"norhumbco" wrote in message
m...
I'm trying to decide what to buy for my first SW radio. I'm considering
the
Sony 7600GR or the Sangean AT-909. Can anyone give some pros or cons of
each? Or suggest another? Maybe just personal preferences. Also, I will
probably buy from Amazon(by far the lowest prices I've found), are there
any
fair warnings I should know about.


Hiya... I have a Sony 7600gr and I love it. It is a good performer in
general and it has a ssb selectable sync detector. That feature really
helps out for broadcast listening. It is also VERY good to use for medium
wave (AM broadcast) DX'ing.

The 909 has a lot of great features too, but it does not have a sync
detector and it is very well known for being a weak performer using only its
whip antenna. If you can hook it up to a good external antenna, its
performance is quite good to excellent. Given that it has so many other
features, I think it may be a better radio in a lot of cases if you want to
use it like a table top base receiver.

So... If you plan to use your new radio as a "portable" off the whip for
broadcast listening, I'd choose the 7600gr. If you want to set up a nice
external antenna and use a radio for dx'ing, I'd get the 909.

Still, that is not to say that you cant use the 909 as a portable off the
whip or use the 7600gr as a table top base with an external antenna. The
7600gr is just better to use as a portable for broadcast off the whip and
the 909 has more features that would make it the better choice to set up as
a base receiver.

Michael