I decided to test some radios today to see which of them I would recommend
for simple AM dxing to anyone who asked. The six radios I tested are Degen
DE1102, GE SRIII, Radio Shack DX-398, Radio Shack DX-402, Sangean U1, and
Tecsun BCL2000.

I went to a local park at 1:00 pm and found an area with no nearby power
lines. I started each radio at 530 KHz and I tuned up through the entire
dial, noting the signal strength and clarity of what I heard (if anything)
on each frequency. I also rotated each radio on each frequency to see if it
could pick up a signal in any position.

Sensitivity: Despite being the least expensive out of the group, my trusty
SRIII picked up at least a whisper of a station on nearly every single
frequency (A+). Second was the BCL2000 (A-), third was the DE1102 (B+),
fourth was my DX-398 (C-) and DX-402 (C-), and in last place was my U1 (F),
which picked up stations on the least number of frequencies.

Selectivity: There are other factors in AM listenability, though. One of
which is handling adjacent channel spatter. Of all the radios, the SRIII
seemed to be best at pulling 700WLW (175 miles away) out of the spatter of
two local stations on 680 and 710. The DE1102 was second, and the BCL2000
third. One oddity about the BCL2000, even though it allowed me to hear WLW
between the two other stations, for some reason, WLW was being covered by an
image of a local low power travel station on 1610 that overmodulates
horribly. None of the other radios picked up any images.

Internal noise: No surprise here. The three analog radios, the SRIII (A+),
BCL2000 (A+) and U1(A+), all had lower internal noise than the three with
digital tuning, DX-402 (C) DX-398 (C-), and DE1102 (D).

Dial readability: All of those with digital displays were obviously easier
to read. The DX-402 (A+) and the BCL2000 (A+) have accurate and large
high-contrast displays, the DX-398 (B) and the DE1102 (C) were smaller but
still accurate, the UI isn't very accurate but it's easy to see (C-), and
the SRIII has the least accurate and least seeable display of the pack (F).

Portability: All six are portables and can be operated by batteries. The
three large analog radios can be heavy, but all three have good carrying
handles. The three smaller radios do not have handles. The DE1102 stands out
here for being the smallest by far (A+). The U1, however, is really too big
to carry for very long, despite having the best handle of the bunch, and it
should get the F in this category.

Sound quality: Though highly subjective, I like the sound of the three
bigger radios best. You can turn up the U1 until your ears hurt and it still
doesn't distort. The U1 has by far the most bass and volume but little
treble (A), the SRIII has good bass and treble and medium volume (B), the
BCL2000 has slightly less bass and treble, and comparable volume (B-), the
DX-398 (D) and DX-402 (D) are virtually identical with some bass some treble
and even less volume (D), and the DE1102 (D-) has some treble, no bass, and
very little volume until it starts distorting. Of course, all of these
radios sound better with headphones, but that wasn't what I was seeking.

Conclusion: I couldn't imagine getting rid of any of these radios. It would
be so tough to try to pick just one for me to own. Each one of these has at
least one feature that makes it a favorite in some category. And my little
comparison doesn't even take into account two of the most important
categories to some people: memory operation and external antenna
performance. But of my six radios tested, three were clearly losers (DX-398,
DX-402, and U1) and three were clearly winners (SRIII, BCL2000, and DE1102).

Of the three winners, the SRIII is the most sensitive, has very good sound,
is noise-free, and is the least expensive, but the radio's display is so bad
that serious dxing is virtually impossible for me without another radio
nearby to tell me what frequency I'm listening to. The DE1102 and the
BCL2000 aren't too far behind the SRIII in sensitivity and both offer a
digital frequency display that's easy to see. And though the DE1102 is a
fine little radio (in fact, it is an incredible performer for its size), the
BCL2000 beats it in nearly every category for me (sensitivity, sound
quality, internal noise), so I would have to pick the BCL2000 as my
unscientifically-preferred choice for AM dxing.