I know there's a few of you who have invested the $440 in the Schlockwood SW200s processors, and for good reason. I wish I had bought one earlier when I could have swung it.
Anyway, was just looking and notice that on ebay alone Jim has sold 21 of them (one of them 3 days ago) don't know how many have sold from the Schlockwood site itself.
I hear these are useful to hams too, so I'm wondering how many hams have bought them
Just curious.
It would be interesting to compile some kind of list of serial numbers and their owners. If nothing else, it would be interesting to ask owners what the serial # of their SW200 is, and look for the highest one. I wouldn't be of much help, as mine is S/N 002!
Same with my SW300 - it has a rather low S/N. I imagine there have been fewer 300's sold than 200's. They are both excellent pieces of kit.
Anyway, was just looking and notice that on ebay alone Jim has sold 21 of them (one of them 3 days ago) don't know how many have sold from the Schlockwood site itself.
I hear these are useful to hams too, so I'm wondering how many hams have bought them
I'm a ham, but am tinkering with LPAM in the backyard. The SW200 seems to work very well.
what the serial # of their SW200 is, and look for the highest one.
SN 186 I purchased mine last month.
Thanks @jsh4 and @mark - that's encouraging. Although it's an excellent product, I would have guessed closer to 100 sold, seeing as the market is probably quite limited. I do know that the SW300 I recently acquired was in use at a commercial AM for around a year before it made it's way to my station. I wonder how many SW200's are in use at commercial stations?
Wow.. So theres nearly 200 of them out there now? More than what I would have guessed
@rugster I would have thought many more than 200 sold since the SW200 came on the market, surprised at that. I think commercial stations would use much more elaborate and $$$$$ processing than a simple item like a Schlockwood.
As for the Decade if you got one with the access hole used on Ebay, do you not think that it has already been adjusted by someone else? What is the first thing someone that gets one would do with this? Right! And it's a pot like the Schlockwood output adjustment, not a normal one but a trimmer that takes about 15 turns either way from low to high. If someone turned it the wrong way it would lessen the output not increase it.
But yes I have emailed Decade and awaiting an answer.
@mark - Back around the time it came out, I read comments from one or two people in various forums, to say that they were seriously considering getting an SW200 as a backup for their commercial AM. As much as I really like my SW200, I notice that the commercial stations I am hearing in my market have denser audio than my SW200 seems able to provide (unless my Rangemaster is somehow also the reason).
I'd love for my little Part 15 station to have audio that is every bit as dense as my local commercial stations, and I'm wondering what I'd need to do to get that. Nevertheless, as a one-box solution, the SW200 is great value for money.
By the way, I have copied your comments about the Decade MS-100, and will paste them into the other thread, and reply.
@richpowers - I know of one ham, Rod KQ6F, who bought an SW200 for AM ham radio, based on my recommendation, and later decided it was overkill for his needs. He didn't need the AGC or the pre-emphasis. In addition, the tri-band processing wasn't really necessary, as hams don't broadcast music; only speech, which is all mid-band. He was going to sell it, then decided he liked it well enough to hang onto it. Hams who would be interested in something like this would nearly always want it for AM use. A lot of those folk are retired broadcast professionals, who are often into vintage equipment. They would probably be more inclined to use vintage broadcast processors than a small and modern little box like the SW200.
I'd love for my little Part 15 station to have audio that is every bit as dense as my local commercial stations, and I'm wondering what I'd need to do to get that.
I don't know, but I surmise that the density of commercial station broadcast sound is due to the power behind it.. which would naturally be a denser signal.
Like the difference in density between a squirt gun and a fire hose. It's just a guess. Not sure if that's a valid analogy or not,
And as for hams.. I thought it said something on his website that hams would find it useful.. or maybe I picked up that from your review
By the way.. you realize that's 88 thousand dollars? Am I calculating that right? 200x$440
I know there's a few of you who have invested the $440 in the Schlockwood SW200s processors, and for good reason. I wish I had bought one earlier when I could have swung it.
I just bought one. Will let you know how it performs. I will make a plate in my shop to properly rack mount this unit.
I'd love for my little Part 15 station to have audio that is every bit as dense as my local commercial stations, and I'm wondering what I'd need to do to get that.
I don't know, but I surmise that the density of commercial station broadcast sound is due to the power behind it.. which would naturally be a denser signal.
Like the difference in density between a squirt gun and a fire hose. It's just a guess. Not sure if that's a valid analogy or not,
And as for hams.. I thought it said something on his website that hams would find it useful.. or maybe I picked up that from your review
Thank you to @Centinel for reviving this thread, because I had wanted to reply to Rich's comment, but couldn't remember in what thread he had made it!
I had briefly wondered the same thing about the sheer power of the signal contributing to dense-sounding modulation. I suspected it wouldn't be the case, and it turned out not to be. The field strength of my little station is ~500mV/M inside the radio room here. By comparison, there are a couple of local music stations that are weaker (both at about 71mV/M) that both sound just a little more "dense". The difference is minimal, but I can hear it.
Looking forward to hearing what David thinks of his new SW200 after he's had some time to get familiar with it.
@rugster While you're waiting on David's report, I like to mention something about the density of part 15 AM signals...
It was around 9-11 when I had bought my first Rangemaster, it had nothing to do with the twin tower attacks, it's just that I remember using my tv as my audio source when I first got the transmitter and it was broadcasting those news reports..
Anyway, I had that transmitter for about 2 years before someone had stole it. I made arrangements with Kieth to buy another for $700 discounted because it was one of the non-current models (they all still used actual crystals at that time).
When I received it I installed it in the same manner as the last and the same processing gear, range was great. But as I explained to Kieth it didnt sound the same - it was clear and all but didn't seem to have the same "oomf", if you know what I mean, I actually sent it back for him to check ot out. He assured me everything test perfect and that there was no problem and sent it back to me.
I eventually decided it was probably all in my head as it had been about a month that had passed since I heard the original one. But still.. I really think my first transmitter had produced denser sound than my second one..
But maybe it was just in my head - I'll never be sure though..
I remember you talking about that some years ago @richpowers. Listening to the audio on our signals can be a tricky business. We tend to listen very intently - far more closely than any listener ever would. It's very difficult to listen objectively and not to start imagining things!
The first Part 15 transmitter I set up and listened to was an AMT3000. With it's internal audio processing, I thought it sounded great. Over time, I began to notice the shortfalls of the single band processing. Still though, to my relatively inexperienced ears, it still sounded pretty good. Then I sold it and moved on.
Fast forward to a few months ago, when I scratch-built an AMT3000. It didn't sound quite as good as I remembered my first AMT3000 sounding. After a lot of listening, I realized that it actually did sound as good. The difference was that I had spent several years listening to my Rangemaster and Schlockwood SW200, and that combination had become my new frame of reference.
It can be difficult being objective unless you're able to measure something!
I know there's a few of you who have invested the $440 in the Schlockwood SW200s processors, and for good reason. I wish I had bought one earlier when I could have swung it.
I just bought one. Will let you know how it performs. I will make a plate in my shop to properly rack mount this unit.
Update: it appears my purchase didn't complete properly. Was reviewing my Ebay stuff and it failed.