[geeks] Shortwave tips

[gsm at mendelson.com]

On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 10:30:44AM +0100, Sheldon T. Hall wrote:

>I have a Sony 2010, a book-sized SW radio that was _the_ hot item 16-18
>years ago.  I would expect any more-modern unit would do uch better now, but
>back in the day I could hear not only some of the more obscure minor
>broadcasters (Radio Burundi, for example) but also various Andes
>"dedication" stations.  Even the morning drive-time DJ in Johannesburg.

Actually not. The 2010 was a landmark receiver. It was the best portable
in its class ever made. It was born out of the failure of AM Stereo.
Sony took the ICF-2001 receiver, added air band, a syncronous detector*, 
32 memories (a lot in 1986), and a really hot front end.

* The sync detector allowed reception of SSB (single side band), CW
(Morse code) and AM by slicing the signal in half, cutting near channel
interference.  It was an accidental application of the AM stereo detector
chip, Sony had a warehouse full of and nothing to do with them.

The 2010 went on for a long time, eventually replaced with the more expensive
SW-77 with more memories and less performance.

I got one of the first ones, imported from Japan to the US via air freight,
months before Sony America imported them. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find that my new girlfriend in 1989 (now
my wife of 20 years) had one.

There are better receivers, such as the Kenwood R-5000, Drake R8, ICOM R70/71,
etc, but they all cost a lot more. I bought my R-5000 used for $1200 in 1990
4 times what I paid for the 2010. 

The only fault with the 2010 is if you connect an external antenna it can
burn out the front end. It's easy to make a protection device to prevent 
any damage.

>I have hardly thought about SWLing in years, and I suppose a lot of it has
>changed, but I expect it's still fun, and a real windo into some of the
>world's less-developed areas.

Yes, but the more developed areas have dropped it. The end of the cold war
killed the propiganada wars e.g. Radio Moscow, Radio Habana, all of the
Soviet Satellite countries and the "free" ones fighting back. 

Now that that US is becoming irrelevant and Russia is moving to fill the gap,
the stations are coming back. Lots of fun listening.

Geoff.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. 
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.