Re: New member, undecided but tempted!

Mike,

Yes, the VR-500 archives, ha!

The Miracle Antenna is tunable by the way, and when using a short  
antenna can be surprisingly selective with a handheld receiver. The  
signal boost is very significant over using just an untuned wire. It's  
also nicely engineered, really a work of art inside.

Chuck


Quoting Mike Lehman <[email protected]>:

> 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
>
>



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