Rob Grant 

Not having heard any reviews or comments about the Sansonic FT-300A CECB, and with the expiration date on my NTIA coupons approaching, I used my last coupon on the Sansonic box.

As mentioned before, the Sansonic is a compact unit, smaller in every dimension than the Zenith. It is very close in size and shape to the familiar VHS videocassette.

Part of this compactness is achieved by leaving the AC power supply out of the unit, and supplying a 5VDC, 1.4A power supply ("wall rat") with the unit. The fact that the box has a 5VDC input jack got my interest, as it would seem possible to run the FT-300A on batteries for portable use.


In fact, I have powered the FT-300A on a battery of four AA NiMH cells (DO NOT USE ALKALINE - OVERVOLT RISK!), The plug that connects with the power jack on the FT-300A is commercially available as the Radio Shack 274-1532. Battery life will be quite short, and the batteries MUST be fresh, for as the voltage drops, the tuner section is not supported, and the box, though showing graphics, and allowing the change of channels, displays "NO SIGNAL!" regardless of RF input. About 850mA is drawn when receiving a 480i program, or in the absence of any signal. If a program transmitted in HD tuned in, current increases to about 910 mA. You will NEED to disconnect the battery when not using the box, because about 90mA is still drawn when the converter is in sleep ("off").


The control features are where the Sansonic falls short. The channel scan is slower than the Philco and much slower than the Zenith. Numerical (random access) and normal UP/DOWN tuning is only by virtual channel. Inputting an actual RF channel number results in "no such channel", even if that station is in memory. Any station seen is committed to memory, and can only be erased with a fresh channel scan (all channels are deleted and rescanned, a la RCA ATSC-11). This would have seemed to make it impossible to receive every station in any given area, unless they all could be received with one antenna in one position (in other words, a rotator would be useless). For example, I thought it would be impossible to watch WBGU (SSW of me) on this box, unless I sacrificed all Detroit stations (NNE of me), for no channel scan could put both into the memory.


Just when I was about to condemn the FT-300A as useless for DX and useful only for viewers for which all avalable signals were from a common source (e.g., Mt Wilson or the CN tower), I found that there IS a protocol for tuning by ACTUAL RF CHANNEL. It is the "ANT LEVEL" button on the remote, which displays the signal strength and "signal quality" (I am curious what the "signal quality" bar measures), Both meters respond very slowly. While in this mode, you DO have the actual channel displayed (and the frequency, in MHz at the CENTER of the channel!) Now you can tune up and down, using the remote, every actual RF channel. The memory will automatically save any station that it can get a PSIP from. In my case, I can do the scan at NNE (toward Detroit,it will also pick up Toledos at that setting), then turn to SSW (toward the WBGU transmitter), and use "ANT LEVEL" to manually tune to 56, where it will grab and save WBGU.


The control system lacks many of the comfort features of the Zenith and the Philco, such as last channel (AKA channel back, recall), and the "EZ Add" feature on the Zenith (scan for more channels without deleting existing ones, extremely useful, especially on transition day.)


There is no "program guide". In fact, the only program info displayed is the title of the program currently being viewed, along with the virtual channel, the call sign, the time (in 24-hour format only!), along with the language, the picture format of the program, whether the program is closed captioned, and the TV/MPAA Rating. Showing the format is a curiosity, as whatever goes into this box comes out as composite NTSC.


Build is very much like the Zenith (only smaller), black metal box with plenty of ventilation, solid feel, appearance of fine quality.
As one can see below, the Sansonic certainly qualifies as a multipath-tolerant CECB, and with sensitivity similar to the Philco and perhaps the Zenith. It provides a good picture (in RF or in "red/yel/whi" output) and good sound. It IS useful for DXing provided the user has knowledge of the "ANT LEVEL" mode that allows for actual channel tuning.


Like the Philco, the Sansonic is truly remote-dependent. There is one button on the box, which turns the unit on of "off" (actually sleep).


If it had been introuced only a few years ago, the Sansonic FT-300A would have been regarded as a fantastic innovation. For the regular consumer, however, if you don't mind the larger size, and having to plug it into an AC outlet, the Zenith, with its front panel buttons (in case the remote is misplaced), and superior operational features (especially channel mapping) has my recommendation.


Rob, N8NU.


Sansonic FT-300A vs. Sylvania 6427GFF
SENSITIVITY MULTIPATH
5 SANSONIC 3* 17 SANSONIC 5
14 SANSONIC 1 19 SANSONIC 5
45 SANSONIC 1 29 SANSONIC 5
58 SANSONIC 2 49 SANSONIC 3

Sansonic FT-300A vs Philco TB100HH9
SENSITIVITY .............. MULTIPATH
5 INCONCLUSIVE* .............. 17 EQUAL
14 PHILCO 1 .............. 19 EQUAL
45 SANSONIC 1 ............... 29 EQUAL
58 PHILCO 1 .............. 49 EQUAL

Neither the Sansonic NOR the Philco could be forced into failure due to multipath (by turning the antenna) with ANY of the UHF DTV transmitters in the Oregon, OH (Toledo) tower area.

The old RCA boxes and the Zenith DTT900 were not tested directly against the Sansonic (suffice to say the Sansonic performs very much like the Zenith, and the older RCA boxes are just a tiny bit inferior to the Sylvania DTV set).

* Interestingly, the Sansonic has the same problem with WLMB-DT 5 as the Philco and Zenith boxes. Regardless of signal quality, there are "burps" (short losses of reception) at irregular intervals, regardless of signal quality. These "burps" happen at the same time when two CECBs operate simultaneously, but do NOT happen on the Sylvania DTV nor the older RCA HDTV boxes. I have no way of knowing whether this a problem with the newer boxes, or if there is a "non-standard" way WLMB-DT is encoding it's ATSC signal, which, for some reason, is not bothering the older receivers. (WLMB-DT is a single program, converted from the analog, and it's picture quality is inferior to that of WLMB-TV 40 in analog).


In the channel 5 sensitity test, the "winner" could be changed by the placement of the boxes and the cables. Apparently, when the lowband signal is attenuated to the threshold of reception, RFI from all the electronics in the room is too strong for the test to work.


One interesting observation was made in the sensitivity tests- the Sansonic seems to have two "modes" for decoding signals. Usually, the Sansonic box output was "in harmony" with the Philco or the Sylvania. Sometimes, however, when the signal was very weak, there would be a delay (about 300ms) in the Sansonic output relative to the other, which would persist after the signal strength was restored. Entering the same channel again would restore synchronicity.