I like having a portable for shortwave and my current 1103 has knob
problems (I've tried to fix it and only screwed up the antenna a bit)

I work a constantly changing schedual and not all the content I listen
to has podcasts (the stuff that does is radio netherlands, radio
japan, derry brownfield, radio sweden, deutchwelle's moneytalks).

I think the build quality of the 1103 was great until the knob sort of
went...I hear what I have was a earlier model and it's not so much of
a problem....

Does the 1121 work as well on the SW was the 1103? I'm thinking it
might be worth the extra just to be able to record....is the bands the
same amount in terms of tuning?

thanks