Page 2 - FEATURES
2 FEATURES Your RadioShack DX-398 All-BandShortwave Receiver with Radio DataSystem brings you the voices of theworld. In the 14 international short-wave (SW) bands, you can hear newsbroadcasts and other programs fromsources around the world, such as theBritish Broadcasting Corporation, Ra-dio Cairo,...
Page 3 - pages
3 Auto Tuning System (ATS) — the re-ceiver finds the stations with strongsignals and stores them in memory inorder by signal strength. Rotary Tuning Dial — lets you manu-ally tune desired frequencies. You canselect a higher tuning increment forfaster tuning or a lower one for fine tun-ing, or lock t...
Page 4 - Frequency Range
4 Your receiver is preset to cover thefollowing bands: Band (Meters) Frequency Range (MHz) 120 ................................ 2.300–2.49590 .................................. 3.200–3.40075 .................................. 3.900–4.00060 .................................. 4.750–5.06049 ..............
Page 5 - CONTENTS
5 CONTENTS Preparation ........................................................................................................... 7 Connecting to Power ....................................................................................... 7 Installing Internal Batteries ..............................
Page 7 - PREPARATION; Installing Internal Batteries
7 PREPARATION CONNECTING TO POWER You can power the receiver from inter-nal batteries, standard AC power, oryour vehicle’s battery. Installing Internal Batteries You can use four AA batteries (notsupplied) to power the receiver. Forthe best performance and longest life,we recommend alkaline batterie...
Page 8 - Using Vehicle Battery Power
8 • When you finish using the AC adapter, unplug it from the AC out-let first, then disconnect it from thereceiver. Follow these steps to use AC power. 1. Set the adapter’s voltage switch to 6V. 2. Line up the 5.5 m m oute r diam - eter/2 .1 mm inne r dia mete rbarr el plug with the adapter’ssocket ...
Page 10 - Listening Safely; Traffic Safety
10 CONNECTING HEADPHONES For private listening and for stereosound during FM stereo broadcasts,you can plug optional stereo head-phones with a 1 / 8 -inch (3.5 mm) plug (available at your local RadioShackstore) into the jack on the left side of the receiver. This automatically dis-connects the inter...
Page 11 - USING THE STAND
11 To connect a tape recorder, you needa mono patch cord (not supplied) witha 1 / 8 -inch (3.5 mm) plug on both ends. Your local RadioShack store carries awide selection of mono patch cords. Insert the cord’s plug into the REC LINE OUT jack on the left side of the receiver, then connect the other en...
Page 13 - UNDERSTANDING YOUR RECEIVER
13 UNDERSTANDING YOUR RECEIVER Once you understand a few simple terms we use in this manual and familiarizeyourself with your receiver’s features, you can start using your receiver to listen tothe world! POWER — turns the receiver on and off. — turns on the display light for about 12 seconds (if you...
Page 15 - BASIC OPERATION; BATT; LIGHTING THE DISPLAY
15 BASIC OPERATION TURNING THE RECEIVER ON AND OFF Press POWER to turn on the receiver, then adjust VOLUME to a comfortable listening level. The display shows the band, frequen-cy, time, and signal strength (with 10as the strongest signal). When you press POWER to turn off the receiver, the battery ...
Page 16 - not
16 Press to lock all the front panel buttons and ROTARY TUNING . ap- pears. You can still adjust VOLUME , TONE , and other controls. To unlock the buttons, press again. disappears. SETTING AND VIEWING THE LOCAL TIME Your receiver has two clocks. One dis-plays your local time and the other letsyou di...
Page 17 - VIEWING A WORLD TIME
17 • If you enter an invalid time, the clock beeps twice and E (error) appears for about 1 second.Repeat Steps 3–4 to enter thecorrect time. 5. Press ENTER . The time you set appears, and the secondsstar t counting from 0. Note: The receiver does not dis-play the seconds. VIEWING A WORLD TIME Import...
Page 18 - TUNING STATIONS; Selecting a Band; Manual Tuning
18 TUNING STATIONS Note: “Special Tuning Controls” onPage 24 contains more informationabout using your receiver’s controls. Selecting a Band Press ATS/FM , ATS/LW , ATS/MW , or METER/SW to select the band. (Press ATS/MW for AM.) To select a smaller band within the SWband, press METER/SW again. When ...
Page 19 - Direct Access Tuning; FREQ; Scan Tuning
19 If you set STEP to FAST , the tuning in- crements are the same as when youpress TUNING or . If you select SLOW , the tuning increments are smaller so you can fine tune the fre-quency. Note: You can tune standard AM, up-per sideband (USB), and lower side-band (LSB) frequencies. For moreinformation...
Page 20 - PAGE; PAGE
20 Notes: • When scanning, the receiver only searches for frequencies withstrong signals. To search for sta-tions with weaker signals, use oneof the manual tuning methods. • When scanning in a lower band, the receiver searches only withinthe selected band and stops at theupper and lower limits of th...
Page 21 - MEMOFREE; DX-398 SHORTWAVE PAGES CHART
21 Note: If you press a number key for a memory location number where there is nostation stored, MEMOFREE flashes for a few seconds. Then the receiver tunes the station you previously tuned. DX-398 SHORTWAVE PAGES CHART Note: All frequencies are in MHz. Page Country (Stations) Memory Location 1 2 3 ...
Page 24 - ADJUSTING THE TONE; AM RF GAIN
24 ADJUSTING THE TONE Set TONE to NEWS to enhance broad- cast voices while listening to talkshows or news programs on SW, MW,and LW frequencies. Set TONE to MUSIC to enhance treble and bass response when listening to amusic program (especially FM pro-grams). Set TONE to NORM to help reduce in- terfe...
Page 27 - MEMORY FUNCTIONS; memory locations; Automatic Storage; ATS; Manual Storage
27 MEMORY FUNCTIONS Besides tuning to the preprogrammedshortwave stations (see “Tuning Pre-programmed Shor twave Stations” onPage 20), you can store and thenquickly tune up to 94 frequencies inyour receiver’s memory locations . The memory locations are grouped into pages (nine memory locations per p...
Page 30 - MEMO
30 Note: If you wait more than 20seconds to turn MANUAL TUNING , the cursor stops flashing. If thishappens, star t again at Step 4. 6. When the character you want appears, press TUNING to move to the next position, thenrotate MANUAL TUNING to select the next character. Note: If you want to correct a...
Page 31 - USING PRIORITY
31 4. Use the number keys to enter the new memory location number.The receiver beeps. USING PRIORITY You can store one MW/LW/FM stationas the priority station, then quickly re-call it. 1. Tune to your favorite station. 2. Press M/MEM. 3. Press PRIORITY to store the sta- tion in the priority location...
Page 32 - TIMER FUNCTIONS; Setting an Alarm; Silencing the Alarm
32 TIMER FUNCTIONS USING THE TIMER ALARMS Your receiver has three timer alarms.You can set these alarms to sound(buzzer or radio) at a time you set. Setting an Alarm 1. If you want the radio to turn on at the alarm time, tune to the desiredstation. Then press M/MEM . MEMO and the memory location whe...
Page 33 - Timer Recording
33 Turning a Timer AlarmOn or Off To turn off the alarm so it does notsound again, press TIMER 1 , TIMER 2 , or TIMER 3 . Then press C while flashes. If you want to turn on a timer alarmagain, press TIMER 1, TIMER 2, or TIM- ER 3 . Then press ENTER while and 1 , 2 , or 3 flash. Timer Recording You c...
Page 34 - LISTENING HINTS; REFERENCE SOURCES; Amateur Radio Frequencies
34 LISTENING HINTS Shortwave listening is a hobby withthousands of participants worldwide. Itrequires no special knowledge orskills, but your enjoyment increases asyou gain experience and develop spe-cial listening techniques. The information in this section can helpyou make the most of your DX-398....
Page 35 - International Frequencies; Band
35 Amateur radio operators use the fol-lowing bands. Portions of these bandsare set aside for continuous wave(CW) Morse code communication orfor single sideband (SSB) voice com-munication, as shown below. 160 meters: 1,800–2,000 kHz: SSB 80 meters: 3,500–3,800 kHz: CW3,800–4,000 kHz: SSB 40 meters: ...
Page 36 - Aircraft Frequencies; Time Standard Frequencies
36 Aircraft Frequencies Aircraft on international routes some-times use SW. Most transmissions arein SSB, although you can still hearsome MW transmissions. Here aresome bands where you might hear air-craft communications. 4,650–4,750 kHz 6,545–6,765 kHz 8,815–9,040 kHz 11,175–11,400 kHz 13,200–13,36...
Page 37 - LISTENING GUIDE
37 LISTENING GUIDE The following list contains some of the more frequently heard stations. All stationsbroadcast in English unless otherwise specified. You can hear these stationsthroughout North America. However, reception varies based on the season, time ofday, and a number of other conditions. Th...
Page 41 - BIRDIES; AMATEUR SHORTWAVE BANDS IN THE US
41 BIRDIES Birdies are the products of internally generated signals that make some frequenciesdifficult or impossible to receive. If you program a birdie frequency, you hear onlynoise on that frequency. The most common birdies to watch for on this receiver are: Notes: • See “Storing SW Frequencies i...
Page 43 - TROUBLESHOOTING
43 TROUBLESHOOTING We do not expect you to have any problems with your receiver, but if you have aproblem, the information in this chart might help. If the problem persists, take thereceiver to your local RadioShack store for assistance. SYMPTOM POSSIBLE CAUSE SUGGESTION Weak or intermittent sound. ...
Page 44 - CARE AND MAINTENANCE
44 CARE AND MAINTENANCE Your RadioShack DX-398 All-Band Shortwave Receiver with Radio DataSystem is an example of superior design and craftsmanship. The followingsuggestions will help you care for your receiver so you can enjoy it for years. Keep the receiver dry. If it gets wet, wipe it dry immedia...
Page 46 - SPECIFICATIONS
46 SPECIFICATIONS Circuit: FM ..................................................................................................... HeterodyneLW/MW/SW ........................................................... Dual-Conversion Heterodyne Frequency Range: FM .............................................
Page 47 - NOTES
