Herculodge

Coveted Japanese Sony Radios Available Online

Coveted Japanese radios, such as the Sony ICF-EX5 can be purchased on Audio Cubes II. The most intriguing radio on the site for me is the Sony SRF-A300 stereo radio with AM/FM for $149.

Helpful Tips When Buying a Radio on eBay

A Herculodge reader provides the following tips for people buying older radios on eBay:

"firstly, one of my first questions to a seller is; do the tuning meter and dial light function.  these are occasionally what goes bad on these older radios. no real big deal but like you, i'm no  radio techie and couldn't tell you how to replace a dial lamp. second, always ask if the  antenna is intact and straight. sometimes sellers will say 'radio works fine!' well , that may be true but nothing else works on it! i like true portability, so i always ask if it functions on batteries as well as mains. one other thing, i would suggest a paypal account, as its quick and easy and you do get recourse, (refund) if you're misled or not sent the item."

The Joys of Restoring a Scuffed Radio

Perhaps anticipating that I will be taken aback when my scuffed-up vintage radio arrives in the mail, one Herculodge reader has provided these encouraging words:

"when buying a vintage radio for the first time, DON'T be discouraged by scuffed scratched or otherwise seemingly uncared for old dusty dirty cases. i have transformed what looked to be junk into a gleaming beauty. in most cases, vintage radios are made with much sturdier materials. often with real chrome, other metals, and heavy pvc type plastics. all it takes is a little mild soap (dawn) an electric toothbrush (medium bristles)some q-tips and some very very MILD abrasive type cleaner. in fact, its half the fun for me when i transform one of these babies! sitting on the porch and detailng a radio is quite stress relieving!"

Common Misconception About AM Reception

A Herculodge reader was kind enough to provide some AM info that may be obvious to many but remains commonly misunderstood:

"there is one very elementary fact about am reception that is so simple and understood by radio afficianados, that it is not stated in the above tips. however, for those new to am dxing, an am radio is equipped with an internal, ( inside the case), ferrite bar antenna. your whip or telescoping antenna has no effect on am reception. its for fm and shortwave reception. am signals are directional, therefore often times, its a simple matter of acclimating your radio to the signal. simply put, by turning your radio from facing one direction to another. ccrane co. makes a small well made turntable just for this purpose. it allows you to spin your set to the exact position to achieve optimum am reception. i know this information is a given to most of you, but youd' be surprised how many people believe the telescoping antenna is for all bands."

Here is the complete list of AM Guidelines.

We Live in the Radio Dark Ages

In this age of the iPod and iPhone, with a new iPod speaker cradle coming out every five minutes, and the false revolution of HD radio, I'm sad to say we live in a radio Dark Ages. Tube radio from the 1930s produced high quality radios with warm sound. The Zenith Trans-Oceanic radios from the 1960s had huge sound, amazing FM and AM and were built like tanks. The big Sony and Panasonic radios of the 1970s and 1980s represented a Golden Age for radio lovers and the Sony ICF-2010 and Panasonic RF-220 can command up to $300 on eBay.

Today, though, is the Dark Ages for radio lovers. Quality control is shaky, an oxymoron. AM and FM performance can't match those oversized Panasonic radios from the 70s and 80s.  Here's a lament from Herculodge reader Mike W:

 A pattern has emerged with these new Chinese radios that have had the market almost to themselves since the wealthier Japanese and Germans have dropped out.

An appealing new design is proffered, a prototype is photographed in Las Vegas or Hong Kong with an attractive, flat-bellied young woman standing next to it, slick-looking ads are taken out in Passport to Worldband Radio and Monitoring Times, a little internet buzz gets started, and in general smoke gets blown up your you-know-what.

And then...nothing. Months go by. Then years. So much time, in fact, that the radio market itself changes. The woman in the photographs has had a C-section. Satellite radio gets introduced, or XM merges with Sirius, or iPods become commonplace, or wifi, or smell-o-vision replaces television, or whatever, so the company tweaks the design and re-introduces it under a different name, this time in a chinzy-looking silver, with an iPod dock now cobbled on or an outboard XM module required or some such gimmick. By this time you've mostly lost interest, you've graduated to worrying about things like prostate health, most of the old SW broadcasters have given up the ghost, your favorite AM radio hosts are all retiring or dying off and being replaced by George Noori talking to a morbidly obese woman in North Dakota who claims to be a re-incarnated extraterrestrial, but for reasons that are not entirely rational, out of nostalgia or lack of imagination or a sublimated unwillingness to acknowledge your own pending mortality or just plain bloody inertia, you buy the plastic injection-molded thing anyway. Or you buy two or three till one works correctly. And it works OK, as well as any decent Sony or Panasonic table radio circa 1973 did, but nothing special. But that matters less these days because even if you can't get that distant station with the interesting host you used to like listening to, don't worry, it's just the fat lady from North Dakota now, and she's on about 12 of the 24 stations you can get.

But I digress.

No More Tangle in Your Ear Buds: The Siege Audio Stealth

Featured on Whiskey Militia, the Siege Audio Stealth Ear Buds are selling for $24.99 and boast 10mm drivers. Their real selling point is their rope-like cords are allegedly tangle-free. Any ear bud user will tell you that untangling the buds is an OCD nightmare.

An AM Champion Portable: The Sony ICF-EX5

Writing for DXer.CA, Gary De Bock reviews the Sony ICF-EX5, a Japanese import that has many characteristics similar to the coveted ICF-2010. Twenty % smaller and offering less speaker sound than the 2010, the EX5 does an excellent job of getting AM stations with its effective synch detector. De Bock provides a link for the buying the radio at Audio Cubes, which sells for $159. I went to the Audio Cubes website and must say I did not find the radio. But a Herculodge reader was kind enough to inform me the following:

"They have a companion website called audiocubes II. the ex-5 is on there and now going for 199.00, not including shipping."

The Grundig Satellit 750: "Old Wine in a New Bottle"?

For those of you fretting over the possible cancellation of the Grundig Satellit 750, perhaps you will be assuaged by Ed take:

"This 750 just looks like old wine (the 800) in a new bottle. There are plenty of Satellit 800's around, suggest getting one of them instead."

To feed my radio appetite, I decided to bid on a Panasonic RF-2800 and Panasonic RF-1080. I'll let you know how they perform, if I get one or both of them.

The Grundig Satellit 750 Remains on Eton Website with Owner's Manual

One variation of the Tantalus myth that I've heard is that Tantalus stood chest-high in the sea. He was shackled so that he was immobile except for his arms.  A silver platter of ambrosia drifted toward him and just before he could reach forward and pluck a tidbit of ambrosia, the currents retracted and the platter receded just out of reach.

Actually, I was talking about the Grundig Satellit 750, the most coveted radio I've seen in the last ten years. Rumors are flying about delays in availability and then recently and outright claim of its demise. And yet the Eton website not only features the GS750, it has a PDF file of the owner's manual.

Now we wait for the waters to recede.

The Sangean DT-400W Review

Not happy with the FM on my Sangean DT-180, especially since the TV band bleeds into weaker FM stations like KPCC 89.3, I purchased the new Sangean DT-400, which I just bought on Amazon with free shipping for $61. Unlike my DT-180 which operates on a single AAA battery, the DT-400 uses two AA batteries. This makes sense since the DT-400 has a built-in speaker, unlike the much smaller DT-180.

It appears the DT-400 is an update of the DT200, famous for its great AM but stuck with the soon obsolete TV band. Instead of TV band, the DT-400 features a weather band in addition to AM and FM.

The DT-400 includes earbuds, which work as the radio's FM antenna and you need them. Without the earbuds or provided wire, you will get NO FM reception. I replaced the stock buds with my high-fidelty $30 V-MODA earbuds. The FM reception is just as good so apparently it doesn't matter if you use the stock earbuds or not.

What's nice about the DT-400 is you can listen through the buds or the built-in speaker. On the radio's upper left side you have a switch with 3 options: SP is for listening through speaker; MO is mono through the earbuds; ST is stereo through the buds. For FM with the buds, you will probably want MO, especially for weaker stations. You'll get less background noise.

You also get a DBB button for "Deep Bass Boost," a feature that interests me little as I don't want to thump my eardrums into intractable tinnitus.

One of the advantages of the DT-400 W over the DT-80 is you get 19 presets combining AM and FM. This comes with a slight disadvantage: Your learning curve for learning how to set and navigate the memories is longer with the DT400W. You turn the radio on, find the station you want, then press band until the display shows you're in "M" mode. From there, you use the tuning buttons to choose the "M" preset number. One you select the number, you press the "Memo" (for memory) button to set the preset. To toggle through the presets, you press up and down the tuning buttons.

Radio Reception:

I'd need to preface my reception judgment by saying you can't measure a portable radio by the same standards of a stationary radio because for AM you position the radio to maximize reception and with FM you elevate and angle the telescopic or wire antenna to the "right spot" to optimize reception. In contrast, when you're walking or running in the outdoors with your portable radio, you can't enjoy such stability so you are going to go through compromised positions that in turn compromise your signal. Having said that, there are still marked differences in performance and I can say the DT-400 is a much better performer than my DT-180. Unlike the 180, my 400 grabs 89.3 and 103.1, relatively weak stations. Slight static when walking isn't so distracting as to dissuade me from listening. AM stations were also loud and clear even though there is no AM filter.

On weather band, channels 3,6, and 7 are all the same and the signal differs in strength. 3 and 6 have significant static while 7 is loud and clear. There is no signal on the other stations.

Final Thoughts: I doubt I will be using the built-in speaker much. The sound is so much better through my V-MODA buds that there is little point listening through the speaker. Also the radio doesn't stand up, so I'll be using it while I'm walking, a situation I'd be using the earbud-doubling-as-FM-antenna anyway.

Final Verdict: Highly Recommended.

Post Script: Because there is a large degree of interest in the DT400W, I will be posting period updates whenever I recognize something of note during my use of it--which is my daily 30-minute walk with my dog.