Great info. Thanks.
R75 is 2 - 3 times more expensive radio, so it wasn't to be comparable or competition thread. But if one is to upgrade from portable HF radio such as PL-660 PL-680 or D-808, which one would be better one to go for, maybe that was the point.
It all depends on what kind listening one does too, I thought. I mean if you are mostly listening to strong stations in your continent, then any portable radio up to 20 - 50 box, and built in whip antenna will do the job and more.
It only becomes an issue if one is trying to copy a station at the other side of Earth, say I am in Europe, and trying to copy stations in South America or Far East or South Pacific running only 1 - 10kW output, or if you are hunting for new countries on your SWL BCL DXing, then yes, those cheap portables won't cut the cake. One must look for something more capable receiver with good DX antenna.
But for adjacent strong station bleed over, no inbuilt functions of radios worked for me. I used it with my old R71E, and now IC-751A. They sort of work, but then immediately you put on these PBT, NOTCH or narrow filter, the audio degrades - it becomes not very intelligible or unpleasant to listen to.
The only way I could see to combat with the bleeding over station next to your signal is to use directional antenna such as Mag Loop, and rotate around for nulling the unwanted signal.
I still think S2000 is good value for money receiver for general SWL users with also DXing in mind. I have seen it performs well on DXing on youtube. As long as you connect a good DX antenna, most radio will start dance the way you want to, I am sure
And maybe all those functions and gadgets are not really needed, unless they work absolutely properly and efficiently?
No doubt, if R75 and S2000 were same price, then yeah, it would be mad to go for S2000 just for the sheer spec and functionalities (even if they don't work 100%, sometimes they might, and come in handy) and all the rest of it, but for half the price in used market, if one does not need all the gadgets loaded into R75? Then yeah, the whole thing becomes more multi dimensional to think about, I would say.
If you could pick up a S2000 for a half half price of R75 in used market in good working and cosmetic condition, and it will be a good buy, and even better buy too deepening on what your SWL DXing requires, and maybe put the money you saved into a better DX antenna with directivity, which I am thinking of doing. But I am also after a good SDR, and when I get more funds, I am planning to get a high end RX such as IC8600 or AOR 5001DX.
PS: I mean seriously, if you just lashed out 500 odd box for a comms radio, and still you must go and get external speaker extra, so that you will not fall sleep while listening to it, or get sick of SWL, and throw it out the window and take up gardening as your main hobby, or must order a new linear PSU for the radio so that the radio will not over heat and fry itself, then in my book, there is something wrong with the product, unless it can pull and hear whatever signals I want to hear in the band.
And RTFM? = If one has been doing this Radio hobby for over 20 - 30 years, and still must read manuals for every radio device he buys from front to back, wouldn't it be something wrong there too? I mean there might be a thing or two, you might not know how to work it because they managed to hide the functions under the layers and layers of sub menus, but in general, you know what the box is supposed to be doing. RTFM is for some block who just bought or a given a shortwave radio for the first time in his life, and trying find what it is for.
