Hello all...

I'm looking forward to buying my first SW receiver soon, and like many
others I've been reading all of the comparisons between the 909, the
7600GR, and the YB400. I'm not necessarily checking these out
because they're portables, but more so because of their value and high
praise I've seen.

Both radios have enough presets and other features for my liking.
The labeling capability of the 909 is neat, but not a must have. The
Sony's most attractive feature (as compared to the 909) to me thus
far is the synch detector, which may not be awesome but sounds
like it can really help a lot in certain situations. The poorer reception
off the whip with the 909 is probably not a big deal for me, since I think
I'll be using this at home nearly all of the time and thus don't mind
hooking up an external antenna. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm looking
at these radios because of their great value; the fact that they're also
travel-friendly is secondary.

I'd appreciate hearing some opinions on a couple of things:

1) Is it easy to overrate the synch capability advantage for the Sony?
Will it make that much of a difference?

2) If I'm comparing the use of these units assuming an external antenna
connected to the 909 (and the Sony as well if desired), does this wipe
out the reception advantage of the Sony completely, or does it still
have
the edge? Does Sony's synch detector still keep it tops here, or is
this
an unrelated thing?

3) Since I don't necessarily need a unit to be super portable, are my
options greatly improved if I'm willing to spend, say, $300-$400?
Or would I need to spend a lot more than that to get an appreciable
improvement over the receivers I'm currently considering?

I'd greatly appreciate any helpful advice here, and I hope my questions
weren't too annoying

Greg