Harris RF-550
Al Patrick
and/or cons on this unit? ...know the best place to locate one?
Thanks,
Al
--
The truth is "hate" --
to those who HATE the truth!
Mark Holden
I've previously discussed this radio with Al, and I do mention this
radio pretty often, but here's some basics.
It doesn't have a tuning knob, memories, or for that matter lots of
filters.
Harris did offer an RF-577 scan control unit that provided memories and
a tuning knob, but I've only seen one for sale, and it went for more
than twice what I paid for the radio.
Other radios I've used enough to make a meaningful comparison with
include: Drake R8, Racal 6790/GM, Standard STR-428, Collins R-388, and
Mackay 3031.
For listening, the Harris wins hands down. It's more sensitive, and the
audio is much cleaner and easier on the ears. Voices sound more
natural, and music sounds more like what you'd expect from a local
broadcaster on an AM/MW radio.
The built in speaker is pretty good. I have a few Bose center channel
speakers, but they tend to get moved to other radios that need them,
more than this one.
The limited number of filters has not been a problem, and the only time
I have any problem getting a nice clean signal is under the very worst
of conditions.
I attribute this to the AFC, Coherent AGC and using ECSS. It will lock
on to signals that are right at the noise floor, and it's tenacious.
The AFC and Coherent AGC doesn't doesn't do anything for RTTY. It also
won't lock onto some pirates, and hams QSOing. (the pirate transmitters
probably aren't stable enough, and with hams you've got multiple
transmitters) For this type of listening, I generally turn off the AFC
and use either the VFO or the BFO.
The radio weighs 50 pounds, and most of that is shielding. It's built
like a tank.
It has half octave filtering built in to the front end. The manual
suggests a preselector if you've got a duplex setup and are transmitting
within 5% of the frequency you're listening to. Otherwise, unless
you're in the shade of a tower, you probably won't need one. The radio
can remotely control the Harris RF-550 preselector.
The manual is a couple inches thick, and gives much more useful
information than the manual for my Racal. Anyone who is reasonably
comfortable with electronics should be able to service this radio if
they have a manual and the correct test equipment.
I've used the manual to figure out how to add computer control and an
external tuning knob, but I'm waiting for parts, so I can't comment on
how it performs.
If anyone has specific questions, please email direct.
Regards,
Mark
ricar...@gmail.com
... I have one Harris RF 550/Rf551 rx and preselector...and I have some problem with the RF550...the AFC don't work(lamps green...yelow are ok)...and in the first 15-20minutes I have one noise brum ...brrrrr...and distort audio signal in all modes CW...SSB and AM...if you kind help me...with some ideas and one copy of service manual...many thanks!...Ricardo
karab...@yahoo.com
Michael Black
should email him directly.
I don't know why he wrote that 12 years ago, but surely it applies now,
since it's been some time since he was last seen here, one of those who
left during the rfh wars.
Don't reply to old messages just because google lets you. You've done
worse, you didn't even bother quoting, so the rest of us have no idea what
you are talking about. What you see at google is not what the rest of us
see. The only reason I checked google is because there are way too many
instances of people replying to old messages from google, so it's pretty
obvious when someone is doing it.
Michael
ricar...@gmail.com
Sry Michael for trouble!Best Regards!