Daniel J. Morlan wrote:
I have a Grundig Satellit 800 coming my way, and some of my fellow ham radio
friends are trying to convince me that I've made some kind of mistake.

The AOR 7030 is darnedably expensive, but I did have a question as to
performance characteristics and enhancements. Is there a shortwave radio
superior to the AOR 7030? Just for curiositie's sake, is there such a radio
that IS more superior, if money were no object? Or is there one superior in
quality that is actually less expensive?

Is there perhaps a website that has a fairly independent review of these
radios, and makes comparisons?

Any help greatly appreciated.

(I do know of radio netherlands, and universal radio.)

73, WW6DJM

Daniel



When you get to the range of the 7030+ or the Drake R8b or the JRC NRD
545d, it's mostly a case of personal preference.

I owned one of the original Drake R8's and I liked it better than an out
of the box 7030+. Add some great filters and the 7030+ has an edge.

While some swear by the JRC's I've seen way too many comments about the
audio quality being poor. That's a big issue for me.

The only radio I've had that I like better than the 7030+ is a Harris
RF-550. It's an older military radio with nothing to speak of in the
way of convenience features, but it's got the nicest build quality I've
ever seen, and if there's a signal to be found, the Harris seems to make
it enjoyable to listen to. They generally sell for considerably less
than a new 7030+.

Other respected military radios include models by Watkins Johnson and
Racal. Personally, I like the older digital WJ's better than the newer
ones. I had a Racal 6790/gm and while it was a good radio, it just
didn't seem to have an advantage over anything else I was using.

On tube era radios, the Collins designed R-390 and R-388 are quite good.