CountyComm GP-5/SSB receiver.

Yesterday I received a GP-5/SSB receiver from CountyComm with some other goodies as a prize for "Virtual Radio Challenge IV" at Swling.com. After a long time I am receiving a prize.. Hi Hi Hi...

This radio is not for those who listens music on FM bands. It is for the Radio Fans and Radio Enthusiasts. Besides normal AM and FM demodulation it has SSB capability too.

Tuning range 550KHz -1710KHz can be changed to 150KHz-1620KHz
SW tuning is 1711KHz to 29999KHz continuous. This is a bit problem as one has
to rotate the wheel ... But to ease these there is preset BC bands and HAM bands too. Simultaneously there is scanning feature and Manual Memory feature for station surfing. 
FM tuning 76MHz-108MHz or 87MHz-108MHz

FM audio quality is very good
AM audio quality is very good
SW audio is good but noise (though SW bands are noisy except night time)
SSB is good One has to change BFO shift for clarity and lesser noise.

Overall it is a Good to have radio.

ARSO info and my Winning of Virtual radio Challenge IV

Greetings for the Festive Season
Merry Christmas to all.

ARSO:
For the past few months I was busy. During these days some enthusiast HAMs and SWLs of Odisha,India came closer and unanimously decided to meet every Sunday afternoon. I am one of them.

As days passed few veteran HAMs suggested to start an association which will bring all the active inactive HAMs and SWLs Radio enthusiasts together. currently this association has a name "Amateur Radio Society of Odisha (ARSO)".

Recently ARSO Organised ASOL exam on 20th December 2015. Good number of candidates shown interest in appearing the exam. to be precise 21 candidates have filled up the form but 20 candidates could manage to come to the exam venue on specified date and time. out of these 20 candidates 12 candidates appeared for Restricted grade and 8 candidates for General grade.

ARSO has conducted extensive classes for aspirants at ARSO office for exam preparation. ARSO been instrumental for Theory(Technical and Procedure) and also for Morse practice.  I am thankful to ARSO to organize the Exam at Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

The exam was conducted at OMC Auditorium, bhubaneswar. Examiner Mr. Panja from WPC conducted the Exam with supervision of Mr. Mallik, the Monitoring Officer stationed at Bhubaneswar. Senior HAMs OM Dilip Padhi(VU2DPI), OM Sameer Ranjan Panda (VU2AOR),  OM Priti Ranjan Mekap (VU3UFX), OM Rajesh Kumar(VU3PLP) and OM Gurudutta Panda(VU3GDP) encouraged the aspirants. At the end ARSO member Mr. Pankaj Bag sponsored a grand lunch to all who are present.

In future ARSO has promised to conduct more such events. Thanks ARSO for your effort.

SWLing:
In the mean time I also have participated in a contest organised by Thomas of Swling post. Besides his Nice informative reviews on radio related subjects, he also conducts some interesting challenges. Recently he posted such a challenge, Virtual Radio challenge IV. 
The good news is that I am runner-up in this event and Mehdi's entry was the winner. For details please read the result page.