good shortwave radios?

[electronjohn]

My fat ol' fingers would have a heck of a time running that 9000...but I'd sure give it a try!!

[Fisherdude]

Originally Posted by electronjohn

My fat ol' fingers would have a heck of a time running that 9000...but I'd sure give it a try!!

The buttons aren't that small. The radio is actually 5' X 8'.

[dciurej]

You're going to need a guide to what is on shortwave anyway and Passport to World Band Radio is one of the better guides in book form. As a plus it has extensive reviews of most of the currently available shortwave radios. It's usually available at Amazon for under twenty bucks.

[Sandy G]

One does NOT need to have an R-390 to achieve SWL bliss, there are many, many excellent radios out there. Tube models I have personal experience with-Hallicrafters S-39- Better collectable than radio. SX-25- Very good set. SX-28- Gold standard WW2 era set. Still pretty decent, but more of a collectable nowadays. SX-73- 1951 TOTL Halli set. Excellent performer, rare, butt-ugly. SX-62- Get this one & you've got it all- Performance, looks, even has the modern FM band. Hammarlund- SP-600- Their TOTL. R-390 class, or close to it. Get a later version that doesn't have the infamous BBOD(Black Beauty of Death) caps in it, though. HQ-129A- Fabled MW performer, a bit long in the tooth now. National SW-54- Good boy's 1st radio. AA5 set w/SW bands. Modest performer. NC-98- What the boy got for Christmas a year or 2 later. Better performer. NC-125- The Buick of the National line. NC-183D- Not quite their TOTL but close. You won't go wrong w/this radio, however. HRO 50T1- Their TOTL set. Archaic 1935 design, you have to change coil sets in them to change bands. Getting the 2 coilsets that cover the MW band is a PITA, too. But HROs are good performers. Scott- RBO-2- Shipboard morale receiver, good MW coverage, limited SW coverage. SLRM-similar late WW2 morale radio. 800-B-Good performer, excellent sound, some models have modern FM band, turntable & TV. There you have a thumbnail sketch on a few of the more popular/readily available "boatanchors". A lot of them will require a speaker, virtually all will require some maintenance, but there's something about playing w/a big, old, multitube, multiband radio that is hard to beat...

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Mmike

Just look for any Amateur transceiver such as Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood and TenTec from the 90's onward for around 300.00 and you will be in business and then study for your license and talk as well!

73 de -Mike

I have an Icom IC725 (won it at a hamfest in 1991) with a very hot receiver. Used it with about three different antennas, worked 49 states and a handful of foreign countries, now using it with a Barker and Williamson AP-10A apartment portable antenna.

Getting back to the receiver section of the 725, as I said, it is very sensitive and, with the optional 500-Hz CW filter (which I installed on mine years ago because I operated CW quite a bit until I moved here--the rig's 100-watt signal trips one of the GFCIs in my apartment, but works very well on the local radio club's ten-meter net and doesn't bother the GFCIs on SSB) is quite selective as well. Icom did not cut corners with this radio. The only receiver I've used in 36 years as a ham that could match or even rival the one in my '725 was the Halli SX-101A Mark III I had in my Novice/Technician station, in the early 1970s until 1985. The SX101 had a switchable crystal filter and a notch filter; the crystal filter could narrow the selectivity all the way down to 500 Hz--excellent for CW.

I also had a Halli SX62a for a few years. Like the SX101, it was very sensitive and selective on all eight bands, including FM. I used only an old car-stereo speaker with it, but it still sounded wonderful on FM, even in the basement of my former home, using just a length of wire on the antenna terminal. I often find myself wondering how good that receiver would have sounded on FM had I connected it to a really good speaker. I think it would have sounded at least as good as a good mono phonograph of the period (1950s-'60s), as the SX62 had, IIRC, a well-built audio stage with two 6V6 tubes in push-pull parallel. Like the old Zenith radios, they don't make them like that anymore, although, as you mentioned, the recent-vintage Icom rigs don't do badly. I intend to hang on to mine as long as it works as well as it does.

73,

[Pio1980]

Longwire radio, New, all-mode: Icom R75. Biggest bang for the buck desktop base rig. I call mine "The Postman" 'cuz it always delivers. The $ point of rapidly diminishing returns for new at ca $600.
Longwire radio, Used: Icom R75, Drake R-8. Ca $450 with patient shopping, the best bench radios for the money at the $ point of rapidly diminishing returns.

Portable, new: (no SSB reception) Redsun/Kaito RP2100/ or CCRadio-SW with upgraded AM BCB. Highly rated for the bux at ca $120-$150.
Sony ICF-7600GR w/synch AM and SSB reception. The benchmark-best current small all-wave portable, ca $150.
Kaito/DEGEN 1103, budget priced over-acheiver w/SSB reception. Good small port with most for least $, ca $80.
Portable, used: Sony ICF-2010, Sony ICF 7600G, both with AM synch and SSB reception. Benchmark-best in respective classes. Sangean ATS-803(A)/R-S DX-440 and variants, honorable mention for execptional value at sub-$100 used.

Portable vintage: Zenith Trans-Oceanic 3000 BCB-SWBC AM/FM. Analogue tuning.
They really don't make anything like this anymore, handwired with all-American made parts and plug-in transistors. Once the best portable DX radio, period. Still relatively plentiful and affordable if one accepts a working example that isn't otherwise perfect. I like mine a lot and use it on AC to avoid having to load in 9 'D' cells. If you want classic vintage without maintainance issues this is it.

"Stickshift" (analogue knob-and-dial) tuned older sets like the older portables and tube sets have their own charm but are more like fishing blind than going direct to frequency with a precise numbered read-out. Tube radios have their very special maintainance requirements, a heavy tube set needs to have competent local technical service available. Fortunately I can service my own R390A (70lbs) and Hammarlund Super Pro 210X /Sig Corps BC-1004-C (120+lbs). Lightweight tube sets generally don't deliver the goods well enuff to satisfy in the long term. I wouldn't recommend toobz for noobz without a local mentor regardless, too many pitfalls to mention.
S.B.

[Fisherdude]

Pio1980, excellent post!

[Reece]

Nothing like DX-ing, signal coming in from over (whichever) ocean, rolling strong then weaker then strong over the waves, waves of heat and that unique aroma wafting up from the tubes, cup of coffee, armchair Marconi!

Reece

[Fisherdude]

Originally Posted by Reece

Nothing like DX-ing, signal coming in from over (whichever) ocean, rolling strong then weaker then strong over the waves, waves of heat and that unique aroma wafting up from the tubes, cup of coffee, armchair Marconi!

Reece

That's almost like haiku. Just a tad bit longer.

[Mmike]

Originally Posted by OvenMaster

Panasonic RF-2200. Great with the built-in whip, excellent when connected to an outdoor wire, for both AM/MW and SW. FM is no slouch, either.
Superb tone quality is the icing on the cake.

Tom

That Panasonic looks just like a Grundig I used to own.

_Mike

[Mmike]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I have an Icom IC725 (won it at a hamfest in 1991) with a very hot receiver. Used it with about three different antennas, worked 49 states and a handful of foreign countries, now using it with a Barker and Williamson AP-10A apartment portable antenna.

Getting back to the receiver section of the 725, as I said, it is very sensitive and, with the optional 500-Hz CW filter (which I installed on mine years ago because I operated CW quite a bit until I moved here--the rig's 100-watt signal trips one of the GFCIs in my apartment, but works very well on the local radio club's ten-meter net and doesn't bother the GFCIs on SSB) is quite selective as well.

I like the 725 but and prefer the receiver on the Ic-735 for it's sensitivity and age. I have a 746 Pro and a 756 Pro and the DSP does amazing things for a receiver now a days. I am thinking of stepping up but don't want to pay 11,000.00 for the IC-7800!

73 de Mike

[OvenMaster]

Originally Posted by Mmike

That Panasonic looks just like a Grundig I used to own.

_Mike

Yup. The Panasonic came out around 1978 or so, the Grundig much later... mid-80's or early 90's, IIRC.

[chuckworkb]

How about Sangean?

I have had a number of SW radios over the years, Sony, Grundig among them - wish I kept the others, but a few years ago, my wife picked up a Sangean ATS-909 for me for Christmas, and that radio works quite well, for the casual listener.

I hook up the long wire antenna, plug in the headphones and enjoy.

[kenhappen2u]

i second the R1000 . its a great receiver , hook it up to a long wire/ dipole and your good to go .

N9QPE..Ken

[Pio1980]

Sangean ATS803(A)/R-S DX-440 and variants added to my used portable listing, forgot them as an honorable mention exceptional value.
S.B.