My personal opinion,and this is based on nothing more than experience BTW, :laugh: is that most modern day SW radios made in the last 20 years or so can't hold a candle to the table top models of yesteryear or a decent amateur radio. My Kenwood R-1000 is about as basic as it gets yet it is a highly sought after radio. Many years ago I was going to trade it in on something else and the dealer was quite eager for me to do so. I then found out that he had a waiting list of people wanting one and figured that I better keep it if it was sought after that bad. By far the best receiver I ever owned was in my Icom IC-735 transceiver. Triple conversion and bulletproof front-end coupled with a good low noise preamp,IF shift, passband tuning, and IF notch meant for a great receiver. Nothing really beat the old Collins R-390 I used for a while but at about 60 pounds and all tubes it was a beast and a half and SSB tuning was not as fine as I would have liked but AM was great. Personally I would look for something like a Kenwood R-1000. Avoid the R-5000 like the plague. Synthesizer noise leaking out and getting picked up by the receiver was a real problem with them. It was hit or miss if you got a good one. The Icom R-70/71 series are great and even the old Yaesu FRG-7 or newer FRG-7700 or FRG-8800 are great as well. Personally I do not like any of today's SW radios having had experience with REAL SW rigs that were designed for serious listening and not for sticking in a suitcase to take on vacation somewhere. I don't do much SWL'ing today but my next SW purchase will be a Kenwood R-820 which is arguable one of the BEST receiver ever made other than five figure radios for the military/government users. It will mate perfectly with my TS-820S transceiver and be a handsome addition to my shack. All I have to do is find one at a decent price as they are going for a premium IF you can find one.
My bottom line is if it has a plastic case avoid it. Nothing really wrong with plastic it is just that that was about the time that quality started to be pushed aside in favour of price and portability.
