junius wrote:
Right, well, to jump in with some commentary now, it is a rather dismal
state of affairs...how the market for portable shortwaves has been
inundated with these cheap Chinese portables. All the Kchibos, Kaitos,
jWins, whatever other uninspiring offerings are out there...

A real race for the bottom. Nowadays, it seems that competition among
new offerings in this class of radio is, unfortunately, mostly on the
basis of price, rather than quality/features. Amazing (perhaps not)
that there are buyers for these substandard radios, many of which must
have been designed for the domestic market in China, given their
substandard performance and atrocious appearance.

Perhaps one or two of the Degens are marginally acceptable...I dunno.
I do ideed miss the days not too long back when there was a relatively
vibrant competition between Sony, Grundig, and Sangean (even Panasonic
and Magnavox were in the mix)...and you could expect regular upgrades
in your favorite line of radio...with true improvements in
performance/features. The day the Sony ICF-SW7600GR is discontinued
will indeed be a sad day...

The problem isn't a lack of supply of good radios. The problem is that
there is little demand for pricey shortwave radios because there are
few serious shortwave hobbyists. The lack of demand caused Grundig
(the real one), Panasonic, Sony, Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom to stop supplying
the really interesting radios that we all enjoy.

Unfortunately the Sony 7600 is probably going to be cancelled in the
near future.