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Author Topic: Finally!!! Radio Jay Allen covers the Realistic DX-440/Sangean ATS-803A portable  (Read 6731 times)

Offline BoomboxDX

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The DX440/803A doesn't have protection diodes built in, but if you are reasonably good with a solder gun or soldering iron, protection diodes can be wired in using hookup wire and a couple back to back diodes -- or even rigged at the external antenna itself.

MW performance is fairly good but on mine it's much improved by adding an external MW loop.

The "carrier noise" could be the PLL whine, which often will go off if you strike in the 'lock' button, for some reason. On my radio, I never heard it much through headphones. DX the SWBC bands was a dream when there were still signals on the air, the DX-440 has really good audio through headphones.
An AM radio Boombox DXer.
+ GE SRIII, PR-D5 & TRF on MW.
The usual Realistic culprits on SW (and a Panasonic).

Offline alpard

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My 803A is going bad to worse now.  The high pitched whining noise got worse than yesterday, and now when pressed LW, it refuses going to LW, but revert back to MW with very loud high pitched winning noise. :(

It was working perfect, but maybe it doesn't like the MLA30 active loop? When plugged in with the MLA30, the audio was getting rough, and and powering on, it kept making whoosh noise, and then high pitched whine appeared with the strong signals. Now when pressed the LW, it goes to MW? I am glad that I am having the other radios, so at least my RXing the regular programs is not affected.

Tried with the LOCK button, but nothing changes. I thought initially it didn't like the 9V wall wart, but it was not the case.
« Last Edit: August 18, 2020, 1214 UTC by alpard »
ICOM R71E, Lowe HF-225, YAESU FRG100, TECSUN PL-330, PL-320, XHDATA D-109, D-808, MSi001 SDR, AOR AR3030, Sangean ATS803, ATS-909X, Antenna= Random Wire+ATU, Active Miniwhip

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Offline alpard

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I left the 803A unplugged for a few hours, and powered on again.  The LW is now back, it goes to LW OK.  But the high pitched squeal on the reception is still there.  Maybe some of the parts inside have gone bad? such as caps or resistors?  That 9V wall wart works fine with the other radios.
ICOM R71E, Lowe HF-225, YAESU FRG100, TECSUN PL-330, PL-320, XHDATA D-109, D-808, MSi001 SDR, AOR AR3030, Sangean ATS803, ATS-909X, Antenna= Random Wire+ATU, Active Miniwhip

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Offline ThaDood

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Well, if you do go inside, the most common problem that I've run into with several of these radios is that ribbon cable that half-ass plugs into an IC socket. Every time, (Due to dissimilar metals.), those pins and contacts are found corroded. If you find that, the quick fix is to clean all that out with 91% isopropanol, let dry completely, plug-in that ribbon cable, and see if that worked. However, that corrosion will happen again. On several radios, including my own, I've hard soldered those ribbon cable pins to the contacts of that IC strip. Mine still works +25 years later. 
I was asked, yet another weird question, of how I would like to be buried, when I finally bite the big one. The answer was actually pretty easy. Face-down, like a certain historical figure in the late 1980's, (I will not mention who, but some of you will get it, and that's enough.) Why??? It would be a burial that will satisfy everyone: (1) My enemies will say that it will show me where to go. (2) On the same point, I can have my enemies kiss my butt. (3) It will temporarily give someone a place to park a bicycle. See??? A WIN / WIN for everyone.

Offline alpard

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Thanks for the great advice Dood. Much appreciated.
Yep, I will open it up and try to sort it, but not immediately.
There are lots of other tasks for me to do now and time is just not allowing for working on the radios these days, and I have other radios including the newly acquired TECSUN S2000, and PL-680, PL-660, D-808 ... so I have a plenty of radios to fall back on fortunately.

But I am scunnered to face this problem from the 803A which looks like new, and worked like new even a few week ago.  In fact, I now recall when I got this 803a , and inspected the battery compartment, I had seen a dried out battery leak, I cleaned it up, and it became spotless. I have not taken it as any serious problem as it looked spotless again.  Not sure if the pcb had been affected by the leak too. Anyhow a project for the coming winter. :)
« Last Edit: August 18, 2020, 1956 UTC by alpard »
ICOM R71E, Lowe HF-225, YAESU FRG100, TECSUN PL-330, PL-320, XHDATA D-109, D-808, MSi001 SDR, AOR AR3030, Sangean ATS803, ATS-909X, Antenna= Random Wire+ATU, Active Miniwhip

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Under30

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Looking at that crammed schematic in the .PDF Service Manual, that 1st Front End transistor is a PNP BJT. Thus far, no static problems with the Front End of my radio going on +30 years. So, at a gander, I'd say that Front End on the DX-440 / ATS-803A is not as static sensitive as the Sony ICF-2010's. That said, it's still pretty sensitive, compered to other portables out there, for weak signal hearing. So, if you put that portable to a longwire, 80M dipole, Windom, etc., the added protection of opposing 1N4148 diodes, or something less noisy, for spikes beyond .7V, is not a bad idea.

Thanks 👍

Under30

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My new to me 440 should be here tomorrow :)

Under30

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So FedEx has seem to lost my 440  :(


Offline ThaDood

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Oh, wow... I was a freight inspector for about 2 years, and over 95% of complaints came due to FedEx. I just finally had a package of stove hood filters get here, after a 4 week delay. Fortunately, that was USPS. If you catch FedEx delivering it, inspect that outside of the package immediately. And, if you see damage, REFUSE that package, and stick it back with FedEx. The driver will do what they can to try and not make that happen, but it is your right to do so. What sucks is that you have a single driver, with a huge area, with terrible time restraints. If stuff gets damaged, TFB. Like most down-sized corporations, they pretty much operate and exist to satisfy investors, and not you.
I was asked, yet another weird question, of how I would like to be buried, when I finally bite the big one. The answer was actually pretty easy. Face-down, like a certain historical figure in the late 1980's, (I will not mention who, but some of you will get it, and that's enough.) Why??? It would be a burial that will satisfy everyone: (1) My enemies will say that it will show me where to go. (2) On the same point, I can have my enemies kiss my butt. (3) It will temporarily give someone a place to park a bicycle. See??? A WIN / WIN for everyone.

Under30

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Oh, wow... I was a freight inspector for about 2 years, and over 95% of complaints came due to FedEx. I just finally had a package of stove hood filters get here, after a 4 week delay. Fortunately, that was USPS. If you catch FedEx delivering it, inspect that outside of the package immediately. And, if you see damage, REFUSE that package, and stick it back with FedEx. The driver will do what they can to try and not make that happen, but it is your right to do so. What sucks is that you have a single driver, with a huge area, with terrible time restraints. If stuff gets damaged, TFB. Like most down-sized corporations, they pretty much operate and exist to satisfy investors, and not you.

Good points
It now says it was delivered.
Not to me!
My neighbours all deny getting a package.

Offline BoomboxDX

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I left the 803A unplugged for a few hours, and powered on again.  The LW is now back, it goes to LW OK.  But the high pitched squeal on the reception is still there.  Maybe some of the parts inside have gone bad? such as caps or resistors?  That 9V wall wart works fine with the other radios.

I don't know about your radio, but DX440s and 803As had high pitched whine when new.

Your radio probably needed a reset. Sometimes microprocessors on SW portables wig out. My DX375 did that once, years ago.

The 440 is an old model, but the parts shouldn't have gone bad necessarily. I have older transistors that still work well.

It sounds like your radio may have some issues, or maybe just wasn't powered up for a few years. Mine acted funky when I first powered it up after several years' hiatus.

I'd use batteries instead of a wall wart, to be on the safe side. I have two 9 volt wall warts that when I measured them, they put out 11 volts. The 440 is light on batteries... they last a while.

Good luck.
An AM radio Boombox DXer.
+ GE SRIII, PR-D5 & TRF on MW.
The usual Realistic culprits on SW (and a Panasonic).

Offline alpard

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Thanks BB for your advice and info.

No there is no reset button with my 803A. And I left it without power or batteries for days.  I powered it on tonight, and it sounded a lot better.
But when I tried FM, the received FM station was very strong - end stop signal.  The whining problem returned.  It is a very loud carrier with the incoming signal.  It was happening with AM signals as well. But like before when the signal is weak, the whining carrier disappears.
So, I could set it to monitor a DX freq. on 4 Mhz tropical band.

Not sure what is causing it. BFO for the CW and SSB sounds distorted too. There is definitely some problem with this 803A.
ICOM R71E, Lowe HF-225, YAESU FRG100, TECSUN PL-330, PL-320, XHDATA D-109, D-808, MSi001 SDR, AOR AR3030, Sangean ATS803, ATS-909X, Antenna= Random Wire+ATU, Active Miniwhip

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Offline Kingbear Radio

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The Dx440 and Sangean versions, they were so popular when the Gulf War was on, and news listeners wanted alternative information and those radios weren't on the shelves for a while.

I have heard of people having problems with the SONY 2010, and I'm not sure if its' a JFET that goes, or an IGFET, insulated gate, that goes. I've just heard about it from various hams, that it might be near by their transmitter, or connected to a longwire, and transmit, and it can damage the front end.

It's not always blown either, it can be partly damaged and make noise or be intermittent on-off reception, as the Fet can fail as a short or open.

Realistic/Sangean, good lower end portables, glad that Radio Jay covered it. Did you know there was a version with a cassette recorder too?

KBear
K-Bear Radio

Offline ThaDood

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Uh-huh... The Sangean ATS-818ACS ,    https://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/1069.html    I knew several friends that had that. And, you are right about it being the DX-440 / ATS-803A with a cassette recorder. Pretty much did everything that my Sangean portable does, plus folks could record a 40M pirate off-air to boot. You don't seem to see those around anymore. And, at a time when cassettes are now starting to make a somewhat come-back now. (Yeah, go figure.)
I was asked, yet another weird question, of how I would like to be buried, when I finally bite the big one. The answer was actually pretty easy. Face-down, like a certain historical figure in the late 1980's, (I will not mention who, but some of you will get it, and that's enough.) Why??? It would be a burial that will satisfy everyone: (1) My enemies will say that it will show me where to go. (2) On the same point, I can have my enemies kiss my butt. (3) It will temporarily give someone a place to park a bicycle. See??? A WIN / WIN for everyone.

Offline alpard

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I have a DX-392 radio with the cassette player.  The cassette player of my DX-392 doesn't work (maybe needing a new belt), but the radio works great.

It is a good old radio. I logged many interesting DX signal with the DX-392.

I like the big freq. display, big control knobs and tuning dial of the DX-392. The reception is also good = it seems giving more intelligibility under difficult conditions caused by weak signal, fading, QRM and QRN.

This vid is about the DX-392 exactly same one I have.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY7Eg75h4f4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95VW7VJhnbw
« Last Edit: September 02, 2020, 1347 UTC by alpard »
ICOM R71E, Lowe HF-225, YAESU FRG100, TECSUN PL-330, PL-320, XHDATA D-109, D-808, MSi001 SDR, AOR AR3030, Sangean ATS803, ATS-909X, Antenna= Random Wire+ATU, Active Miniwhip

https://twitter.com/RadioPax88
https://www.youtube.com/@RadioPax88/videos

 

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