PLEASE answer only one question. Quality Receiver Radio.

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Sourdough

"Eleutheromaniac"
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HCL Supporter
Joined
Mar 17, 2018
Messages
6,171
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In a cabin, on a mountain, in "Wilderness" Alaska.
Money/cost not an issue. I will build required antenna. Looking for HIGH quality radio to receive information post SHTF. I do not need a transmission ability. Please don't turn this simply question into 15 guys arguing about unrelated B.S. involving radios. And I sure as hell do not need a Ham radio or license. I don't need reply after reply of guys trying to look super smart. Just a quality broad band receiver radio. THANK YOU. (Would be nice is optional A/C - D/C powered.
 
I have been pretty happy with this one. Battery life is solid, and shortwave works well, as does AM/FM. Tecsun PL880.

https://www.amazon.com/Tecsun-PL880...9:TECSUN&rnid=2528832011&s=electronics&sr=1-2

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Tecsun 880 is a good choice. Whatever you choose, I would recommend the ability to listen to upper and lower sideband, this will better enable you to listen to ham radio comms.

After lightning fried my poor Kenwood R-2000, I got an ICOM 718. It's transmit and receive, but I didn't plug the microphone it. It was my replacement receiver for many years, and is still sitting on the shelf , just in case.

https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/ico-ic-718
 
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I have several Sony SW-100 radios.

They are tiny and very capable.

They were discontinued about 15 years ago or so (Sony did not make a profit on them because they were so expensive to produce).

You can still get them second hand on ebay - get one that has had the ribbon cable upgrade.

There was also a compact wire external atenna for them called an AN71....get one of those too.

 
It would NOT need to be small; it should be portable. but it could be 20+ pounds and the size of a smallish suitcase. Lots of range, which I assume is largely a function of antenna size height and quality.
This would live in the cabin, which now appears where I will be pretty much confined till put in an institution.

I know I can get Moscow, Russia (they broadcast beautiful music). I have gotten NYC/LA/Chicago etc.

I will primarily want to know what happened. I was without land or cell phone or internet for three months straight last fall, it is unnerving. I would flag down the mailman, to get any news.
 
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Probably hard to find today but I have an old Radio Shack scanner that is capable of picking up a wide range of radio signals including HAM. I bought it originally to listen to police dispatch communications when I was in the police academy but it was very informative listening to the HAM operators after the big earthquake in California in 1992. I was hearing over and over from various HAM operators that it was their purpose to try and contact various people to relay information to loved ones out of state who couldn't reach family or friends by phone.
Check on line for old/used scanners and see if any match your needs. Most were either AA battery or 9volt battery and most had a 110 volt plug option as well.
I still have mine, somewhere.
 
dademoss said:
The other one sitting on my desk that I always forget is : https://a.co/d/hozzQd4View attachment 106882
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I like the look and size of that. My PL880 is perfect for the cabin or the RV, but I don’t think I would take it on long hikes, etc. Would you consider the PL-368 rugged enough to withstand hikes and bouncy ATV rides? I know I would need to keep it dry.
 
Alaskajohn said:
I like the look and size of that. My PL880 is perfect for the cabin or the RV, but I don’t think I would take it on long hikes, etc. Would you consider the PL-368 rugged enough to withstand hikes and bouncy ATV rides? I know I would need to keep it dry.
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My Body won't take bouncy ATV rides, so I do not know. I would take mine, it's not waterproof, but I think if I can it, it can take it
 
I hope my post meets all the stringent requirements for what you want to hear. But for my 2¢, my recommendation is the GE Superradio. I have three of them. Here's the bad news, GE no longer makes this radio, the good news is RCA does make them. All of mine are GE.


Why do I recommend the Superradio. The radio excels in the AM category. It has exceptional sensitivity and selectivity. There are hobbists, called DXers, that stay awake all night with their Superradio's and dial in AM programs from 1000s of miles away. The radio comes with connections for an external antenna but I've never needed one. I have picked up Mexico and other countries that I cannot understand their language. The radio is portable. It uses batteries and also has an 110v plug.

https://radiojayallen.com/ge-superadios-evolution-of-a-classic/
https://swling.com/blog/2021/02/chucks-re-capped-ge-superadio-ii-might-set-a-new-am-bcl-benchmark/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DXing
 
Check out crane.com, they have good quality short-wave radios, some with singe sideband capabilities. Too bad RadioShack is gone, they used to sell very good shortwave radios for a decent price, we have a larger one we bought from RS before they closed the last store here in southern Oregon.
 
viking said:
Check out crane.com, they have good quality short-wave radios, some with singe sideband capabilities. Too bad RadioShack is gone, they used to sell very good shortwave radios for a decent price, we have a larger one we bought from RS before they closed the last store here in southern Oregon.
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I was just looking over their site. I have too much money and consider this a serious purchase for a post SHTF tool. What they offer the most expensive is $169.00 and I pretty much want to be able to gather information from as far away as possible. It would also be for entertainment till the SHTF. I currently have several in the range of what C CRANE offers. I am craving going higher quality, and hopefully longer range.
 
Haertig said:
The IC-718 is an HF ham radio. That's not what you want.
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IT is ALSO a reciever, you DO NOT have to TRANSMIT. You don't even have to hook up the microphone to use it.

Superior Basic Performance​

The IC-718 has 0.03-29.999999 MHz* general coverage receive capability. A 4-element system is employed for the 1st receive mixer, providing superior receive IMD, especially from in-band near-by interfering signals. A well-designed double-conversion system to help minimize image and spurious responses for better signal fidelity, is also built-in. A newly designed PLL circuit has been adopted to improve C/N ratio characteristics. The combination of the 4-element system mixer and new PLL circuit allows superior basic performance as that of a commercial grade transceiver.
 
Sourdough said:
Thank You........That price point works for me. If I purchase that radio, what additional things will be needed to have it work for "Emergencies Only". Looks like it is DC only.
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A 120 VAC to 12 VDC power supply.

For emergencies a 12 VDC car battery and a solar panel to charge the battery.
 
Haertig said:
The IC-718 is an HF ham radio. That's not what you want.
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Maybe............My concern is that you "may" not be clearly understanding what I want. I respect your opinion, but for it to be helpful I need to feel secure you are voicing it based on clearly understanding "MY" need.
 
I was responding to YOUR statement:
Sourdough said:
And I sure as hell do not need a Ham radio or license.
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I was pointing out to you that an ICOM IC-718 is exactly a ham radio.

And I agree with your statement that you do not need a ham radio. There are not stations broadcasting emergency information on the ham bands that you can tune to. Broadcasts are not allowed on the ham bands, it is all person-to-person communication. The IC-718 has wideband receive capabilities at 10 meters and below, that look like they would cover the broadcast AM radio frequencies - where you would get a good deal of emergency information from (I would assume it can handle Amplitude Modulation since it does SSB (I believe), but I'm not familiar with that specific radio other than in name). But you'd be paying for a lot of stuff you don't need - like a 100 watt transmitter for one.

But you can certainly buy it if you want. It's definitely a solid and well respected radio in the ham community. I was just pointing out that it is primarily a ham radio, which you said you did not want.
 
Haertig said:
I was responding to YOUR statement:

I was pointing out to you that an ICOM IC-718 is exactly a ham radio.

And I agree with your statement that you do not need a ham radio. There are not stations broadcasting emergency information on the ham bands that you can tune to. Broadcasts are not allowed on the ham bands, it is all person-to-person communication. The IC-718 has wideband receive capabilities at 10 meters and below, that look like they would cover the broadcast AM radio frequencies - where you would get a good deal of emergency information from (I would assume it can handle Amplitude Modulation since it does SSB (I believe), but I'm not familiar with that specific radio other than in name). But you'd be paying for a lot of stuff you don't need - like a 100 watt transmitter for one.

But you can certainly buy it if you want. It's definitely a solid and well respected radio in the ham community. I was just pointing out that it is primarily a ham radio, which you said you did not want.
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Thank You, I appreciate the reply. The transmitter ability "could" be valuable in an emergency. The primary goal is to find-out what just happened. I have no TV, No radio. Often No phone, often no internet.
 
Sourdough said:
Thank You, I appreciate the reply. The transmitter ability "could" be valuable in an emergency. The primary goal is to find-out what just happened. I have no TV, No radio. Often No phone, often no internet.
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If you are considering getting a Ham transceiver, then you should consider getting one with tri band capability (ie not just HF but also VHF and UHF too).

Yaesu has made some really good tri band radios during the last ten years or so.

The FT857D, FT817 and FT818 are all discontinued now but they would all be good choices.

You can find them second hand on ebay.

If you get an 857D (which is a beast of a radio in a compact package and well regarded in the survivalism community) then you can get an ATAS120 auto tuning antenna that the unit can tune for you at the touch of a button. The ATAS 120 just mounts to a vertical pole.

That is a pretty good option for someone who doesn't want to do the Ham thing in a conventional sense.
 
Thanks, everyone. CLEARLY one problem is (If it isn't an aircraft radio) I don't really have a good knowledge of the best radio band for achieving my goal.

Which is: I awake at night to the sound of a massive explosion, or anything that is worrisome. My goal is to discover what is happening, first with-in 200 or 300 miles of me. Secondly what is happening "Around the World". There is no AM, FM, TV, Phone, Internet, Nothing. My insane apprehension is "Joint Base Elmendorf/Richerdson" has come under attack. I don't think that base is first or second level target, maybe not even third level. But I am suddenly desiring to know what is happening on planet earth.

So, my first priority application of the new radio is finding out what is happening.

Second level "Might" be over hearing person to person communications, which if it was a huge event would likely be a popular discussion subject.

Any other features would be nice. Even Emergency transmitting (without a special license).

Again, thanks for helping.
 
Even if you get a ham radio mostly to listen, I would still also get a Sony SW100. If you have to go mobile, then it will fit in your top pocket........and it will be much easier for you to learn and operate.

......and even compared to very much larger dedicated shortwave receivers, they perform very well.

https://swling.com/blog/2017/01/the...sony-icf-sw100-a-few-autumnwinter-dx-catches/
The story behind them was that the founder of Sony was a shortwave listening enthusiast. So he told his R&D team he wanted a pocket sized full function SW radio. They reportedly spent millions to develop the SW100......just because....well, he's the boss.
 
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I once live a place (In Anchorage, Alaska) that had a radio, it was a large console thing about four feet high and four feet wide, in a nice oak cabinet, clearly designed to be furniture. We would listen to stations all over much of Europe. Mostly Moscow, for the beautiful music. Got News, Weather, Radio Free Europe, etc..

So, would that have been Short Wave Band.....???
 
Sourdough said:
I once live a place (In Anchorage, Alaska) that had a radio, it was a large console thing about four feet high and four feet wide, in a nice oak cabinet, clearly designed to be furniture. We would listen to stations all over much of Europe. Mostly Moscow, for the beautiful music. Got News, Weather, Radio Free Europe, etc..

So, would that have been Short Wave Band.....???
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Probably was shortwave AM broadcasts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_broadcasting

Here is a good list of SW broadcast frequencies by nation:


https://ccrane.com/shortwave-frequency-list/

......so your simplest plan would be to buy an SW100, print out that list of broadcast frequencies and then enter the freq you want to listen to and hit "exe".

Or you can just select the AM band and then scan with the arrows.

If you haven't done much Ham or military comms, then you may well find driving a full featured ham radio a bit like driving the space shuttle.
 
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