RadioWest.ca

This is a totally unscientific test of these two radios.

I went up to the 11th floor lounge of our apt. building and set out to check out the Nexxtech AM/FM radio against the Grundig G8 multi-band radio. Listening only to the AM Band.

I ran the dial on both radios from 520Khz to 1610Khz. I did not ID the stations, just wanted to find out what I could hear. I was able to hear signals on most frequencies in that range. Both radios are closely matched however the G8 is more sensitive.

The G8 will pick up a station on an adjacent frequency to our local stations where as the Nexxtech is swamped by the local stations. The G8 hears weaker signals that the Nexxtech will not hear. I found that if I could hear a signal on the Nexxtech, I knew I could hear it on the G8.

The Nexxtech radio is worth the $15 sale price. It's size makes it a nice compact radio for quick listening. or taking to a sports event to hear play-by-play.

My DXing choice is still the Grundig G8 over the Nexxtech - But I'll keep the Nexxtech handy in my pocket.

I've now integrated the Nexxtech into my standard DX setup. Cable from Nexxtech headphone jack to CCRadio-EP's Aux In jack; -EP headphone jack to Audio In on a Sony ghetto blaster.

That makes it easy to use the Nexxtech the way I intended: to use its digital tuner to quickly find a frequency, then switch back and forth to the CCRadio-EP as I use its analogue dial knob to find the same frequency by matching the sound.

As I've mentioned before, although CHFA-680's demise and moving to lower elevation and 3 miles South from my former location makes CFRN-1260 less of a problem, I still use a tuned, unamplified loop on the EXT antenna setting on the -EP, to avoid local stations all over the band with the -EP's internal antenna. The -EP does not have enough Audio gain to DX with in that configuration, so I use the ghetto blaster as an audio amplifier, which works really well thanks to the low noise floor on the -EP.

One important tip I learned from the Nexxtech manual: be sure that the clock is displayed when you are not using the radio. Otherwise, you'll be replacing those two AAA batteries every 20 hours! That's right. At least once a day!