The Sony CRF-1
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Hirst, who shares the following:
This eBay item grabbed my attention primarily for its price. I see that you blogged about one in June last year.
Thank you Mark! While the price is quite high at 1,100 GBP (roughly $1,375 US), it’s still much less than the CRF-1 we mentioned last year. Steep, but easily within reach of a Sony collector. Perhaps Dan Robinson can comment, but I’ve not noticed many CRF-1s on eBay as of late.
I love the classic handle/bail design.
Post readers: Any lucky CRF-1 owners in our community? Please comment!
A site I occasionally worked at had one of these set up for monitoring some decommissioned gear, so I used to spend lunchtimes poking around the HF bands on it.
Pros: looks impressive, fairly sensitive & selective when you ride the preselector.
Cons:preselector knob is tiny, finicky, & you really have to ride it – switch it out & its good for local reception only. The odd push-pull tuning is good for only +-100kHz at a time, & makes you long for the simplicity of a Wadley loop ;).
That said, if I had the money, space, & inclination I’d have one as a shelf queen. But I certainly wouldn’t buy one to use it 😉
Well, i had mine for around €950 and I found myself lucky. Prices usually oscillate around 1000-1200€.
It probably is one of the most beautiful receivers in my Sony collection, together with the CRF320 but… it has a combined tuning system with two modes, one for normal and another one for fine tuning that are not really easy to deal with. Besides, you can only explore the dial in the thick mode, which goes in big increments of 5 or 10 KHz (not sure now). It’s fantastic when you know what you’re looking for but it really doesn’t help when you’re looking to explore a bit.
Having a few Sony beauties of that time, I’d say the one that gives me much pleasure (ease of use and reception) is the ICF6800W