Portable communications-receivers.

[G6Tanuki]

I've always been fascinated by these - [by which I mean a receiver with continuous 1-30MHz coverage rather than the ubiquitous 'world-band' radios - Zenith Transoceanics etc - that only cover broadcast-frequencies, a bandspread facility (preferably covering the ham bands) and a BFO so you can resolve CW/SSB].

Hallicrafters did the S-29 and S-39 then there was a big gap until Barlow-Wadley produced the XCR-30 with its 'semiconductor-implementation-of-the-RA17'.

National/Panasonic had a couple of receivers on the 70s and 80s - DR22/DR4/DR4800/DR49/RF4900 and similar - thjough they had digital readouts etc they still depended on free-running local oscillators so tended to wander a bit when receiving SSB/CW.

I'd love to get a S-29 or S-39 and rebuild it using modern non-leaky/drifty parts to see just how well it performed; I suspect I'd need to increase the BFO injection to get good SSB reception.

[Keith956]

The Sony ICF-SW100 is a nice pocket sized radio with continuous 150KHz-30MHz coverage for AM/SSB/CW and also has 88-108MHz FM. They've been out of production for many years though, and now go for silly money on ebay.

[G6Tanuki]

The 1990s-on Sony radios like the ICF-SW100 and icf-sw7600 are quite a bit more modern than I was thinking of [also the modern Tecsun clones].

I guess a Yaesu FRG7 and maybe the Trio JR310 would fit my category: the "Frog7" was the introduction to shortwave/ham-bands for plenty of people 40 years ago.

[Bazz4CQJ]

The question is 'what will you use it for?' When they first came out, I bought a ICF-SW7600... and I've hardly ever used it. The multi-push button frequency control was no fun and nor was the tiny edge-on BFO control.

If you are including consideration of Yaesu FRG7 and Trio JR310, I'm going put my head above the trench and suggest the Realistic DX160 as the basis for making something good, but that may be influenced by that fact that I own one .

B

[roadster541]

The Trio JR310 is amateur bands and mains only. The R300/QR666 are the full HF coverage and mains/ battery Trios
Don't forget the Eddystone EC10!

[Radio Wrangler]

Also the Lowe receivers, HF125, HF225 and John Thorpe also designed the AOR7030 which is rather good.

I have a Hacker Helmsman with fairly good HF coverage, but not so good sensitivity. A good QRM hunter.

David

[deliverance]

The Sony ICF-6700l is a Good choice .

[Wendymott]

Its funny really... I didnt have a good general coverage receiver for some while, till I acquired a FRG7 "frog". I refurbished it, as per postings in the forum, and it has sat in my Test Equipment cupboard ever since, until I needed a 10.7 Mhz I.F monitor..... Out it came, did what was required , and is now back in the cupboard till next time. Good, reliable and does "what it says on the tin".

[G6Tanuki]

Following-up on this, I've decided to use one of my R209 receivers, until I can perhaps acquire a Hallicrafters S29/39.

[[Backstory: in a couple of months I will be helping-out with lambing duty - meaning living in a caravan in rural Berkshire where the heating is a woodstove, cooking is LPG, there's no mains and the toilet is the nearest tree. There's no-one living within 3/4 mile in any direction and so it should be a "RF-quiet" location - in which I can erect what amounts to a 1000-foot end-fed wire and a 264-foot centre-fed Doublet. So I'm hoping it will be a good location from which to do some 1.8/3.5/5/7MHz ham-band listening when I'm not dealing with twin-lamb issues, The site is not secure so I need to be able to lug my radio to and from it as needs arise.]].

[Steve G4WCS]

Thanks to this thread Id been having a browse of what's out there. This popped up on my “todays top picks” on an internet site locally, so I picked it up before the vendor looked at how much they have been selling for. I always wanted one when they came out but could never afford one. I'm looking forward to giving it a clean and trying it out.