tommyknocker wrote in :


Sony is apparently getting out of the SW radio market COMPLETELY.
They're gradually phasing out all of their SW radios. Most are
available only in Japan now, and in a year or two even those will be
discontinued. (Source: Passport to World Band Radio) As for everybody
else, they're all produced in China. Sangean? China (although they
refuse to label them as such, I don't know who they think they're
fooling). Eton/Grundig? Made by Tecsun in China, which is owned by the
Chinese Communist Party (gasp! commies!). At least the rest openly use
names like "Kchibo" so we have no doubt where they're from. It's
simply cheaper to produce everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) in a
country where people work for 10 cents a day. I'm happy with my "gray
market cheapo chino radio" and only use it for a couple hours a day,
and then not all at once so even the weird 99 minute sleep timer
function doesn't bother me. By the way, I heard on the BBC (received
on my Degen 1102) that China is trying to control the US by buying up
all our Treasury bonds, and they're VERY happy now that the president
you all love so much has turned us into the world's greatest debtor
nation. All they have to do is stop buying our debt and Bush's
deficits will instantly put us all into the poorhouse. Why should
China care, they've got a billion people to sell to, they don't need
America.



I have a Sangean ATS-803a, Made in Taiwan, which is not communist China.
Incidentally, it seems to be of much better quality and operation than
the Degen 1102 and Tecsun PL-550 I have.

On topic with the original post, I had a 220 V - DC adapter with my
PL-550 that I bought from Lipyn which got very hot, smelled like
plastic, and did not work at all. Not the 110 - 220 convertor, but the
225 V adapter that comes with the radio. Sent it back 2 1/2 months ago,
still waiting for a replacement. That's one good reason not to buy from
overseas---the long shipping times.

Also, having seen the shoddy quality inside a Grundig S-350, and the
utter lack of protection for reversed batteries (a diode and a fuse are
all that would be needed), I will never buy a product made by Tecsun
again (and probably Degen too).