Re: Re: New VR 500 & handy reference sheet (s)?- Question

I use a bottom loaded telescopic on my 500 and I get realy good results on sw and the duck on fm I got the telescopic from maplin 
not expenceive either
Jim

 



________________________________
From: voip10 <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, 27 September, 2009 8:05:44 PM
Subject: [VR-500] Re: New VR 500 & handy reference sheet (s)?- Question

  
Hi Jimmy, 

You are correct re the lack of ferrite rod antenna! The rubber duck antenna suplied with the radio is extremely inefficient for reception of medium wave signals, and pretty much all of shortwave, too. The Yaesu-supplied antenna is "resonant" at around 150MHz and is reasonably good for receiving signals on the 2m amateur band and other signals in that region of the RF spectrum. It's good fun to experiment. It is possible to get ferrite rods with coils wound for medium and long wave from several suppliers (e.g. Maplin in the UK) and medium-wave tuning capacitors, too. There'll be plenty of simple circuits on the internet that could be built in very little time. You could also try a simple dipole, with each leg around a couple of metres or so in length, still electrically short, compared to medium wave-lengths but a good deal better than the rubber duck. The antenna doesn't have to be elaborately strung out, either. One leg could be laid across a table and
 the other along the ground. 

Using narrow AM would improve things slightly, especially if there is a lot of interference from signals on neighbouring frequencies, but reception would sound slightly more "muffled" because narrow AM will reduce the audio frequency response. 

Voi 

--- In VR-500@yahoogroups. com, "bluesea805@ ..." <bluesea805@ ...> wrote:
>
> 
> Does switching to AM "Narrow" help to get better local AM reception
> ? I'd like to know this, because so far, this radio is getting horrible
> reception (very faint with a lot of background noise) of a nearby AM
> station that otherwise comes in loud & clear through even the cheapest
> of radios I have in the house. It gets better only if I hold it in my
> hand, becoming a Human antenna. I hope your AM Narrow option helps,
> because I'm already very disappointed if that's the best AM reception I
> can get out of this radio, Doe you think this is largely due to the fact
> that it does not have a built-in Ferrite bar antenna, like some other
> radios do ? Thanks,
> 
> Jimmy
> --- In VR-500@yahoogroups. com, comtron@ wrote:
> >
> > Jimmy,
> >
> > Welcome to the group. While I can't help on whether there are
> > different versions of the VR-500 (though I've never heard this to be
> > the case), I can point you to this easy tip on enabling AM-narrow mode
> > on the VR-500 (if only all wideband handhelds had this underlying
> > capability!) :
> >
> > Re: NAM mode
> >
> > Here's how its done.
> >
> > To enable the hidden Narrow AM option on the VR-500 simply do the
> > following... ..
> >
> > You unlock the hidden menu options #33 "User Port"
> >
> > and #34 "Narrow AM" by pressing and holding four
> >
> > buttons while switching the radio on: 0,3,5 and 9.
> >
> > Menu #33 "User Port" does nothing, but the #34
> >
> > "Narrow AM" option is very handy and works very well.
> >
> > Enjoy
> >
> >
> > I have yet to try doing this myself...to be honest I haven't had an
> > urgent need to narrow the reception on my 500...I've done well just
> > as-is. But it's great to have this available!
> >
> > Chuck
> >
> > Quoting "bluesea805@ " bluesea805@:
> >
> > >
> > > Hello everyone,
> > >
> > > I'm brand new here, my very 1st post- Hello to you all.Thank you for
> > > accepting me into the Group. I just took delivery of a brand new
> Yeasu
> > > VR 500 & am very anxious to learn how to program it to scan my
> favorite
> > > local frequencies. Having already owned several scanners (Regent
> home
> > > base unit, Radio Shack Pro 94, Alinco DJ-X7 and now this one) you'd
> > > think I'd already be quite familiar with how to go about this
> tedious
> > > task.However, at least for me it seems that each reciever has a
> > > different way of going about things & furthermore, the manuals that
> try
> > > to explain what to do aren't always as explicit as you'd like them
> to
> > > be- do you know what I mean ?
> > >
> > > Therefore, I noticed the handy Reference sheets that are on the
> > > Files section of this Forum. Since the posts are dated back from
> > > 2000-2001 or so, I was wondering if these sheets will still apply to
> the
> > > brand new 2009 model VR 500 and other recent years of this same
> unit, or
> > > are there new features & different button pushes on the new(er)
> versions
> > > of this unit that will not apply to the reference sheet ?
> > >
> > > Thank you & I look forward to sharing with you the joys of owning
> > > such a versatile little Reciever- SSB capability & all !
> > >
> > >
> > > Jimmy
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
> > This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
> >
>




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