On Wed, 19 Apr 2006 02:09:15 GMT, Monroe wrote:

Looking to upgrade from a Panasonic RF-3100. Just got off of an
"exiciting" ebay excursion for an older Kenwood R-5000 and have been
considering a R-75 w/ DSP from Universal. Something that has always
been gnawing at me was the use of an HF transceiver for shortwaver
reception. There is routinely a large inventory of used HF receivers
available about my area; mostly HF nets/clubs and the like. Actual
HF/shortwave/comm's receivers are hard to come by here.

Are any of these used receivers notable in performance/feature set for
shortwave reception?

thanks

HF transceivers work fine for shortwave reception, and the older ones
typically may be just as cheap or cheaper than similar
receiver-only's. They do lack the sync detector, if that is important
to you. Also, make sure they have an AM filter of 6 khz or more for AM
listening -- a 2 or 3 khz SSB filter isn't wide enough for decent AM
sound fidelity.

Otherwise, for tabletop receivers, the Japan Radio Company models are
pretty damned good; I have a 525 that's held up well and has a good
feature set (altho' it lacks the sync detector).

If you can locate it, the book "More Radio Receiver -- Chance or
Choice" by Rainer Lichte, or his earlier book, "Radio Receiver --
Chance or Choice" are excellent references about receivers sold during
the last 40 years or so.

bob
k5qwg