Hi Butch.

I have owned the FRG-7, but it was back when my vision was nearly
normal.  It depends upon your definition of useable.  If you want to know
the frequency to the nearest khz, that is not likely to happen.  It uses an
analog dial that is not the easiest to read even with good vision.

This radio makes use of the Wadley loop synthesizer to derive the tuned
frequency, and that means that the knob that sets the MHz is not detented
in any way.  You rotate it to the desired MHz range and watch for the PLL
Lock light to come on.  Then you adjust the VFO (which is analog) for the
desired frequency.  The calibration marks on the dial are in 10 khz
intervals, but the tuning is linear.

There is also a preselector to adjust to peak the front end for the desired
range.  The preselector consists of two controls located on the left hand
side of the radio.  The bottom control is a rotary switch that sets the
preselector range, while the top control is a preselector tune.

I think you could adjust a lot of these controls by ear, but adjusting the
VFO to a specific frequency could be a challenge.  You might be able to rig
up some kind of a crystal calibrator to get in the ball park, but that is
about my best suggestion.

This radio works well for SWL listening, but the SSB filters are pretty
wide, so expect to hear lots of adjacent channel crud.  Also, I found that
medium wave performance on this radio was greatly enhanced if you had a
good ground connection established, especially if you are operating on
batteries.  That is because the radio tends to find a radio ground through
the electrical mains if you have it plugged into the wall.

It's not a bad receiver--I used it for a couple of years, and found the
performance to be reasonable, for the most part.  I will warn you that the
Wadley Loop Synthesizer technology tends to produce birdies in the
receiver.  I found that shifting the MHz control slightly could sometimes
shift an offending birdie out of the receive passband if it was interfering
with a desired signal.

Hope this helps.  73, de Lou K2LKK







At 07:55 AM 7/18/02 -0700, you wrote:
>Anyone know about this receiver.  If it is the one I'm thinking of, all of
>its bands are in one meg jumps.  Is this thing useable by a blind person?
>73s
>Butch Bussen
>wa0vjr

Louis (Kim) Kline, A.R.S.  K2LKK
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Work Tel.  (585) 697-5753