Brandon Reviews the Very Rare Panasonic RF-1188 and Puts It in Apex Performer Category

In the 1970s, Panasonic made 3 high quality portable radios of similar design - the RF-1170, RF-1180, and RF-1188.  The RF-1170 is the AM/FM/PSB variation and can often be found on ebay for $100 or less.  The RF-1180 replaces the police band with shortwave and is much less common, appearing on ebay only once or twice a year and selling for usually between $150 and $300.  The RF-1188 is extremely rare, has never been sold on ebay before to the best of my knowledge, and appears once in a great while up for auction in Japan. 

Well, after several years of searching, I scored myself an excellent condition RF-1188 for about $180 shipped.  Build quality, as is the norm for vintage Panasonic portables, is solid - this radio is quite heavy for its size, weighing in at just over 7 pounds. 

This radio features everything the RF-1170 and RF-1180 have including separate bass and treble knobs, a 5-inch speaker, an on-off timer, a gyro AM-FM antenna, a signal meter, and one of my favorite style tuning dials.  Also like the RF-1180, it feature full shortwave coverage from 1.6 to 30 MHZ with no gaps and is divided into 4 spreads.  Its additional features not found in either of the other 2 models include a fine tuning knob, a wide/narrow bandwidth switch, and SSB capabilities. 

Now let's talk about its performance.  On FM, I compared it to my RF-2900 and my stellar FM performing Grundig Satellit 2400.  It beats the RF-2900 hands down and gives the Satellit 2400 a run for its money.  In terms of just raw sensitivity, it may be a tad more sensitive than the Grundig, but its not quite as selective and actually suffers from mild front-end overload even just on the whip, mostly from 2 local stations.  It may be too sensitive for its own good if used in an urban environment.  Out in the middle of nowhere, it may be the most sensitive portable you could ever get your hands on. 

On AM, Hugo previously reviewed the RF-1180 and claimed it was more sensitive than the famous RF-2200.  Another reader claimed the RF-1170 was more sensitive than the GE Superradios.  While I haven't done extensive testing, I can fairly confidently confirm that my RF-1188 is in the same ballpark as the RF-1170 and RF-1180 - it is HOT across the entire AM spectrum.  The gyro antenna is very directional (even more directional than my Terk AM advantage) and the wide/narrow bandwidth switch is very effective at reducing adjacent interference in narrow mode and improving fidelity in wide.  Its probably the most sensitive AM radio I own when using just the internal antenna (My Satellit 2400 is extremely sensitive, but my testing on that radio was done with the help of the Terk antenna). 

Shortwave performance is excellent as well.  It was hard to do a direct comparison to my other radios since it does not have a digital display, but when I was able to locate and compare weak stations, the RF-1188 held its own.  On SSB, this is the best performing of my analog sets - SSB communications were stable and intelligible.  The fine-tuning knob comes in handy for tuning in SSB. 

In conclusion, the RF-1188 is a stellar performer across the board, and while I have never owned an RF-2200, I suspect it meets or beats the RF-2200 in raw performance and probably sounds better too thanks to its larger speaker.  Its a definite keeper and is probably the most "fun" to use radio I currently own.  My collection is quickly becoming obese, I may just have to thin the herd after making this purchase since it does what 3 or 4 of my other portables do and does it better.

 

Also a question to anybody reading this review - do you know what the "crystal" jack on the back is used for?  See the picture.

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Comments

[Angelo]

Great review. I need to "thin the herd" a little bit too. But don't make the mistake I did in selling something----then wanting it back. I sold my Japan market Sony 5800 (which I actually originally bought on E-Bay and had shipped from Japan). Not sure why----but it didn't bid up the way I had hoped. I got my money back----but was hoping to double my money. Instead, I broke even on a great, great radio that is very hard to find. RE: Your new Panasonic: I like the style of it a lot----great design. I have a Panny 888, one of my all-time favorite radios----and the speaker on yours reminds me of mine.

[Huesby]

Brandon:

All I can say is WOW !!! You´ve got the radio of my dreams!!

Don´t sell nothing ! Very soon your relatives will do that, for now they are all yours!

By the way Buy a RF-2200 before it´s too late.

About the crystal input....My best guess is that`s an input for headphones.

Congratulations Again !!!!

[brandon]

Huesby - another one of my Japanese radios has a crystal input and it actually has a crystal plugged into it. Its about 1 square inch in size and has a 1/8" mono plug on it. It says the following:

National Panasonic
Model RD-9801
NSB Crystal
Frequency:
3.925 MHZ
6.055 MHZ
9.595 MHZ
Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co, LTD.
Made in Japan

When I plug it into the back of the radio, the sensitivity on shortwave drops significantly but when I tune to those frequencies the signal comes back. There happened to be a station broadcasting on 6055 - with the crystal plugged in, I could tune the dial quite a bit away in both directions from that frequency and it would stay locked on that frequency.

So what purpose does this thing serve?

[Gary]

For what it's worth, according to this, those are the frequencies for Radio Nikkei 1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Nikkei

[Bob C.]

Brandon, I believe that those are the original three Japanese domestic SW frequencies of NHK. For the domestic market, it was not uncommon to have crystals set solely to those frequencies so that they were easy to tune and provided very stable reception. Basically, a decision based on the whims of that particular marketplace.

There is still a very well regarded Sony (the ICF-EX5MK2 sold in Japan) which offers SW, but with three sets of three SW frequencies (for each of the domestic SW signals of NHK1, NHK2 and NHK3). http://www.audiocubes2.com/product_info.php/cPath/39/products_id/442

[Paul]

Designing Wheel-Tuned, Digital-Display Radios with Silicon Labs ICs

See article at
http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/ATDD-Radio-White-Paper.pdf

[Michael DeMeo]

Great review! I bought an RF 1170 back when it came out in 1974 after seeing, believe it or not, a full page ad in Playboy Magazine. I remember hearing an AM station from Colombia SA on a Sunday night and could not believe it. Being in the NYC area, I remember listening to NYFD responding to the Fraunces Tavern bombing on VHF. My local PDs were all lowband at that time and it served well there too. I broke the original radio and threw it out! I missed it so much that when someone offered an 1170 for sale on Usenet a few years back for 35.00 I grabbed it. I always wanted an RF 1180, but thank you for pointing out the RF 1188! I never knew that this radio existed and now I want one instead of a 1180! BUCKET LIST! BTW, I own a GE Superadio and they are about the same in sensitivity, although the 1170 has more accurate tuning.

[Angelo]

Michael: What a great connection---remembering hearing the NYFD respond to the Tavern bombing. One of the things I love about the old used radios I buy----is wondering what programming has come out of those speakers over the life of the radio. My GE 780 AM radio built in the late 1950s----was someone listening to World Series games on that? Or the Kennedy assassination? A radio from the 1960s, like my Zenith Trans-Oceanic----Mets/Orioles World Series? Coverage of the moon landings?

[Drive-In-Freak]

From what I hear this one does a batter job with SSB than the RF-2200 does. Nice radio...very nice.

Angelo those old P780s are one of my all time favorite radios. What a great set with not only killer pulling power, but great sound too. They really went all out with that and and it shows.
Have you seen this article on it?...
http://www.transistor.org/feature/jutson/feature.html

[Rob Mitchell, Atlanta]

Hey I found this exact RF-1188 Radio for $4 at a thrift store 10 years ago! I love it! Over the years the volume pot and band selector switch got dirty and made it difficult to enjoy .. so the other day I removed the back and hit all the pots and switches with TV Tuner cleaner and turned all vigorously! Now it works like new! The metal handle strap pieces are missing and the antenna needs to be replaced but it sits at my bedside and I listen to it daily!

[Brandon]

Rob - you made a great find! I'm surprised you found this in the US as very few were produced as best I can tell and even in Japan where the primary market is they don't turn up very often.

It really is a great radio - of the 6 or 7 vintage portables I own this one I think has the best raw sensitivity across the board and the sound quality is great. My ONLY gripe is the out-of-band images that show up in the SW band, I think this may only be a single conversion set.

[Isaac]

Just picked up a rf 1170. Bought it for 40$ I'm likely to list it on eBay. I still have my grundig buzz Aldrin edition and know how well this one compares. The g6 is great but it's awesome to compare to this Panasonic. It's an awesome boom box and even came with the original ear piece. I recommend these without hesitation.

[Mitch]

I wish Brandon would change his photo. He appears constipated.

A smile would really help. Just saying.

[Rob Mitchell]

We had our RF-1188 running on 6 C cell batteries. It got us through what was left of Irma and several days of power outage in Atlanta.

Brandon: Would you please make a paper template of the strap bracket so I can make a replacement? I'm tired of carrying my radio around like a football! :)

[Bernard St-Laure]

I bought the RF 1188 while living on the Gaspé peninsula in Canada.
It’s a fantastic radio. We no longer have it and I miss it enormously.. Thanks for this walk down memory lane. Bernard