Panasonic RF 2200

[Shortwave2200]

Maybe some of the members have seen my rants about certain Shortwave radios, ok I've bought on praise it then move on to the next.

I have had Eton E1's, Satellit 800, Tecsun pl 600, Tecsun pl 660, and others that were fairly new. Well I have sold all of them (I didn't have them all at the same time).

I kept my little Grundig Mini 300.

I wanted something that was great on batteries, great on MW DX'ing and shortwave. I don't care about FM.

So I searched the boards and reviews.

The Panasonic RF 2200 fit the bill perfectly! AND it is from 1978!

So I won an auction for it, 130.00 + 12.50 shipping, I could not wait until it came, it came this afternoon!

YES I AM EXCITED, CAN ANYONE TELL?

So I make sure it works on all bands, it did. So I started my restoration (it was fine the way it was) Took it apart, the front and back were cleaned completely.

Then I went to Lowes and bought a electronics cleaner, for PCB boards (Used this on a sat800 and it worked great) cleaned everything internally and lubed the the pots.

Let everything dry completely (I just wanted to make sure the cleaner evaporates fast) reassembled it.

Looks like new!!!!! If I had a good camera I would take pictures but I don't, I'll try with my camera in my phone.

ok, The noise floor on this receiver is low. It seems like every radio I've owned has gone from poor to better to best.... Yes this thing I hear so much not no other reciever that I have own don't compare.... This one is defiantly a keeper!!!

I love it that is it analog, this is what I remember shortwave to be, sometimes a man HAS to go back to the basics!!! LOL!!!!!

Loving it!!!! during the middle of the day catching signals that I've never heard!

And picking up more hams! Not even the E1 working off the whip was good at catching them.

I'm a happy camper!!!!! With all of the cheap crap today the oldies are the best.....

 

[ka3jjz]

Watch out for crosstalk across the bandswitch. You'll hear signals from one band repeated on the next. It's quiet because it's all analog - no digital on it at all. Does very well on AM and FM DXing - very hot front end on FM.

With a little work, it's definitely a keeper. I had one for years...Mike

 

[Shortwave2200]

is the crosstalk inherent on these radios? still I'm loving the radio... Yes that was another reason I didn't want a digital readout for it to be quiet.

and it is the perfect size as well.

the lights still work as well.

 

[ka3jjz]

Just on this model. The later RF2900 (which I also had - and the base model RF4900) did not have this issue.

Mike

 

[Shortwave2200]

I've checked the radio's images but I didn't find any. I was checking it with my grundig mini 300 with the digital display. Didn't find any images.

I calibrated the radio last night and heard many MW stations like they were right next to me, wbbm chicago, 1010 wins NY and many more that none of my previous radio's picked up as strong as this radio.

I went so far as to clean all of the dials with a toothbrush, in all of the crevices.... Don't know who owned it or where they had their fingers THAT'S why I am so anal with cleaning the radio... or other items I buy on eBay, except for brand new items that have never been used before.

This radio IS 34 years old and IDK how many owners it had so a total cleanup and restore was in order and it reeked of cigarette smell (It doesn't anymore with cleaning in inside and out), I'm a smoker but I hate cigarette smell, figure that out......

I'm still loving it!!!!......

 

[Boombox]

That 2200's a beauty. I had a chance on buying one at a pawn shop in the 1990's. I passed, because it had a broken switch, was priced too high, and the guy wouldn't let me test it out.

 

[p1879]

panasonic rf2200

I had several of those, wish I still had them! They are fantastic sw, fm, etc radios. Nothing, I feel, is as good for outdoor listening. When I was a carpenter in the mid-seventies I used one at the work site. Commonly listened to a Mexican regional sw broadcaster "Radio Seis" just above 15 mhz. That radio sounded great and the sound effects from Radio Seis were hilarious. I also remember hearing FM stations about 200 miles out, using just the whip, and under a tin roof! (does anyone have an old WRTV Handbook thatcan indicate where R. Seis was?)

What a shame no one makes them now. There could be no better disaster radio, as battery life is very long, and the world is right there with this set.
I have an RF 2800 analog/digital I would trade for a good RF2200. Works pretty well, I sometimes listen to football games on it, but does have a broken whip- still brings those games in well, even from afar(FM) I was listening to sw a while back from bed with it, and was thrilled to get perfect copy on a Spanish numbers station.

All of those radios were really good performers.

p1879

 

[Shortwave2200]

eBay! Try there that is where I got mine from, don't do buy it now, you'll get ripped off, do an auction.

 

[Shortwave2200]

I hit all the controls with cleaner when I first recieved this, then Sat night I saw that the band 5 was not working.

Additionally I wanted to replace the lights that are 5.5 volts with LED's.

So I went to radio shack bought deoxit and 2 white leds with 100k ohm resistors.

took it apart again, squirted deoxit in the controls and worked them, then I moved on to the LED's.

the LED's were installed and working (Nice and bright and it brings down to power overhead to 3.0 volts.

then I cleaned the deoxit from the PCB with the cleaner, so there is no extra deoxit on the board or the components.

With everything cleaned and lubercated, I put everything back.

NOW I have all the bands and nice bright LED's in....

I can tell you this, this radio SIPS batteries!!!!! My sat800 would gobble them up in 8 hrs!

I've used the radio non stop (except for disassembly and cleaning) since sat and the indicator is still has not moved.. Nice!!!!

Love this radio MUCH better than the previous Digital ones that came before it!

It is so sensitive and it's great on SW, I'm hearing HAMS so much better now...!!!!!

 

[ridgescan]

Hey I enjoyed your thread here-neat radio! Another radio built under the hightest standards and practices back in the day. Got a few here in portable form. It sounds like you have a healthy BFO circuit in that one by how you say you hear the hams better-I assume you mean SSB? I have one radio with a BFO and that's the Patrolman-9, but it wont decode stronger signals-noly weaker ones. Enjoy your Sony

 

[Shortwave2200]

Hi Ridgescan! Thanks, I appreciate it!

Yes, this thing is great on SSB, I've been using Digital radios so long that I forgot what it was to actually tune in hams with a band-spread dial.

The funny thing is I've had Eton E1's and such I spoke about in my previous posts but this thing is very quiet (due to the fact it isn't running a LCD screen) and filling it with batteries every 2 days....

Paid 130.00 for it, Best 130.00 I spent in a LONG time!

As I was cleaning I noticed a date of manufacture "11/77" So it is exactly 35 years old, 6 months than Star Wars came out in "5/1977"!!

I thought these came out in 1978 as I have the Black version, the grayer version was the older RF 2200 that was the "First Batch" if you will so 1976?

I am really enjoying this radio, this is what Shortwave is all about, switches, knobs and meters....! I actually didn't want to replace the bulbs with LED's I really wanted to keep it original but I knew the bulbs would eventually go they are 35 years old. I replaced them B/C I wanted to cut down how many times I opened up the radio.

 

[Shortwave2200]

Panasonic RF 2200- Command Series Radio VS Newer Radio's

I hooked up a 25 ft long wire to the external antenna connection, the connections are labeled backwards from what I gather, found a station that was weak then removed the ext antenna the whip was pulling it in the same.

So this receiver is a hot receiver on SW as well, IDK why in some reviews that SW is not that good. Maybe pitted against a 3K radio it's not but back in 1978 this radio sold for 139.99 and in 2012 money it's probably 350.00.

I found very few images, the ones I did find, IDC. The radio rates (IN MY OPINION) above Eton E1, Definatly above Sat800M and all of the tecsun, Kaito and newer radio's.

Actually if I weren't so " I gotta have the newest" Over the years and 3 years ago I would of saved myself a-lot of money. I have been looking for a radio for a long time that does what this radio does: Every Low noise floor, Quality made, GREAT AM DX'ing... With NO: clock, timer, search, alarm clock AND Defiantly NO LW (as it is useless, to me).

A shortwave reciever is what it should be, a shortwave receiver.... nothing else....I do not care (Obviously) about digital readout it's nice but it adds to the interference and shortwave is about auditory not visual, I want to hear stations, HAMS, military. I know where they are the fun thing is tuning it in.... THAT's why I got into this hobby when I was 11 (I'm 45 Now) TINKERING.... I got board with this hobby B/C of the New receivers with digital readouts.

That is when I sold the radio's that I did have left: Tecsun pl 600, 660, magnavox d2935...

Then I went on a review hunt and a ebay hunt...

I wanted to get back to the basics of shortwave listening and I did...

This may seem strange to others but to me getting back to the basics fits me well, I have pulled out stations and HAMS in the past week that I could not do with the previous Newer receivers on the whip as I do with the Panasonic RF 2200- Command Series Radio.

Does anyone here have a Rf 2200, 2600 or 2800. I am interested in what YOU think about this radio and shortwave as a whole....

BTW This is the LED Mod, I used white LED's..

It looks washed out but it is not, it's bright and looks better than the original lights.

 

[Shortwave2200]

15m &13m hams

With all of my "Digital" receivers that I have owned I could NEVER get hams on 15 M & 13M even with a longwire antenna and believe me I tried on the weekends at this time, earlier or later.

I am getting them with the whip antenna on my RF 2200. They are some are low some are booming in they are coming in great.

Norway, Wyoming, Colorado, Canada, North Florida, North Texas, North Dakota, Kansas, NJ, NY, New Hampshire on 21875 to 21925 between 17:35 & 19:02HRS, I am in Northern VA.

Again, I am just running off of the whip and batteries, I don't like using AC Power at least with batteries the power is constant 6 volts with no additional interference.

 

[Shortwave2200]

So many contacts that I never heard before with my other radio's.

Now I see when people would say that the new digital radio's were noisy.

I never took it into account that the LCD would create noise in the radio itself.

My Sanyo RP-8880 was quiet but I got caught up with the LAGS syndrome.... Unfortunatly my rp-8880 bit the dust a couple of years ago and finding someone to fix it was impossible.

 

[ridgescan]

Sounds like you nailed a good one there hope it brings you much enjoyment for many years. Spinning dials and analog meters ROCK in my opinion!! Viva HF!

 

[aggie72]

If you're logging freqs what's your trick of knowing the exact frequency?

 

[Shortwave2200]

To answer your question, please see attached pictures...I could not explain it any better....

The bandspread dial NEEDS to be calibrated to get accurate freq's...

That's why I love this radio, you have to THINK a little bit.

Hope this helps!

Jim

 

[Shortwave2200]

Thanks Ridge...

One thing that bothered me, I changed the original bulbs to White LED's but then I was looking at it in the dark and it was really bright at 3AM in a dark room, really bright....

So I decided to go with Yellow LED's, ahhhhhhhhhh better.... alot less bright and it looks like the original lights.... I just like the look of incandecent lights that these LEDS give off....

It's almost like a tube set, you power it up, hear the hum and see the glow out the back of the tubes.....

 

[nanZor]

Again, I am just running off of the whip and batteries, I don't like using AC Power at least with batteries the power is constant 6 volts with no additional interference.

Nice catch! If you see a ground screw on the back, try running a quarter wave "radial" about 11 feet or so thrown on the ground / carpet and see if things get even better...

 

[Shortwave2200]

hertzian,

Thanks! I just tried it and alot of stations that were 1/2 on the smeter are now pinning... I didn't think of using a 1/4 wave radial....Im using a 25 foot wire, does it matter if it is 25FT or 11FT?

I did notice that the plastic is a little creaky almost like the satellit 800M and the eton E1 just as creaky..but the radio is 35 years old.