"Lawrence H. Bulk" wrote in message
om...
Dear Jim,

I have a friend who owns one and I have heard it quite a bit. His is
modified "to the teeth" by ICOM, Kiwa and others; it's not bad, yet I
would still not buy one. Though more sensitive, I believe that
overall, in terms of "what you hear," it is inferior, at least to my
ears, to the Satellit 800, which I brought over to his house once for
side-by-side comparison. (Formal "true" A/B comparisons are not
possible as he has only one antenna connection, so the antenna must be
disconnected from one receiver and then hooked to the other. It
doesn't take long, but it's not true A/B.) That evening there was
nothing heard on the ICOM that could not also be heard on the Grundig
and the Grundig sounded much better (he uses a Radio Shack external
speaker; I used the Grundig's speaker). His radio cost much more than
mine.

My friend likes his ICOM.

I feel that most receiver preferences are subjective. Comes down not to
specs, or even to features, but to what the listener personally likes. My
favorite portable radio of all time is a Grundig Transistor 1000. It has
LW/MW/SW1(49m Europa band)/SW2 (6-16 MHz)/FM. It has no SSB capabilities at
all. It is, however, an outstanding program listening radio, with excellent
sensitivity and selectivity. Not as selective, perhaps, as something with a
sharp ceramic filter, but I have no trouble separating stations on it. It
was made back when Grundig was at the top of it's form, sounds fantastic,
and is quite solidly built. It's no $700 radio, but it does everything
important to me in a SW receiver... (if I want to hear SSB signals, I'll
fire up my ham rig.. )