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The Sangean 909 is a good receiver, it was also sold as the Radio Shack DX-398.They will cover the 160,80,60,40 30,20,17,15,12 and 10 meter amateur bands.A quick and easy antenna for it would be 20-25 feet of wire attached to the telescoping whip with an alligator clip.Using more wire would probably cause overload to the receiver.
I'd guess that the Sangean, designed as a Shortwave receiver from the ground up, will perform rings around any VHF/UHF HT that has HF receive thrown in as an "oh, by the way...".
I remember the good old days when a shortwave radio that was of any decent quality was a table top model. Remember the Kenwood R-1000? I have one and will never part with it. I see and hear hams looking for one all the time. What about the Yaesu FRG-7 and FRG-7700 or the Icom R-70/R-71 and the Japan Radio Co. NRD-525? All those radios and their offspring were great shortwave radios.I would give my eye teeth for a Kenwood R-820 which was the companion receiver made to mate with the TS-820 transceiver and was a really great receiver.Sadley there is not much to offer today and the portable types perform very poorly compared to the table top models that were made 20-25 years ago especially with strong signals on a crowded band..
R388 is/was an excellent receiver. I'm more familiar with the R390A, which was the workhorse of the fleet as far as HF receivers went, back in the early-to-mid 1960s.
Just don't EVER take the gear train apart. Without the manuals (or, in many cases, even WITH them), you'd never get it quite right again.
I had the pleasure of borrowing a Collins R390A many years ago. My former boss let me have the use of one for about a year.It was a heavy beast at around 60-65 pounds. It was a mechanical marval with the "digital" tuning and the PTO's.Yes Beetle,I have heard all about the business of NEVER taking the gear train apart either with or without a service manual.I wish I could have one today. I 'm sure I could find room for it. That old RX also had the added benefit of keeping the shack cozy warm on those long winter nights spent DX'ing.
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