In article . com,
"Amy" wrote:

Thanks for all these suggestions, guys. And fyi I am not an
international wimins, I am a displaced American living in Canada and
dying, dying, dying with the awful radio stations up here. My husband
is from France and he too is dying with the radio. I work for a US
company out of my home, which is why I am not interested in using my
computer as a stereo receiver. I am, however, very interested in in
the Sony ICF-SW7600GR. We will only be looking to pick up major NY
and major France stations, no obscure stuff. As we are pretty
clueless to doing this, is it a big deal to FIND the channels we want
once we turn on the radio? I mean, do we just have to scan at will to
find them, or is there a code for each station?

Short wave listening takes more effort than the AM, FM broadcast bands
because stations are on different frequencies at different times. Short
wave broadcasters transmit from different parts of the world to
different regions so you will need to either purchase or surf the
Internet for schedules to your area. Even though you can pick up
broadcasts meant for different parts of the world it takes better
equipment and antennas than the portable you are considering.

The Sony ICF-SW7600GR is an excellent portable.

You need to check out the schedules meant for your area so signals are
strong and have the programming you want to hear. You should be able to
get programming in French without a problem at different times of the
day and evening as Radio Canada and of course France broadcast in
French. You also have Canada's domestic service in english on short
wave.

If you find a particular short wave broadcaster you like they usually
have complete frequency and program schedules that you can print out.

Two popular guides to short wave broadcast listening are Passport to
World Band Radio 2006 and World Radio TV Handbook 2006. They are
printed guides and some of the information goes out of date so if you
find a discrepancy goto that broadcasters web site for up dates.

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/bk_swl.html

--
Telamon
Ventura, California