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I was asked to evaluate two table top portable radios
that cover the standard AM broadcast band, in addition
to other frequencies. Usually my reviews of desktop
receivers for Passport to Worldband Radio encompass
both laboratory measurements and hands-on evaluations.
In this case, however, portable radios with loopstick
antennas do not lend themselves well to connections
to test equipment. What really matters to the listener
is how a radio performs on a desk, or on a picnic
table out in the woods. The CCRadio Plus and the Super
Radio could not be more different in their performance.
If what you want is basically a “boom box”
for a local station ten miles away, the Super Radio's
larger woofer and additional tweeter provides a wider
range of fidelity. If, on the other hand, you want
to tune in stations at greater distances, especially
on the high end of the AM band, the CC radio is the
clear winner.
To start with, the Superadio uses an old fashioned
analog dial with very poor calibration. While doing
extensive listening from the low end to the high end
of the band, I found that I had to tune in a station
on the CC Radio, and then “look for it”
on the Superadio, since I had little idea what frequency
the Superadio was tuned to. The CC Radio provides a modern
digital readout, fine tunable in 1 kHz steps, plus
jog buttons for 10 kHz steps.
Tuning in weak
signals on the low end of
the broadcast
band showed the CC Radio
ahead by a nose, but the obvious
superiority was on the crowded
high end of the band where
the Superadio often overloaded.
The Superadio tended to have spurious
tweets and whistles where
the CC Radio had none.
The Superadio
offers two bandwidths, but
this feature was found to be
basically useless. Unless one was listening to a station
virtually next door, the
wide position often picked
up two stations at once. After a
few attempts at using the optional
bandwidth on the Superadio, I gave
up and left the radio on narrow.
The
CC Radio is more tailored
to voice reception for news
and sports, rather than music, with a reasonable balance
between lows and highs from
it single speaker element. While the
radio has tone controls,
I tended to leave them at mid
scale for best reception.
As
with either the Superadio or the
CC Radio, one must rotate the
radio at times to get the best reception on weaker signals
due to the directivity of
the
built-in loop stick. You
can also hook up an additional
wire antenna, should one
be inside a building with lots
of metal, which would block
the signal. At my listening
location in the Rocky Mountain
Foothills, I did not find
the need for any additional
antenna enhancement.
While one can instantly tune
in a specific station on the
CC Radio due to its digital
readout, it is interesting
to note the Superadio has not only
its crude analog dial, but
a logging scale. This was common
in the 1940s and 50s on such
radios as the famous HRO line,
which had no direct frequency
readout. Having to revert to
such a scheme to return to
a station is a bit passé in
2006!
The Super Radio has been around for a long time,
but compared to the CC Radio Plus for voice reception,
it has easily met its match. Both radios cover the
FM band, but additionally the CC Radio offers reception
of the weather channels above the FM frequencies.
This can be particularly important if you are away
from shelter on a trip or camping. Five presets can
be programmed per band for you convenience.
The
only area where I could wish
for improvement in the CC Radio was using the jog
buttons. One cannot push the “up” or “down” buttons
and hear the radio tune. Instead
the radio stays muted until
a jog button is released, and
the synthesizer locks. One
can scan tune, however, with
the fine tuning knob, albeit
a bit slowly in 1 kHz steps.
Rob
Sherwood
President, Sherwood
Engineering Inc.
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