SANGEAN SG-622 AM/FM/SW 1-10 Compact World Band Receiver

I bought my first of these maybe twenty years ago, and somehow lost it while moving. I absolutely loved this radio, and didn't replace it for months because I was certain I'd never find the same model again after so long and clung onto ever-dimming hopes of finding my old one. Yet, when I finally gave up and went shopping I found it right here almost immediately, still in production all these years later. Hooray!I can't tell you how many hours I've spent listening to local radio on this Sangean, or (back when there were more stations available) pulling in shortwave from all over the world with a simple, cheap clip-on wire antenna. The old-school manual slide-and-knob tuner that doesn't require an advanced electronic engineering class to learn to operate is in my opinion much more user-friendly than the newer digital designs, the batteries last forever and a day, the price is right, and the small size is about as drawer-friendly as it gets.There are more sensitive radios available, and bigger, louder, more complicated ones. But in my book for anyone but a serious DX-er, this is about as good as it gets. No wonder it's still in production-- you can't improve perfection.

This is my second one of these. I got this model's predecessor back in the late 80s and it traveled the world with me. Reception is very good with the built in antenna and superb is you clip an accessory antenna onto the built in telescope antenna. Audio quality is not great on the 2.5" speaker, but you can connect headphones of powered speakers via the earphone jack and the quality is excellent. The audio quality is limited by the speaker not the signal quality. BIG PLUS with this radio: It has analog tuning. I know everything's supposed to be digital nowadays, but analog tuning is the way to browse the shortwave spectrum. Digital will pass over weak signals and really unpleasant to listen to when scanning and browsing (with the thump, thump, thump). Yes, analog can drift, be prepared to fine tune occasionally. But I expect most people listening to the shortwave bands want to se what's out there rather than jumping to a favorite station; and analog tuning is exactl;y what you need for that. This radio has prety good DX reception on the AM (MW) and FM bands as well. Listeners in the Southeast can pick up normal AM stations all over the Carribean and Central America on this radio at night. My earlier model has more weight to the body, but I don't erally know that it's any sturdier. Modern plascits are prety strong. Also, Sangean's equivalent of this radio back in the 80s cost more like $85 back then. We're getting much more value now. It's not much to look at but this is really a fine, inexpensive, radio for listening to the world. It's cheap enough that it won't break your budget. A word about AC adaptors: Cheap ones will generate an annoying 120Hz hum because they don't filter the AC adequately. No problem with strong local signals, but it will wipe out the weak stations. Either get a very good one, or stick with bateries. Also; consider getting a slinky type SW antenna. They can be had for under $20 and will increase your SW reception tremendously. All you need to do is hang one up and clip it to the telescoping antenna on the radio.

I bought this radio as a replacement for the Kaito KA11, which inexplicably stopped working in the AM/MW band and gave me concerns about Kaito's quality control.This is a basic shortwave/FM/AM radio, large enough to provide decent room-filling sound yet small and light enough to fit into a backpack. As I am going on a trip to Asia and will be going to places where shortwave radios are banned, it's also cheap enough to leave behind somewhere.There aren't many bells and whistles on this model: no exact frequency readout, no sleep timer, no alarm, no presets, no "wide" or "narrow" filter, no treble and bass settings, no external antenna jack, no tuning outside the basic FM/AM and shortwave broadcast bands; not even a carrying case. It has a headphone jack and input for A/C outlet and that's about it.I compared it to my Sony ICF-7600GR and found the sensitivity to be about equal. I was able to tune into the usual shortwave powerhouses: China Radio International, Radio Bulgaria, Radio Havana Cuba, Radio Canada International and VOA Africa service without much effort. The Sony obviously provides better selectability though; the Sangean had far more interference from adjacent stations. This Sangean, like all analogue models, also suffered from frequency drift and had to be re-tuned from time to time.Build quality is fair. It's light enough not to add much additional weight to my backpack, but as others have noted, the knobs are flimsy. Speaker quality is good. It's not too tinny sounding.If you're looking for a cheap, small, light travel radio, or a backup radio for emergencies, this is the radio for you. If you're interested in shortwave DXing (viz., listening to long distance stations as a hobby) this radio may be too limiting and frustrating. If you intend to give this radio heavy or rough usage, it may not last.