What is by far the cheapest, smallest or worst radio you've ever owned?

[jwt873]

I went to Australia on vacation quite a few years back. I never took any receiving equipment with me. While I was there, I wondered what shortwave would be like in the southern hemisphere, so I picked up a little Radio Shack DX-351 receiver. It was cheap. Around $30 if I recall.

it was terrible. I connected a 30 foot length of wire to the whip antenna.. I couldn't hear much at all. Not only that, but there were loud images from local FM stations appearing in the shortwave portions of the band. I still have it sitting on a shelf..

 

[K5TXC]

Worst radio for me was the Icom IC-R1. Terrible selectivity.

 

[PACNWDude]

worst radio I ever owned was a 2 transistor am radio, got it for Xmas in the 60's

+1 on this. Except mine was/is black with the gold speaker cover. Terrible transistor radio. Keep it just for the fact that it is old and is a radio/receiver. Could not pick up much at all, and about all it "hears" now is the pulse of my hot water heater electronics when a couple feet away from it.

 

[a727469]

Worst comm rig I've had? Hard to say. I've had 3 -- the Radio Shack DX-394, DX-160, and Yaesu FRG-7, along with a bunch of SW portables (DX-398, DX-390, etc.). The DX-160 was OK for a beginner back in the day, but its strength is a MW DX receiver. FRG-7 was tricky to tune on SSB on the higher end of the dial, making the 'Fine tuner' more usable, but its selectivity wasn't terrific for ham monitoring, although I did a lot of ham monitoring with it back in the day. It's pretty good for SWBC, and really great for MW DXing. Great sound. It will tune up to around 31 MHz, which is a plus if you've got the antenna and there's Low Band skip on 30-31 MHz.

I get good performance from my DX-394, especially on the ham bands, although I live in a low signals area, so I don't have to deal with overload the same way a lot of DXers would in other regions of the US (the 394 is famous for overload with longer antennas). Weakest part is some crosstalk here and there on MW, depending on conditions. I like the fact it tunes down to VLF. I use it a lot for ham band monitoring, especially CW. Being in a low signals HF environment, the DX-394 has worked out well for me.

The worst radio in general that I got was an off brand, $10 walkman style cassette/headset radio at a drug store in 2016 or 2017, that had DSP but no performance at all. It was definitely a locals-only type of radio, and even those locals didn't come in well. I was surprised, as most of the DSP pocket radios I've used are pretty good performers on both FM and AM.

I would have to comment on the dx-398. I know it got a bad rap for sensitivity off the whip antenna on shortwave, but with an external loop antenna for AM it was very nice and no real overloading on SW with a long wire. SSB was also pretty good. I bought and sold 3 of them for some reason..my final was on a closeout for around $40 at a local RS.

 

[TAC4]

Jesus this one has a lot of eye candy lol

 

[Omega-TI]

Jesus this one has a lot of eye candy lol

I did a reverse image search on this one because I thought it was a photoshop image, turns out it's real! The price on Amazon for that Retekess TR-113 is "interesting".

 

[Marcy57]

I built a RS Globe Patrol (kit) but never could get anything! ...think I messed up building it ,but it looked cool and got me going kinda in the hobby before I got my Patrolman 9, and DX-160 and it blossomed from there!
73,s Marcy

 

[Omega-TI]

I built a RS Globe Patrol (kit) but never could get anything! ...think I messed up building it ,but it looked cool and got me going kinda in the hobby before I got my Patrolman 9, and DX-160 and it blossomed from there!
73,s MarcyView attachment 166525

Oh yeah, the Globe Patrol radio was an anemic little regen radio. As a kid I had one, and even with the large dipole antenna and very good ground I had for it, only the boomer stations like Radio Nederland, Deutsche Welle, VOA, Radio Moscow, Radio Canada International, WWV and HCJB could be counted on. Sadly the Internet decimated shortwave. Yes, the DX-160 was and improvement, but almost anything was, even so I think I had more fun with that radio (as a kid) than any other I ever had.

 

[Marcy57]

Now that you mention HCJB yes! ...I gave it to the Pastor at church and he got it working he wanted
to listen to HCJB and DX Party line ...I moved on already to a DX-160 with a KRS external digital readout I bought off SPEEDX ..I told him to just keep it ...that is the story but for me worst receiver (but my fault) LOL!
73,s Marcy

 

[TAC4]

I did a reverse image search on this one because I thought it was a photoshop image, turns out it's real! The price on Amazon for that Retekess TR-113 is "interesting".

Yea at $299 CDN 🇨🇦 that is highway robbery lol someone
will buy it.

 

[TAC4]

I built a RS Globe Patrol (kit) but never could get anything! ...think I messed up building it ,but it looked cool and got me going kinda in the hobby before I got my Patrolman 9, and DX-160 and it blossomed from there!
73,s MarcyView attachment 166525

Yep my first shortwave at age 11. Picked up Radio Moscow
in English and was hooked for life. I made the big mistake
of using acid paste flux for soldering lol. The flux on hot
days in the summer inside the house would short the
radio out. Putting the radio in the freezer would solve
the problem for a while.

NOS kits on eBay go for good money.