Watkins Johnson-HF1000
Greg Limeberry
Am hunting for an opinion on the Watkins Johnson-HF 1000. Does anyone have
one or has anyone used one? What does this receiver do that say a Drake
R8A doesn't do? Is it worth that kind of money? Anyone's opinion will be
greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Greg Limeberry
Rolfe Tessem
>Greetings to the group:
>
>Am hunting for an opinion on the Watkins Johnson-HF 1000. Does anyone have
>one or has anyone used one? What does this receiver do that say a Drake
>R8A doesn't do? Is it worth that kind of money? Anyone's opinion will be
>greatly appreciated.
I have had one for several months and love it. As you probably already
know, it uses DSP at the IF extremely effectively. Since the filters
are all done in software, it has a virtually unlimited set of IF
filters and the filters themselves have very steep skirts, leading to
excellent performance in crowded band conditions.
If your interests lean toward utility monitoring and listening to
aviation, maritime and military comms, then this radio can't be
beat. If you primarily listen to shortwave broadcast stations, you
would be just as well off with the Drake or NRD receivers.
I've owned lots of receivers over the years, including a number of the
top ham tranceivers, a couple of R390A's, a couple of Collins 75A-4's,
51S-1, etc. I can honestly say the the WJ-1000A is the best receiver
I've ever used. Having said that though, the other receivers still get
plenty of use, especially the Miltronix-overhauled R390A and the
51S-1.
One other note: Receivers built for government monitoring use such as
the HF-1000A or the R390A are often criticized for their audio
quality. While these radios have an internal audio amplifier, they are
really intended to drive an external amplifier and have a line-level
output (two in the case of the HF-1000) for that purpose. You will be
much happier with the audio if you use an external audio amp.
As to the price of the radio, this is primarily a marketing decision
on the part of Watkins-Johnson. The HF-1000 is a slightly modified
version of the WJ-8711 which the company manufactures for the
U.S. government. As far as I know, the only difference is the deletion
of the 16khz bandwidth on the HF-1000, which has a maximum IF
bandwidth of 8khz. I have to assume that the company is charging the
government handsomely for the WJ-8711 and that WJ has to maintain some
rationality between whatever that price is and the price of an
essentially identical radio with one feature deleted.
--
Rolfe Tessem | Lucky Duck Productions, Inc.
ro...@ldp.com | 96 Morton Street
(212) 463-0029 | New York, NY 10014
Denes S. Varady
Try to find some reports in Monitoring Times..
The digital Hardware/software is not being updated..
I sure wouldn't buy it
--
Denes S. Varady, N3NV
George McLachlan
<dsva...@epix.net> wrote:
> Try to find some reports in Monitoring Times..
The World Radio TV Handbook has reviewed it and the 1996 Passsport to
World Band Radio has one. QST reviewed it a year or more ago but they
seemed to be more concerned about digital signals than voice.
> The digital Hardware/software is not being updated..
So??
> I sure wouldn't buy it
On what is this based? Do you have one? Have you even used one?
And to Greg..
What does an HF-1000 do that an R8 won't? Basically it will make more
(voice) signals intelligible.
> Denes S. Varady, N3NV
--
George McLachlan
Winnipeg MB
Rolfe Tessem
>
> Greg;
>
> Try to find some reports in Monitoring Times..
>
>
Not sure what you mean by this -- could you elaborate? The HF-1000 is
the commercial version of the WJ-8711 produced for the government. It is
very much in production and likely to remain so for some time to come.
There were several software updates after the receiver was first
introduced; these have slowed down now that most requested features have
been included and bug fixes made. The "hardware" part of the radio is
not being updated anymore than the "hardware" of the R8A or NRD-535 is
being updated -- I have no idea what you mean by this comment.
FWIW, I'm delighted with mine and would make the same choice again.