646]

Totally agree! I'm blown away by mine and have owned many transceivers through the decades. It even surpassed my beloved FTDX-3000- that's amazing to me.

[@l.a.2646]

BTW Lynx, where did you get the kit from?

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

AliExpress search for R-10 shortwave kit. RJ

[@kenandbarbie-b6c]

FT-710 is a great value for a sub $1000 transceiver with the external speaker thrown in when it is on sale. SDR is really progressing.

[@johnwest7993]

I think I'd use it with a high Q tunable mag-loop in order to make it more selective.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Might help some. Keep watching we in an upcoming video we will try to mod this radio to make it better. RJ

[@graemezimmer604]

Seems pretty obvious that the receiver was hopelessly overloaded by the big loop. Plus you seem to be hopping in 10Khz increments, while most of the SW stations are on 5Khz increments. Whatever, you didn't find a good clear station and adjust the discriminator to suit.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Thanks for your input. RJ

[@keithhutch999]

Short wave stations are spaced 5 kHz apart

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Thanks, yes this is correct but when tuning direct to the correct frequency of the station you did not get the best reception on this piece of junk. RJ

[@joewoodchuck3824]

I tried looking this up and only the Yaesu FT 710 transceiver comes up.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

I added a link in both videos descriptions to help you find it. RJ

[@orah.lipa914]

In my opinion, you are completely wrong. This receiver is not intended for people like you. It is intended for young people to get them interested in electronics and to keep them away frm tik tok. This receiver should function nicely with a short whip or meter or two of wire. Imagine teenager who made a receiver capable to receive radio station thousands of kilometers away with a small antenna. Please do not discourage young people and manufacturers of those kits.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Thanks for your input, Check out the follow up where I test it with just such a whip. RJ

[@CHRISTOPHERBARKER-kq2rv]

built one for a friend of mine and found the same.awful..oh well at least i didn't pay for it :)

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Lucky you 😁 Yes they are awful. RJ

[@kinggreene]

How about doing a real test of the receiver by attenuating the signal, most small radios get overloaded and swamped, you made a whole video showing nothing

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Thanks for your input. RJ

[@joewoodchuck3824]

Short life stations?

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Not sure what you mean. The station I showed was radio Cuba which is maybe 180 miles away from me in Florida. This is just a poor receiver. Others who have built them found the same. RJ

[@joewoodchuck3824]

@@LynxElectronicsLab Someone said "short life stations" in the thread.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Oh, ok I see that now. I think they got hit with auto correct helping them out. RJ

[@chucksayers1248]

way too much antenna for that thing total overload

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Maybe? Check the latest video I just dropped where I test that. RJ

[@GoonyMclinux]

Longer antenna doesn't create overload, the gain of a longer wire isn't significant enough to overload these receivers.

[@KB-lz3gq]

Just tat ...Wouldn't spend a dime

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Thanks RJ

[@steveosborn8838]

No sound on video when viewing on TV. Ok on mobile phone.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Sorry to hear, it plays on my lg tv with sound. RJ

[@steveosborn8838]

Thanks for your reply. Some have sound so I shall enjoy viewing them. My tv is Sony.

[@praveenb9048]

It plays only in my left earphone.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Yes, it appears I have something set wrong in the new editing software. So maybe the tv only has one channel and it’s the one the last few videos are missing? RJ

[@Dennis-mq6or]

Give it to someone who knows how to tune it.

[@LynxElectronicsLab]

Thanks for your input. RJ

[@Bartok_J]

Agree, Dennis - the IF transformer needs to be adjusted on a WEAK but stable signal (or better still, a signal generator, though not absolutely necessary), not a mass of enormous intermod signals that must be kicking the AGC (if the kit has one) into submission. Signed: someone who has built one and is happy enough with the results. :-(