The Sangean PR-D5 is a popular AM-FM Stereo mini-boombox radio that runs on 6 C cell batteries and is an excellent performer on MW/AM especially. I've had mine for several years and have had no issues with mine -- except a couple very minor ones I have talked about in several posts here on my blog. One issue was easily solved by unplugging the power cord and removing the batteries for a half minute or so, the other issue was easily solved by inserting plastic shims into the battery compartment.
Other guys I have talked to on the internet have had no issues whatsoever with their PR-D5's -- one guy has two of them, another lives in Hawaii and has heard the Eastern states of America along with several Asian stations on his PR-D5 -- all with no other antenna but the one inside the radio.
They're very good MW/AM radios, and sound great on FM, too. An excellent buy.
MW/AM CHANNEL SPACING -- A READER WANTS TO KNOW HOW TO CHANGE IT
Recently a reader asked me about the Sangean PR-D5. He apparently was having an issue whenever he replaced the batteries -- the AM band would revert to 9 kHz spacing for some reason. This has never happened on my radio -- I have it usually set to 10 kHz MW/AM spacing, and leave it that way.
And it stays that way, unless I change it. But this reader's PR-D5 apparently changes to 9 kHz now and then when he swaps out the batteries.
For those who aren't aware, the MW/AM broadcast band uses 10 kHz channels in the US, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. I think Greenland also uses 10 kHz spacing between MW/AM radio channels.
In the rest of the world the spacing is 9 kHz. With old analog radios, spacing wasn't an issue -- you just turned the dial until you got to the next radio station. With digitally tuned radios, you often have to set the spacing to either 10 kHz or 9 kHz (with some radios you can set it to 1 kHz and you tune up the band very slowly that way).
The SANGEAN PR-D5 will tune the MW/AM band in 10 kHz or 9 kHz increments. The hitch is that you have to set the channel spacing in the radio if -- when you get it out of the box -- it is set to the wrong MW channel spacing for your part of the world.
Now, in the manual it tells us how to switch the radio between 10 kHz and 9 kHz spacing. But lots of times, we lose the manual, right?
There may be others out there in the internet universe who perhaps forgot how to change channel spacing on their PR-D5's (and related radios -- I think many of the new Sangean AM-FM's have similar firmware). This post is aimed to help. :-)
HERE IT IS: STEP BY STEP
So -- HERE'S HOW TO SWITCH YOUR PR-D5 FROM 10 KHZ TO 9 KHZ, AND VICE VERSA.
First: turn the radio OFF.
When you first press the STEP/BAND button -- with the radio off -- this appears on your PR-D5's readout. Keep holding the button down.
Press the "STEP/BAND" button again.
Now the LCD readout will say either "AM 10 kHz " or " AM 9 KHZ" -- whether it shows 10 kHz or 9 kHz depends on where the radio is set when you start this process. Turn the tuner button up or down until the step you want shows up in the LCD readout -- whether 9 kHz or 10 kHz.
When the kHz step you want shows up on the LCD readout, PRESS IN ON THE TUNER BUTTON.
This will set the MW/AM step to either 9 kHz or 10 kHz, whichever one you selected.
Your PR-D5's LCD readout will now look like " --:-- ".
You're done.
Let go of the buttons on the radio, and within a second or two the LCD readout will darken.
Now you can turn on your PR-D5 and it should tune the AM band in 10 kHz steps, or 9 kHz steps, depending on whichever step sequence you prefer.
When you change the channel spacing from 10 kHz to 9 kHz and back again, you will lose your 5 AM band memories. It will reset to the default memories, which are 5 different channels spread across the AM band. But the memories in the PR-D5 are easy enough to re-set: Tune to the channel you want, press a memory location button until you hear a beep, and it's set.
I sometimes switch my PR-D5 to 9 kHz when I want to hear stations from Asia, which rarely come in here at my location. In fact, as I type this, I have been hearing long slow fades of what sounds like some Asian speech, although it is unidentifiable, on 1566 kHz. On 1570 it was just a weak heterodyne. 1566 is the clearest 9 kHz channel here in my area of Western Washington. There is a powerful station in Korea that is 250,000 watts, where I have heard audio at least twice.
Another DXer in another part of Washington State has heard this station more than a couple of times.
In other news, we've had a rainy, grey, moderate Winter for the most part here in the Seattle area. We had maybe 8-10 nights and mornings this Winter where it was freezing or below freezing, but most of it so far has been around 40-50F -- pretty moderate for Winter.
We had a White Christmas this year: extremely rare for Western Washington state. It started snowing during the afternoon on Christmas Eve, and snowed late in the evening, up until early Christmas Morning. It was a magical feeling to see the snow fall on Christmas Morning. Considering some of the other things that were going on in my life at the time, it was sorely needed.
I will post some Christmas pictures later this week.
Hope all are having a good February.
CC 2-18-2018
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