Post date: May 16, 2011 8:4:37 AM
Well 4 months has flown and what have I done? Short answer in radio and hobby terms is very little, work and home life have been at the forefront here but I have been reading , still practising CW and thinking of more air time!
For some time I've realised that I needed a portable shortwave receiver. My Sangean ATS 505 was cutting edge (almost) when it was released but never performed well for Amateur Radio purposes - it has been the house FM radio for quite a while.
I decided to see if there was a Sony ICF 7600GR (or similar) on e-bay and that opened up a wealth of receivers other than the usual brands like Sony, Eton and Grundig. There are Tecsun, Sangean, Degen, Kaito, etc.
A bit of research showed that some of these radios had good reviews, more investigation was required. With YouTube as an assistant and Yahoo groups it is very easy to see which radios are popular, used by Amateurs, the pitfalls, required modifications etc.
The radio that grabbed my attention was the Degen 1103, this is a dual conversion LW/MW/HF/FM receiver with SSB £30.23 plus £14 postage and packing from the ebay seller tquchina - excellent service and arrived in 7 days!
I will write proper review in eham but for now I'll just say it does everything I need and a lot more - it is selective, sensitive, easy to use, small, what more can I say?
gud dx