Hello All,
Curious about the checkered reputation of the SRF-M85V among IRCA
Ultralight radio DXers, I decided to perform a "quick and dirty" RF alignment
on
my unit, to see if I could squeeze some more performance out of the AM-FM
stereo armband Walkman.
The unit has some waterproof sealing compound sticking the front and
back halves together, so I needed to use a wooden chopstick to pry the halves
apart, after removing all the tiny screws. This did not mar the plastic
cases, but made the disassembly somewhat interesting..
The loopstick has a very generous amount of wax bonding the smaller
coil to the ferrite (like the SRF-M37V), so it's necessary to scrape all of
this
away, before sliding the coil to find the 600 kHz peak spot.
Peaking 600 kHz reception by sliding the coil for maximum CKBD-600 reception
(I'll be in trouble when this station moves to FM), there was a significant
boost in low-band sensitivity, compared to the original performance. I then
proceeded to lift the circuit board and find the 1400 trimmer, which was set
already to the maximum sensitivity level. Then, for the acid test, I went
back to the 530 Tacoma TIS station, and found that whereas it was inaudible
before my alignment, it now had a weak signal on 530. Comparing it to the
SRF-59, however, it still was weaker than an aligned SRF-59's reception, both
on
low and top-band signals.
Conclusion: The SRF-M85V may be useful as a "tracking receiver" to
find the SRF-59's tuned frequency, but it is probably not the best Ultralight
radio to face the mean BCB world on its own. This is just a personal opinion
from an Ultralight radio RF-alignment fanatic.
73, Gary
**************Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.
(http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp003000000025
48)
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