Sony makes a car stereo system that includes shortwave radio. How well does
it perform? Would I actually be able to hear at least the major
international outlets (BBC, RCI, etc.) while driving across town?

I'm a ham and have been an avid SWL in the past -- away from it recently --
but am also a linguist and would like to hear various languages regularly
(including something in Spanish with more intellectual content than the
local hit parade, or whatever it is). I understand that this radio would
not be for serious DXing.

Any experiences? Thanks.

On Jan 1, 6:05 pm, "mc" wrote:
Sony makes a car stereo system that includes shortwave radio. How well does
it perform? Would I actually be able to hear at least the major
international outlets (BBC, RCI, etc.) while driving across town?

I'm a ham and have been an avid SWL in the past -- away from it recently --
but am also a linguist and would like to hear various languages regularly
(including something in Spanish with more intellectual content than the
local hit parade, or whatever it is). I understand that this radio would
not be for serious DXing.

Any experiences? Thanks.

I saw the specs once. You would not be impressed. If you are just
going to listen to the BBC, then satellite would be your answer. From
a shortwave perspective, Sirius is better than XM. XM just has the
BBC.

Kenwood made a small DIN sized DC to daylight radio, with daylight
somewhere around 900Mhz. The last one I saw on ebay was being sold by
RadioMart (TM). I recall it was rare and most excellent. ;-)

I saw the specs once. You would not be impressed. If you are just
going to listen to the BBC, then satellite would be your answer. From
a shortwave perspective, Sirius is better than XM. XM just has the
BBC.

Kenwood made a small DIN sized DC to daylight radio, with daylight
somewhere around 900Mhz. The last one I saw on ebay was being sold by
RadioMart (TM). I recall it was rare and most excellent. ;-)

Thanks. It occurred to me that one thing to do would be rig up a power
supply and external antenna for my Sony ICF-2010 and feed its audio into the
front input jack of a newer-style car stereo. That would give me the audio
amplification needed to overcome road noise, etc. The same could be done
with the Kenwood you describe; my handheld VHF scanner; and other things.

I'd like to hear from someone who actually has the Sony shortwave-compatible
car stereo. I wish the price increment weren't so big ($250 for the version
with shortwave, $100 for same features without shortwave). If it were just
a small percentage of the price I'd go for it.

That would be the Kenwood RZ-1, not too bad, but not exactly DIN sized, I
had one in the 90's. It was close but no cigar. Philips made the DC-777,
which was a pretty good one, DIN sized, 25W per chan apms, as I recall. I
had one in a Corvette and a Cougar. Pretty good, but 30-something inch
antenna is a bit small for weak DX, but still not bad.

I have now a Sony Xplod Series XR-4950 that I need to install one of these
days.

It has (again, I think I have this right) 40 watt amplifiers X4, but only
two RCA outs for external amplifiers.

Also called a XR-C5100

I got mine from Jacky's but I recently checked and that stuff is no longer
shown, and I could not find one...

But ebay may be a good place for a DC-777 or a XR-C5100, XR-4950X XR-4900

The Kenwood may be a better receiver, but now made for car radio
replacement. No Stereo on FM, etc. Does have AM, FM narrow, FM-Wide modes.

GeorgeC

george at d y b dot com

wrote in message
...
On Jan 1, 6:05 pm, "mc" wrote:
Sony makes a car stereo system that includes shortwave radio. How well
does
it perform? Would I actually be able to hear at least the major
international outlets (BBC, RCI, etc.) while driving across town?

I'm a ham and have been an avid SWL in the past -- away from it
recently --
but am also a linguist and would like to hear various languages
regularly
(including something in Spanish with more intellectual content than the
local hit parade, or whatever it is). I understand that this radio
would
not be for serious DXing.

Any experiences? Thanks.

I saw the specs once. You would not be impressed. If you are just
going to listen to the BBC, then satellite would be your answer. From
a shortwave perspective, Sirius is better than XM. XM just has the
BBC.

Kenwood made a small DIN sized DC to daylight radio, with daylight
somewhere around 900Mhz. The last one I saw on ebay was being sold by
RadioMart (TM). I recall it was rare and most excellent. ;-)

I have one of the Sonys, and it works just fine, as advertised.
I don't like it because it has a frequency gap which excludes
some of the domestic shortwave frequencies. Great for what you
want. There is a company in Canada selling them:

http://www.shortwavestore.com/sws/ma...ufacturerid=20







On Tue, 1 Jan 2008 21:05:04 -0500, "mc"
wrote:

Sony makes a car stereo system that includes shortwave radio. How well does
it perform? Would I actually be able to hear at least the major
international outlets (BBC, RCI, etc.) while driving across town?

I'm a ham and have been an avid SWL in the past -- away from it recently --
but am also a linguist and would like to hear various languages regularly
(including something in Spanish with more intellectual content than the
local hit parade, or whatever it is). I understand that this radio would
not be for serious DXing.

Any experiences? Thanks.

On Jan 1, 9:05*pm, "mc" wrote:
Sony makes a car stereo system that includes shortwave radio. *How well does
it perform? *Would I actually be able to hear at least the major
international outlets (BBC, RCI, etc.) while driving across town?

I'm a ham and have been an avid SWL in the past -- away from it recently -- *
but am also a linguist and would like to hear various languages regularly
(including something in Spanish with more intellectual content than the
local hit parade, or whatever it is). *I understand that this radio would
not be for serious DXing.

Any experiences? *Thanks.

A reasonable performer for a shortwave radio in an automobile.

On Jan 1, 9:05*pm, "mc" wrote:
Sony makes a car stereo system that includes shortwave radio. *How well does
it perform? *Would I actually be able to hear at least the major
international outlets (BBC, RCI, etc.) while driving across town?

I'm a ham and have been an avid SWL in the past -- away from it recently -- *
but am also a linguist and would like to hear various languages regularly
(including something in Spanish with more intellectual content than the
local hit parade, or whatever it is). *I understand that this radio would
not be for serious DXing.

Any experiences? *Thanks.

Some years back, I had picked up one of those Sony car stereos w/sw
tuner. Decent all-around product. The model I had purchased was #
XR-4950X. Got it from that jackys.com in Dubai. They no longer sell
Sony's SW-capable car stereos. I believe there is a Canadian firm
that does, however. At the time that I had purchased, Sony had a
number of
models out there, and basically, the tuner internals were the same,
according to what info I was able to gather. Frequency coverage for
the model I had used included some gaps. The gaps were kind
of annoying, but not horrendously bad: SW1 : 2940 - 7735 kHzSW2 :
9500
to 10140 kHz plus 11575 to 18135 kHz. Tunes only in 5 kHz
increments.
Selectivity adequate for listening to major broadcasters. At the
time
that I installed the unit, I had also installed a power line filter
and
antenna line filter purchased from Crutchfield. Given that I put
these
in at the same time that I installed the Sony, I can't say one way or
another if either of the line noise filter REALLY helped any. But,
in
any case, reception was pretty decent for the time that I was using
it.
Driving at night in the U.S. southeast and mid-Atlantic regions,
there
was generally plenty to pick up: V. of Russia, China R. Int'l., V.
of
Vietnam, R. Canada Int'l, R. Prague, Radio Bulgaria, R. Australia, R.
Austria, R. Taiwan Int'l, R. Havana, KBS, R. Vilnius, R. Netherlands,
R. NZ, V. of Turkey, BBC, R. Japan... Mornings could yield some
interesting stuff, too: I used to listen to R. Australia, BBC's
Caribbean service, KBS on the way to work. Also, if interested,
domestic U.S. sw broadcasters were easy to pick up.
At that time, I also had one of those C. Crane car antennas (designed
for enhanced MW reception) hooked up
to the car's antenna jack.


Anyway, it provided respectable performance overall, both on the
interstate and in city traffic. The car was an old one, so I guess I
didn't have to worry about computer generated noises and that sort of
thing.


MW reception was decent on the Sony, with one exception: it was
impossible to scan in any useful way (it would stop on EVERY
frequency,
regardless of whether there was anything to be heard or not...perhaps
the C. Crane antenna was doing too good a job). The FM reception was
pretty decent, too.

Junius

Thanks to everyone for the information!

On Jan 1, 9:47 pm, "GeorgeC" wrote:
That would be the Kenwood RZ-1, not too bad, but not exactly DIN sized, I
had one in the 90's. It was close but no cigar. Philips made the DC-777,
which was a pretty good one, DIN sized, 25W per chan apms, as I recall. I
had one in a Corvette and a Cougar. Pretty good, but 30-something inch
antenna is a bit small for weak DX, but still not bad.

I have now a Sony Xplod Series XR-4950 that I need to install one of these
days.

It has (again, I think I have this right) 40 watt amplifiers X4, but only
two RCA outs for external amplifiers.

Also called a XR-C5100

I got mine from Jacky's but I recently checked and that stuff is no longer
shown, and I could not find one...

But ebay may be a good place for a DC-777 or a XR-C5100, XR-4950X XR-4900

The Kenwood may be a better receiver, but now made for car radio
replacement. No Stereo on FM, etc. Does have AM, FM narrow, FM-Wide modes.

GeorgeC

george at d y b dot com

wrote in message

...

On Jan 1, 6:05 pm, "mc" wrote:
Sony makes a car stereo system that includes shortwave radio. How well
does
it perform? Would I actually be able to hear at least the major
international outlets (BBC, RCI, etc.) while driving across town?

I'm a ham and have been an avid SWL in the past -- away from it
recently --
but am also a linguist and would like to hear various languages
regularly
(including something in Spanish with more intellectual content than the
local hit parade, or whatever it is). I understand that this radio
would
not be for serious DXing.

Any experiences? Thanks.

I saw the specs once. You would not be impressed. If you are just
going to listen to the BBC, then satellite would be your answer. From
a shortwave perspective, Sirius is better than XM. XM just has the
BBC.

Kenwood made a small DIN sized DC to daylight radio, with daylight
somewhere around 900Mhz. The last one I saw on ebay was being sold by
RadioMart (TM). I recall it was rare and most excellent. ;-)

Yes, that was the beast. The dimensions listed here are DIN.
http://www.rigpix.com/kenwood/rz1.htm

Any sources in the UK please?

Mike

"ve3..." wrote in message
...
On Jan 2, 10:21 am, "mc" wrote:
Thanks to everyone for the information!

The Power Hour announced yesterday that they had some Sony short wave
car radios to sell. They claimed that they were the only source in the
US. The phone number was 877-817-9829. I think the price was 249.95.