n4voxgill said:
a decent antenna is just as important as the receiver. Take a look at this antenna from MFJ and see if you could use it when listening.
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?prodid=MFJ-1625
Hmm, a small loaded vertical on a high rise in the middle of NYC. Not my first choice. Can you say 'noise probe'?
Anyway, back to the question of high end receivers - the subject of receivers that cover both HF and the scanner freqs has been, to be honest, beaten to death here, so I'm not going to go over that too much - except to say that the stuff that performs is going to cost you some bucks, no doubt about that.
Before you do that, though, you might want to educate yourself about HF and what you may be able to hear, and when. As another poster said, noise is going to be a real problem - although there are ways to at least reduce it, tho it's quite likely you won't be able to get rid of it entirely. But that's a subject for the antennas forum...
Your list of interests are rather broad, and the receivers that have been suggested so far are fine choices (I would add the Drake R8 series - if you can find them since being discontinued. A very simple radio to operate that simply performs....). However, it's important to understand that HF monitoring is quite unlike scanner stuff - you will be subject to noise problems, you will need to understand where to tune to hear what you want, when and why - and that's just the beginning.
We have an extensive Wiki page devoted to the subject of Utility listening here...
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Utility_Monitoring
I would spend some time getting familiar with some of the propagation links there - that's a subject that will be
absolutely critical to your understanding of just how to answer the questions I posed above. There's a link by AE4RV that can be found on the AC6V supersite that is a real gem - it explains the basics of propagation very simply. Note that you must have Flash player on your machine to view it.
In addition, it might be more useful to be more specific about 'bells and whistles' -
exactly what is it you're looking for in terms of specifications? The more specific, the more folks can give you better advice. Also be more specific about what confuses you about what you have already read. Being 'clueless' before making an expensive choice like this can be, often leads to disappointment.
The RadioIntel website links that are in the Wiki, along with the receiver reviews links, will help you make a good informed choice - which is what this is really all about.
Finally, just to get your feet wet without spending a lot of cash, join up with the Utility DXers Forum Yahoo group - the list is VERY active, and lots of logs are sent around every day. This too, will help educate you in what folks are hearing, and what you might expect to hear. Concentrate on logs from the East Coast of NA (when you get familiar with propagation, you will understand exactly
why I suggested this). That link is also available on the Wiki page I gave above.
73s Mike
