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Looking to get one in the near future, hopefully. I used to have one that worked well but don't recall the brand. I was looking at Sony, like the 7600GR
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-ICF-SW7600GR ... im_sbs_e_2

Curious if anyone has experience with it or similar sized ones. Grundig is another one but I'm worried about their current quality issues.

I assume you are just interested in a receiver only. I have been very happy with my Grundig Yacht Boy. Remember tho, even the most expensive blinged out radio is worthless without a good antenna.

Eham is a good source for radio reviews http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1215 . Good sources for radios in So Cal are https://www.hamcity.com/store/pc/home.asp in Culver City and HRO http://www.hamradio.com/ with locations in beautiful downtown Burbank and in Anaheim. Ham city often has better prices however HRO has much better show rooms and knowledgeable sales staff. They also stock receivers like the Sony. HRO can usually demonstrate anything they sell and offer good advice on radios that will meet your needs. And help with Amateur license information if you decide to look into it.

There are a number of the hand held ham radios that have very wide ranges of receive frequencies. Many people like is the Yaesu FT-60R or the Kenwood TH-F6A these are legal to own and listen to without a license not legal to transmit without a license and are very capable as receivers. You may wish to look into getting your amateur radio license, not hard to do now that Morse code is no longer required.

73

I was actually at HRO recently but I felt like there are better deals elsewhere and Ca. tax isn't something I'm a fan of.

I used to be a Ham but lost interest with all the rules, plus my brand new dual-band Yaesu completely failed exactly at the time the warranty ran out so I guess that was kind of a straw-on-the-camel's-back thing.

http://www.aesham.com/ free shipping on orders over $100.

I have a Kenwood TH-6A handy talkie. Receives just about anything, transmits on 144MHz, 220MHz, and 440MHz, all at 5W. Runs all day on it's battery and fits in a pocket with room to spare. About $340. I'd buy one again if I lost this one.

For higher powers, Yaesu's 897D or 857D transmit on virtually every Ham band but about $1000+. Bought mine used.

For receive only, you might consider a Grundig or similar all band receiver. It really all depends what you want to do with it.

My portable short wave radios are getting pretty old but you may find them on eBay or elsewhere.

My favorite is a Sony ICF-2010. It has great performance even with the built in antenna. It is hard on batteries though.

The other is an ICom PCR-1000. This is a "black box" radio with no controls other than a power switch. You need to use it in conjunction with a program running on a PC. There have been control protrams written for Palm Pilots and some home brew stand along controllers. It requires and external antenna and doesn't have quite the short wave performance as the ICF-2010 but it is a wide band radio going up to 1.3Ghz.

I always liked Icom, Kenwood and Sony since they seem to actually come from Japan still. I'm not so sure about Grundig anymore. Someone told me they bought a newer one and thought it was Chinese made. I believe the Sony ICF-SW7600GR is still from Japan and with the ext. ant. (Sangean ANT-60 Short Wave) it seems like a nice set-up for 4x4 trips.