junius wrote:
Steve wrote:

Congrats on the 2010. It was a pretty good deal in terms of price and
performance. At least you've owned one portable that you don't have to
feel defensive about.


Hmm, I bought a '2010 new in 1988 for $325 at Ham Radio Outlet, Atlanta
(Larry Galecki made the sale). Good radio, although it's no longer in
proper working order now. I did get my money's worth out of it,
though.

Of course, the dollar was worth more when I bought that radio. In 2006
dollars, we'd be talkin' about $530.75 for that purchase in 1988.

http://minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/

((Needless to say, I understand your argument, Steve: you're weighing
the cost of the E1 relative to other radios on the market today when
making the assessment that it's not a good value for you. Still, I
throw this out there because it's worthwhile to note that our dollar
has declined in value over time.))

Steve's the kind of guy that has poured a lot of money into some junk
receivers. And to justify those purchases he feels the need to tear
down the purchases of someone else. I guess he can't stand the
thought that a portable could run circles around many tabletops.

John S. wrote:

Gilfer...(remember them) were selling them for a good price early on.
The yen went out of sight and Kenwood jacked the price up.

Oh, yes, I remember Gilfer. In NJ. They were always great folks to
deal with.

"junius" wrote in message
ups.com...

John S. wrote:
Actually for my first decent tabletop receiver I paid $400.00 new for
a Kenwood R5000, added the filters, memory option and a few other
goodies.

Wow, where did you get a new R5000 for $400.00? I remember pricing
those back in 1989, and the best price I could find was $779.95....

Wow! That would be a great deal!

junius wrote:
John S. wrote:

Gilfer...(remember them) were selling them for a good price early on.
The yen went out of sight and Kenwood jacked the price up.

Oh, yes, I remember Gilfer. In NJ. They were always great folks to
deal with.

Yes, fine folks. They sold a guide to Utility Stations that was really
helpful too.
They were one of the first of many SWL/Ham stores to close up in the
early 1990's as I remember.

So you think an R8B and a 7030+ are junk? You're really going to have
to overwhelm me with your "expertise" before I believe that.

Why are you so upset about all of this, anyway? You don't even know me,
and some casual remark I made on a newsgroup has reduced you to a
raving imbecile. Life is too short! Go have a beer or something. Laugh
at a joke and get things in perspective.

It's all gonna be okay. I promise.

"junius" wrote in message
oups.com...

John S. wrote:

Gilfer...(remember them) were selling them for a good price early on.
The yen went out of sight and Kenwood jacked the price up.

Oh, yes, I remember Gilfer. In NJ. They were always great folks to
deal with.

Oliver Perry Ferrell. I think he got killed in a wreck and that was pretty
much the end of Gilfer : (

"Joe Analssandrini" wrote in message
ups.com...
Dear DeWayne,

Look what has happened to your original query! (And I'm afraid I also
contributed to this.)

Bottom line (in my opinion): research and buy a better MW antenna than
the AOR LA-380. One that is especially dedicated to MW should improve
your reception as much as is possible. The C. Crane is very good (I own
one) as is the Select-A-Tenna (I own one of those too) and the Quantum
antenna I mentioned in my first post is, according to Jay Allen (in his
Radio Intel review) even better yet. Check the antennas out for
yourself.

The Quantum QX looks like a real winner.


I really think that another radio is not the answer to your quest for
better MW reception (you already have one of the best); a new MW
antenna is!

I'd like to add the Eton E1 to my R8 also. Or maybe the new Degen 1108.
Thanks Joe.


Best,

Joe

junius wrote:

Overall, my preference tilts slightly toward the SW8, in a
comparison of the E1
and SW8, although there have been more than a few times that the E1 has
produced a more usable copy on a signal than the SW8.


How would you compare the performance of those two receivers when using
their whip antennas on HF? The SW8 is known for being somewhat
insensitive on it's whip, particularly the earlier versions. Drake made
an improvement to the whip in 1994 by redesigning the matching impedance
of the whip's input circuit. Contrary to what some believe, Drake never
added a pre-amp to the SW8 whip circuit. However this was done on the
Sat-800 which is closely related to the SW8. It's why the Sat-800 is
more sensitive on it's whip for HF than the SW8.
What year was your SW8 made?

junius wrote:

Hmm, I bought a '2010 new in 1988 for $325 at Ham Radio Outlet, Atlanta
(Larry Galecki made the sale). Good radio, although it's no longer in
proper working order now. I did get my money's worth out of it,
though.

Of course, the dollar was worth more when I bought that radio. In 2006
dollars, we'd be talkin' about $530.75 for that purchase in 1988.

$325 seems high for a new 2010 in 1988. Are you sure it wasn't $225?
They were originally priced at around $230 when they came out in 1984. I
bought a new one from 'Grove' for about $275 in 1991. I had seen them on
the gray market at that time for about $225 but I didn't want to take a
chance on the warranty. After Sony succeeded in eliminating the gray
market for the 2010 they raised the price to well over $300. They must
have been making a good profit in the latter years of the 2010 since
their design and tooling costs had long since been recovered.

HFguy wrote:
$325 seems high for a new 2010 in 1988. Are you sure it wasn't $225?
They were originally priced at around $230 when they came out in 1984. I
bought a new one from 'Grove' for about $275 in 1991.

No, that was a good price. I had a friend who was a grey market importer
who brought some in when they were first made before they were imported
by Sony. I got one of those, his cost was over $350.

The "legal" ones sold for almost $400 for a long time.

Geoff.
--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
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