Yiiikes! $18.95 for a COBY! Ouch.
Your assessment was correct. COBY is junk. And I also agree with respondent
"Mike" --- COBY is probably a company as he described. Isn't it nice that
our leadership has decapitated U.S. ingenuity and manufacturing to help its
offshore friends? Now we're left with crap technology everywhere.
I might have been the guy you were refering to who had a posting here almost
a year ago about the COBY. I bought the non-digital version at a Big lots
for $4.99. As an airline pilot I wanted something that could get banged
around in my bag but yet provide a modicum of listenability. I primarily use
it for shows like the Power Hour, Alex and a few others like that. But my
COBY is a lousy shortwave portable. Its full of images and the dial numbers
are a meaningless decoration. It works well enough for what I use it for but
I would hate to think it was my first shortwave set I bought. I would have
left SWLing years ago and it would have been on my garage sale table for $1.
So, Tim, just use your COBY for what it is, casual listening when you don't
want to carry much weight or size. And if it should inadvertently fall
between the grates of a sewer, 1- It's where it belongs and 2- You don't
need to beat yourself up about the accident. Even at $18...how many times
have you had a really lousy meal at a restaurant that cost $18? And it
eventually passed through and ended up where it is supposed to. Think of the
COBY as that lousy meal.

Smokey

"Tim Shoppa" wrote in message
om...
I ordered a Coby 9-band AM/FM/SW receiver from http://www.target.com/ last
week. $12.95 + about $6 shipping. (I think this is the same unit that
someone else mentioned being at a "Big Lots" store for $9.99). It
came yesterday.

Analog tuning, digital frequency display, built-in clock/alarm.
Band coverage from the sticker on the back:

FM: 87.5-108.5
AM: 530-1700
SW1: 5.6-5.8
SW2: 7.15-7.40
SW3: 8.60-9.10
SW4: 9.85-10.65
SW5: 13.35-16.05
SW6: 15.15-15.40
SW7: 20.85-23.20

Actual band coverage from the frequency display on the front:

FM: 87.0-108.1
AM: 528-1769
SW1: 5.49-6.02
SW2: 7.05-7.89
SW3: 8.33-9.29
SW4: 9.69-10.96
SW5: 12.95-16.16
SW6: 15.35-17.70
SW7: 20.72-24.69

My opinion? A piece of junk. Even on MW, local stations splatter all
over
each other. There's a DX/Local switch which doesn't help any. Local
MW stations image and splatter all up and down the SW bands too. The SW
selectivity is abysmal and my patience to try to pick out a couple of
strong stations was very much frustrated by the MW images up and down the
SW bands. The SW signals were there, just unlistenable due to all the
MW images.

It's moderately usable on local strong-signal FM signals. But I swear,
from the way that each FM station appears twice about 0.9MHz from each
other,
that it uses a 455kHz IF even at FM frequencies.

Maybe if you're out in the middle of nowhere, with no local MW stations,
it would be sort-of useful. It's small enough, maybe I'll take it on a
trip and see if it becomes useful.

Tim.