"Dale" wrote in message
...
Brain Hill said....

"My belief is in great ant and a good radio of any kind that has nice
audio
will
bring great results and less fatique. It's a start."

Amen to what you said about the antenna Brian...




I always say: Give me an average radio with a great ant. and I'll beat your
$1,000,000 radio with a poor ant.


--
73 and good DXing.
Brian
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A lot of radios and 100' of rusty wire!
Zumbrota, Southern MN
Brian's Radio Universe
http://webpages.charter.net/brianhill/

Tempest wrote in message . ..
Hello all.

I've been using scanners for years and now I want to check-out
shortwave.

I've been looking at the Satellit 800 and the Icom R-75. What other
ones should I be considering? I have about $500 or so to spend.

Thanks for any help!

A lot depends on what you want to listen to. There are folks in this
group who know a lot more about receivers than I do who will recommend
the Satellit 800 for international broadcast listening, but I
personally can't recommend it. It's sound is good, but there have been
quality control issues with the 800 and in my personal opinion its
sync detector is only okay, and not as good as what you'll find on
other high end portables (e.g., the Sony SW77, which unfortunately is
no longer in production). Also, it's enormous. It's certainly not a
'portable' and I can't think of any rationale for calling it a
portatop except for the fact that it has a handle and a whip. My guess
is it's bigger (though probably not heavier) than most people's
tabletop receivers.

The R-75 might be the way to go, but again it depends on what you want
to listen to and on whether you want to pay for additional add-ons.

There's my two cents. Good luck with whatever you end up getting!

Tempest:

I'd go with a smallish portable at first

There's Lots of interference around the house ; once you go outside into a
park, or up in the hills or out in the country, or bicycle out into the hills,
or row out onto a lake or whatever
things quiet down rapidly.

If you also want good music / quality, Sony 7600 GR would be a good choice;

Portables are also good for walks; try wandering around with one, using earbuds
/ small headphoines whilst tuning around.
All sorts of stuff out there.

- Plus, you'll be getting a bit of excersize; and will officially be doing good
things for
your health while walking about & DX'ing..
20 minutes walking a day can suddely add up.

So, consider trying a portable first. The KAITO DEGEN 1102 family get high
marks as well..

Dan





In article , Tempest
writes:

Subject: Help in buying 1st shortwave radio
From: Tempest
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 05:45:13 GMT

Hello all.

I've been using scanners for years and now I want to check-out
shortwave.

I've been looking at the Satellit 800 and the Icom R-75. What other
ones should I be considering? I have about $500 or so to spend.

Thanks for any help!

On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 05:45:13 GMT, Tempest
wrote:

Hello all.

I've been using scanners for years and now I want to check-out
shortwave.

I've been looking at the Satellit 800 and the Icom R-75. What other
ones should I be considering? I have about $500 or so to spend.

Thanks for any help!

If you really want to spend $500.00 , The best value for your money is
to try and pick up a used table top radio. I can recomend the Kenwood
R-500 or the Drake R8. You should be able to find either in very good
condition for that amount of money. ( Don't forget the antenna, a 100
foot long wire is cheap and will bring in a lot ). I think this is the
best value for your money and beats any portable for value.

If you want to spend less and try it first you might consider any
number of portable radios such as the Degen DE1102, Sony 7600GR,
Grundig YB400 etc. Keeping in mind that one of the table top receivers
listed above is much better. I guess the question would be, Do you
want to spend 100 to 250 on a portable or spend the 500 on a very good
used receiver.

Let us know what you do.

Brian Hill wrote:

I always say: Give me an average radio with a great ant. and I'll beat your
$1,000,000 radio with a poor ant.


That reminded me of some green thumb sorts talking on a gardening show a
while back. The topic was tree planting.

One gentleman said something like:

"A one dollar tree in a ten dollar hole is a lot better than a ten
dollar tree in one dollar hole"

They were discussing the great importance of soil preparation.


at least I *think* they were discussing soil preparation. I haven't had
much to do with things chlorophyll since my DNA experimentation went
horribly awry. My sister has now found the skin make up needed to cover
the green tinge.



mike