C.Crane has just sent an email with the promotion above: free shipping on the CC Skywave through December 6. As I’ve mentioned quite recently, I think the Skywave is an excellent little portable for travel. Certainly a nice gift for the shortwave listener!
Click here to view this promo on the C.Crane website.
Note that if you’re an Amazon.com shopper, the CC Skywave has free shipping every day.
The CC Skywave is more than double the price of the Tecsun PL-310ET. The two radios appear to have similar features and performance. Can anyone suggest a reason why one would want to pay the extra charge for a Skywave?
Thanks for your question, Joe. I’m asked this a lot by readers.
The Tecsun PL-310ET is (and has been for years) the best budget shortwave portable out there. You really can’t go wrong with it
The CC Skywave, in my opinion, has a few advantages:
– An excellent NOAA weather radio receiver (for folks in North America)
– The AIR band which is fun and useful addition if you’re flying or travelling by air
– I prefer the Skywave over the PL-310ET on the mediumwave band. Its selectivity and AGC, in my opinion, have a distinct edge over the 310ET for MW DXing.
Because of these particular advantages, the Skywave has become my travel portable of choice when SSB reception isn’t a priority.
You might check out the CC Skywave review because I tried to include reception recordings which I felt represented both radios fairly:
https://swling.com/blog/2014/12/review-of-the-c-crane-cc-skywave-portable-radio/
In short, though? If I didn’t care about the AIR band or NOAA weather radio, I’d be quite happy with the PL-310ET. You really can’t go wrong either way.
Just my thoughts.
-Thomas
I really need to turn this reply into a post since I’m asked this so often. Thanks for the nudge, Joe! 🙂