Friday, April 19, 2019
Quick review of Veras 225
Once a year or so I buy a New Toy, usually a Soviet product. This year's toy is a Veras receiver, made in Belarus and sold by an Ebay trader in Belarus.
There's an excellent review of the Veras in Vremax's blog.
I'll echo his comment:
Veras radios made by the Grodno Radio Factory (which is no more, thank you international capitalists) were clones of the famous Soviet-era OKEAN (meaning Ocean) radios.
Belarus has done better than most countries at maintaining its Soviet-era advantages, but globalism always kills you in the end.
I can only add one item he didn't cover.
This is a thoroughly modern receiver, mostly discrete transistors with one IC for the band-selector function. Hitting any band button turns the radio on. The on-off button (white) is effectively only the Off button. Sound is excellent, with separate bass and treble tone controls. Tuning is easy and consistent, and it picks up one or two SW stations, which is as much as I can ask in this location. As I've noted before, Spokane is a dead spot for SW; and my house, next to a power line and clad with aluminum siding, is even deader.
One thing Vremax didn't mention: The two buttons on top are Squelch and AFC. The Squelch button is pressed here. It does seem to cut down on noise between stations. I can't tell if the AFC works because I can't pick up any distant stations that would fade.
The package includes a complete schematic, which is actually more interesting than the radio. On a rough count, it has 40 transistors, 40 regular diodes, and 10 varactor diodes. I've never seen varactors used so heavily.
The power supply section has a simple and elegant trick. When you plug in a 12VDC external supply, it goes in series with the secondary of the 220V input. So the 12 is free to be AC, or DC connected either way. The full-wave rectifier will turn all three possibilities into DC of the correct polarity.
However: This creates an obvious problem. When 12V is connected to the secondary, you can't have anything on the primary. If the mains cord is plugged in, everything will blow up; if not plugged in and the 12V supply is AC, you could get a 220V shock from the mains plug.
This mask plate prevents the problem. You can turn it three ways, for AC or 12V external or battery. You can't reach the 12V plug without removing the 220VAC plug from the radio.
= = = = =
Among all of my toys, the best SW receiver is still this little regen, built from an MFJ kit.
Regen does the best job of rejecting powerline noise and catching the VERY FEW stations that are available here.
= = = = =
Later semi-relevant sidenote: Recently I was feeling illish for a while, so used taxis to get around. One of the taxi drivers was complaining that her AM radio lost volume when she drove into this neighborhood. She had to turn up the volume knob considerably. I suppose her car's electric system could have failed at that moment, but it was a Toyota so that's unlikely.
This is a thoroughly modern receiver, mostly discrete transistors with one IC for the band-selector function. Hitting any band button turns the radio on. The on-off button (white) is effectively only the Off button. Sound is excellent, with separate bass and treble tone controls. Tuning is easy and consistent, and it picks up one or two SW stations, which is as much as I can ask in this location. As I've noted before, Spokane is a dead spot for SW; and my house, next to a power line and clad with aluminum siding, is even deader.
One thing Vremax didn't mention: The two buttons on top are Squelch and AFC. The Squelch button is pressed here. It does seem to cut down on noise between stations. I can't tell if the AFC works because I can't pick up any distant stations that would fade.
The package includes a complete schematic, which is actually more interesting than the radio. On a rough count, it has 40 transistors, 40 regular diodes, and 10 varactor diodes. I've never seen varactors used so heavily.
The power supply section has a simple and elegant trick. When you plug in a 12VDC external supply, it goes in series with the secondary of the 220V input. So the 12 is free to be AC, or DC connected either way. The full-wave rectifier will turn all three possibilities into DC of the correct polarity.
However: This creates an obvious problem. When 12V is connected to the secondary, you can't have anything on the primary. If the mains cord is plugged in, everything will blow up; if not plugged in and the 12V supply is AC, you could get a 220V shock from the mains plug.
This mask plate prevents the problem. You can turn it three ways, for AC or 12V external or battery. You can't reach the 12V plug without removing the 220VAC plug from the radio.
= = = = =
Among all of my toys, the best SW receiver is still this little regen, built from an MFJ kit.
Regen does the best job of rejecting powerline noise and catching the VERY FEW stations that are available here.
= = = = =
Later semi-relevant sidenote: Recently I was feeling illish for a while, so used taxis to get around. One of the taxi drivers was complaining that her AM radio lost volume when she drove into this neighborhood. She had to turn up the volume knob considerably. I suppose her car's electric system could have failed at that moment, but it was a Toyota so that's unlikely.
Labels: Natural law = Soviet law, new toy
¶ 1:52 AM
