I've tried mine out. I live in an apartment, and I strung a random long wire running about 20' in a north/south direction indoors. Plugged it in to the external antennae port. Crude, but; somewhat more effective than I thought. Picked up the Voice of Russia, last night. Radio Havana is no problem. Also caught one of the atomic time channels from Ft. Collins, Colorado. This one seems to be a better copy than my previous one. However, my QTH is different than before so that may play into it. I got to looking at my sales ticket, and; it appears that I actually only paid $54.95 plus the applicable 7.5% Arkansas sales tax. Then, the free batteries; to boot. So, it was definitely worth what I paid. I am going to try it with an indoor active loop, this weekend. According to Universal's website, it is their most popular portable shortwave. I haven't really been into shortwave for a number of years. But, for 60 bucks, basically; it was a steal.