Over the years I have purchased way too many short wave radios, most of
which ended up in the garage. A few I keep at hand for various needs
and I thought my experience might be of interest to those bitten by the
"gotta have it" bug.
PRINCIPLES
1. There is no radio that will do everything you want.
2. You need lots of carefully chosen radios to do different things. (
show this to the wife)
3. There are many ways to sneak a new radio into the house. ("What?
this old thing? Why I have had it for years! Wives are never quite
sure as all radios look the same to them) Avoid the dreaded lament, "
You had lots of money 1982, You went and let that Collins make a fool
of you, Why don't you do right, Like the other men do, Get out of
here and get me some money too! As if I had a money tree out back or
something to fend off the incessant demands for food, rent, heat and
other things irrelevant to SWL. But I digress.

BEST ALLROUND : SONY SW7600G. Good sensitivity on SW, AM, and FM.
Clear tone. The antenna whip, and mini jacks are not robust and are
hard to fix. The synchronous detector makes all the difference under
severe fade conditions.

BEST PORTABLE: GRUNDIG S350. Good sensitivity on SW, AM and FM. Clear
tone. Handy size to grab onto and take to the yard or bath. Known as
the "shifty 350" because of its horrible drift on AM and SW.

BEST TONE: GENERAL ELECTRIC SUPERADIO II . Superb tone, excellent
sensitivity, easy to align, a bit heavy, but puts out lot of sound
outdoors. Drifts on AM. I had a GE Superadio III at one time and I
disliked it so much I gave it away. I am not sure exactly why I
disliked it, it received ok, and sounded good, but the tuning was like
skating on thin ice. And it was very tricky to align.

BEST OLD ANALOG: GRUNDIG YACHT BOY206: Near the last of the
European-made SW radios. sensitive, all the SW bands nicely bandspread
for easy tuning, compact, good tone, long battery life, quiet circuits,
really all that is needed for SW listening. I use it to scan the bands
quickly.

BEST MINI: ETON E100: Good for walks or to slip in a pocket. Sensitive,
clear tone, state of the art, tiny push buttons, complicated menus, a
remarkable no compromise miniature. The only trouble is that it is so
small I tend to lose it.

If it is possible to limit your SW radio collection to five radios,
these would be a good long-term selection
But I must go. My wife has arrived and is demanding to know why I am
wasting my time on this thing when there are 3749 chores to do and her
mother was right: I am a good for nothing lazy layabout bum and she
should have married Raoul who became a lawyer AND a doctorl and I must
think of an answer which is difficult because she is probably right.
In haste and 73

On 21 Mar 2006 12:48:28 -0800, "ve3..." wrote:




Single conversion?

Old Boatanchors.
cuhulin

ve3... wrote:
Over the years I have purchased way too many short wave radios, most of
which ended up in the garage. A few I keep at hand for various needs
and I thought my experience might be of interest to those bitten by the
"gotta have it" bug.
PRINCIPLES
1. There is no radio that will do everything you want.
2. You need lots of carefully chosen radios to do different things. (
show this to the wife)
3. There are many ways to sneak a new radio into the house. ("What?
this old thing? Why I have had it for years! Wives are never quite
sure as all radios look the same to them) Avoid the dreaded lament, "
You had lots of money 1982, You went and let that Collins make a fool
of you, Why don't you do right, Like the other men do, Get out of
here and get me some money too! As if I had a money tree out back or
something to fend off the incessant demands for food, rent, heat and
other things irrelevant to SWL. But I digress.

BEST ALLROUND : SONY SW7600G. Good sensitivity on SW, AM, and FM.
Clear tone. The antenna whip, and mini jacks are not robust and are
hard to fix. The synchronous detector makes all the difference under
severe fade conditions.

BEST PORTABLE: GRUNDIG S350. Good sensitivity on SW, AM and FM. Clear
tone. Handy size to grab onto and take to the yard or bath. Known as
the "shifty 350" because of its horrible drift on AM and SW.

BEST TONE: GENERAL ELECTRIC SUPERADIO II . Superb tone, excellent
sensitivity, easy to align, a bit heavy, but puts out lot of sound
outdoors. Drifts on AM. I had a GE Superadio III at one time and I
disliked it so much I gave it away. I am not sure exactly why I
disliked it, it received ok, and sounded good, but the tuning was like
skating on thin ice. And it was very tricky to align.

BEST OLD ANALOG: GRUNDIG YACHT BOY206: Near the last of the
European-made SW radios. sensitive, all the SW bands nicely bandspread
for easy tuning, compact, good tone, long battery life, quiet circuits,
really all that is needed for SW listening. I use it to scan the bands
quickly.

BEST MINI: ETON E100: Good for walks or to slip in a pocket. Sensitive,
clear tone, state of the art, tiny push buttons, complicated menus, a
remarkable no compromise miniature. The only trouble is that it is so
small I tend to lose it.

If it is possible to limit your SW radio collection to five radios,
these would be a good long-term selection
But I must go. My wife has arrived and is demanding to know why I am
wasting my time on this thing when there are 3749 chores to do and her
mother was right: I am a good for nothing lazy layabout bum and she
should have married Raoul who became a lawyer AND a doctorl and I must
think of an answer which is difficult because she is probably right.
In haste and 73

There have been so many good portables, portatops and tabletops in the
past 30 years that coming up with a consensus list would be all but
impossible.

For sheer audio quality the old Panasonic RF5000b would be very hard to
beat on any band. And I'll leave my list there.

"ve3..." wrote in message
ups.com...
Over the years I have purchased way too many short wave radios, most of
which ended up in the garage. A few I keep at hand for various needs
and I thought my experience might be of interest to those bitten by the
"gotta have it" bug.
PRINCIPLES

Good grief- none of those would make it anywhere close to my short list.
That's what makes the hobby interesting I suppose.
Dale W4OP

Radio reviews this,radio reviews that,,,, heck,they even do reviews on
those cheap two bit made in China radios.I bought a new Panasonic
RF-2600 AM/FM/Shortwave radio at a Service Mercandise store about 23
years ago,I still own that radio too.I wonder why those big shot radio
reviewers haven't done a radio review of a Panasonic RF-2600 radio? I
have looked on the internet before,I haven't seen a review of that model
radio yet.

No matter though,I am the best reviewer of my radios.
cuhulin

In article . com,
"ve3..." wrote:

Over the years I have purchased way too many short wave radios, most of
which ended up in the garage. A few I keep at hand for various needs
and I thought my experience might be of interest to those bitten by the
"gotta have it" bug.
PRINCIPLES
1. There is no radio that will do everything you want.
2. You need lots of carefully chosen radios to do different things. (
show this to the wife)
3. There are many ways to sneak a new radio into the house. ("What?
this old thing? Why I have had it for years! Wives are never quite
sure as all radios look the same to them) Avoid the dreaded lament, "
You had lots of money 1982, You went and let that Collins make a fool
of you, Why don't you do right, Like the other men do, Get out of
here and get me some money too! As if I had a money tree out back or
something to fend off the incessant demands for food, rent, heat and
other things irrelevant to SWL. But I digress.

BEST ALLROUND : SONY SW7600G. Good sensitivity on SW, AM, and FM.
Clear tone. The antenna whip, and mini jacks are not robust and are
hard to fix. The synchronous detector makes all the difference under
severe fade conditions.

BEST PORTABLE: GRUNDIG S350. Good sensitivity on SW, AM and FM. Clear
tone. Handy size to grab onto and take to the yard or bath. Known as
the "shifty 350" because of its horrible drift on AM and SW.

BEST TONE: GENERAL ELECTRIC SUPERADIO II . Superb tone, excellent
sensitivity, easy to align, a bit heavy, but puts out lot of sound
outdoors. Drifts on AM. I had a GE Superadio III at one time and I
disliked it so much I gave it away. I am not sure exactly why I
disliked it, it received ok, and sounded good, but the tuning was like
skating on thin ice. And it was very tricky to align.

BEST OLD ANALOG: GRUNDIG YACHT BOY206: Near the last of the
European-made SW radios. sensitive, all the SW bands nicely bandspread
for easy tuning, compact, good tone, long battery life, quiet circuits,
really all that is needed for SW listening. I use it to scan the bands
quickly.

BEST MINI: ETON E100: Good for walks or to slip in a pocket. Sensitive,
clear tone, state of the art, tiny push buttons, complicated menus, a
remarkable no compromise miniature. The only trouble is that it is so
small I tend to lose it.

If it is possible to limit your SW radio collection to five radios,
these would be a good long-term selection
But I must go. My wife has arrived and is demanding to know why I am
wasting my time on this thing when there are 3749 chores to do and her
mother was right: I am a good for nothing lazy layabout bum and she
should have married Raoul who became a lawyer AND a doctorl and I must
think of an answer which is difficult because she is probably right.
In haste and 73

Maybe, but what kind of wimpy-ass radios does Raoul have?

Greg

"ve3..." wrote:

Over the years I have purchased way too many short wave radios, most of
which ended up in the garage. A few I keep at hand for various needs
and I thought my experience might be of interest to those bitten by the
"gotta have it" bug.

Well, my radio collection has been distilled down to the keepers, but
I don't know that I will claim that they are ultimate keepers since
the one I've had the longest has been with me only 9 years.

Not enough time, in my opinion, to consider it a "forever" radio. For
all I know, it may still die of some flaw.

BTW, R-392, IC-R8500, RX-340.

R-392: Built like a tank, weatherproof, easy to repair.

IC-R8500: Excellent fundamentals, built like a tank. Possible fatal
flaw: component in PLL often blows out, but I've not had it happen to
me.

RX-340: Built reasonably well, does just about everything you could
ask of a radio.

--
Eric F. Richards

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

Three that didn't make the cut

The radios I selected were inexpensive and easily found and still work
after 10 years abuse and are pretty good at their niche. Three that I
still use off and on but don't recommend as keepers are the DX-394, the
DX 398, and the Zenith 3000.

DX 394. I got this one on sale at Radio Shack for $140 and couldn't
turn it down. I use it as a bedside radio and it works ok but the
modifications required to overcome the well-known engineering
deficiencies are more than I want to get into. I removed the "chuffing"
circuit (easy). Of course, it is not a portable.

DX-398. Art Bell was touting these in 90's as "awesome, incredible, the
last radio you will ever have to buy" It was the biggest disappointment
of any radio. At $200 it was not cheap like I usually get. Basically,
its shortwave performance on the whip sucks. It has been desensitised
for some reason and in my area is useless. I think they may have made
it for the European market where signals are strong and overloading is
a problem. It performs well on AM and FM and ironically I still use it
to listen to Art Bell and Co.. I have the 18 pushbuttons lined up with
various clear channel stations that carry Coast to Coast and as one
station fades I punch up one that is still readable until it fades and
so on. At least I didn't buy it from C.C.Crane so that is some
consolation. The bail is very flimsy and has broken off (typical) and
the battery cover is lightly fastened in place and falls off if you
look at it sideways. I have put some Scotch Magic Tape as a hinge that
holds the cover in place. It is too large to fit in the hand
comfortably and should have a strap of some sort.

Zenith TransOceanic 3000. A fine radio and fun to play with but its too
BIG and HEAVY. Weightlifters would like this model but I got tired of
lugging it around and finding a place big enough to sit it. It looked
good in those National Geographic ads on a sailboat surrounded by
nautical types in dress whites so you can get a vicarious vibe from
1960. Sensitive, nicely bandspread, and easy to fix.

There are way too many lesser breeds that I won't mention





























Zenith TransOceanic 3000.

ve3... wrote:
Over the years I have purchased way too many short wave radios, most
of which ended up in the garage. A few I keep at hand for various
needs and I thought my experience might be of interest to those
bitten by the "gotta have it" bug.
PRINCIPLES
1. There is no radio that will do everything you want.
2. You need lots of carefully chosen radios to do different things. (
show this to the wife)
3. There are many ways to sneak a new radio into the house. ("What?
this old thing? Why I have had it for years! Wives are never quite
sure as all radios look the same to them) Avoid the dreaded lament, "
You had lots of money 1982, You went and let that Collins make a fool
of you, Why don't you do right, Like the other men do, Get out of
here and get me some money too! As if I had a money tree out back or
something to fend off the incessant demands for food, rent, heat and
other things irrelevant to SWL. But I digress.


BEST PORTABLE: GRUNDIG S350. Good sensitivity on SW, AM and FM. Clear
tone. Handy size to grab onto and take to the yard or bath. Known as
the "shifty 350" because of its horrible drift on AM and SW.

!!!!!!!

That may be the worst list of radio I have ever seen.

--
Brian Denley
http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html