Dear Entfred:

You wrote -

Thanks for the recommendation, Joe. I have a few questions:

What is a keypad?

A keypad is a group of numbers on the radio similar to the keypad on
your telephone. This is used to directly enter the frequency desired
if you know the frequency to which you wish to listen. Your Grundig
Mini 300PE, being an analog-tuned radio, does not have one but MOST
digitally-tuned shortwave radios DO have one. The Sony ICF-SW35 is an
exception and there are several other shortwave radios (some quite
expensive) that do not have a keypad. Frankly, it is better to have
one but it is not an insurmountable problem to do without. In my
opinion, this is really the only "negative" regarding this Sony radio
but, at its price and considering its performance and quality, it is
completely acceptable, at least to me.

What is the advantage having a SSB?

Single Sideband (SSB) is a form of transmission by which one of the
radio wave's sideband and its carrier wave is "stripped off" the
signal. This leaves only one sideband that is actually transmitted. An
SSB-equipped radio then "reconstitutes" the signal so that the
listener can hear it. This has a great advantage in that far less
power is required to achieve equivalent distance to a standard AM
signal. It has a MAJOR disadvantage in that it is fairly difficult to
tune. This is why this transmission method had only "caught on" with
amateur (Ham) radio operators. There are very few SSB broadcast
signals (the armed forces radio-television service being the notable
exception). I do not know if your current radio can tune any of the
amateur bands; if it can, you will hear signals that sound highly
distorted (they have been compared to "Donald Duck") and which cannot
be understood at all. If your radio were to be equipped with SSB, you
would be able to switch it in and listen to the signals.

It is a complication in operation and most people do not need or even
want it. If you later decided that you wanted to listen to Ham
transmissions, you would need a more complicated (and expensive)
radio. The Degen radios that have been mentioned here DO feature SSB
reception as do some other radios in the price range in which you are
interested but in ALL cases these radios just do not have the build
quality (or apparent longevity) of the Sony model. (Others reading
this will disagree with me but the Degen radios, such as the '1103,
have not been on the market long enough to know just how long they
will give problem-free service. The Sony shortwave radios have
excellent track records.)

I hope the above has been helpful to you. Please do not hesitate to
ask any further questions you may have.

Best,

Joe