I Agree with the strictly AM radios, for AM radio only.A lot of the old,
old, old strictly AM radios are better than newer strictly AM radios.But
I guess the newer ones are AM/FM radios nowadays.
cuhulin

On Apr 25, 5:33*pm, DEFCON 88 wrote:
On Apr 25, 1:44*pm, Billy wrote:





In article ,

*"James" wrote:
Am looking for the best choice of a portable AM radio, to be used mainly to
listen to talk radio, both local and national stations.

Audio sound quality and decent tuner are a must. * Inclusion of a shortwave
band would be nice, but not a requirement. *I do want digital tuning, and
station presets.

Have had a CC Crane radio for five years, and getting *a bit tired of it.
Good sound, but quality control is awful, and digital readout is flaky.

thanks !!

James

Best for "you" to stay away from "talk radio", and save what few brain
cells you have left. As is attested to by asking about an AM radio on a
shortwave newsgroup.

If you had a shortwave radio, you may hear broadcasts from other
countries, with commentaries that don't fit into your belief system(?).
Oh, and get headphones, so that you can keep your head stuck in the
sand, and not have to deal with reality.

And why do you hate America?
--
- Billy

So .... how long have you been an @$$h0le?

Hey! As a fellow @$$h0le, I resent that! :-D

(Obviously, Billy, you hit a nerve - good job! ;-)

Bruce Jensen

On Apr 25, 10:01*am, sctvguy1 wrote:
Gregg wrote:
IMHO - a real good radio for the BCB or listening to talk radio should
be a radio that is strictly AM. I know - I know there are some
extremely good receivers that have the SW and FM with the AM but in
most cases there are taking 'something' away to have all three modes.
The only radio I would buy that had the AM and FM for talk radio would
be one of the SR or if you can find a GE P-780 on Ebay, grab it. I
can't count how many hundreds of hours where I have the GE on and
listening to the Reds games or talk radio, it's fabulous for that.
Just my take.ducking beer bottles

My GE SRIII, bought from Ace Hardware is very good, but the tuning is so
damn touchy! *I listen at night to WPHT, great evening talk shows. *I am in
S. Florida, so use a Select-Tenna to weed out the Cubans who seem to infest
every channel.
Also use a CCrane with the "twin ferrite" antenna, and several restored
boatanchors, which are really the best for BCBDX!

I'm going to make a point sometime this week to see if the Ace around
here has the SR and maybe pick one up. Sometimes it's hard for me to
get past the way these radios are put together. I remember when I was
going to pu the RS that touted that piece as a "long distance" radio.
The knobs and switches were loose and there was just no heft to the
piece for its size. There's no way that particular radio would have
held up to all the hours I would have used it IMO.

On Apr 25, 10:51*am, Michael Black wrote:
On Sun, 25 Apr 2010, Gregg wrote:
On Apr 25, 8:31*am, Gregg wrote:
On Apr 25, 9:14*am, dave wrote:

Gregg wrote:
On Apr 24, 11:55 am, *wrote:
Am looking for the best choice of a portable AM radio, to be used mainly to
listen to talk radio, both local and national stations.

Audio sound quality and decent tuner are a must. * Inclusion of a shortwave
band would be nice, but not a requirement. *I do want digital tuning, and
station presets.

Have had a CC Crane radio for five years, and getting *a bit tired of it.
Good sound, but quality control is awful, and digital readout is flaky.

thanks !!

James

This should be fun to watch:-)

I like radios with continuously variable tuning, or at least ones with 1
kHz or better resolution, so I can off-tune slightly for better
intelligibility or interference mitigation.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

IMHO - a real good radio for the BCB or listening to talk radio should
be a radio that is strictly AM. I know - I know there are some
extremely good receivers that have the SW and FM with the AM but in
most cases there are taking 'something' away to have all three modes.
The only radio I would buy that had the AM and FM for talk radio would
be one of the SR or if you can find a GE P-780 on Ebay, grab it. I
can't count how many hundreds of hours where I have the GE on and
listening to the Reds games or talk radio, it's fabulous for that.
Just my take.ducking beer bottles- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Oops - you say no analog and want presets, forget about my post then.
Let us know what you decided but you may want to reconsider it "having
to be" digital with presets, what's the big deal about turning the
knob and having to have stations preset? I never understood that,
especially for the BCB.

The old radios were lousy, not enough calibration marks (even when they
were accurate) and usually no logging scale. *That made it harder to get
back to a station found when tuning up and down the band. *Even something
like the R390, with mechanical digital readout, it took so many turns
of the knob (and maybe multiple turns of the band knob) to get back to
some previous station that it just wasn't great for rapidly tuning the
band. *Today's digitally tuned receivers *provide great precision in
the frequency readout, and usually make it easier to pop around, not only
is there a tuning knob (or up/down switches) but direct entry so you can
enter a few numbers and instantly get back to the general area where you
were previously tuning.

Digitially tuned radios are a vast improvement on the radios of the old
days.

* *Michael- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Hey Michael, I'll just add that I don't really feel the same way as
you when you say "the old radios were lousy" or even your last
sentence. Though no doubt, there are pluses to the digital radios - if
it's really that big a deal - you can take care of that - not the
presets of course but having a digital next to you if it's that big a
deal to check the bands would suffice.

The only draw back IMO to my HQ129X was the lack of a digital readout.
I took care of that by having one added on and that was solved. IMO
much of having a specific receiver is how much skill you have in your
particular piece. I got to use the R75 for a little bit with a friend,
I had never used one before and he had never used the 129X with the
added on Q Multiplier...this was before I had the freq counter added
on.

There was nothing he heard on his piece (different antenna) that I
couldn't hear and even he said he liked the audio better on the
Hammarlund. There were two BCB stations though, don't remember what
they were specifically but one was on the most eastern part of
Oklahoma that he couldn't pickup on his receiver that I could on mine.
How much of it was that he only had been in the hobby for maybe a year
and a half and had the Icom for 6-7 months? I don't know. I just
wanted to see if the noise floor on that particular piece was lower
than mine, unfortunately I didn't get to test drive it to find out.

In closing, I really think it helps if you have your receiver
mastered, and I do with my Hammarlunds - specifically the 129X.

On Apr 25, 1:44*pm, Billy wrote:
In article ,

*"James" wrote:
Am looking for the best choice of a portable AM radio, to be used mainly to
listen to talk radio, both local and national stations.

Audio sound quality and decent tuner are a must. * Inclusion of a shortwave
band would be nice, but not a requirement. *I do want digital tuning, and
station presets.

Have had a CC Crane radio for five years, and getting *a bit tired of it.
Good sound, but quality control is awful, and digital readout is flaky.

thanks !!

James

Best for "you" to stay away from "talk radio", and save what few brain
cells you have left. As is attested to by asking about an AM radio on a
shortwave newsgroup.

If you had a shortwave radio, you may hear broadcasts from other
countries, with commentaries that don't fit into your belief system(?).
Oh, and get headphones, so that you can keep your head stuck in the
sand, and not have to deal with reality.

And why do you hate America?
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3l...Zinn_page.html

He's just looking for a reaction...lol...check his bogus posting
history.rolling my eyes

Gregg wrote:


I'm going to make a point sometime this week to see if the Ace around
here has the SR and maybe pick one up. Sometimes it's hard for me to
get past the way these radios are put together. I remember when I was
going to pu the RS that touted that piece as a "long distance" radio.
The knobs and switches were loose and there was just no heft to the
piece for its size. There's no way that particular radio would have
held up to all the hours I would have used it IMO.
I think that they are now re-branded RCA,but still the same radio. It is
still pretty solid, not a lightweight. The varactor tuning knob is very
touchy however. The Select-Tenna really helps null out the noise and the
interference, in addition to the ferrite rod in the radio. BTW, I picked up
an old Knight Star Roamer with a wound loop in the back of the radio. With
some tweaking of the controls, it is a good BCBDXer! Four tubes and a
selenium resistor. It was restored by a friend of mine who specializes in
old radios. I am getting overrun with old radios around here! My really
great AM DXer is my Panasonic RF-2200 with the swiveling ferrite rod, can't
beat that baby! Got it at Keesler AFB when I was stationed there in the
'80s.

Gregg wrote:


Hey Michael, I'll just add that I don't really feel the same way as
you when you say "the old radios were lousy" or even your last
sentence. Though no doubt, there are pluses to the digital radios - if
it's really that big a deal - you can take care of that - not the
presets of course but having a digital next to you if it's that big a
deal to check the bands would suffice.

The only draw back IMO to my HQ129X was the lack of a digital readout.
I took care of that by having one added on and that was solved. IMO
much of having a specific receiver is how much skill you have in your
particular piece. I got to use the R75 for a little bit with a friend,
I had never used one before and he had never used the 129X with the
added on Q Multiplier...this was before I had the freq counter added
on.

There was nothing he heard on his piece (different antenna) that I
couldn't hear and even he said he liked the audio better on the
Hammarlund. There were two BCB stations though, don't remember what
they were specifically but one was on the most eastern part of
Oklahoma that he couldn't pickup on his receiver that I could on mine.
How much of it was that he only had been in the hobby for maybe a year
and a half and had the Icom for 6-7 months? I don't know. I just
wanted to see if the noise floor on that particular piece was lower
than mine, unfortunately I didn't get to test drive it to find out.

In closing, I really think it helps if you have your receiver
mastered, and I do with my Hammarlunds - specifically the 129X.
Gregg, I couldn't have said it better myself! Digital is nice with all the
bells and whistles, but I'm sure even John Plimmer would say that it is the
antenna and the operator that make up over 90% of the listening and DX'ing!
Are you in OK? I am originally from OKC, mother, brother, daughter(and now
granddaughter) son and step-father live in Midwest City. Oh, the days in my
old room with that Sears bought S-120!

On Apr 26, 5:01*am, sctvguy1 wrote:
Gregg wrote:
I'm going to make a point sometime this week to see if the Ace around
here has the SR and maybe pick one up. Sometimes it's hard for me to
get past the way these radios are put together. I remember when I was
going to pu the RS that touted that piece as a "long distance" radio.
The knobs and switches were loose and there was just no heft to the
piece for its size. There's no way that particular radio would have
held up to all the hours I would have used it IMO.

I think that they are now re-branded RCA,but still the same radio. *It is
still pretty solid, not a lightweight. *The varactor tuning knob is very
touchy however. *The Select-Tenna really helps null out the noise and the
interference, in addition to the ferrite rod in the radio. *BTW, I picked up
an old Knight Star Roamer with a wound loop in the back of the radio. *With
some tweaking of the controls, it is a good BCBDXer! *Four tubes and a
selenium resistor. *It was restored by a friend of mine who specializes in
old radios. *I am getting overrun with old radios around here! *My really
great AM DXer is my Panasonic RF-2200 with the swiveling ferrite rod, can't
beat that baby! *Got it at Keesler AFB when I was stationed there in the
'80s.

LOL - great post - I sense your excitement with this stupid outlandish
hobby.:-) I've always heard of the Knight Star but have never had the
priviledge to take it for a drive.

What radios do you have? Also, what state are you in if you don't mind
me asking. I've seen many a pics and writeups on your Panasonic,
definitely a Cadillac from what I gather. When is enough - enough in
having too many radios...lol.

On Apr 26, 5:06*am, sctvguy1 wrote:
Gregg wrote:
Hey Michael, I'll just add that I don't really feel the same way as
you when you say "the old radios were lousy" or even your last
sentence. Though no doubt, there are pluses to the digital radios - if
it's really that big a deal - you can take care of that - not the
presets of course but having a digital next to you if it's that big a
deal to check the bands would suffice.

The only draw back IMO to my HQ129X was the lack of a digital readout.
I took care of that by having one added on and that was solved. IMO
much of having a specific receiver is how much skill you have in your
particular piece. I got to use the R75 for a little bit with a friend,
I had never used one before and he had never used the 129X with the
added on Q Multiplier...this was before I had the freq counter added
on.

There was nothing he heard on his piece (different antenna) that I
couldn't hear and even he said he liked the audio better on the
Hammarlund. There were two BCB stations though, don't remember what
they were specifically but one was on the most eastern part of
Oklahoma that he couldn't pickup on his receiver that I could on mine.
How much of it was that he only had been in the hobby for maybe a year
and a half and had the Icom for 6-7 months? I don't know. I just
wanted to see if the noise floor on that particular piece was lower
than mine, unfortunately I didn't get to test drive it to find out.

In closing, I really think it helps if you have your receiver
mastered, and I do with my Hammarlunds - specifically the 129X.

Gregg, I couldn't have said it better myself! *Digital is nice with all the
bells and whistles, but I'm sure even John Plimmer would say that it is the
antenna and the operator that make up over 90% of the listening and DX'ing! *
Are you in OK? *I am originally from OKC, mother, brother, daughter(and now
granddaughter) son and step-father live in Midwest City. *Oh, the days in my
old room with that Sears bought S-120!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Born and bred in Cincinnati,Ohio. Oklahoma, specifically the most
eastern part was a station I was logging. I can't remember the
specific station because I couldn't get a top of the hour ID, but it
was a lower powered AM station - it was one of those that "got away"-
I had some old notes on the lowered powered midwest stations at one
time. They were talking about something going on in Stilwell and later
on mentioned a place called Sallisaw so I looked up those areas and
figured it out. Maybe one day she'll magically appear again.

I've drove through there (Okl.) before, beautiful state and ever nicer
people is what I came away with.

On Apr 26, 5:01*am, sctvguy1 wrote:
Gregg wrote:
I'm going to make a point sometime this week to see if the Ace around
here has the SR and maybe pick one up. Sometimes it's hard for me to
get past the way these radios are put together. I remember when I was
going to pu the RS that touted that piece as a "long distance" radio.
The knobs and switches were loose and there was just no heft to the
piece for its size. There's no way that particular radio would have
held up to all the hours I would have used it IMO.

I think that they are now re-branded RCA,but still the same radio. *It is
still pretty solid, not a lightweight. *The varactor tuning knob is very
touchy however. *The Select-Tenna really helps null out the noise and the
interference, in addition to the ferrite rod in the radio. *BTW, I picked up
an old Knight Star Roamer with a wound loop in the back of the radio. *With
some tweaking of the controls, it is a good BCBDXer! *Four tubes and a
selenium resistor. *It was restored by a friend of mine who specializes in
old radios. *I am getting overrun with old radios around here! *My really
great AM DXer is my Panasonic RF-2200 with the swiveling ferrite rod, can't
beat that baby! *Got it at Keesler AFB when I was stationed there in the
'80s.

Crap, I just called the nearest Ace Hardware to me and the guy checked
and said all they carry is an AM/FM clock radio and a Coby. He asked
why I thought they carried that specific radio and I explained it to
him and he said he could order it....lol...I thought "well I can order
it also."

I have a feeling it's going to take me just driving around specific
stores and looking for myself. I want to actually have it in front of
me and check everything out before I buy it. Who knows, maybe check
out a couple thrift stores that happen to be close to that Ace and see.