Dear "Slow Code,"

You wrote:

That C Crane radios are probably sh***y. Anybody here ever buy one?


Yes, I did. I bought it for my wife so she could listen to TV audio
when she was outside gardening and I thought I would also be able to
use it for MW DXing.

Well, she uses it for TV audio, but I don't use it at all. It's very
poorly constructed and we've found that often, if you use one of the
"memory" buttons, the alarm will be set even when you don't want it to
be. And, unless you look carefully, you won't see this. Plus the memory
buttons as such don't work particularly well. (We've set the alarm to
sound at 9:00 AM so it will no longer wake us unnecessarily!)

Our CC Radio is about three years old and we have not had the problem
(yet) of the LCD display malfunctioning, but the radio is a big
disappointment to me. I was hoping for a "digital" radio equivalent of
the GE Superadio for MW but this is not it. (For MW DXing outdoors, the
Sony ICF-SW7600GR runs rings around the CC Radio and the GE Superadios
[versions I, II, and III] also.)

As for the sound quality on FM, well, to be charitable, it leaves
something to be desired.

Sangean's construction quality makes the Grundig Satellit 800's look
good.

I have had three Sangean radios over the years: this one, the CC Radio,
an ATS-808A which "bit the dust" after only three years (it is now
resident in our local landfill), and an ATS-606AP in which the computer
is starting to "go." (I have packed that one up in its box and put it
in the basement.)

Three strikes and out. I will not buy nor will I recommend anyone
buying any Sangean radio.

I will say that the C. Crane Company itself is a fine company with
which to deal. It's too bad that they allow Sangean to put their name
on some of Sangean's radios. This detracts from C. Crane's good name
and that's a shame.

Best,

Joe