SW Receiver recommendations

[iMONITOR]

I was a U.S state department kid who grew up in Lebanon/Jordan area in the 60's. I remember we had a large console (Phillips I think) radio/turntable unit. I would sit and turn the dial around and watch the green cat's eye and see what I could pick up - mostly BBC and some others for English. I would like to kind of recreate the experience today with something for the desk top - turning knobs/dials to scan across frequencies, listening for different broadcasts during day or night, noting geographic locations, etc. I do not want to deal with an external antenna - I'll be dealing with dominant arm surgery for at least 6 months and be somewhat limited in fine motor skills.

I would prefer new if possible; if not, then recommended sources for good vintage table top stuff. Any recommendations?

SWL is definitely not what it used to be. I've jumped in and out of the SWL hobby several times in the last five-plus years and became very bored and disappointed in a short time.

It gets even worse if you try to make it work with an indoor antenna or insufficient outside antenna. I'd also avoid any vintage gear as it pales in performance when compared to more modern receivers. Not to mention most of it has failing capacitors and corroded solder joints throughout the radio.

If you're truly interested in listening to the news and events around the world instead of knob twisting and meter watching and admiring expensive gear, find some of the on-line SW/MW radio stations that will come in loud and clear with no additional cost of expensive hardware.

Just being honest from personal experience.

 

[MTScannerNut]

I find myself listening to the ham bands more than anything of late. Between the bible thumpers, Cuban stations, and Asian stations, there is not much else on it would seem. I still spin the dial hoping to find interesting stuff to listen to, and usually find something.

 

[mbott]

Like right now on WRMI 9395: Jazz From The Left.

 

[pnw73]

Thanks for the bump. Hearing it well in the Pac NW with a Jstvro Malahit and about 180' of wire.

 

[bearcatrp]

I find myself listening to the ham bands more than anything of late. Between the bible thumpers, Cuban stations, and Asian stations, there is not much else on it would seem. I still spin the dial hoping to find interesting stuff to listen to, and usually find something.

Look for the EAM's. Have to listen to the whole message for interesting messages. Suggest checking out HF underground for good frequencies too.

 

[GB46]

If you're truly interested in listening to the news and events around the world instead of knob twisting and meter watching and admiring expensive gear, find some of the on-line SW/MW radio stations that will come in loud and clear with no additional cost of expensive hardware.

That's pretty much what I've had to do, although what originally attracted me to shortwave radio many years ago was not news and events, but hearing different kinds of folk music from foreign countries all over the world. Now I've had to seek out some of the web radio stations for that. The good news is, no static or fading, and the music is usually in full stereo. And the bad news? Frequent noisy commercials in languages I don't understand, with songs often broken off before the ending.

On HF I've fallen back on utilities, especially in some digital modes.

 

[Boombox]

From the coast of Florida I would guess you could hear more than many of us up-continent can receive well.... VOA and BBC still broadcast to Africa, and with just the Atlantic Ocean in between Florida and their transmitters on Ascension (or down the Atlantic from the UK), reception of some of the programming to Africa would be possible on even a small, decent performing portable -- although much of that would also depend on local RFI.

Even though the last 5-6 years have been wretched for most SW because of the solar cycle downturn, I've managed to hear the BBC broadcasting to West Africa and East Africa from the UK, and I'm in the PNW US (the opposite corner of the US from FL). So it's just a matter of tuning in on the right evening or morning, because even in a bad part of the solar cycle there are some good periods. I also heard the Koran station our of Saudi one day, which was a surprise. All on my Grundig G2, with is a standard DSP chipped portable with a whip antenna.

I haven't tuned in the hams lately. However, there was a CW contest a couple months ago, and there was quite a bit of activity. Ham band activity seemt to drop off when the solar cycle did, but hams generally are eager to use whatever HF conditions are available, and although the HF ham bands are underused, like the others said if you have an SSB radio that also would be an option for listening. And then there's always MW DX on bad SW nights.

I wish the OP luck with whatever radio he chooses.

 

[MTScannerNut]

Picked up a call on 10 MHz the other day from Canandian search and rescue way up in one of the northern provinces. It was an airborne call and they were looking for a lost and injured hiker in some densely wooded areas. Calls like that keep me interested in the hobby. No other way you are going to get in on that kind of action.

 

[GB46]

I hesitate to recommend the new Sangean ATS909X2 because it evidently has a serious problem with loss of volume if you use it on sideband.

Mike, the previous version, ATS909X, has that problem as well, but I thought it might be worth mentioning that I've only noticed it on battery power, mostly in LSB mode. On AC power I find plenty of volume to spare in either sideband mode. When I do encounter the problem on battery power, I can usually bring the volume up significantly by simply switching the tone control to the "News" setting; I have no idea why, however. Anyway, it seems like the batteries don't supply quite enough voltage, even when fully charged. Non-rechargeable alkalines have slightly higher voltage than rechargeables, but they still seem insufficient.

 

[KB2GOM]

Here are some posts that might prove useful:

Jock designs a Horizontal Room Loop to cope with reception issues

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jock Elliott, who shares the following guest post: Got reception issues? An idea worth considering: the “Horizontal Room Loop.” by Jock Elliott (KB2GOM) When…

swling.com

Guest Post: A “Horizontal DXer” explores the CC Skywave SSB and PL-880

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jock Elliott, who shares the following guest post: Confessions of a horizontal DXer and some initial impressions of the Tecsun PL-880 by Jock Elliott Back in…

swling.com

I have not tried the Satellit 750. I have the Satellit 800, and it works pretty well on its whip antenna, but even better (with lower noise floor) or the horizontal room loop (see above).

I find the Tecsun PL-880 is pretty darn sensitive on its whip antenna, is easy to scan the bands with the tuning knob. and has a bunch of tricks like auto-scan/auto-store for SW frequencies.

 

[Patch42]

Would like to stay under $500. I'm in south-central Florida on the Atlantic coast.

If you're not married to the idea of SW, you might want to give MW a shot. You're in a decent location for getting MW from the Caribbean, Mexico, possibly Europe, Africa, and South America if you can get a decent antenna outside.

I was in Orlando for a few years and spent a fair amount of time hunting navigation beacons and weather stations. Got a weather station from southern Chile once using one of the PAR EF-SWL antennas mounted on two sections of fiberglass camo netting support poles. I just zip tied the antenna to the pole and zip tied the pole to one of the screen room supports. It stood up fine to some pretty nasty storms. Getting the antenna cable into the house was the most difficult part of setting it up.

I'd go along with the suggestions of trying to find a used Icom R75. It's very capable and most people who spend that much on a radio tend to take very good care of them.

 

[MStep]

Recently purchased the ATS-25 receiver. Tiny SDR type receiver. Good sensitivity but only fair selectivity. I've seen this unit priced around from about $109 to $139 USD. At this price, worth a shot. Be prepared for approximately a one month wait to get one at this time since most of them seem to be coming from China.