"Ross Archer" wrote in message
...
mike wrote:

Hey group,

I own a Sony ICF-SW7600GR and have been very happy with it.

Thinking I am ready to graduate to a tabletop model such as a grundig
Satellite. I want the most bang for the buck.

Will the move be worth my money?
Will I be able to pull in more stations?

Should I buy a Winradio instead?

Your comments apreciated,

mike

If you want the Grundig, I'm not about to tell you not to.
But *best* bang for the buck? -- probably not nearly.

If you now have a high quality portable as you do, and you
aren't already using some sort of outdoor antenna, in my
opinion your best "bang-for-the-buck" for improving
performance is first to add an appropriately-sized outdoor
antenna (or indoor loop such as Sony makes) to your
portable. Try perhaps 20-75 feet. Start long and trim back
if you experience spurious signals and overloading. You
don't *need* to use transformers or coax to start with, but
if you like the improvements, you may get sucked into the
world of trying to improve your antenna all the time.

Ironically, while a portable might work well with just its
short whip, as you go up the $$$ scale these high-buck
radios often require better antennas to function well. I
know the Satellite 800 has a whip and a whip amp, so it's
possible that with limited antenna, you will get more
readable signals -- but probably not more than $2 worth of
wire could do for you without the Sat 800.

Still, the Sat 800 sounds great, and a lot of people have
sworn by it (and at it!) in this NG. Check google groups
for rec.radio.shortwave and find zillions of opinions on it.

I was very dissappointed in the SAT 800's sensitivity using just the whip
antenna!
DeWayne



-- Ross