A Radio in Every Room! OR! You Can't Have Too Many Radios!

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The other day I dropped by a local RadioShack over in East Greenbush and picked up one of those new Grundig G6 Aviator portable AM/FM/SW/LW/AIR portable radios. This is the special Buzz Aldrin Edition. I wanted a small radio that I could listen to at the office. Prior the visit to RadioShack, Zach and I stopped at a Big Lots, one of the larger national dollar stores to see if there was something half way decent despite being cheap.
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By way of momentary digression, dollar stores are remarkably fascinating places to visit every once in a while. Based on personal observation,the dollar store is the inevitable final whistle stop before a manufactured product is determined to be unsellable and is quietly but most assuredly unloaded into to some undisclosed landfill. Unlike the 5 and 10 cent stores of the 1940's, 50's and 60's, the stuff up for sale is pure junk. There was nothing at Big Lots that had a chance and so the pilgrimage to RadioShack.
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I already have several multiband radios I could have brought to work but they already have their permanent assignments within the rooms they are stationed in. Working from the bedroom out, a now vintage Sony ICF-2010 is positioned on a night stand adjoining a diminutive shade lamp. This is the device that imports the latenight Coast To Coast AM and the ever fiery Michael Savage to mine ears. Also within the same environs, a Kaito KA1103 is available for the occasional flatside AM Broadcast DXing.
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The bathroom plays host to another Kaito: the KA009, an odd little box that tunes the AM, the FM, the SW and the soon to be rendered useless TV audio. This gizmo plays on AA batteries, by hand-cranked dynamotor or if you expose the device to sunlight, a micro-sized solar panel.
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Down the hall and perched high atop the refrigerator, a comparatively ancient Sangean SG-796 awaits my needs, it too offering AM/FM/SW. This receiver I purchased at the now defunct Comtech/Softron ham radio store across the Hudson in Rensselaer for fifty bucks. It still plays and every so often someone does a Google search on the model and comes to this blog since I've mentioned it in previous posts. In fact, I took the Sangean SG-796 and made an acoustic recording of it while tuning the dial. I use this clip whenever I need such an effect in my Random Access programs for This Week in Amateur Radio.
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In the dining room, either an ICOM 725 or an ICOM M700 Marine Radiotelephone is parked on a table for casual monitoring of the HF. While the 725 is VFO controlled, the M700 is direct entry. Usually I keep a full bank of oceanic aviation channels on hand and all set to go when that transceiver is employed.
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But there's more! Many moon ago I picked up two really neat receivers, both at original Deerfield Hamfest. First, a Sony ICF-SW1, a Viceroy cigarette pack sized little gray brick for AM/FM/SW. A few years back, I thought the radio tanked because at some untimely point, a very bad biting buzz replaced the desired audio. However, plugging in an external speaker solved what appeared to be a failed internal speaker.
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Finally, there's the Pn310 CENEHA. This name is typed in English but the these characters come the closest to the Cyrillic letters in Russian. For fifteen dollars American, I walked away with a somewhat cheesy AM/SW/LW transistor radio. Although purchased in the early 80's, this is clearly an early 60's technology. The Pn310 is playing as I compose this post with The Savage Nation blistering out from the two and a half inch speaker. Four frequency ranges are offered here: Longwave 150-280 KHz, AM 550-1500 KHz (and 1500 KHz is at the dial stop) and SW. Two comparatively narrow ranges: 9500-9800 KHz and 11600KHz-12200 KHz. With regard to the shortwave provided, Bill W2XOY made the suggestion that these ranges were where most of Radio Moscow once transmitted in, resulting in even less DX within those bands to hear.
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These gadgets I have collected over the years, not to mention the scanners, handi-talkies and video game consoles that somehow found safe harbor within the confines of the N2FNH Electronic Landfill. More on that detritus in a future blab. Detritus, by the way, is a five dollar word, used by science fiction writers and crossword puzzle authors everywhere.