These comments are from others. A
few comments from me in the text below as well.
Dave Z.
Did JRC make a switch with the AC Power Transformer
used in the NRD-545 ?
I made a note on the NRD-545
review page that the internal power transformer in the NRD-545
was of high quality and made no detectable buzz/hum noises even
with it off (a very light load when off). Well this all may have
changed at bit with later production ? John W. has told me that
his early 2006 sample's transformer buzzes even with it off. It's
a minor issue with him. But it appears that JRC are using a
different AC power transformer with later samples, either with
the manufacturer or at least the style.
John sent me the picture of what the new transformer looks like
in this early 2006 NRD-545 sample (left) and when compared to my
picture of my very late 1999 sample on the right in the photo
below. The new one has a white color wrap around the body and is
is not shaped the same. The older ones have a green color wrap. I
cannot say when this change took place (sorry, I do not have this
information). Does not affect operation of the receiver that we
are aware of at the time this text was being added. The noise
we are takling about here is NOT
ripple or a dirty power supply, but is the windings or case of
the actual transformer is "buzzing" (or some would call
it a hum), creating a noise within the room.
Pictures of the internal
AC power transformers used in the JRC NRD-545 that I'm aware of.
The newer one on the left is reported to buzz more with even a
very light load (radio off).
The one in my late 1999 sample is as quiet as dead mouse.
NOTE : We have not tested a sample with one of these new AC
transformers.
(2006 photo via John W., 1999
picture via N9EWO)
Being I have not tested one of these new
samples to "hear" how bad this buzz may be, I have to
stand neutral at this time on the matter. I guess look for a used
sample for sale that has the older "green" transformer
if this is super important to you ?
Issues with noisy power supply transformers in a receiver are a
real sticking point with me and is totally unacceptable. Don't
get me wrong, I love having a GOOD internal power supply in a
receiver, but not if it's going to create a nasty buzz within the
room. Caveat emptor.....Dave N9EWO
Here is the text as in a email to me from John
Thorpe (I have edited it a bit for posting here), most of these
counted reports are via the "Yahoo
Group for the JRC NRD-545"
. It appears that this issue can only occur when the CHE-199
converter is installed. Again I'm against the CHE-199 anyway, in
my view even when it's working right the performance generally
stinks. You are going to be MUCH better off with a seperate
VHF-UHF receiver-scanner. I never heard what was really causing
this issue within the CHE-199, so I do not have any additional
information on this.
"Here's a NRD-545 issue that at least 3/4 doz. 545
owners have now reported. Their receivers enter the Mute mode,
rendering the receiver inoperable. Most users have tried a number
of solutions."
"Removing the CHE-199 card and resetting it in the receiver;
removing the memory battery and replacing it, unplugging mains
power and then doing a "cold boot". One user reports
that the "cold boot" method cleared the Mute function,
but has had the experience several times. Most reporting users
are without success in unlocking their receivers."
"The reporting 545 owners are scattered about the world:
Taiwan, Italy and the USA: I assume these receivers were
purchased in different years and countries, thus possibly
eliminating a regional product issue. Two users report their 545
enters the Mute move when they tune to 7500 mHz and below. Others
have not been quite so specific in their reports."
Via the newsgroups from Jim Valle in regards to the Sherwood Engineering roofing filter modification (NRD-545). I'm actually against this mod totally (degrades AM audio in wider bandwidths in my testing of a 3rd borrowed sample)...Dave Z
"The 8kHz filter mod has really improved things for me on MW and SW frequencies. Utility monitoring has been GREATLY improved. I have found much less monkey chatter and significantly less spillover from stations close by on all SW bands. The real test is when I listen to utility and can get so much more out of the passband tuning. A perfect example would be listening to AFN in USB. Before the filter replacement there was quite a bit of spill-over from data signals on LSB. This filter along with some narrowing of the filter setting (about 2.2 to 2.4) and using the passband tuning cleans audio up significantly. On MW I have found no noticeable difference in fidelity. I live in an RF rich environment and utilize the Dressler ARA-60 (superb antenna, by the way) so I'm even more impressed by this filter mod. By the way, you only need to send in the board, not the entire rig. Saves on shipping. Bob turns things around very quickly. He is also a very knowledgeable, professional and courteous individual which to deal. All the best, Jim Valle "
Comments below are from when the set first appeared and may be a bit dated, but for the infomation anyway.
Humm...another new gremlin to have
to be concerned about ?? From the Newsgroups.I would have to say
at this point that it sounds like a gremlin (software/hardware
flaw)...in his sample ?? Remember that the tone control in 545 is
done within the DSP chip and also affects the "Line"
out jacks.(I have not heard of anyone else with this problem.
DaveZ)
"I am really pleased with my new NRD-545. I have,
however, witnessed a phenomenon lately which slightly spoils my
listening satisfaction and for which I have not been able to find
an explanation yet:"
"Sometimes, when I turn the TONE control of the NRD-545
fully clockwise and then, after a while, try to turn it to 12
o'clock position again, the sound is totally suppressed and the
speaker gets mute. If this happens, sound is only audible with
the TONE knob turned completely to the right. This strange
phenomenon disappears only when the receiver is switched off and
on again."
"Does anybody know anything about that? Is this a bug?"
"Greetings from Switzerland"
Ivan
A few words from Chuck Rippel on
the NRD-545 from the newsgroups.
"Several in this thread have made observations about the
sub-standard audio quality of the radio. You may know that the
NRD-525 which was released in the mid-80's set a bench mark
within the DX hobby for poor audio. The 545 rasies that bar by
being worse (many would say thats not possible.)We're not looking
for hi-fi (although KE2WG's comment to get an R8 if you want
hi-fi audio is absolutely accurate) audio, rather the goal from a
DX'ers point of view is superior detection resulting in increased
audio recovery and understandability. The program listener might
also focus on another concern,audio reproduction which does not
cause listening fatigue. For myself, I couldn't/can't listen to a
545 for long without getting severe listening fatigue."
"NRD-545 drum beaters who might be located East of the
Mississippi tune to 4.915 beginning about 2000UTC (+) or( -)
allowing for your location. That's the frequency for the home
service of Radio Ghana and is typically the first 60M African to
show here on the coast. Take your 545 and put say an Drake R8B
right next to it with similar antennas with similar orientation
and listen to which which gets first carrier then understandable
audio. The Drake will outperform the 545 every time and a
boatanchor such as an R390A or SP-600JX equipped with a Sherwood
SE-3 or KIWA MAP will have a 5-10 minute edge on the Drake. There
is a treatise on audio recovery in the Listening Section of my
www site which also has a contribution by Hans Kneisner, of
K&D Electronik, GmbH, designer of the excellent KWZ-30 DSP
receiver."
"The URL is:"
http://www.avslvb.com/R390A/index.html
"Remember, that material is in the "Listening
Section."
"In my opinion, the other NRD-545 design issue is the
ultimate rejection of the IF filters. The version 1 software
allowed for only -35db which is little better than a
Hallifcafters Sky Buddy. The latest version of the software
provides for a reported -45db. Better, but no where near the
class of a state of the art receiver costing $1800. When I tried
a version 1 receiver, simply tuning to one side of a moderately
strong broadcast band station resulted in that stations sidebands
to "blow under" the filters when tuned a moderate 20 kc
away. The limiting factor is the physics imposed on the dynamic
range of the processing system used in the 545. I don't have the
Drake specs at hand but ultimate rejection in the -80db range
comes to mind. If the reader takes issue with the numeric specs I
have quoted, please feel free to post a correction but be sure to
include your source(s). "
"Does this mean I am against DSP radios? Absolutely not. I
own the WJ-HF1000A and have also used others. Were you a ham, by
far the most impressive performer is the Kenwood TS-870 and I
hear the 570 is also excellent."
"All said, don't sell JRC short. They would have greater
market penetration and the hobby would benefit if they would
first poll then act on what their customers actually want before
releasing a new design. That would would be a winning
combination. Notice that Drake has done that very thing making
incremental improvements in each varient of the R8 family. JRC
make a quality product, the NRD-535 (non D) being an excellent
example. Send one of those to Kiwa for the audio mods and one of
his premium 3.5 kc filters and you have a real winner for program
listening a DX alike. The NRD-545 is a beautiful radio to look at
combined with excellent, quality construction and assembly
layout. DSP technology is still in its infancy and has a long way
to go before offering the kind of technological advantages it is
capable of."
"If you want a DSP receiver, my own advice would be to save
your sheckles and do it right by with a Watkins-Johnson. At
$1800, you are more than 1/2 way there. If DSP is secondary but
you want an above average performer, the R8B or AOR-7030 PLUS
would be at the top of my recomendation list."
"Finally, if you opt of the NRD-545,you won't "get
hurt" and will own a quality product. Just be aware of some
rather substantive limitations".
(The WJ HF-1000 is no longer made/sold. However it's very close
commerical version WJ-8711A ,which has more bandwidth filters
than the old HF1000A, can still be had for around $ 5500.00
USD..DaveZ)
"I am still getting
acquainted with the radio. I don't have buyers remorse so that's
a good sign. Basically I think it's an excellent radio, if you
are a real audiophile you can hear the a/d/a conversions
especially when using the noise reduction. Personally when
conditions warrant using the noise reduction, you aren't looking
for fidelity. With a decent signal, perhaps you want to monitor
the BBC or MW while reading the paper or surfing the web, the
audio is excellent. The radio really performs well in the ssb and
rtty modes and the filters are very flexible and sharp. I'm
making comparisons to conventional radios. The last radio I had
was a TS850 with a Timewave 599. I can say this receiver seems
much better overall."
"One of the first things I noticed when I turned this radio
on is how quiet it is. I actually had to go through the house
again and find a source of interference that was below the noise
floor of the TS850 (I had purged my house of noisy appliances in
the past and it turned out to be my fax machine). The only
complaints that I have deal with firmware issues. The memories
don't remember ecss, noise reduction and off standard bandwidth
settings. The other issue is the lack of noise reduction use in
certain modes. I also had heard some annoying agc pumping on the
very stong SW bands (6&9mhz at night), further monitoring
resulted in much less noticeable results. One other item I first
found annoying is that the unlit display icons are quite easily
seen. This is now of no concern to me."
"Overall I am pleased with the radio, I have been waiting
for this radio for quite some time and sometimes a persons
expectations may get unrealistic, in radio design everything is a
compromise. Perhaps in another radio generation or two the radios
will be perfect, by then SW/MW will have gone the way of the
steam locomotive (except in the third world) I would like to see
JRC to look into the firmware issues. I doubt the W/J HF-1000 is
twice the radio (My view here is the WJ "blows" away
the 545 overall) and therefore I couldn't justify the expense of
four thousand dollars. I haven't read Larry Magne's review in
Passport so I don't know what his findings were. I think his
original finding (whatever they were) may have resulted in JRC
making some changes for the USA radios."
Jeffery Darche
"My impression of the
NRD was that it was not a contender for the serious DX'er"
"Don't agree. We've just used mine for the CQWW contest last
weekend and the leader of our team, a well known UK listener was
full of praise for it. It certainly winkled out the DX under
difficult conditions where our other older receivers fell flat.
Its only contender was the Yaesu FT847 that we also had in the
shack."
"The audio is absolutely horrible"
"Tried feeding it into a hi-fi system? For listening to a.m
stations it's far superior to my old NRD525 which was toppy and
spitchy on peaks. Fed into a decent loudspeaker it's
"okay", fed into my stereo system it's great."
(Don't forget to toggle "32" user function to 1:
Loose..Dave Z)
"and the ultimate rejection was only -35db
Can't comment on that not being a technical bod.
"A few others who has used it longer say that the
NRD-545 has the worst audio of any JRC receiver. In light on the
NRD-525, that's going some..."
"As above, I entirely disagree with this, it's better when
fed into a good sound system."
(Again toggle user function #32 to 1: Loose AND use a GOOD
external speaker..DaveZ)
"My biggest grouse is the useless AMS button. It seems to
do nothing that it's supposed to, it even locked up on a station
on an adjacent short wave frequency that I wasn't even listening
to. The bandwidth is far too wide - and as commented by someone
else, not adjustable. A big drop-off for a receiver of such high
calibre.
Still in love with mine tho!"
de Bob M
(I find the W-I-D-E AMS button to be very useful. It was NEVER
ment to be used on Shortwave. Instead, it is for in the clear MW
stations with use in AM Stereo. But I use mine on clear SW
signals as well. Too bad the ECSS does not work in AMS mode
however..Dave Z.)
"I got a new JRC NRD-545
from Universal Radio a few days ago. I am very pleased with this
fantastic radio. It is REALLY COOL! The continuously variable
bandwidth digital IF filters are absolutely outstanding. The
passband tuning is very good, and when used along with the
variable bandwidth filters, you can flush out almost any weak
station. The audio fidelity is quite acceptable, much better than
previous JRC models, although not as good as an AOR AR7030. When
using the AMS (AM Stereo) button to listen to local MW stations,
the fidelity is very good indeed. I listened to a local AM stereo
station through a pair of Sennheiser HD 545 headphones, and was
impressed. (I've never heard AM stereo before)."
"The 545 is not as "bassy" as the Drake R8B, and
the R8B may sound better to those who like more bass in their
music. I think that the R8B may have a slight edge when listening
to music, but I like the 545 better for voice. I guess it boils
down to personal taste. Some have complained that the 545's AGC
decay rate on AM signals is too fast. I don't think it is. I
think it is just right, especially when used with ECSS. Again,
perhaps it's just a matter of personal taste."
"So far I have not found any problems with the digital
filter's supposedly sub-standard ultimate rejection claimed in
Passport's review ...... so far. The 545 gives the impression of
having extremely quiet circuitry,which I assume is due to the
DSP."
"FINALLY ... JRC has a synchronous detector
("ECSS") that actually works as-is out of the box! The
545's ECSS works very well, and you can select either sideband. I
have not had it lose lock yet. I have been using the 545 on MW a
lot, and am very pleased with it's MW performance. The 545's
digital display does not radiate any noise like the 535's did,
and I can use my MW and LW loops without picking up any noise
from the 545."
"Although the 545's factory defaults prohibit it from tuning
below 100 khz, the owner's manual shows you how to override the
defaults so that you can tune it down to 10 khz. I can hear WWVB
on 60 khz pretty well on the 545. In fact, the 545 performs much
better below 100 khz than my Drake R8B does. My Drake R8B is
quite deaf on 60 khz. I have only done limited side-by-side
comparisons of the R8B vs the 545. So far ... in general .... I
like the 545 better, although the R8B certainly is no
slouch!"
"Listening to SSB signals is a pleasure on the 545. The
variable AGC decay control is a very nice touch for SSB. The
545's manual notch filter is AWESOME! I can completely zap out
any interfering heterodyne with very little, if any,degradation
of the desired signal. It is MUCH better than the poor excuse for
a notch filter that the 535 had. The 545 also has an automatic,
digital, multi-hetrodyne removal button called BC, which does a
satisfactory job at killing multiple heterodynes that are
plaguing a signal, although not quite as good as the manual notch
does."
"The 545 has a two-width, variable-level noise blanker
("NB"), which does a reasonably good job. However, the
NB on my Drake R8B works better. Indeed,the R8B's noise blanker
is the BEST I've ever seen on ANY radio. The 545 has a digital
noise reduction button ("NR") which enhances voice
while suppressing somewhat the background noise. This function is
highly adjustable via a special sequence of keystrokes and use of
the "fine" knob. It takes a while to get it adjusted to
your taste, and I don't think I've found the perfect "sweet
spot" for this feature yet. So far, I have found this to be
of limited use."
"The 545's ergonomics make it a joy to use. The styling, the
most excellent and beautiful digital display, and the
"feel" make the 545 a real head-turner. The S meter is
a digital bar graph. You can configure it so that the S meter
will temporarily "hold" the strongest signal reading on
the display ... a useful feature for trying to tune your antenna
by peaking the S meter ... especially if the signal fades a lot.
I haven't fooled around with the memory channels, scanning, or
searching yet.I have the wide-band converter on order, and will
no doubt be using the scanning features once I install the
converter."
"In short .... am I glad I bought the 545? ABSOLUTELY !!!!
This one's a KEEPER!"
"Well..... I've had one
for about 4 months and I am rather disappointed with it. In 40
years of SW I've never met a radio which runs out of AF gain
before,but this one does. The 'TONE' control has a very peculiar
action, at one end sound sounds like a telephone, at the other
treble boost. Receiving NAVTEX on 518 causes the AGC and BW LEDS
to flicker in sympathy to signal. VLF gain falls off rapidly
below about 70 kHz. At no settings can I get decent AM reception
with good signal. Awesome it aint."
Mike G3IJE
M.J.Powell.
(I will agree with Mike on the 545 "running out of volume
control". But only with under-modulated AM signals...say
Libya. The NRD-301 also suffers from this trait..DaveZ)
"Well, all I can say is
that mine does not have any problem with receiving AM signals or
the NAVTEX thing. You're right, VLF gain DOES fall off below
about 70 khz, but JRC only guaranteed it's specs to 100 khz. As
far as tone control, I have no problem with the audio shaping.
The audio would seem to be a question of taste, and I find
nothing wrong with it. Mind you, I don't expect a communications
receiver to sound better than a good stereo. I like the general
crispness of the 545's sound, I think it helps to dig out weak
DX."
73,
Rich
"I was reading through the
news group earlier in the week and noticed a posting that I
thought was inaccurate. The headphone jack on the 545 doesn't
supply stereo reception, but drives both ear pieces with the line
out for the right side. The only way to hear AM stereo is to feed
the two line level outputs to a two channel audio amp (I use my
stereo amplifier). There is no display icon to indicate when a AM
stereo signal is being received, but tuning to a known C-Quam
station playing music I was able to verify the left and right
programming. The manual is very vague on this feature and offers
virtually no information."
"The audio quality in the above configuration is extremely
good and has no distinguishable A/D/A artifacts. I also found
this a good way to listen to the stonger SW stations, providing
both robust audio and ample levels while moving about the house.
For regular dxing the audio direct from the radio is better
suited."
"I have owned my radio for about six weeks now (purchased
from HRO) I am very pleased with the radio overall, it's not
perfect but what in life is. I find it's good points well
outweigh its few shortcomings,all of which can probably be
addressed by firmware."
"Powering the radio up with the . depressed displays a group
of numbers, in my case it's 12-15-14, does anyone have any idea
what this might reveal."
Jeff
Rhode Island,USA
(Have never received a SOLID word on what these
"numbers" REALLY mean. Maybe it's a software version ??
But I'm thinking it's not now ???..Dave Z)
David Jones wrote:
"Hi from South Wales, Your comments interested me, as I
have both a 535 and a 545. The 545 does seem to Chuff a bit more
than the 535,but it is not noticeable unless the tuning step size
is quite large, when it isa nuisance. I do not know whether the
tuning dial is 1000 steps or not. Since the receiver has a DSP
function, and the bandpass filter is variable, I would not expect
it to have switched filters, but I could be wrong. When I opened
it up to fit the wide band converter, which incidentally has more
birdies than all the rain forests, I saw no evidence of the
traditional filters. The reference oscillator on the 545 is at
20MHz, ant tuning through this frequency on mine presents no
problems, although there is nothing around here to listen to on
that freq. Hope this helps, Dave"
"For what its worth, here
are my observations concerning the noise reduction and noise
blanker functions of the NRD 545. As is obvious, I am not
technically inclined."
"I also noted that the Noise Reduction (NR) function sounds
different when you press the button a couple of times. On
pressing the button you hear the signal as well as a
"swishing" sound. After a few seconds the swishing
stops and you get a signal with reduced noise and enhanced
signal. However, as Hilmer observed, every time that you press
the button on a given signal the results are slightly different.
My guess is that the "swishing" sound is the result of
the DSP circuit analyzing the signal. Since the signal varies in
content and quality, the result of the few seconds of analysis
will be different every time."
"My initial frustration was that during the few seconds of
"swishing" noise seemed greatly reduced, compared with
the resultant signal when the NR was locked in. On examining the
user setup options, I found that setup number 27 (Noise Reduction
Mode - default 0 = Line enhance, option 1 = invalidate) made the
swishing continue, when option 1 is selected. Setting user setup
27 to option 1 greatly enhances noise reduction, at the expense
of having to listen to the swishing as the processor continuously
analyses the signal."
"I found that with the above option set to 1, it pays to
increase the value of user option 29 (Noise Reduction Function)
from the default 0.050 to about 0.10) thus decreasing the
aggressiveness of noise reduction signal processing. When the
signal is being continuously analyzed you do not need such a high
setting for NR, and reducing the setting improves processed
signal clarity."
"A further observation is that a very fast setting in AGC is
not helpful for Noise Reduction. Reducing AGC delay to around 1.5
to 2 seconds greatly improves the operation of Noise Reduction.
My guess is that rapid AGC adjustments give the noise reduction
processor more to do. AGC timing is not adjustable on AM, but you
can turn off AGC and use the RF gain to advantage to get the same
effect on AM.
Finally on this point, NR works best when you reduce the RF gain,
something that seems to decrease noise anyway, even without the
NR circuit in operation. The best setting is somewhere just above
the RF gain threshold, often with AF gain set to maximum. This
has the effect of removing most of the swishing sound caused by
continuous analysis of the received signal. By playing with RF
gain with NR operating it is possible to get very substantial
reductions in atmospheric noise and static, sometimes completely
removing static from the signal, even though the processed signal
sounds processed, and takes a bit of getting used to listening
to, particularly on SSB.Note that you need some signal to work
with, and I think that no signal processing algorithm can get an
audible signal from nothing."
"In regard to the Noise Blanker circuit, my initial
observations were the same, it didn't do anything. I even opened
the box and made sure that the DSP board was properly plugged in
and had not come loose in transit. However, as soon as a neighbor
started up a lawnmower I discovered how good the NB function is
in the 545. It completely removed the pulse noise with very
little degradation of signal. So I agree with RFCOMSYS on that
one. Perhaps, Hilmar, you are lucky enough to have a location
where pulse noise is not common."
Chris Devery
Posted by Dirk Van de Wal :
"You can enable the reception of SSB , CW and
RTTY-signals by using the following procedure found in the
NRD-545 handbook on page 17 :
"Normally, the USB/LSB and CW/RTTY modes cannot be selected
when you receive freqeuncies 30 MHZ or higher with the wideband
converter unit CHE-199 mounted. You can select the USB/LSB and
CW/RTTY modes by turning the power ON with the USB/LSB and
CW/RTTY buttons held down. Though these modes can be selected,
but reception functions are not assured. To reset the NRD-545,
repeat the above operation."
73, Dirk.
Posted by KE2WG:
"I took delivery of the JRC 545 yesterday and after about
10 hours of actual use and A-B-C comparisons, offer the following
as my first impresions of the rig;
Note, I believe this set, serial #05190 to be the B/B version
mentioned by Passport in their review. QST Feb 1999 reviewed
Serial #05112. I found the performance of this set on-par with
the QST review, overall.
I have limited use of the set pretty much to the ham bands,
particularly 160 and 75 meter bands. (so far). SSB performance of
the set is outstanding. Right up there with my Yeasu 1000-d and
JRC/JST 145, and then some."
Findings:
"Audio: Use of the internal speaker is OK. Not a
problem.Just as good/bad as the other rigs in the stable. I do
use an out-board speaker on all of my rigs, so that is my basis
of comparision. No other devices in line, such as the Sherwood
device. I did not find any distortion to speak of, in the SSB, CW
or AM modes. A quick move to 5975 and the BBC, no distortion that
I could detect."
"SSB Performance: Outstanding. The ability to vary the
filtering at will was without peer. I did not find the deep skirt
issue noted by Passport.(maybe the offending signals were not
strong enough?) I did find that I could get rid of an unwanted
close in SSB signal, by narrowing bandwidth and throwing in
Passband shift for good measure. The Notch, is without
comparsion. Overall, SSB performance compares and even exceeds
that offered by the the Yaesu 1000-d and JST boxes."
"Sensitivity: Side by side with the same antenna, the 545
outperformed the Yaesu and the JST on 160, in weak signal snag.
Just a touch better, but better never the less. This was on the
160 meter band, pulling out a ham from Italy, on 1850.When I
checked the specs on the three rigs, this was verified as well.
The 545 does not reduce sensitivity when approaching the MW band
as the 1000D and 145 do.
"CW: The Yaesu with a pair of 250 hz cascaded 8 pole crystal
filters out performed the 545, in one area. This was when an
offending signal pulled in really close on frequency. Pumping of
the AGC resulted on the 545. However, unless you are a CW
contester, I don't think this issue will bother the typical 545
user. I note,the Yaesu is without peer in terms of sheer CW
performance. My evaluation."
"AM: Outstanding on the Ham bands. I found the 6.0 khz
setting on the 545 far superior to that offered by the Yaesu or
JST. In fact, I had to use the SSB filters on the Yaesu and JST,
to get the same results as I was getting on the 545 with the 6.0
khz bandwidth settings.Particularly, this was snagging a close in
AM ham signal on 75 meters. This says alot about the ability of
the DSP filtering in the 545. No agc pumping here. Made a quick
run thru the 6 Mhz band, same results as I found on the ham
bands."
"First Impressions:Very smooth world class performance. As
good or better than the 1000-d in many areas. CW, one area must
go to the Yeasu. Note: I know the Yaesu is a $4 kilo-buck rig.
The bulk of contesters world wide use the Yaesu. It is, the Gold
standard. Many would not presume to compare a receiver like the
545 to the Yaesu. The 545 sells at less than half the price. Why
not?. QST did this, in a small measure when they reviewed the
545. Passport does the same, they look at other rigs in the
market place, to form their opinions as well. And Yes, I think
the new generation of high -end SWL receivers SHOULD perform as
good or better, compared to high-end ham gear."
"Audio, I give the nod to the Drake. Had one and I believe
the R8 had better audio than the 545 in the AM mode. This is for
program listening ONLY. For DX, I give the ribbon to the 545.
This is for the other features the 545 brings to the table.
Compared to the 535?. Again, had one. I give the nod to the 545
at this point. Same issues as with the Drake, and others. In
terms of sheer performance in the SSB/AM modes, the 545 is tops.
The ability to vary bandwidth, must be heard to be appreciated.
Combined with Passband tuning and an excellent, probably the best
Notch available, the 545 tops the list in my shack. My Rating,
+++++. That is 5 stars. (on a scale of 5 by the way) For the
Moment at least.
(A reply to KE2WG review above)
From: David Newkirk
Forum: rec.radio.shortwave
"Thanks for your review. The QST review
lists--disappointingly,without supporting comment, including
nonambiguous specification of the IF selectivity used for the AM
measurement---their NRD-545's measured IF/audio response as
243-1954 Hz (1711 Hz), which is narrower than what they measured
for SSB. No wonder we see user complaints of the NRD-545's AM
audio! That's the kind of audio rolloff we see built into radios
to mask substandard IF filtering on AM. On the other hand, if the
NRD-545's SSB sound, including AGC dynamics, is as good as that
of the JST-245 transceiver, its SSB performance is
outstanding."