On 6/3/2010 11:04 AM, dave wrote:

A $50 boatanchor like an S-38 would outperform any of those radios for
weak signals. I have a National NC-125 with a Q multiplier that'll
out-HFBC DX almost all transistor radios. It drifts a litlle, but what
do you want for $50?

Well, the S-38 may be a bad example to choose and sounds like you may
have never used one.

On a fundamental level, there are three key characteristics of a
receiver, the three S's: sensitivity, selectivity and stability.
Unfortunately, the S-38 has "None of the above". No insult intended, the
S-38 was a nice (and nostalgic) radio, typical of the most very basic
entry level radios of the day.

I hesitate to speak in general terms because there are so many
exceptions, but most modern, inexpensive solid state radios (what you
call 'crappy'), have better sensitivity and stability than the
inexpensive old-timers, while sorta kinda lacking in selectivity.

Just my 2 cents...

P.S.

You say above the S-38 would perform well with weak signals -- implying
they had good sensitivity. I would disagree, as they had -NO- RF stage,
just dumped the antenna into the mixer/oscillator stage like the typical
"All-American Five" because, well, that's what they were, but just
re-tuned to cover short wave.