radios

Imagine, if you will, a radio barely larger than a pack of 100's cigarettes that often outperforms the big, almost professional, luggables, and gives a tabletop signal sucker a run for its money. Then note that it will allow you to listen to anything anywhere, including those pesky European AM stations that don't come through at even 10mhz intervals, late night jazz on longwave in London, Armed Forces Radio and Hams on SSB, and even Japanese FM bands. And you don't need a PhD in VCR fiddling to use it.

All this power in such a tiny package carries with it some negatives. First, forget about the speaker except as an alarm or for strong signals. What can you expect from a one inch speaker? You will need headphones. I'm into small and carry audiophile quality Etymotic units that fit inside a clenched fist. Second, you will need to take along the included external antenna (a smidgen bigger than the radio itself) to put next to the window of a modern hotel while keeping the radio next to you. I've never found the roll-inside connecter cable too short. Third, you must use the antenna for FM. So you have to extend the antenna on the radio itself a notch or two and put it in a safe pocket to use the SW100S as a Walkman.

Radio, antenna unit, phones, and two spare sets of AA batteries all fit into a pouch 5"x3.5"x1.5". I've had one of these since the week they appeared in the duty-free shop at Schipol Airport. I don't leave home without it. Mine has outlived four suitcases over going on a million miles with nary a whimper too.

The 100S has been around a while. But good shortwave portables have a useful technological life measured in decades.

This is NOT a cheap radio; it is NOT a toy. It will not replace the $20 analog AM/FM unit you tuck in your pocket. But when you want the news in English on a four month trip around the world nothing else comes close.

I own a Sony SW77, Grundig 800 and Sangean ATS-909. The Sony SW100 performs excellent, the supplied active antenna works well. There is nothing that I can listen to on my other radios that I can't listen to on the SW100. Sensitivity is excellent and even SSB is impressive. Build quality and finish is very refined. The previous reviewer should consider buying a new pair of headphones because the audio quality through my head phones equals my other radios. Passport to the World 2004 confirms this in their review in which this radio wins Passports Choice. I was actually listening to Armed Forces Radio on USB and getting better reception then on my SW77, of course there are so many variables that this performance can vary. With the addition of a Sony AN-LP1 active antenna the SW100 performs even better. I am very happy with this radio and I think that it is worth the price. Do not let the size of this radio deceive you, it is not a toy or gimmick. The SW100 is an advanced high performance shortwave receiver that works better then many full size portables. I feel that the only thing I am losing by using this radio is size. Don't buy this radio if you don't like small things. It is small but very comfortable to use. Plan on using headphones most of the time except for the most quiet environments. At night in a quiet room the built in speaker is clear, crisp and comfortable to listen to. I am very impressed and happy with the purchase of this radio.

This is a very compact well made radio with an excellent tuner . It has Sync. detection tuning which is an excellent feature . I have gotten nice results with this radio , HOWEVER , there are two problems . One , it is about $100 overpriced , maybe more and two the sound quality is fair at best . OK , its compact and sleak so you can excuse the built in speaker being lousey but the phone output is also weak . This inhibits the DXing capability because you simply can't amplify the sound enough to hear the far off stations....you can tune them in (sync tuning) but you can't hear them .For this amount of money I would recommend the Sangean ATS 909 over this radio . The 909 is about $130 cheaper and has far superior qualities .To summarize,nice radio , compact , good features ...BUT!