Drifter wrote:
JimK wrote:
Thanks again to everyone for all the great info. RHF, especially
thanks for all the great links, a gold mine.

Many warm thanks.

Jim




Hi Jim.

Welcome to the hobby. no, shortwave is not dead. don't
waste your time with the neo-trolls. you might want to
check out the groups on yahoo. 100's of radio/ receiver/
and short wave groups there. no spam, no trolls and no phony
crap. just be careful, short wave can become an obsession.

Drifter...

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of having a superior receiver in
these times. While there are still a few powerhouse HFBC stations,
receiving them is no great achievement. Utility monitoring is where you
really get into the hardware and the technology. Planes, Hams,
Military, Beacons, etc. are quite challenging. Risk = Reward.

A portable along the lines of an ICF-2010, a Satellit-800, an E1, etc.,
are the bare minimum for such serious listening. Any true
"communications receiver" style desktop, fro the Post War era forward,
will provide endless fascination, IMHO.

Dear Sir,

I respectfully disagree with you. In my opinion the audio quality of
the Sony ICF-SW7600GR is not what I would characterize as terrible.
Mediocre for music on FM? Yes. But for the human voice, that to which
most shortwave listeners tune, the audio response is quite good -
crisp, clear, and full. This makes station identification quite easy
and better than on some other receivers. And music via the shortwaves
is not bad either.

I agree with you that I have heard shortwave receivers with better
sound quality and I also agree that this is one of the Sony's weakest
attributes. Yet it is easily corrected in one of two ways, both
relatively inexpensive. Merely purchase a stereo 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio
extension cable and attach the radio to your stereo system through its
line output. Then you'll have sound quality limited only by your
system (and with stereo on FM IF you remember to plug in a headphone
into the headphone jack when using the line output - see page 33 of
the owner's manual). Or you could purchase a pair of amplified
computer speakers (some of which are very small and quite suitable for
travel) and attach them to the line output. (I have done both and both
greatly improve the music sound quality of this radio though they
really don't do much to improve human voice intelligibility on
shortwave; it is already fine through the internal speaker.)

I must mention also that the greatest sound quality in the world is of
no use if you can't bring in the [MW or SW] station clearly. With the
Sony's synchronous detection circuit in your armamentarium, you have
another tool which can often make the difference between hearing a
station or not hearing a station clearly. No other currently available
compact portable shortwave receiver anywhere near this price has this
feature operating properly as does the Sony.

The Kaito KA-1103 is a very good buy at $89.95 (Grove's current
price). But, IN MY OPINION, the Sony is by far the better overall
receiver.

Your choice ...

Best,

Joe

On Sep 26, 7:00*pm, VR2HF K7DAN wrote:

The Sony SW7600has TERRIBLE AUDIO! *Why anyone would recommend this
radio for anything other that SSB is beyond me.

On Sep 27, 9:07*am, dave wrote:
Drifter wrote:
JimK wrote:
Thanks again to everyone for all the great info. RHF, especially
thanks for all the great links, a gold mine.

Many warm thanks.

Jim

Hi Jim.

* *Welcome to the hobby. no, shortwave is not dead. don't
waste your time with the neo-trolls. you might want to
check out the groups on yahoo. 100's of radio/ receiver/
and short wave groups there. no spam, no trolls and no phony
crap. just be careful, short wave can become an obsession.

Drifter...

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of having a superior receiver in
these times. *While there are still a few powerhouse HFBC stations,
receiving them is no great achievement. *Utility monitoring is where you
really get into the hardware and the technology. *Planes, Hams,
Military, Beacons, etc. are quite challenging. *Risk = Reward.

A portable along the lines of an ICF-2010, a Satellit-800, *an E1, etc.,
are the bare minimum for such serious listening. *Any true
"communications receiver" style desktop, fro the Post War era forward,
will provide endless fascination, IMHO.

Dave, there may come a time when I do get interested in beacons,
military, planes, etc.
My initial interest is in picking up broadcast shows though. The idea
of talking back and forth with people around the world sounds great,
but for now I'm just looking to listen. I don't much care for 90% of
AM radio, and FM radio is just music. When I'm camping, or when at
home, it would be great to listen to other broadcasts. If from other
countries even better, but as long as it's interesting that's fine,
maybe some news, maybe some music, I really don't know what I'll
find.

I don't want to spend a lot of money until I get a better idea of
whether there is indeed "stuff" to pick up that I like. But a more
expensive setup could be in my future.

Thanks much,
Jim

JimK wrote:


Dave, there may come a time when I do get interested in beacons,
military, planes, etc.
My initial interest is in picking up broadcast shows though. The idea
of talking back and forth with people around the world sounds great,
but for now I'm just looking to listen. I don't much care for 90% of
AM radio, and FM radio is just music. When I'm camping, or when at
home, it would be great to listen to other broadcasts. If from other
countries even better, but as long as it's interesting that's fine,
maybe some news, maybe some music, I really don't know what I'll
find.

I don't want to spend a lot of money until I get a better idea of
whether there is indeed "stuff" to pick up that I like. But a more
expensive setup could be in my future.

Thanks much,
Jim

I'm a hardware freak who goes for weak signals. I use the web for
program listening.