In article ,
Al Lorona wrote:

Believe it or not the best receivers seem still to be the old-fashioned
analog tuners, partly because of an inherently lower phase noise level in
analog tuners and partly because a couple of manufacturers have put some
great engineering into putting out really good portables.

One is the GE Superadio which always gets great reviews everywhere, and the
other is a little-known Radio Shack Chinese clone of the Superadio, their
catalog #12-903, which I believe is a little bit more solidly built than the
GE and closely approaches its performance.

Is the GE Superadio III as good? (Sometimes the model name stays the
same, but later versions aren't the same product at all.)

Any portable with a jack for an external antenna is a plus because you can
run a lot of wire outside an bring it in through a window. This is much
better than even the large 8-inch ferrite rods in the GE and Radio Shack.
(Both models have connectors for external long wire type antennas.)

I understand the merits of big antennas, but the whole idea of a portable
is that you can pick it up and take it to the office, lab, etc. without
having to get permission to string wires. Do these radios come with some
sort of default antenna (like the traditional telescoping chrome rod)?


My recommendation is to stay away from the Sony ICF-SW7600GR which a lot of
people like because of its digital tuning and synchronous AM mode but I have
one and there is no comparison between it and the RS 12-903, for example. It
eats batteries like nobody's business and doesn't sound as good as the RS.
One of the other big advantages of the GE and RS are their beautiful audio
quality thanks to well-designed wide IF bandwidths and large speakers. And
you can expect your batteries to last more than 200 hours!

Is there anything similar to the GE or Radio Shack that gets shortwave?
More to the point: In the middle of the continental US (Colorado), can
I pick up international news in English? Someone told me once that the
BBC was going to stop its shortwave broadcasts for the US because we
weren't offsetting the cost.

Shortwave wasn't part of my original interest, but I got curious after
one guy claimed that any shortwave radio has to be better quality than
a mass-market AM/FM radio.

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Paul Ciszek wrote:
[SNIP]
Is there anything similar to the GE or Radio Shack that gets shortwave?
More to the point: In the middle of the continental US (Colorado), can
I pick up international news in English? Someone told me once that the
BBC was going to stop its shortwave broadcasts for the US because we
weren't offsetting the cost.

The RS-12-903 is discontinued according to this reviewer:
http://www.geocities.com/rbrucecarter/12_603.htm.
and the GE SuperRadio 3 is an underperfomer according to this one:
http://www.dobe.com/wts/funk/GESRIIIreview.html, but still available as
a Thomson Multimedia product from Amazon.com.

A high-value for money radio for MW, SW, and VHF-FM is the Kaito
KA-1103, or the same radio direct from China via eBay, the Degen
DE-1103. Highly sensitive, with good selectivity, digital display and
tuning (oodles of memories) and capable of SSB/CW reception. User group
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/de1103/ . Many user reviews at
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/5071 with a 4.7/5 average rating
(that's a value rating not a performance rating). The Eton E5 is
similar electronically (same factory) but with a better user interface;
its price is in the range of the Sony 7600GR but latter has synchronous
AM detector for reduced distortion on fading signals - reviews
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1534.

Tom