Do you like "Modern" Radio's or...

[Shortwavenut]

Old school radios?

I feel like I can do more with a 32 year old set than a new set.

Case in point my Tecsun PL-600 is a really nice radio but it lacks the "Feel" of my 32 year old Sanyo RP-8880...

 

[ShortwaveDude]

Old school radios?

I feel like I can do more with a 32 year old set than a new set.

Case in point my Tecsun PL-600 is a really nice radio but it lacks the "Feel" of my 32 year old Sanyo RP-8880...

I like newer radio's, they are calibrated to be on frequency and they are newer so less likely to have problems.

Some older radio's you just touch the SW antenna and it blows the FETS....

The newer radio's have some sort of protection against static electricity... Older ones do not.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

New SW radios are a POS compared to the older radios. They do not handle signal overload as good nor do they sound as good. Most have little or no selcetable filters. You can give me an older Kenwood or Icom tabletop SW radio ANY day over the new plastic cased portables.My Kenwood R-1000 will run circles around any Grundig Yachtboy series any day of the week. I started in SW listening about 35 years ago and have tried a lot of different receivers over the years and I still prefer the table top models of the '80's. The frequency calibration is not a problem and the digital display with analog tuning is the best way to go,no synthesizer noise. As for touching the antenna connector and blowing the FET, I don't believe it. There is no reason on this world why that would happen and in fact it's the newer radios that have less frontend protection than the older radios. A lot of the older radios were made with the idea of being used in conjunction with a ham transmitter and had very good frontend overload protection in case a switch was not thrown in time.You can keep your plastic radios. I prefer mine to be in a full metal jacket.

 

[cordova lucky 13]

Well said Capt; "K",, oh i do have several plastic recievers most are in the boxes they came in on the shelf. Yes having a digital display will take the guess work out of what freq; your on butt thats part of the fun on a anilog listening for freq; id & then calibrating your reciever to match. If it was as simple as direct entry of freq; & just listening , well i think alot of people would of lost interest a long time ago ?Also i dont think one can compare the quality of a vintage reciever(yaesu frg-7,hammarlund hq-110 etc} to the cheap world of plastic ? Just my 2 cents worth ! Bob.A.

 

[CTStallion]

For SERIOUS SWL, I prefer anything that glows in the dark with a pair of 'comfortable' High-Z headphones. I turn DOWN the RF Gain and turn up the AF (audio) gain. There's just something so warm, nostalgic, superior to the audio quality of a tube receiver. Heck, just look at the Sherwood specs of a Drake R4C, against anything made today. They just sound sooooooo good!

On crowded bands however, or for SSB or digital, the newer transistorized or IF DSP integrated circuit rigs are better, but just not as (say).... 'warm & cozy' as the tube receivers.