Re: [Swprograms] Cheapy Digital SW Radio That Actually Works

["Scott Royall" <royall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What a howl! Loved the review.

-----Original Message-----
From: swprograms-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:swprograms-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of William Martin
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 2:30 PM
To: dxld@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; swprograms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: jay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx; wgmartin@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Swprograms] Cheapy Digital SW Radio That Actually Works

I'm a sucker for these extremely-low-end cheapy SW radios,
and usually get what I pay for, which is next to no
performance, swamping of the SW bands with FM-locals' images
or squawks, inaccurate readouts on the digitals or impossible
indications on the analogs, etc. Well, I bit again, and this time
I'm actually rather impressed with what I got for $13.

Noticed this Electro Brand 859 AM/FM/SW digital-readout
radio in the Sportsman's Guide catalog for $12.97 club-member
price, and since I was ordering other stuff anyway, added one
to the order. Here's a link to a page that pictures it:

http://electrobrand.com/aebportablecassettesandradios859.htm

Comes blister-packed with a decent set of earbud headphones
and a weird little pouch to carry it in (is there some Oriental
fetish for putting electronics in strange little bags? :-). It
actually seems to pick up a reasonable assortment of major
broadcasters (BBC, RCI, RN, the US gospel huxters) on the
correctly-indicated frequencies, especially in the US evenings.
I did get WBCQ on 7415 kHz, but it won't tune their new
18910 kHz channel.

What astounds me about this one is that it differs from just about
all the others I've tried in that extending the whip antenna
actually improves SW reception, and does not swamp the
radio with FM squawks the way the Coby digital or the Bell+Howell
analog do. On those, you have to keep the antenna retracted and
even minimally unfolded from the case. This one works like you
expect an SW radio to behave.

There are only 4 digits on the display, so "9755 kHz" displays
as "9.75 MHz" or "9.76", for example. But the tuning knob
works smoothly enough that you can tweak in the signal OK.
And it is stable enough that you can sit it down and listen
without having to hold it or constantly retune. It even has a
backstand, though it sits OK upright even with the whip fully
extended.

As I type this, I've been listening to RCI in French on 17835 kHz,
with it reading "17.84" and stable enough to enjoy the music.
Decent sound for a tiny speaker, too.

Works fine on FM (no stereo) but AM MW has barn-door-wide
selectivity. You get the locals many kHz on either side of their
real frequency. At night, it does pick up enough distant signals
that it can bring in something to listen to, like CHWO on 740 kHz
and other stations distant from me here in St. Louis, MO.

The instruction sheet that comes with it has some amusing
text. What do we now call this "English rendered by a
Chinese"? When electronics came from Japan, we said "Japlish",
but there are different Chinese languages so "Chilish" doesn't
seem quite right.

For example: "You can use the soft antenna, one end is stuck
to the antenna, the other end is put outside the window, it will
improve SW and FM receiving effect." (Note that the radio does
NOT come with any extra wire antenna, so "the soft antenna"
must be supplied by you. Sounds vaguely erotic...)

It has a separate power switch, not part of the volume control.
Clock and alarm function. When you turn on the radio, it
defaults to FM, so using it as a clock radio wake-up alarm requires
you to tune it to a local FM before switching off, unless you
want off-tuned FM signals or interstation hiss as your alarm sound.

Certainly far better than the Coby digital, which I got at Big Lots
for $7. This being twice as expensive, I guess you *do* get what
you pay for... :-)

A pretty decent toy, I think. This is the first of the really cheap
SW radios I'd actually recommend as a stocking-stuffer or other
gift to an SW newbie. It won't disappoint or turn them against
SW by terrible performance the way the other low-end ones will.
(Assuming sample-to-sample variation doesn't give them a lemon,
of course. You never know if a blister-packed item will work when
the recipient gets it as a gift. You can't open it and test it out
first the way you can check out something in a box.)

73, Will


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