On May 27, 1:56 am, "Blake McBride" wrote:
Greetings,

I have a Grundig Satellit 800 and have fun with it. Not knowing a lot about
SW Radios, I am curious about how my radio compares to other high quality,
modern radios. So here is my question, what are the top, modern, currently
available radios? I understand that there is no black and white answer, and
it depends on X, Y, Z. If money is not an object and portability is not
desired, what are the generally accepted best radios? I am interested in
your subjective opinions.

Thanks.

Blake McBride

Dear Blake,

Virtually any modern receiver will "run rings" around what we had back
in the "old days" regarding performance, versatility, and reliability.
To answer your question, just about all the radios priced at or above
$500.00 (which would include the Eton E1, the radio most comparable to
the Satellit 800) would be an excellent performer. Someone here has
already listed most of them.

But in my (admittedly subjective) opinion, and also being an owner of
a Satellit 800, the very best performers are tabletops and the best
performing of the tabletop communications receivers for both DXing and
program listening is, without doubt on my part, the AOR AR7030 Plus,
suitably configured by the factory. The sound quality from this radio
is nothing short of superb (and can be sent to an audio system), its
performance on weak signals is as good as any, and its reliability is
superb, at least in my (three year) experience. This radio can also be
operated via a computer if the user desires. Jan Arkesteijn has
written a great (free!) operating program called "RxWings" and this
makes operating the radio a snap. It even adds some facilities, such
as scanning (with parameters the user chooses), that are not available
on the receiver itself.

There are other radios (Watkins-Johnson, Ten-tec) that are certainly
as good in performance (though not necessarily in sound quality) but
they are far more costly. Software-defined radios are also great
performers but note that, as Windows (or Mac) operating systems
change, it is possible that some year down the road, unless you keep a
"legacy" computer, your SDR may not function.

The Satellit 800, though certainly not constructed to anywhere near
the standard of the AOR or most other tabletops mentioned on this
thread, and, consequently, probably not having the service life of
those sets, nonetheless is a very fine performer and its operating
design is second-to-none. Some people have wished the set had a few
more facilities, such as passband tuning, a notch filter, and an RF
control, but really this radio has all the functions necessary to
achieve good reception on the overwhelming majority of shortwave
broadcasts (and its MW, LW, Air band, and FM sections are excellent
also). Adding more functions would serve only to increase the price.
Should those facilities be truly desired, they are available on other
radios.

In other words, in my opinion, the Satellit 800, except for its
construction quality, is as good as any, and far less costly than
most.

Note too that the ICOM IC-R75, though it has some design shortcomings
and its sound quality is definitely not as good as the AOR or some
others, is still a fine receiver at a very good price. And, should the
owner desire to improve its performance, there are many options and
modifications available for this radio, a good number of which can be
effected by the owner.

As someone else posted here, ALL of these receivers (including the
Satellit 800) deserve only the finest antenna that can be had. This
can't be stressed too much. Obviously antennas will differ depending
upon the circumstances of the owner, but you want the absolute best
you can get.

Your Satellit 800, with a great antenna, will easily outperform even
the most expensive and best-performing tabletop if the latter is
fitted with an inferior antenna. Over the years, this has been
demonstrated time and time again.

Your question was of great interest to me and, I'm sure, many others,
and I thank you for it. I hope my answer was of some interest to you.

Best,

Joe