Receiver: Drake 2-B
Band | MDS | Blocking DR | Two-tone DR |
| | (20 kHz) | (20 kHz) |
80 meters | -139 dBm | 117 dB | 83 dB |
40 meters | -140 dBm | 118 dB | 84 dB |
20 meters | -138 dBm | 118 dB | 87 dB |
AM audio S/N: 35 dB
For comparison, measurements on other boat anchor receivers can be found at
http://www.w1vd.com/BAreceivertest.htmlGuess it's not surprising that the 2-B tested on par with the 2-A + 2-AQ. The 2-Bs built in 500 Hz position and passband tuning is certainly a welcome improvement. Unfortunately, the widest bandwidth position is only 3.6 kHz as compared to 4.8 kHz for the 2-A.
While measuring the AM audio S/N I happened to flip on the noise limiter. The limiter is not adjustable - it is simply on or off. This reduced the no modulation background noise about 14 dB and the 30% modulated signal about 1 dB improving the overall S/N to 48 dB...not that one would want to run the noise limiter to improve the S/N at the expense of increased distortion. I only mention this observation since there may be an easy way to improve the AM detector S/N...if someone had the time and interest.