Re: New member, undecided but tempted!

Chuck,
If you have an Active Duck, I think you'll be happy with it and a VR-500.

Thanks for the tip on the Miracle Duck. I may get one of those. It does 
have the advantage over the Active Duck in that you can choose different 
antennas, rather than being "stuck with one duck."
:-D

"back to the archives..."
Oh, the _VR-500_ archives?!!
=-O
I'm a historian, so you had my attention there for a second.
Now back to my own archival dredgings.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL

[email protected] wrote:
> Mike,
>
> Thanks for this info. Yes I have one of the Grove Active Ducks, I have  
> mixed results on it from one receiver to the next. It is useful overall.
>
> I might have to give in to my temptation for a VR-500. I like the  
> looks of the Icom RX-7, but no SSB on that one.
>
> The Miracle Ducker tuner helps a great deal on HF receive, but doesn't  
> reach down into the MW band. It's expensive, but I don't regret buying  
> it. It helps a great deal on the Icom R1 for example, I can listen to  
> SW broadcasts using 18 inches or so of wire.
>
> Back to the archives...
>
> Chuck
>
>
> Quoting Mike Lehman <[email protected]>:
>
>   
>> Garry,
>> The only time I ever needed service, due to breaking one of the decoder
>> knobs when I sat on it by accident, I contacted Yaesu via the "Contact
>> Us" link at the website:
>> http://www.yaesu.com/
>>
>> They gave me an estimate, stuck to it, and returned my repaired VR-500
>> quickly, out to California and back in about two weeks, IIRC. I've never
>> needed to order parts, but I imagine that parts service is equally
>> efficacious.
>>
>> Chuck,
>> I own two VR-500s. I like having a small receiver that I can pack along
>> wherever I go. Due to much of my local monitoring going digital, they
>> don't see much use anymore, except on vacation.
>>
>> I have used the VR-500 for shortwave broadcast and utility monitoring.
>> Grove Enterprises used to sell an amplified duck antenna that worked
>> well. I tended to use it for AM broadcast band of the
>> university-affiliated NPR when I was deep inside buildings on campus
>> that had too much steel for good reception. I also was able to do mobile
>> monitoring of utility band and was even able to receive a pirate SW
>> broadcaster -- before he disappeared from the airwaves!
>>
>> Grove no longer sells the amplified duck antenna. Anyone know of another
>> source for such an item?
>>
>> The stock antenna is somewhat infamous for poor reception on many bands.
>> It seems to be cut for best reception on the US weather alert channels.
>> I usually use a stubby duck instead and it works great and is a vast
>> improvement over the stock antenna. Be sure to give a different antenna
>> a try if the stock one doesn't give you what it needs.
>>
>> One thing you will want to do for utility SW reception is to enable the
>> narrow AM mode. This is an undocumented feature, but you can find
>> instructions in the Files area of the VR-500 Yahoo group homepage. It a
>> matter of a few keypresses to enable it.
>> Mike Lehman
>> Urbana, IL