Nic. Santean wrote:
Hello All,

As the subject shows, my question is "What is the best shortwave portable
ever ?".

Nic.

Well, since the rules for "best" are wide open, I will take that to
mean the portable that gave me the most listening enjoyment.

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.