Brian Hill wrote:
There's always a lot of talk about what radio is better or best or
which radio should I buy. I have a hard time giving advice on the
subject because there are just too damn many variables and allot of
new hobbyist get the idea that if they shell out big $ and buy the
latest state of the art radio that all their troubles will be over
and they can finally collect that elusive QSL. Hey don't get me
wrong, I'm all for buying the most radio you can but lets face it
most peoples reception problems have little to do with the radio and
there are plenty of good radios to choose from and the differences of
one good radio compared to the other is hard to define unless you got
some experience and a good ant/grd etc... The reason I'm saying all
this has to do with these comparisons like the R-75 with Kiwa mods
compared to the R-8B etc... Yea the R-8B has the edge but not by such
a margin that a new listener should rule out the R-75 or other good
rigs. Yes I know you seasoned vets are going " Brian we know all this
but what's your point?" My point is there are a lot of new SW
listeners lurking around here and I want them to know that there are
a lot of good results being obtained with a lot of older gear and
good antennas. I've been DXing for a long time and all I use is an
old R-5000 with a very good ant system and a few audio mods and I'll
run with the best of them. Moral is- Buy as much radio as you can
afford but $s don't garentee results, that takes experimenting ,
research and work to get the weak ones.

Good advice. Also don't be afraid to by used modern radios. A used modern
digital radio should perform as well as a new one. It's a great way to get
'more radio for the money'.

--
Brian Denley
http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html