Grundig G8 and The LW Band- The Good and The Bad RF Device

The G8 is a very good radio, but there is one thing that needs to be improved on this $50.00 radio. The long wave band. Yes the longwave band is one of the most interesting radio frequency and retro communications medium out there. It's used in Europe, North Africa, Asia, and Russia, but weak DX signals on be received from groundwave via saltwater LW stations from around the world not just in those particular areas. DXing has made it possible, even Universal Radio agrees that long wave DXing can be done, but only certian times of the day. But this radio, well, it's got a ferrite rod coil and alignment issue not improved by Chinese manufactuers. In China, you can receive DX stations on LW on only 2 frequencies according to the World Radio and TV Handbook and they are located in Mongolia, and Radio Rossii on 261 kHz from Russia. Why did China did not improve or cared about the long wave reception? What is the great wall of China attenuating ground wave longwave signals in China?? Radio waves DO travel all over the place depending on conditions? So why does China does not improve the build quality and reception quality of the long wave band? Why? It's a mystery.

Geocities : Loss Of Web Information!

Geocities : Loss Of Web Information That The Hobbyist Needs!

The GCC is now has reopened this blog just to tell everyone that when you find information about loop antennas, or any other kind of antenna and it is on Yahoo!
Geocities you are out of luck. Yes! The GCC Engineering Reference page is down
as well. The new site for GCC Engineering moved to a new home on the web and it
is not Yahoo! it is google this time. There is plans that GCC Engineering will have
groups available on google groups in the future. This is so terrible, I hope the
hobbyists who created their pages will be able to appear on the web again. Most
of the links in the Yahoo! groups that are geocities accounts have gone spoiled and
we need fresh new pages. I have to get back onto the groups and delete the old geocities links and make room for the new ones. This blog will be available back online since there is no personal information here, there is good information about
electronics and radio communications here. It's great to have it back online!

NEW : GCC Engineering Reference Page - Enjoy It and 73!

Electronic Sensors Lab - The Hidden Circuits

GETTING TO REALLY KNOW YOUR ELECTRONIC SENSORS LAB IN BEHIND
THE SCENES

The Sensors Labs from Forrest Mims III has a very good console, but there are things that he forgot or avoided to talk about them. Its a great kit, and I have been using it for a long time for
radio science related experiments such as the Electromagnetic Field Receiver, if I were to build
this circuit on another breadboard or circuit board, its best that you need to read the bottom information that you may need to know on how to transfer these circuits to another PC board. Its
nothing secret, its things that should have been added or updated in the manual so you know how
the circuit really works and how its stable. If you do not follow the instructions that is in the manual or not be fully aware of the 4 small things in the kit, the circuit will operate erratically and not function
properly,. I recommend this to new hobbyists who just bought their own kit.

5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR LAB KIT

1. The Sensors Lab has a simple LED display circuit, this circuit is very important to learn and understand when you are building projects from the lab manual. The LED bargraph display has 3 parts to get it working normally. If it does not work, be sure to check the battery or go inside the console and replace the IC and also the 2 electronic components. There is also a Audio Transformer and also a buzzer which does not have to do anything with the LED dot bar circuit. The manual says that the LED display does suck up some juice, so its best to have a fresh 9 volt battery to keep it going. If you google LM3914 you will be surprised that there are some extra bonus applications you can use with the LED display console even use it to hook up an ipod or CD player to measure music such as a VU meter if worked right. - LM-3914 - Bar/Dot Display Driver IC - 2.2 uF 50 volt - Electrolytic Capacitor
- 1/8 watt 10k resistor.

2. The Sensors Lab has a resistors inside on the potentiometers that help reduce current
and the resistor values are 470 ohm resistors, there are 3 inside the kit. These resistors
are required to keep the circuit stable.

3. The Sensors Lab has a Magnet Sensor Switch which is only a Hall Effect transistor that has a
2.2 k resistor in between for to just to reduce current to avoid damage, which the manual should of let others know about that resistor inside. If you were about to build the circuit using this hall effect transistor you will need that resistor to be included to work properly.

4. The Sensors Lab has something out of the ordinary, but its something you need to know about
your sensors lab kit. The Rotation Sensor is just a DC motor and this motor is something you
can find out of a toy car or plane that can be used for your favorite project. Radio Shack has
these all the time. So now you know, its not an encoder found in radios or a potentiometer to
control voltage.

5. The Touch Sensor is just a circuit board that has the the pads divided that uses things like a
piece of foam to create pressure in the circuit.

ATTENTION : Digital TV Needs Batteries

ATTENTION : Your Digital TV needs Batteries! No AC during a power outage!!



Most digital TV's need batteries not household current cause during a power outage there will not be any power available to operate digital TV sets. Also most of them have the less than ''13 inches and have to be portable to be classified as emergency equipment. Most digital TV most of them operated from the main power supply from the wall or from a huge charged battery or USB power supply and most from your car. If you do not have a car power supply or power generator you're going to be out of luck

1. If the ATSC tuner to be required for storm use, then the power supply has to be a low voltage power supply like around the minimum of 4 AAA or 4 AA batteries and has to be the same size as a DVD modulator.

2. Most portable DVD players that sell for more than $99 need to have a built in ATSC tuner built into it for digital TV reception. And also have a antenna to come with it that receives signals from all over within a 50 mile radius.

3. Small HDTV's require alot of power to operate and will not be suitable for harsh conditions while a ordinary black and white TV set can operate normally with just a 6 pack of D cells. Most
of the power has to power up the circuits that require more current than the 5'' inch black and
white TV set we normally use during an emergencies. If the TV cannot be B/W then most
makers need to engineer and build an affordable TV set that receives SDTV and is in color and
sells for less than $99.00.

4. Can your converter box that you received from the coupon program operate off of batteries?
NO! Most new type require at least a A/C power supply of 120 volts 5 Amps of current to operate to convert the SDTV signal into a regular standard NTSC signal. Most foreign manufacturers have not made yet a ATSC tuner that operates even on a standard set of C cell
batteries. So when a hurricane or some major natural disaster hits, you will need to fill up your
gas powered generator to power up your old TV and your converter box, and you know how
gas prices will be. Cause in 2009 all signals will be HD only signals and your old TV that's even
just 5'' inches will not pick up the digital signal most of it will be off air. So how are you going to
track the storm now??

5. Most times during an emergency, all new and old sets will be off cause of its power guzzling
configuration it needs.

GCC Sector 1 : Apartment Dwelling Mission

GCC Sector 1 "Smart" Apartment

Yes, the GCC is in a apartment now, which means I am on my own doing well. But there are things to
bring up. Mayfair Apartments is a good small apartment complex. And also the area is kinda ok, problem is that the refrigerator is too small for big loads of groceries. I even put in a microwave oven that grills and cooks food for DXing.

The shortwave radio reception in here is moderate to fair and longwave is fair to poor being on the first floor under another apartment building. So longwave reception is ok, but its possible best when used with a good loop antenna like a 64 turn with a good wide range variable tuning capacitor like a 14 to 365 pF type. Living in a apartment
for a year or more will give GCC engineering the best opportunity to engineering and solve the
the most worse RF problems with apartment and condo dwelling DXing everyday. Also the GCC
will be networked with 2 computers, one in the kitchen just in case of me cooking and surfing the net at the same time and never burn up anything while making something. Also I will have one in
the bedroom which will be a main one and possibly a laptop in the living room. I am trying to get
moved in here with things still need to be put away. Also am trying to get the Star Roamer fixed

as best as I can for now. There is a chance that I will be installing some antennas and gear outside. Soon I will provide pics of the apartment as soon as possible.

DX-398 verses the YB-400 PE on the LW Bands

When I had the YB-400 PE tuned to 183 kHz Germany the DX-398 did not receive it strong like the YB-400 PE did it, the DX-398 was not sensitive enough as the YB-400 PE to receive broadcast LW DX. I feel that the best thing to do is get that modification from Radio Labs
and get that thing boosted. The only way that the DX-398 can receive LW broadcast signal from 1000 miles away is a use of a loop antenna with preamp or a longwire antenna with RF ground using a tunable coupler. If I ever get new DX-398, 909 they will be all modified and improved by radio labs for the LW reception improvement. And thanks to Grundig I don't need an external antenna that much to receive LW broadcast DX. I feel that Sangean did not do a good RF engineering improvement or design on the LW bands the reception is very poor compared to the YB-400 PE its kind of half reception, the DX-390 is the same way too, I didn't know that I can easily receive LW stations that easily at night on the YB-400 than my counterpart can receive.

Radio Labs however good thing did remedy this problem with poor reception on LW. Sangean
was trying to keep extra DXers from listening to the LW broadcast bands while some with the
YB-400 or other radios with Longwave can receive stations from overseas. I will soon do a video about the DX-398 vs YB-400 when I get the time to do it show you that this is regular
unknown defect in the LW bands. LW is very important to us as shortwave is. LW is will be
more reliable when the solar activity is low to very low meaning that communications on SW
will be less useful cause of a non active ionosphere. See, the longwave band does not have
to rely on the so called atmosphere, just the Earth and D layer itself. I feel that we need to
get this specification changed to improve all old and new upcoming Sangean radios for great
LW and MW reception. I am not using my DX-398 for advanced LW DXing like I used to
cause I don't need to pull out the longwire antenna and loop just to listen to France and Germany on 162 kHz and 183 kHz.


I feel that Grundig did a great job on the LW RF section and I feel that all radios need to be
this way. Now I know that I can trust that brand for my shortwave radio needs.

S-350 DL - Just Another Junky Portable Radio

S-350 DL - The German-Chinese Made SW Portable Analog Only Radio with a
digital readout without the fancy preset buttons and PLL circuitry. A good radio for the wire antenna experimenter that are dealing with cheap portable radios with huge antennas! also good for preselector designers. A good start for beginners using analog dial radios anyways also just a radio for general strong broadcast SWL DX.

This radio acts and performs like a poorly made SW analog portable radio without the digital pushbuttons, and
memory presets that other digital radios used for a long time, but the drawback..... Poor sensitivity and
SW HF harmonic overload problems when strong signals are preset at night on the SW 1 bands! My SW boombox
really performs just like this radio! GCC Engineering will soon be the doctor to remedy the problem in dealing
with harmonics during the night. I have dealt with this problem since 1991 in lab kit radios and cheap analog
portable radio with AM.


The radio was received during Christmas during Dec 25, 2006. I have had the radio since then. Its been a good radio for FM DXing, but IBOC is standing out like a sore thumb from the local radio stations that needed to be DXed. The AM is not that bad, but there seems there has been a problem with AM when you connect the outdoor antenna to the radio it seems to overload with SW
HF harmonic interference. The SW band practically overload on the SW1 bands and it does not handle the strong signal stations that well, making DXing difficult than it needs to be. If you like to DX AM stations use a loop antenna not a outdoor longwire antenna unless it uses a preselector for example the MFJ-956, cause it will overload on the AM (MW) bands during the night with SW havoc. Remember this radio is made in China to keep in the cheap stages. This radio needs accessories like crazy such as preselectors, baluns, and fine tunable loop antennas with a 500 ohm impedance match. The good thing is that the AM and FM bands are good and accessible and also it tunes like an ordinary analog tuner. Please remember that you will need a preselector and attenuator for the SWL bands and lightning protection. Please make sure that this radio does not get dropped on the floor or get put in harmful conditions. This radio is really fragle. I want to share something with you and my friends on how to connect a simple
long wire antenna for general shortwave radio listening and yes its fully recommend that you use
a RF ground with this antenna configuration.

SIMPLE PROJECT: USING A POTENTIOMETER AS AN INDOOR ATTENUATOR

You can use a potentiometer as an signal attenuator for to decrease the overloading problem in indoor and outdoor antenna, especially large ones. What you need is a 100 K potentiometer and yes you still need an RF ground for outdoor types. This is something I came up with it was simple and basic there are other things for you to try out for long wire antennas.

This is an example of what I used to eliminate the overloading with the antenna while the RF gain simply doesn't help that much. You can use this simple circuit with other radios that use a plain old antenna wire with no ground connection or use it with a preselector or for a smart decision use it with a ground connection to eliminate interference mount the potentiometer in a box or anything you like to even a shielded enclosure will probably do better or use capacitors or extra resistors whatever your hearts content.

Coming soon I might use this design to use it with a active antenna and Yes a preselector circuit maybe rebuild a real good preselector that is doubled tuned and increase selectivity.