One Perfect Pocket Radio?
 

I'm searching for the perfect pocket radio.

* Cover AM/FM/SW
* Digital tuning
* Smaller than 4" x 3" x 1"
* Weigh less than 10oz
* Use AA batteries
* Std 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
* Offer SSB
* Excellent & rugged "build" quality
* Excellent performance on *all* bands
* Priced less than $100
* I'd also like weather and TV (VHF & UHF) coverage.

A few candidates that I've come across and with the exception of
weather/TV for which I'd pay a little more where they fall short of my
criteria are;

Grundig YB400PE -
* Expensive and big

Grundig YB550PE -
* Still too big and no SSB

Eton E100 -
* No SSB and not great performance

Yaesu VR120
* Expensive, no SSB and terrible AM/FM


And what's up with the manufactures that seem similar? Eton & Grundig &
Tecsun? Kaito & Sangean?

Thanx,
Bob

I'm afraid you're going to have shop for clothes with bigger pockets.
No pocket radio that I know of will do all this.

Steve

Steve is quite correct on this.

You might consider inflating your budget considerably and going with
either the Sony ICF-SW07 or ICF-SW100S, particularly if size is an
overriding concern.

Can't think of anything of this size class that's going to have weather
& TV while at the same time giving good performance on the SW bands.

"* Excellent & rugged "build" quality"

Well, the SW100S build quality, while very professional, is not
something that you can bang around alot... especially with the cover
open. Yes, it's probably 3 times the $100 price he's looking for...

This is one of the reasons I keep on thinking about something like the
Degen DE-1105, which is $60 (incl international shipping on ebay) .
I'd miss the syncronous detection I have on my SW100S... I don't use
SSB much, so I wouldn't miss that.

I own a small Westinghouse AM/FM/Shortwave shirtpocket size radio.It
used to work very good for it's size.One night when I was listening to
it and I got up to go to my kitchen,the radio slipped off of my couch
and hit my hardwood floor.I guess it landed on the tuneing knob when it
hit the floor.There is sort of a little cube block thingy the tuneing
knob is associated with in the radio and a lot of tiny solder points.The
assembly broke loose when the radio hit the floor,I wouldn't mind
getting the radio repaired,but I dont think I can repair the radio.It is
not a cheap quality radio like them Bell & Howell and similar cheap
quality radios.
cuhulin

On 17 Aug 2005 08:00:23 -0400, Bob wrote:


I'm searching for the perfect pocket radio.

* Cover AM/FM/SW
* Digital tuning
* Smaller than 4" x 3" x 1"
* Weigh less than 10oz
* Use AA batteries
* Std 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
* Offer SSB
* Excellent & rugged "build" quality
* Excellent performance on *all* bands
* Priced less than $100
* I'd also like weather and TV (VHF & UHF) coverage.

A few candidates that I've come across and with the exception of
weather/TV for which I'd pay a little more where they fall short of my
criteria are;

Grundig YB400PE -
* Expensive and big

Grundig YB550PE -
* Still too big and no SSB

Eton E100 -
* No SSB and not great performance

Yaesu VR120
* Expensive, no SSB and terrible AM/FM


And what's up with the manufactures that seem similar? Eton & Grundig &
Tecsun? Kaito & Sangean?

Thanx,
Bob


Sangean ATS-606A is what I schlep around. No SSB. No Weather. No TV
(BTW, I've never seen a TV band radio with UHF. I also have a little
hand-held Casio TV).

I did a www.devilfinder.com for,Pocket size Shortwave Radios.I
think that somewhere in the World there has got to be at least one
company that makes a great little AM/FM/Shortwave Radio.Who that company
is,(perhaps somewhere in Europe?) I dont know.
cuhulin

In article .com,
jamulc wrote:
Steve is quite correct on this.

You might consider inflating your budget considerably and going with
either the Sony ICF-SW07 or ICF-SW100S, particularly if size is an
overriding concern.

Can't think of anything of this size class that's going to have weather
& TV while at the same time giving good performance on the SW bands.

Sangean ATS-636 ... well ... if they ever decide to manufacture it.

Some features are in Some radios..
No Pocket SWR has SSB ;
- unless it's a Carpenters pants type pocket..

Degen DE1105 is supposed to be pretty good but
is in early build stages.. No SSB

Poke around in GOOGLE, check out radiointel.com

- But I don't think that animals been made yet

Heck, BUY Something.. !

You can live a full, happy life with

a shirt pocket SW radio with no SSB

Agreed, the SW100S would fail on the "rugged build" factor, as would
the SW07. Bob will need to prioritize from among these various
criteria, since he can't have it all...

Before acquiring the SW07, I used to carry a 606A around quite
frequently. It's a reasonably priced radio with decent performance,
although it's a tad larger (5 3/4 x 3 1/2 x 1 1/4) than what Bob is
looking for and, as noted by David, lacking in SSB.