shortwave

This is the finest Sangean shortwave radio on the market, and it is a worthy "competitor" to most of the finest portable shortwaves in the industry. I own many shortwave radios, including venerable entries by Sony and Grundig. And while this doesn't quite match the best of either company, Sangean's radio is respectable in many ways.

The radio's shortwave reception is more than adequate. A good external antenna always helps, but it also does fine with just the telescopic aerial. The Sangean's sensitivity could be favorably compared with the Sony ICF-2010, although the Sony is still champion. It also should be noted that the Sangean radios of the last 15 years or so share the same lineage with the older Sony ICF-2001, so the Sangean's performance is understandable.

The ATS-909 has very good FM reception with good adjacent signal rejection, and the Radio Data System (which automatically reads out some station IDs and other info on the LCD) performs well.

The Sangean features 306 programmable memory positions. There are 29 "pages" of 9 frequencies (261 total) allocated for shortwave. As an example, a page could be used for up to 9 frequencies of a chosen broadcaster, and the page can be assigned an 8-digit alphanumeric ID by the listener. I'm not a big fan of the "page" format, because I'd like to assign IDs to each frequency, not a whole block of nine. But, when you have hundreds of memory positions of keep track of, the page format does have its advantages.

I don't like having to select the FREQ button every time I want to directly tune into a frequency. I just want to punch the numbers and enter it. Having another step to remember makes tuning a pain at times.

Overall, I believe the Sangean ATS-909 is an excellent radio and a good value for shortwave listeners with a little experience. It could be slightly improved, but it's certainly worth a listen.

The ATS 909 is the best portable receiver available. Unlike its Grundig and Sony competitors, the ATS 909 has a wealth of features, good audio, awsome selectivity, and an advanced memory system. The negative reviews received by this product both on the internet and in publications are wrong. There's nothing wrong with the whip sensitivity and the supplied roll out antenna makes the sensitivity even better! I was able to pick up broadcasts from Bulgaria, N.Korea, Canada, Taiwan, and the VOA program broadcast to Russia. On the Grundig YB 400 PE that I had, I had trouble picking up even the stronger stations such as BBC and Radio Netherlands. If you like shortwave, get the ATS 909 but get the deluxe version from the [online store]. The deluxe version eliminates muting while tuning manually (something you can only do with Sangean, since neither the Sony 7600GR nor the Grundig have tuning knobs), this allows you to adjust the reception more precisely and to catch the weaker stations.

I own all the others, Kenwood, Grundig, etc. but SANGEAN ROCKS. I own 3 of these ATS-909's and I love everything about it: the layout of the buttons and knobs, the display is FANTASTIC, and the sound is AWESOME. For the money, you get it all. If you don't like the factory presets of all the SW Frequencies, program it the way YOU want it. The RDS is great! You can lable the stations with the call sign or whatever you like. Buy it, use it, learn to operate it like a pro, and you with respect this radio for the rest of your life.