Gear

Thanks to Les from Alabama for this one. I absolutely love this thing. The best gift anyone could ever give. It may not be as hot on AM as those kiwis, but it holds its own. It is super tolerant of longwire antennas. 

Built on the same excellent chip as the Sony XDR-F1HD, this workhorse is my first line radio for skip openings. It's the one that always hears skip first. The Sony blows the SDR out of the water in terms of its strong front end. It's also a good AM DXer with the right antenna. I love love love my Sony.

Quickly becoming the champion of champions of FM DXing. This thing and the Sony go hand in hand, except the TEF's RDS is lightning fast. Another overload-proof radio that can (and does) also function as an auto-logger. I take this radio camping with me to do bandscans you can find on this site. 

Sigh. This was the best radio I owned up until about 2022 or so, when it started showing its age. The one I have now has been with me since 2009, in Salt Lake City. I got it for $100, and it more than paid for itself. Unfortunately, due to its design, it developed heat issues and became flaky over time. I still have it on hand, but don't use it. 

This was the replacement for the ailing Sony XDR-F1HD. I've had this radio for about 4 or 5 years now. It may be showing its age and may have its quirks, but this radio stood in as a second receiver during skip openings, and boy, does it have a really good tuner. Sensitive and selective. I think the HD chip does that. It also sounds warm and better than the Sony. It still works. I just don't use it for heavy dxing anymore.  

The stock radio inside the Nissan Rogue is a decent DXer. It can't handle strong adjacent channels as well as the other radios on this list, but it holds its own. I haven't tested it during skip or tropo, but intend to. 

A decent performer for FM DX. I've seen this thing get tropo. The whip antenna can actually null stations out, so I can hear St. Cloud stations on stupid IDS translator frequencies. I haven't seen it get skip, but I'm usually too busy to try it. This radio doesn't do as well on AM, but the FM is its highest praise. That being said, Sangean sent me a unit with some quirks. They don't break the radio; they're just annoying. I have to press the power button twice and wait for it. The clock loses time as well. 

The workhorse portable I've had for about 15 years. Mine is definitely showing its age and has bugs like the HDR-14. It does better on AM than the Sangean, but is mediocre on FM. It has shortwave and longwave, though, and was the first portable I ever heard skip on, indoors, if you can believe it. 

Wide as a barn door, overload city. Yikes. This radio would do decent out in the middle of nowhere, not 2 miles from a 50kw AM stick. It's an analog radio. What else is there to say? I don't use it much, but it sits by my bed.

This is a ham radio transceiver, and is my first official HAM radio. I've used it a few times to talk to local hams, but haven't really seen DX on it. I got a coupon from QRZ and this unit was only $29 after that. It's a decent, albeit complicated, little radio. 

I've had this AM stereo tuner since St. Cloud. I don't use it as much anymore. It's not a bad performer, but wide and has a front-end that overloads easily.

It can hear CQUAM AM Stereo.

This antenna has been with me the longest. I got it in Sheridan and used it in my apartment to receive what little TV there was. It received tropo from Billings once. It also received Chicago via tropo in St. Cloud at around 400 miles. It's been a decent antenna, but it's also showing its age. It is in the attic near the Stellar Labs 4-element, and is used exclusively for TV. 

Radios and antennas that went to radio heaven:

Antennacraft FM-6 (died a horrible death)
Numerous telescopic whips
Multiple cheap walkie-talkies
Panasonic Boombox from 1980s
Emerson Boombox from 1990s
Realistic  AirBand radio
1970s Clock Radio
Multiple analog TVs
2015 Nissan Rogue
2013 Toyota Corolla
2010 Subaru Impreza
2002 Subaru Outback
1995 GMC Jimmy
Uniden CB radio
Radioshack CB radios
Radioshack 200 CH analog scanner

A piece of junk for areas with 100kw stations, 13 miles away. Doesn't do too badly when out in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming. Still, with zero gain, I would recommend against it. Used on and off as part of my TV antenna setup. I modified mine to be in an S shape.