Many thanks to SWLing Post readers, Mark and Alan, who were both recently notified by C.Crane that the CC Skywave has been updated.
Mike purchased the CC Skywave early this year after reading our review. He was disappointed to find out, though, that a local radio station (in his urban location) overloaded the Skywave’s front end, causing imaging and other problems.
Mike, along with other Skywave owners, notified C.Crane about the issue and returned their units.
C.Crane passed along this feedback to their engineers, who have updated the CC Skywave accordingly. C.Crane believes the latest production run will be immune to this sort of overloading. [Kudos to C.Crane for listening to customer feedback.]
I contacted C.Crane yesterday–they recommend ordering directly from their website to insure your unit is coming from the latest production run. It’s possible that some of their distributors could still have some of the older units in inventory for the next few weeks. At least, to be certain, you should check with the distributor directly.
To be clear, I’ve never noted the overloading issue on my Skywave, but I live in a rural area with no blowtorch stations nearby. If you live near an AM broadcaster, and are considering the CC Skywave, you should certainly purchase the updated unit.
Click here to view/purchase the CC Skywave on C.Crane’s website.
Again, many thanks to Mike and Alan for the tip!
I live in southern Florida and purchased the SKYWAVE a couple of years ago for use as an emergency radio during Hurricanes and storms. I keep it ready to go in our go box. Today I decided to go through our emergency box to check supplies and equipment.
When I checked the radio, I found it was dead, like the batteries bad. I changed the batteries and surprisingly, it made no difference. I referred to the manual for further info and performed there resets they recommented to get the radio working again. Nothing worked.
I am sure glad I check my go kit out between seasons or I would have been in trouble if a storm came along next season and the radio I purchased for emergencies failed.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to revive this radio I would be grateful if you would share them. I has less than 4 hours of use.
Can older units be upgraded to new the new firmware? My radio shows CSF-8
I just purchased a new Skywave and discovered that it looks like starting in August 2016 the radios being sold now have a new firmware version. The most noticeable change was that they moved the music / voice toggle. You now just have to press and hold the page button for 2 seconds. The newer radios also now have Tone written in red above the page button. The only other thing I noticed is that the beep tone is now at a lower pitch compared to the older FW. When the radio is powered off and you press and hold 1 for a few seconds the screen displays CSF-9. The new date was given to me by the vendor I purchased from and the new manuals revision date being the end of July looks to confirm the time.
I did return the CC skywave radio because of the overloading issue (AM onto shortwave). If some one who already ordered the new CC Skywave can review it for others and post feedback.?
I am glad to hear that C. Crane stands behind their product and are updating it. I have one of the newer Eton Traveler IIIs and the radio has terrible overloading / imaging issues. I haven’t contacted Eton about it though. I wonder if they would be as receptive to the feedback.