I just got through reading the review on the link that you provided. Thank
you for posting it. This is good that this receiver uses good quality metal
cased ceramic filters. It appears to use the same noisy synthesizer as the
SW-8, and it doesn't use the input bandpass filters that the SW-8 uses.
Still, for a cheap price it isn't a bad receiver.
I have an SW-8 (1994 version), and it isn't a bad receiver. One thing I like
about the SW-8 is that the LCD is illuminated with a Lumitex fiber optic
illuminator. Only one high intensity LED radiates into a fiber optic bundle
that fans out into a flat panel. The advantage here is that by changing the
color of the LED you can choose your own display color. I knew there was
some reason that I kept this receiver around!
I stand corrected in my original impressions of the SW-2. Although the SW-8
is still a better receiver, the SW-2 still seems to be a fairly good design.

Pete

"David" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:22:49 -0600, "Pete KE9OA"
wrote:

Although the Sync detector might be better (I am not sure, because I never
use them), I don't believe that the SW-2 is in the same class as the SW-8.
The SW-8 uses 11-element ceramic ladder filters for all of the I.F.
bandwidths, and it has a pretty strong 1st mixer. I am not sure if the
SW-2
uses a strong mixer or not.
When I spoke to somebody at Drake when the SW-2 first came out, I was told
that this design uses an NE-602 for the 1st mixer. Although the 602 is
fine
for the 2nd mixer if you have a crystal filter ahead of it, it just
doesn't
have the IMD performance of other mixers.
The SW-2 appears to have quite a bit of collector value, but if you could
get ahold of the SW-8 for a similar price, the SW-8 wins hands down.

Pete

I'll be happy to trade my SW2 for an SW8. The SW2 used to be a good
MW receiver, but IBOC has limited its utility, as you cannot have both
sidebands on in SYNC mode. R. Netherlands says the front end is

The HD Warbler and the hash or fade-free DX...

http://www.mwcircle.org/res-receiver-drakesw2.htm