"Juan Gonzalez" wrote in message
...
"Michael" wrote in
t:

The 7600GR is by far my favorite.
Over the next few weeks I'm going to do some side by side comparisons
with the 7600GR and the KA-1102 and PL-550. I can easily look up the
numbers for all of those radios, but I want to hear them all now in
practice. I'll be sure to post my results.

I would love to see the results. I have the Sony and the KA-1102 as well.
I
have compared them extensively. The Sony is of course the superior radio
but you have to love the Kaito for the price. The Sony is better at AM
DXing and SSB but I sometimes find it easier on the Kaito to tune into SSB
although the audio quality is not as good as on the Sony. On SW I see
almost no difference in the radios. The only thing I dont like about the
Sony is the display. The Kaito gives you much more information. There
isn't
any Meter Band indicator on the Sony or button to quickly jump from one
meter band to the next. If the Sony had a display like the Kaito along
with
the light buttons I would like it more, and if you add a tunning knob
there
would be no more arguments in favor of the Sangean 909. These seem like
very simple modifications that I would love to see.

Juan... I agree with you 100 % regarding the display. I really like the
display on the 1102. I have also noticed something else I dont like about
the display on the 7600gr. I took it to work today and I noticed that
unless you look at the display straight on, it appears as if every character
on the display is active. All lcds can have this problem in heavy lighting,
but the one on the 7600gr is really bad. Even if you are looking at it at
just a slight angle in moderate light, you cant tell what you are looking at
because every character is visible.

Other then that, I have to say that the 7600gr is far superior to the
KA-1102 over all. It doesn't seem to be any more sensitive then the KA-1102
but it resolves the signals better, especially weaker signals or signals
that are close to stronger ones and are exhibiting QRM. The audio quality
is better in general too, but that is to be expected given the smaller
speaker in the 1102. I dont mean that as a criticism of the 1102 either.
I'm amazed at what a great performer it is for its size and price. I
actually think that the KA-1102 is very close to the Sony in selectivity
too. The 7600gr has the ssb selectable am sync that helps out a lot with
adjacent signals and fade where as the KA-1102 does not, but the actual
selectivity of the KA-1102 seems to be on par with the 7600gr.

As far as the PL-550 goes.... I think it is the least selective of the
three. It doesn't have glairing problems with this, but it doesn't cut it
as well as the 7600gr and the KA-1102. It also dose not resolve signals as
well as the 7600gr does, but to be honest, I really think the audio quality
and definition on the PL-550 is the best of the three. To my ear, it sounds
more defined. So..... You cant deal with a het or AM signal fade on the
PL-550 like you can with he 7600gr, but when the conditions are good, I
think the PL-550 sounds better. I also love that the PL-550 has both push
button and the all important dial to turn for tuning. That feature alone
make it the first radio I'll grab when I want to explore the bands. Other
things I really like on the PL-550 are the selectable filter setting and the
IF switch. The IF switch by no means outshines the ssb selectable sync on
the 7600gr, but it does help out a bit even though using it diminishes the
audio fidelity. If they could only have made the PL-550 with ssb :-)

I haven't had enough time to evaluate the 7600gr under circumstances in
relation to the 1102 and PL-550 yet, but I sure plan on doing so over the
next few weeks.