Second Date: Review of the Degen DE1123 DSP AM/FM/SW Pocket Radio with 1GB MP3 Player & Recorder

Read our related posting – Review of the DEGEN DE1123

Cheap Date

This a follow-up to my experience with the Degen DE1123 “do it all” AM/FM/SW radio, recorder, and MP3 player.

Now that I have had this “device” for a few weeks, here are some further thoughts and observations.

Overall, this is a very cheaply made device.  The slide switch on the left hand side is probably the weakest of the controls.  It is hard to move and position at the right setting.  The plastic case is thin and does not have a good feel.

The device packs a great deal of capability.  It can “do it all” for $79.  Here is what I use it for.

Findings

1. I found that it is an excellent voice recorder.  It has a build in Microphone and records at the proper bit rate for voice recording quality balanced against recorded file size.  I use it extensively for recording conference calls which I attend daily for 3 to 5 hrs a day.  I did not expect to use it for this purpose – and that it works as well as does is a surprise.
2. I use it to listen to recorded audio books.  I read or listen to a couple of books a week.  The DEG1123 is better than my undocked Apple iPod Touch since the DEGEN has a much better speaker than the internal speaker in the iPod Touch. 
3. Of course, the prime use for which I purchased the DEGEN was to time shift radio programs which were not available as podcasts and for which I am not able to arrange “appointment listening”.
4. The ability to record 70 hrs of audio either directly from the radio (AM/FM/SW) or from the built-in microphone is the real real value of this $79 device.
5. Transferring files to/from a PC with the supplied USB cable is fast and easy
6. The AM/FM/SW radio section is acceptable.  I live near Chicago with power-house radio stations.  So reception on this radio is not a problem.
7. With the supplied 3 x 650 ma batteries the run time is about 18 hrs.
8. My biggest gripe is the audio record volume.  When recording directly from the radio the actual recorded audio when played back is only 1/2 the volume level when recording.  The only way to get around this is to plug the headphones in when recording and crank it up.  Alternatively, post process the audio with a free open source program like Audacity and increase the volume.

When “Cheap” is better than “Insanely Great”

As odd as it might seem the real value of this radio is that it is cheap and almost “disposable”.  That is, I would never think of taking my $200+ Apple iPod Touch for a bike ride – but I will take the DEGEN.  The batteries in the DEGEN are 3xAAA – you can change them on the fly – not so with the Apple iPod Touch with its internal proprietary battery pack.  The playback on an undocked iPod Touch through its internal speaker – can’t compare with the DEGEN front mounted large speaker.

The face-down smash test.  I accidentally dropped the DEGEN 1123 from a height of 4 feet on to a hardwood floor.  The DEGEN landed perfectly face-down causing the battery compartment cover to fly off.  The 3 x AAA batteries were ejected and rolled across the floor.  I retrieved the batteries and put them back in the compartment.  It radio worked.

Bottom line, sometimes cheap and disposable with good capability is better than “Insanely Great”.

Go buy a DEGEN 1123 and enjoy a cheap date.

Here is the Manual for the DEGEN 1123 – https://frrl.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/degen1123_manual.pdf

Department of the Army- First Aid for Soldiers

A classic from the military – FM(Field Manual)  21-11 – First Aid for Soldiers – 304 pages

This manual meets the emergency medical training needs of individual soldiers. Because medical personnel will not always be readily available, the nonmedical soldiers will have to rely heavily on their own skills and knowledge of life-sustaining methods to survive on the integrated battlefield.

This manual also addresses first aid measures for other life threatening situations. It outlines both self-treatment (self-aid) and aid to other soldiers (buddy aid). More importantly, this manual emphasizes prompt and effective action in sustaining life and preventing or minimizing further suffering. First aid is the emergency care given to the sick, injured, or wounded before being treated by medical personnel. The Army Dictionary defines first aid as “urgent and immediate lifesaving and other measures which can be performed for casualties by nonmedical personnel when medical personnel are not immediately available.”

This manual is directed to all soldiers. The procedures discussed apply to all types of casualties and the measures described are for use by both male and female soldiers.

FM-21-11 First Aid for Soldiers

Emergency Battery Backup Power System K2FR Ham Radio

Check out the video link below –

This is my Emergency Backup System

-115AH deep cycle marine battery
-PWRgate PG40S
-RigRunner 4005
-Whatt Meter
-Power Poles

Complete Standby system, always hooked upto the battery and should the Residential power go out, ill be uninterrupted. Once, the 400 watt inverter is hooked up I plan on running one of my smaller computers off of it as a backup system, so the computer does not abruptly shut off if the power goes out.

The reason for wanting to add a solar panel eventually, for Field day id like to be class A and not need to ever fire up a generator or any other commercial power to get my gear online. Ultimately, if a disaster (large ice storm/severe weather etc etc) knocks out commercial power for weeks, having a way to recharge my battery will be beneficial .

The entire system in its entirety cost around 500 US dollars.

http://www.westmountainradio.com/ — Thanks!

This is the video –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sEuHqGtniQ

How to NOT derail your corporate or organizational career

I always like this quote from major league baseball player and manager Yogi Berra – “You can see a lot just by observing.”

Lack of Self-Awareness and Self-Assessment

The really great thing about human nature is the lack of self-awareness.  That is, the inability to see ourselves the way other people see us.  As one moves up the corporate ladder, self-awareness becomes more and more important.

To the extent that folks lack this self-awareness and self-assessment of where they are in relation to where you want to be then they will fail.

The Leadership Pipeline

And remember, if you want to climb the corporate ladder then to be successful you need to follow other peoples rules.  For mature organizations those rules are generally encoded in management and leadership development programs.

Check out our related posting on The Leadership Pipeline along with the book recommendations and other assets in the Resources section.

There are many opportunities to fail

There are many opportunities for one to derail their corporate careers

You can think of a corporate career as a transition from Individual Contributor, to Manager, to Leader.  At each stage you can get derailed if you don’t understand what is expected at each stage.

Some dreams deserve to be crushed…

In fact, if you do get derailed at a certain point in your career, then good!  Not good for you – but good for your company.  Companies becomes dysfunctional to the extent that people get promoted to levels for which they are not ready.

Ten Fatal Flaws That Derail Leaders

Beautiful Homebrew

What happended to these guys?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcMQp5-jvmY

http://www.bignick.net/simple_x/simplex.htm

Review of the Degen DE1123 DSP AM/FM/SW Pocket Radio with 1GB MP3 Player & Recorder

Providing a valuable service

From the “We wasted our money on this so you don’t have to” department… ”

So who needs another portable AM/FM/SW radio – certainly not me.  Or do I?

Innovation

There is really only one reason I bought this radio – it has one innovative feature that is really valuable to me – the ability to directly record to its built-in 1 GB memory.  When listening to any station on AM/FM/SW hit the record button and you can both listen and record up to 69 hrs of audio.

The radio goes for $79 at Amazon.com.  I purchased the radio from Amazon.com, no tax, and free shipping.  The radio arrived in about 5 days.

Here’s what you get

1. The radio
2. Three AAA rechargable ni-mh 650 mAh batteries
3. USB cable
4. earbuds
5. carrying case
6. Wall charger (accepts USB cable)
7. An interesting manual written in “Chinenglish”

First Impressions

Fist impressions is that this is a very cheaply made radio.  The plastic case is very thin; the buttons are hard to push; and the slide switch which switches modes from FM/AM-SW/MP3/Record is going to be the first thing to break.

My second impression… is that my first impression is correct.

So, getting past that, lets turn the radio on.  After putting the batteries in and firing the radio up the first thing you will find in AM mode is that the factory default step between stations in not appropriate for the US.  Get the magnifying glass and the “Chinenglish” manual and set the AM station set size to 10 KHz.

Ready to go.  The user interface to this radio is not at all intuitive – you need to read the manual.  A little bit of intellectual elbow grease and you will have it down in 30 minutes or so.

Where’s the Beef?

So, lets get to the beef – the ability to record any station you are listening to into its 1 GB internal memory.

The good

1. It does in fact work.  Record any station you can tune.
2. Stores up to 70 hrs of audio neatly arranged in files.  Each time you hit the record button a new file is created
3. You can play recorded audio back through the radio
4. Plug in the USB cable and copy the WAV files to your personal computer
5. Charge the supplied AAA batteries in the radio.

Some more good features

1. This radio will play MP3 files.  Once connected to your personal computer via the USB cable drag any MP3 file to the device.
2. The radio has a built-in microphone for voice recording,  Record any audio.  The mic is very sensitive.
3. Use it for fie storage – 1GB – put anything on there that you want.

The not so good

Audio record levels

There is one very disappointing attribute of the the voice recording – the audio level.  The recorded audio is only about 1/2 the level that you will hear when listening in real time.  The radio has a digital volume control and indicator.  The max setting is 31.  A normal listening level is 15.  If you record at 15 you will have to playback at near max volume setting – 31.

The manual warns you about this.  They recommend that you set the volume to max when recording and connect the earbuds.  I assume that they don’t expect you to listen to it in this mode.  In any case, the volume you hear when recording is not the volume you will get on playback – the audio volume is reduced to about 1/2.

Mitigation Strategy for Audio recording levels

Not too much of a problem since I would simply copy these recordings off of the device and place them on my PC for later listening.  One can fix the audio level problem with fee software such as Audacity and then re/save the file back to disk on the PC or transfer it back to the device.

Tuning

Painful!  There is no VFO, wheel, or direct entry of frequency.  You can press and hold the freq up/down button but it will stop on anything strong including interference.  Manually trying to get to a specific frequency on SW is painful.  Store those frequencies in the 100 presets.

“I forgot”

Take the batteries out and lose the time, date, and AM tuning step.

Some interesting other features

1. Digital signal strength meter – very nice
2. Sleep timer ( 5 to 90 minutes)
3. Time and date
4. SW (2.30 MHz to 23 MHz )
5. Also available in 2GB and 4GB models (have not seen these advertised as of yet)
6. Presets 225 – FM(100) MW (25) SW (100)
7. ATS (Auto Scan and store of active frequencies in a band)
8. Battery power levels
9. Charge from your PC when connected to the USB port

Wish that it had…

1. Timer to start recording.  That is, let me set a recording start/end time and  mute the audio.
2. Better construction
3. Expandability of the built-in memory – but 69 hrs of recording seems to be more than adequate with 1GB internal
4. Let me set the recording quality.  I’d take better quality at half the recording duration.
5. Always-on back light
6. Built-in Cappuccino maker

Other Alternatives

The only other alternative that I know of at this time is the C.Crane Witness.  The Witness is more than double the price.  The Witness has double the memory (and expandable) and looks to be of far better construction from the picture on the CCradio web site – but no Shortwave !!

http://www.ccrane.com/radios/am-fm-radios/cc-witness.aspx

Conclusion

This radio does exactly what I want – record any AM/FM/SW station that I am listening to with up to 70 hrs or recording time.  However, there are some bumps in the road.  The biggest bump in the road is the record audio level which is only about 1/2 the level of the orginal.

The DEGEN1123 barely gets gets a pass.  I give it a D+ due to its cheap construction and the record audio level problem.  At $79 it will be a good value for a AM/FM/SW portable radio IFF (If and only if for you logic fans)  you have the burning desire or need to record broadcast terrestrial radio stations.  If you do not highly value this feature – then there are far better radios out there at about 1/2 the price.

“Please copy the files frequently.  Our company will not answer for the data destroying and losing”

“The functions and LCD displays will be changed because of the updated software, please take the unit as the standard.”

“While tuning the stations, you had better get very close to the window or stand on the outdoor field in order to avoid and disturb and gain the best reception”

Plus, if you feel you are ripped off, then read the “Chinglish” manual for some “free” entertainment.

Resources

http://www.ccrane.com/radios/am-fm-radios/cc-witness.aspx

You can see that the CC Witness is a different anaimal at about twice the price and perhaps 4 times the features and quality.
Manual for the C. Crane CC Witness – https://frrl.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/cc-witness.pdf

DEGEN1123 on Amazon.com

The ARRL Strategic Plan

Have you ever looked at the ARRL Strategic Plan?  Looks like ARRL will be updating this in July 2009.

How does the ARRL Strategic Plan stack up with other Strategic Plans for Profit and not-for-profit corporations?  Watch for a future posting once ARRL puts some meat in this plan after their meeting.

For now…. ( http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2009/03/01/10584/ )

In July 2006 the Board devoted the second day of its meeting to a revision of the League’s Strategic Plan. The document was refined by the Executive Committee in October 2006 and adopted by mail vote of the Board later that month. The Board intends to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the Strategic Plan at its July 2009 meeting. As a part of the process leading up to that review, the Board would like to hear from you. You are invited to share your thoughts on the future direction and priorities of your national association. For more background on the strategic planning process, see the September 2008 QST editorial and March 2009 QST editorial.

ARRL Strategic Plan

Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom: How Online Social Networking Will Transform Your Life, Work and World

Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, open innovation, and decentralized collaboration – all of this may be coming to a corporation near you.  Are you ready?

I have not yet finished (digested) this book – “Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom” but I can tell you that if you are a fan of the transformation of life, society, workplace, and the world by Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 Technologies then this book is a “must read”.

I can’t give a summary of this book – there is far too much in here.  There will be some follow-up postings to this one on how some of the ideas on Identity, Status, and Power can be spotted in organizations.

In a blatant cut/paste (I hope under fair use) below are chapter summaries from the book.  It will give you a good idea of the content.  You like?  Take a read.

Intro and Chapter Summaries

…It won’t be long before Generation V kids (V as in Virtual) – born since the Internet explosion in the early 1990s – begin pushing out of schools into corporations and up the management ranks. [18] Gen V youths rate music, rate movies, rate friends, rate celebrities, rate teachers, rate everything. They’re going to rate their bosses too. They will rate and rank whether social networking sites are banned or not. And one day, they just might be your boss – throwing sheep in the boardroom.

This book, as noted in the Preface, is divided into three parts: Identity, Status and Power. A good way to remember the book’s thematic progression is through the acronym: ISP. I for identity. S for status. P for power.

Linear Amp Tuneup – Ameritron Al-811H Linear Amplifier

There is no stopping K1OIK Burt Fisher
Check out his video on tuning up the Ameritron AL-811H Linear Amp

If you want to see the inside of the AL-811H check out our posting below

https://frrl.wordpress.com/2008/08/03/living-life-on-hf-the-age-of-power/

Self-assured and Confident

Down and out?  Depressed?  Don’t have an Extra Class Amateur Radio License?  Do you need an uplifting message?

Lisa Nova can give you a positive affirmation and make you self-assured and confident.

Check out her video

Amateur Radios Fall from Grace: the discussion in QRZ on licensing and testing

The Great Debate in QRZ

There is a very interesting debate going on in the http://qrz.com  open discussion forums about amateur radio licensing and testing.

http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=207949

The discussion was initiated by Charles Young, KY5U.  Charles posted a presentation from the Arizona Section of the ARRL concerning a strategy for passing the Amateur Radio exams.  Anything out of the ordinary, or unexpected, gets attention.  So perhaps this advice from this ARRL section was unexpected:

From a 2008 study slide presentation by an Arizona ARRL Asst. Section Manager:

Study ONLY The Test, Learn The Rest of HAM Radio LATER !
Study ONLY the CORRECT answers. Don’t try to learn the theory.
MINIMIZE The Things You Need To Learn…………MEMORIZE.

http://www.qrz.com/HowToPassExams2008.pdf (Page 5)

At the time of this writing there are over 600 replies to this posting.

With 600+ responses, I skimmed many of them.  I found this exchange interesting.

75 meter net w/Streaming live video

CAM RADIO NET has recently celebrated it’s first full year of net activity on 75 meters.
We have enjoyed the company of more than 150 check-ins and now enjoy live web
casts from more than 50 cameras on a regular basis. The members have joined to
create a very tight group based upon sharing information and just good old fashioned Amateur
Radio round table.

The net does not require a formal roll call and there are no restrictions. It is up to the individual
to speak about any topic and the only rule we follow is common sense courtesy. The WEB CAM
stream extends our senses beyond a two dimensional network and therefore we do not need a
formal set of rules governing our net.

http://camradio.net/

What’s new at Dayton 2009

Did you miss any of the new ham radio equipment introduced at Dayton 2009?
If so, Joel R. Hallas, W1ZR, put a PDF together for you

What’s new at Dayton 2009