Sony ICF-SW7600GR AM/FM Shortwave World Band Receiver with Single Side Band Reception

I've had mine now for about 18 months. It performs as a radio quite well so I won't delve into that. Other reviewers have already done a fine job of that.

Mine has survived a few considerable drops and still works great. The case shows some damage. So this is a sturdy radio.

My biggest pet peeve is with the darn Timer Standby feature. Something I will never need. The problem with it is that it is far too easy to turn it on by accident. And the default power-on time is 1:00 a.m. I have been woken up many times at 1:00 a.m. because of this. One can change the power-on time, but every time the batteries needs changing it reverts to 1:00 a.m.

After much research and reading of reviews, I decided to order this Sony. Not disappointed. I have been in ham / amateur radio for over 30 years. Got my license back when you had to know Morse (CW) code and something about electronics to pass the test. Had a lot of ham band receivers and radios over the years and this little Sony does a good job. I bought so I could listen to the ham bands, CW and SSB and distant AM stations. Works fine for what I purchased for, and the FM is not bad either! This is one of the last things you will find on the market, in Electronics anyway that is still Made in Japan.

Great radio, especially compared to the Grundig that Radio Shack sells for twice the price. Best feature is the sensitive and stable tuning, least desirable is the small speaker.

This radio was perfect in every way with one exception. When I plug in the appropriate AC/DC transformer, the volume stays "low" until I push the "backlight" button for the display, then it jumps up to a much higher volume. I did not want to bother with returning it, since it works great otherwise.

P.S
For the record, do NOT buy the transformer "recommended" as a complimentary item to purchase. It is the wrong voltage.

I bought this radio with some skepticism since I have owned 3 portable shortwave radios in the past (2 digital, 1 analog) and recall the frustration in receiving SW stations clearly. However, when I could tune one in, I enjoyed listening in on distance stations from other countries, hearing their news or sometimes hearing their perspective of U.S. news. It is often substantially different than that reported by our media. Well, I unpacked the Sony SW7600GR and was immediately impressed with it's build quality and somewhat surprised at it's size (smaller than I thought it would be). I turned it on, pulled up the antenna, started scanning and initially not much but static on the SW bands. I was a bit disappointed even though I was inside and knew that I would need an external antenna to clearly tune in SW stations, especially living in Montana, up against the Rockies to the West and far from the east coast. I then tried the AM and FM bands and was very satisfied. All stations I knew of came in clear and even tuned in some I have never heard before, especially in the AM band. The speaker is small and the sound is far from full (it does have a voice-music tone switch which helps a bit), but it is a small portable radio so I didn't expect much in this area. I got it for talk rather than music and the sound is good for this purpose.

I take my dogs for a walk almost every night and decided to take the Sony along to see what it would do outside of the house, away from the typical household interference. WOW!!!! With only the built in roughly 3 foot antenna, I was able to tune in quite a few SW stations very clearly and many more with lesser signal to noise but still clear enough to listen to with ease. I started filling the presets with interesting channels and might have been able to fill most of the 100 presets if I programmed them with all of the different stations I could pick up. I honestly couldn't believe it. I do live on the outskirts of town, it was during winter and about 6:00-7pm, which is generally the optimum time to listen, but still very impressive. I can hardly wait to get a decent tuned external antenna set up outside of my house. I don't know if this was a fluke, (three different nights now, same results) or what, but so far, I am very pleased.

Again, I know that reception can vary considerably depending on seasons, time of day, atmospheric conditions, solar activity and location (inside/outside, type of building or environment, inner city, "out in the sticks", etc.) and I was probably receiving during the best of these conditions. But compared to the other portables I have used, it is clearly a winner, at least using the built in whip and at least so far. I hope it proves to be reliable.

UPDATE 2/15/2010

I strung a longwire antenna in my backyard between trees and connected to my 7600GR. I was able to get 75 feet of length, but I could only get it up about 12 feet high and it is pretty close to my house. I can get all of the stations I was able to get during my walks with good signal, but the longer bandwiths (lower frequencies) are noisier than during my walks. None the less, reception is great and I've been able to listen in on lot's of ham conversations, mostly around 3900kHz, on LSB. The SSB tuning is a bit touchy, but it works great.