The problem with using a portable is you can't see the radio controls.
The form factor is wrong. [Knobs all over the place, rather than the
controls on the faceplate.] There are a few DC to daylight scanners
that do have shortwave. Another idea is to get a ham radio that has
continuous coverage. The advantage to using the ham radio is you can
get decent filters for sideband use, something the DC to daylight
radios often lack.

http://www.aoruk.com/ar8600.htm
or something like this (yaesu has a similar model)

BTW, that Bush statement on human-animal hybrids was code-word speaking
to his bible thumper base.

Eric F. Richards wrote:
Greetings...

Hate to be all on-topic and such here, given how this newsgroup
usually goes, but, whattheheck...

I've decided that I want shortwave in my car. Last time I looked -- a
few months ago -- there weren't any adequate in-dash receivers
currently made, but I'm willing to do the messy-cable approach and
have an external radio available.

Now, the question: Would a tabletop or a portable be more effective?
The car has a multiband (HF/V/UHF) HAM antenna on it (no HF rig in the
car -- long story!) so I have an antenna that is nominally possible to
use with a tabletop, and it is outside, far from the electronic noise
of the engine and computers.

OTOH, at first blush a portable would seem obvious for this
application, except that it is inside the metal car body, along with
the electronic noise from the computers.

Any (intelligent, relevent) thoughts?

Thanks!

--
Eric F. Richards

"Nature abhors a vacuum tube." -- Myron Glass,
often attributed to J. R. Pierce, Bell Labs, c. 1940