A short wave radio?

M

maury

Joined
Sep 24, 2000
Messages
606
I need some advice on a radio. I am looking for a small portable that covers short wave bands. I don't know a heck of a lot about which bands I'd need, but I 'd like to have it along mostly for travel out of the country so that I could pick up English language broadcasts. Maybe using it at home occasionally just to listen to news from other countries.

What I need is something small enough so it won't be left behind - I tend to travel very light, fairly rugged and, equally important, not too expensive. I guess something around "shirt pocket size" or a bit larger would be ideal. Also one that uses a couple of AA batteries -rather than odd sized or larger ones -and maybe has provision for an external antenna would be ideal.

Is there a site that deals with these radios? Maybe a message board?Any suggestions on a particular model or just what to look for would be most appreciated. Thanks!
 
I have a little sony shortwave that is quite portable and well made. It runs on 2 aa batteries. The only problem is that it does not have a digital tuner and that makes it hard to tune. Mine is over 10 years old and I am not up to date on the latest, but I would recommend a digital tuner and not one that uses a bar ( like the old car radios).
 
Grundug makes nice shortwave radio's, but for the price of a nice shortwave radio, you could get an (www.icom.com) ICOM R2, which is basically a wideband receiver that can recieve anything you want to hear up to about 1300 Megahertz. That means pretty much anything you want to hear on the airwaves except for cellular phone conversations(you can get an unblocked version from Canada, ;) vey interesting), this means you can get EVERY shortwave band, and CB, FM, ham, AM, GMRS, FRS, Police, Fire, Ambulance, TV, and Aviation Freqs(great for when you really want to know how long your flight is going to be delayed). The best part of this radio is that you can switch antenna's, its really small, it can be programmed by your home computer, and its only about $150.
 
The R2 is a great value for the money, I don't want to take anything away from it. Keep in mind one thing though--a wide-coverage receiver always represents a design compromise--in other words, a shortwave-only receiver for the same price or lower will outperform a "do it all" type of radio. Grundig and Sony both make great portables at around the $150 level.

If you want to keep things cheap ($50 and under), look for something made in China with a brand name you haven't heard of. I've seen a couple of surprising little SW radios at www.countycomm.com that are small, rugged, sound great, and losing a $30 radio stings a lot less than losing a $150 receiver.
 
I've got a Sangean ATS-800A. Digital tuner. I used it for a while as a travel alarm clock. Nice little shortwave radio -- bought it for like $39.95 on sale a few years ago.

Mike
 
I've been looking at the Grundig Yacht Boy 400 lately.
I think it comes in at around $150, is small, and most importantly, has an external antenna jack (antenna included with the radio) built in.
Lenny
 
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