Probably the most enjoyable as an armchair receiver was the Panasonic
RF-5000b.
It was Panasonic's luggable answer to the Zenith TO and Sony=AD World
Orbiter. It was large, heavy around 22 pounds with an absolute=ADly
wonderful audio. The polished metal and black case was wood=AD lined,
and the resulting sound was delightfully mellow.

It had four antennas, selectable filters (narrow was mechani=ADcal), agc
control, bfo, multiple bandswitches across the top and backl=ADighting
for individual bands as selected. With a mortgage one could=AD power it
with batteries. Otherwise a switchable voltage power supply=AD did the
trick.

It was no dx machine, but BBC symphonies sounded great. Of =ADcourse
audio on AM and FM were superb. With a bfo switch it was po=ADssible to
decode ssb. Finding a specific station on the ham bands was
hit-or-miss and a challenge. But the intent of this delight=ADful
monster was armchair listening to broadcast stations.

Sensitivity when new was not great by todays standards, and=AD 30 years
had probably taken its toll on electronics. Still it was a =ADjoy to
use for 5 years.



JerryJ-KY wrote:
As an aside to sdaniel3's thread further down, what's the
shortwave receiver that gave you the most "fun" while
listening?

It doesn't have to necessarily be the best rig, just the
one that was the most enjoyable to work with.

Mine is probably a Grundig S350 bought a few months ago.
Definitely not a top performer, but great audio and
portable.

--

Bluegrass DaVinci Fellowship
Central Kentucky Group of Shortwave Enthusiasts
http://www.bluegrassdavinci.com/