..I don't really need the 718, I just figured double-duty for the money, but of course then I need to outlay cash for a dipole, filters, PSU, etc, etc $2000 later...when I really just like to listen. You know I'm probably fine with an HT for transmitting....
The 718 pulls about 750ma on receive, so your power supply can be something very light. Something like the Astron 4A would be fine for receive. And, it is a linear supply, so you don't have to worry about switching noise. I have that combo, although I normally run from small rechargeable AGM batteries.
"Low end" amateur radios that do mostly swl service aren't that bad really. You don't need razor-sharp filters, and the 718 has a 2.4khz ceramic ssb filter that you can use for narrow am. You can use ECSSB - use either sideband, zero-beat the signal, and tweak your IF-shift if necessary to get a narrow am filtering. Here the ceramic filter does nicely being a bit wider skirts than your equivalent mechanical or crystal filter.
And they mate nicely to small loops, where you are maximizing the S/N ratio, and not trying to peg the s-meter. The lower end rigs typically don't have contest-rated dynamic range, but with a small loop, you may not encounter this problem often. You may never have to use the attenuator or rf-gain at all with a small loop.
Another option is the Alinco DX-R8, which I am enjoying, although like all small radios, the buttons are kind of tight and a few other quirks, but overall I think is a good value. Or the SR8 transceiver with the same receiver board. Of course there are many many ways to go with this, but the point is that lower end receivers mated to small loops aren't that bad of a combo, unless you have very specific needs.
