Thanks to everyone for taking time to answer. I'll stick with the
NRD-525 and try to fix up the antenna a bit. Right now it is just a
wire stuck through a hole in the wall of my concrete block and stucco
house and tied to a tree. No insulators, no coax, just wire. That
has to be some of the problem.

You would be surprised how good a long end fed wire can be. I spent a
long time with just a 100 foot wire wrapped around a nail next to my
window and thrown into a tree. There was maybe 80 feet between the
window and 20 feet hanging down from the tree and tied to a brick.
This kept the line fairly tight in the wind. I used this with my
Sangean 803 for years. It was a grand improvement over the whip.
It was only when I got the Icom R-75 that I started to use more
sophisticated wire.

I would guess that the lack of insulators is most definitely a problem.
If you just do something about that, I bet you'll hear a big
improvement.

Steve