Dear Lee,

Please understand that we are now at the "bottom" of the 11-year
sunspot cycle. Conditions on the shortwave bands are not as good as
they were in, say, 2001 or will be probably in 2010-11. You will have
difficulty receiving signals on the higher bands (above 10000 kHz) at
night and the signals in the lower frequencies don't generally "travel"
as far as those on the higher frequencies. At the present time, the
best time to listen is early morning and daytime as those higher
fequencies travel better in your local daytime. (Right now - 1637 UTC -
I'm listening to some beautiful classical music on Radio Jordan 11690
kHz; the transmitter is in Jordan - it is not a relay in the US,
Canada, or Caribbean islands such as the Taiwan broadcasts you are
hearing.)

I do not believe that any other radio would perform "better" for you
than your NRD-525 (assuming it is in first-class shape); there are
certainly other radios which are "better" performers but, if you can't
hear much with your current radio (another assumption: your antenna is
mounted and connected correctly and your radio is grounded correctly),
you won't hear any more with any other one. As others have stated here,
the JRC NRD-525 is a good one.

So hang in there - conditions will start to improve probably in 2007.
In the meantime, try listening during the day. I think you'll be
surprised and pleased.

Best of luck,

Joe