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- Feb 20, 2003
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Does any of the major Amateur Radio manufactures make make shortwave receivers anymore?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Amateur Radio Receiver
- Thread starter TexScan780D
- Start date
Icom IC8600 $$$$.
Great receiver, very expensive.
73, Rex
Great receiver, very expensive.
73, Rex
Mine only cost me a kidney and a lung. I drew the line on the testicals.
K0WWX
Member
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- 31
It's interesting that the big three amateur radio manufacturers haven't made a standalone HF receiver for a long time, but I guess after their transceivers included general coverage receivers, that there wasn't any market for a receive-only product.
I think the last general coverage receiver from Kenwood was the R-5000, last sold in about 1996. For Yaesu, it might have been the FRG-100, which was available until around 2007. Not counting wide band receivers, I think for Icom it was the IC-R75, last sold about 10 years ago.
If you consider Alinco to be a major manufacturer, it seems that the DX-R8T was available until fairly recently.
I think the last general coverage receiver from Kenwood was the R-5000, last sold in about 1996. For Yaesu, it might have been the FRG-100, which was available until around 2007. Not counting wide band receivers, I think for Icom it was the IC-R75, last sold about 10 years ago.
If you consider Alinco to be a major manufacturer, it seems that the DX-R8T was available until fairly recently.
Are you not counting the IC-R8600 which was released in 2017 using the same SDR technology as the IC-7300 HF-6m transceiver? The R8600 is direct sampling up through 30 MHz, double conversion 30-1100 MHz, and triple conversion 1100-3000 MHz. It's basically the receive portion of the IC-7300 with VHF/UHF added on.
Kenwood R-5000 was discontinued in 1996. Yaesu FRG-100 was discontinued in 2000, VR-5000 (0.1-2600 MHz) was discontinued in 2010.
Alinco made the R8T general coverage receiver. I don't know if it's still in production. It's the SR8T transceiver without the xmtr.
Apparently no longer available new and was priced within a few dollars of the SR8T transceiver.
I've seen them on the used market. I have the SR8T transceiver and found it rather amusing the price similarities. I've been generally happy with my SR8T, but I don't really do much HF. The Rx side works quite well, but I think the "narrow" filter is a bit too narrow.
Just wanted a tabletop communications receiver, really didn't need or even want a transceiver, but for the few dollars difference went with the
SR8T. Have used it mostly for AM BCB DX and LW NDBs . The "narrow" filter seems useful on the LW beacon band.
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There number has certainly gone down with far cheaper SDR receivers that work just as well. (I have an ICOM R9500 and 8600 but mostly use my Airspy HF+ Discovery which in my own tests and others is just as good if not better.) I you do not have an HF+ Discovery, buy one (under $200) and compare it with whatever else you buy if you do buy something else. (Do not buy the cheap RTL-SDR instead as the HF + Discovery is far better.)
It looks like the big three have left the receiver market to the portable makers -- Sangean, Tecsun, XHDATA, Sihuadon, etc. Those makers have the HF receiver market fairly well covered, and with SDR technology, the performance is at quite a high level considering the price point, especially when compared to the receiver situation in the 1980's and 1990s.
My XHDATA D-328 will pick up anything off my 25-30 ft wire antenna that my DX-398 and DX-394 will. And it's a $16 radio. There's no way my comparable portables from the 90's could match that.
And then, like DLWTrunked said, you've got SDR receivers, which are often pretty capable receivers. The marketplace is flooded, considering that the SWL market probably isn't as big as it was in 1995 or 2005.
My XHDATA D-328 will pick up anything off my 25-30 ft wire antenna that my DX-398 and DX-394 will. And it's a $16 radio. There's no way my comparable portables from the 90's could match that.
And then, like DLWTrunked said, you've got SDR receivers, which are often pretty capable receivers. The marketplace is flooded, considering that the SWL market probably isn't as big as it was in 1995 or 2005.
Thats what I use mostly, the TS-440S, Use Airspy too. Can't go wrong with HF+discovery.
I hope they took an organ from each side, otherwise you would be leaning.
True, but on the positive side it’s quite impressive how well a tiny portable performs today for often less than $50. In the 70’s when I was in high school, a pocket sized AM/FM radio was a big deal. Probably cost about $50 in 1970’s dollars. The XHDATA radio I just bought gets better FM reception than any of the portables I owned back in the 70’s and 80’s.
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The market hasn't moved to China, the supply chain has.
You can get everything you need to make any electronic device you want in about 100KM^2 in Schenzen China; There are components needed for electronics manufacturing that are effectively impossible to source anywhere else.
"There are virtually no companies in the U.S. that make batteries, displays, speakers, semiconductor chips and wire for mass-produced products." (Source from 2015 article in Vox)
