Radio for remote area use

[RichardK]

I'm looking at adding a radio (The shortwave receiver type) to my kit for remote area travel so I can keep up with the news.

Does anybody have any experience with these and what are good quality and good performing brands?

[Pedro_The_Swift]

dont know about radio's
how about a phone with net capabilities??

just a thought,,




and the next question has to be--

WHERE are you off to young Richard??

[Dinty]

G'day All, I have a Codan 8528 (along with 3 other 2 way radios) which I have had for almost 20 years, it has never given any problems reasonably easy to use, but Sat/phones would have to be the way to go at present if you can afford to get one, HF radio is more fun and you can do more with it, but thats my personal preference cheers Dennis
PS yes it was

[waynep]

G'day All, I have a Codan 8528 (along with 3 other 2 way radios) which I have had for almost 20 years, it has never given any problems reasonably easy to use, but Sat/phones would have to be the way to go at present if you can afford to get one, HF radio is more fun and you can do more with it, but thats my personal preference cheers

I think he's talking about a boradcast radio receiver ( ie to receive Radio National or whatever )

I'm also looking for something like that - small, battery powered. Something that had a facility to run a long wire external antenna for AM reception would be the way to go, but I haven't seen anything in the normal shops. They all just run off an internal ferrite antenna for AM.

Dick Smith has some nice looking Grundig units but they only have an internal AM antenna ( the whip thing they all come with is only for FM )

[isuzu110]

Tom Sheppard covers this topic in his excellent "Vehicle-Dependent Expedition Guide".

The main points he claims to look out for is:

* Buttons not knobs. Get one that has a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) frequency synthesizer and a digital readout of freqiency. Using the old analogue rotating knob and pointer accross a scale doesn't cut it with today's crowded frequency bands. PLL tuners usually come with several presets that are useful for storing different stations with their day and night-time frequencies - I can vouch for this as my analogue unit is a pain to tune properly.

I'm saving my pennies for the Sangean ATS-505 Shortwave Receiver that Dick Smith sell. Seems to have these features at a price - $229

[JDNSW]

I agree with Isuzu110's comments. I have had a Sony ICF7600D for years - was almost unique when I got it, but there are now others. Small, rugged, reliable, and relatively easy to use.

As well as the Sangean mentioned Dick Smith also have a Digitor for $169, and Jaycar list three PLL receivers varying from $29.95 to $129.95.

John

[RichardK]

The Sangean seems to be the best of the bunch that I've seen, I had a look at the ATS505 today because I want to compare it to the ATS909 which I haven't seen yet other than on overseas web sites.
I'll compare the specs but I have the feeling that both cover the same bands and are equally as powerful, just the 909 has more bells and whistles.

waynep, The 505 has a jack for an external aerial