Shortwave Radios

[9th Company]

Anyone use them? I heard a great source for first time buyers was to buy a cheapie from eBay to get you started.

I wish I could go to this store and ask around though:
http://www.shortwavestore.com/c.-crane/

never been in the area.

[Herr Walther]

Re: Shortwave Radios

I have one of the older Sangean ATS 909's. It is actually a Super 909 as it has been professionally modded by a company that specialized in upping the performance of this radio when it was being manufactured.

The radio that replaced this model has most of those improved features. The older modded radio is difficult to find, but they occasionally show up on e-Bay from time to time. The oroginal 909 is no slouch though either. It was a top of the line portable in the mid to late '90's into the early 2000's.

Sony and Grundig also make good receivers. Sony made a much wanted receiver in the late eighties into the nineties that was a pretty large portable, but I can't remember the model number. I want to say it was 2100 or something around that.

Most of the portables have enough selectivity and sensitivity on the front end to not require an external antenna, but you can still use one if it's not overloading the front end. I have a 31 meter band long wire attached to my Sangean that works well if I keep the RF gain adjusted correctly for the signal.

The big boys (ICOM, Kenwood, & AOR) are all still making SW receivers, but they are all base receivers and they are all a lot of money. Some of their handhelds also go down to 150Khz, but all require an external antenna to pick up much of anything besides WWV timehacks at 5, 10, and 15 Mhz.

[Herr Walther]

Re: Shortwave Radios

The Radio Shack DX-398 is the same radio as the Sangean 909 and you can pick these up on e-bay really cheap. Don't let the low price fool you, this is a good set and like I said, identical to the Sangean 909.

I used to sell 'em and owned one a long time ago.