RadioBanter - View Single Post - Miniature SW receiver with external antenna

March 24th 04, 07:50 AM

In article , says...
Hi,

I'm looking for a miniature shortwave receiver for use in central
europe. My criteria is:

Must be small and light
External antenna for improved reception
Digital tuning
Battery and AC power
Speaker

Does anyone have any ideas? All I want to do is listen to the BBC from
a hotel room on a set small enough to carry around in a rucksack
without being too heavy.

From what I've heard of reception in Europe, an external antenna may
well be a detriment to good reception of the BBC on a portable.

I won't suggest it as competition to the Sony recommended by others, but
the Tecsun R-919 fits most of your criteria. It's small and light, yet
still pretty sturdy. It comes with a 5-meter "antenna" with a clip on
one end that will attach to the whip antenna. It's analog tuning with a
digital display. Runs for a very long time on 2 AA batteries. (No AC
power.) It has a small speaker that puts out a surprisingly big sound.
Tuning it on SW can be a bit trying due to the ratio on the tuning dial,
but it's usually not difficult to get centered on the big broadcasters.
Oh, yeah, what's probably its best feature is the $30 price tag. It's
far from a great radio, but for $30 it's not bad at all. And if it gets
lost or stolen, you're not going to cry about it like you would with a
$400 Sony.

-- Jay