Hi all: I had a chance to try out the Slider e100 with and without the Crate Loop this morning to see what kind of improvement in sensitivity and selectivity could be had with the hottest receiver around. For stations that were already doing well on the barefoot Slider, improvements with the Crate Loop were often quite modest. However, with targets that were weak and/or suffering interference from strong locals, the results were often dramatic. Some examples were:
530 the Slider had the airport TIS station with fairly reasonable audio, but nothing else, since it was not that far above the noise floor. With the Crate Loop, the airport TIS came in clear, and the more distant TIS station for the mountain pass on I-90 was also intelligible above a much quieter noise floor. 560 in the shadow of a very strong local on 570 (KVI, 5kw about 14 miles away) nulled to the extent possible, the Slider had a semi-local (KPQ) fairly good with mostly-intelligible audio under moderate interference. With the Crate Loop in adjacent orientation, the audio was clearly intelligible and the interference much reduced. 670 the Slider had KBOI (420 miles away) with fairly intelligible audio that occasionally dipped below intelligibility and/or disappeared during fades. The Crate Loop had consistent good audio that remained intelligible during most of the the fades. 680 the Slider had a semi-local old-time music station with decent signal but suffering horribly from an image/heterodyne from a strong local on 1590. With the Crate Loop in adjacent orientation to notch out 1590, the image disappeared and the music station was in the clear. 1060 the Slider had nothing but interference from a nulled strong local on 1050 (KBLE, 5kw about 7 miles away). With the Crate Loop in facing orientation, CKMX in Calgary (450 miles away) had reasonable CW music, and the interference was noticeably reduced. 1110 the Slider had a 500 watt semi-local (KDWB, about 50 miles away) with mumbling audio. With the Crate Loop in facing orientation, the audio was clearly intelligible. 1140 the Slider had CHRB (440 miles away) with mumbling audio under heavy interference from a nulled strong local on 1150, while the Crate Loop in adjacent orientation brought it in with intelligible audio and almost no interference. 1530 the Slider had KFBK-Sacramento (600 miles away) with somewhat intelligible audio, while the Crate Loop had clear audio. 1640 the Slider had semi-local KDZR with acceptable audio (if Radio Disney programming can be referred to as such... :-), while the audio with Crate Loop was much better (correction: much clearer... :-). 73 - Kevin S Bainbridge Island, WA _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
