Favorite inexpensive shortwave radios?

[boB]

  When trying to do AM DX, be aware that if you are anywhere near a strong AM transmitter that a radio may overload easily and desense it.

This is especially a problem with wideband SDR radios which you may need a AM broadcast band filer.

If you are out in the middle of nowhere or farm land, then no problem !

boB 🌜

[cdev]

This isnt for AM Dx, its to remove the AM band, or make it less strong..

For me it causes receive overload and all sorts of issues elsewhere..

So, an AM cut/high pass filter at approximately  1.6-1.8 MHz helps tremendously,
its almost necessary where I live. Not difficult to make a simple one.. with two inductors and three capacitors. I designed it with RFSIM99


To receive AM DX a good antenna is a tuned circuit for the AM BCB.. you could use a loopstick like in many radios or a homemade tank circuit. Just put the radio inside it.

[cdev]

From my reading the Tecsun 660 gets decent reviews. Maybe your experience is atypical. It might be worth revisiting. I would also look at any AC adaptor if you are using one.. Maybe it needs some additional filtering? I had that issue with my Sangean/Radio Shack radio which ate batteries too rapidly. By the way, it was a very good radio for AM DX, and still is. There it works great, also FM. Its just the shortwave part thats acting up. Probably needs new caps. also try a simple AM stop filter at the antenna, perhaps? Maybe it was already old when you bought it and it needs recapping?

Yer got one of those, Tecsun 66O.
Worked quite well for about three months.
Did a search, common problem with many buyers, after a few years I am  finally having a chance to have a look at it.
After looking at it I can tell you it wont last.
That's what I always get when I cheap out and buy cheap rubbish.

At the moment it is easy to get the BBC due to the Sun spot cycle and they have started broadcasting again using big power due to the world situation.
Technical radio people know how easy it is to do that with a one transistor regen receiver, so doing that is everyday easy reception.

As I said before the only gear that performs very well and has lasted has been my second hand Kenwood Ham radio gear and a 1968 Panasonic that I bought at a junk sale years ago.

[cdev]

My next door neighbor has one of those so I gave him a 9:1 unun for it. That made it work better. Now its a much better receive setup with an external wire antenna.

This thread prompted me to get the Tecsun PL330.  It's smaller than I thought it would be...which is good.  It's a pretty good radio, maybe not as good as my Grundig Yacht Boy 400, though.  Buttons are hard to press, and some of them are too small.  Volume did not need to be a big knob on the side that's easily bumped.  Tuning knob is also easily bumped; happened several times already.  Antenna doesn't seem as flimsy as the YB400, which breaks at the drop of a hat.

Neat little radio.  Would be even better when the UI changes.

Edit: Newly discovered "feature"...Turn the volume with the radio off and the display light comes on.  I don't want that.

I dont remember if it (yacht boy rcvr)  has an antenna jack or whether one needs an alligator clip and ground wire.. Jack is better if you have a ground.. It would be easy to add one if you want one. Just use a decent quality capacitor to the antenna for the middle, and ground the outside to the chassis. Check that there isnt any DC (or AC) "exposed" on the radio chassis!  With older radios that plug in this is important!

[cdev]

I have an msi.sdr which uses the same two chips. It works with Linrad.
If I stay on HF all works well, kind of, with that. With some issues/quirks. manageable.
I had to install the mirisdr4 library. You may have to look for that to find it.  I also have a SoftRock, which is even more sensitive..with my sound card.. it can receive a 192 KHz slice at once.. For that one can use QUisk.

If I am going to spend $100 or more I would buy one of the most inexpensive ham SDR radios, of which there are several and use that..just for receive now.. Because of that option being out there.. They should sell their receiver for less.. They would sell a lot more of them if the price was lower..more economical for the entry level unit. Its too much for what it is.

I dabble with the idea of making an add on transmitter that turns the Soft Rock (receive only now) into a transceiver...A cheap, fairly capable one.. That can definitely be done for very little. Probably could also use additional band pass filtration, if so.. (just a guess) his is fairly normal sof solid sate QRP gear, needing additional filters to be clean. Helps the receive a lot too.. Use them. And be licensed! And learn stuff.  Better safe than sorry. 

 

The 14 bit SDRplay RSP1A makes for a VERY capable receiver for a little over $100 in conjunction with a laptop using SDRuno or HDSDR software (both free). If you don't need the portable radio form factor, it provides for a VERY usable and versatile weak signal receiver at a very reasonable price. It is a significant improvement over the various (RTL-SDR) dongles.

As always for weak signal work, antennas, antennas, and antennas...

Gordo
HS0ZPC
K5ABB

All of the inexpensive "shortwave" receivers benefit greatly from the addition of an antenna jack with a ground. If you do that make sure you insert a capacitor in series to the antenna. For various reasons that is helpful. Then you can use a proper unun too.

[9aplus]

Old topic,
but like to mention that my favor brand on the bed side and sound while working around the house is SONY ICF
Own 2 x 2001D, and 3 x 7600 with different last letters.
Now have some spare time to do some cleaning, repairs and keys rejuvenation on 2001D
and one 7600D.

So here the result:
After
Before

[A.Z.]

nice but no cigar, I don't like. those sticky keys, call me a dinosaur, but I still prefer stuff like the FRG-7, a lot of limitations, sure, but a solderinv iron and a bit of goodwill, overcomes them easily

[9aplus]

OK, I see, you play hard 

Can you beat this?

[A.Z.]

ok if that's a bedside receiver ... we may probably agree on a Murphy B40 receiver, but then we'd both need "something" to keep that bedside...

just in case

https://medxr.blogspot.com/2018/12/retro-receiver-review-14-murphy-b40.html

[9aplus]

So you own that B40?

That 51S1 is long time in my collection together with KWM-2

So, can we now go back on topic => Favorite inexpensive shortwave radio

[wasedadoc]

nice but no cigar, I don't like. those sticky keys,

Are you referring to the Sony ICF-7600D?  I bought one of those while in Japan for 6 months in 1985. I've just got it out of storage to confirm my recollection that all the keys are hard plastic, not sticky rubber.

[radiolistener]

I'm using degen de1103, the reception quality is not very good, but it is pretty sensitive and consume just 150 mA, so it can work from batteries during power outages.

[9aplus]

My ICF 2001D after some refurbishment. The right one...

https://youtu.be/2j6ofUqw6ww

[stretchyman]

The Tecsuns are fine and use a single chip DSP as do many cheaper radios.

However any modern SDR will be far superior.

[coppercone2]

This thread re emerged. I want to check up on Cuban RF activities lol

[fourfathom]

  When trying to do AM DX, be aware that if you are anywhere near a strong AM transmitter that a radio may overload easily and desense it.

This is especially a problem with wideband SDR radios which you may need a AM broadcast band filer.

If you are out in the middle of nowhere or farm land, then no problem !

boB 🌜

Since this thread has been revived, here are some options for reducing AM broadcast band overload (in the USA):
I design and build radio gadgets that have proven quite useful when used with wide-band SDRs -- we use a lot of these for measuring ionospheric propagation in the HF band.  We mostly use the RX-888 and Kiwi SDRs, but my filters and filter-preamps can also improve the dynamic range and sensitivity of other SDR receivers.
https://turnislandsystems.com/sdr-front-end-filter/
https://turnislandsystems.com/sdr-filter-preamp/

If you want to build your own, I have the schematics and other design information on the website.  In addition the the low-frequency shelf filters, these filters include a 30 MHz LPF, to reduce aliasing when the RX-888 is being used with a sample clock of 66 MHz.

In Europe the AM broadcast transmitters are spread throughout the HF band, so it's a whole lot harder to provide filters to reduce the overload that these can create.