Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Jason, who leaves the following comment in in reply to David’s recent review of the Sangean H201:
I have this radio, purchased 26 Feb 2012 (so mine has lasted over 5 years) from Amazon US.
Cost me $58 Australian dollars for the radio and a further $40 to ship it down here but tell you what, it was worth it!
This is easily one of my best radios. The DX is amazing (I have received low frequency AM stations during the daytime with no issues). Examples include: Horsham VIC on 594 AM (450km away from my locale) and Broken Hill NSW on 567 AM and it’s only a 500 watt transmitter (480km away from me).
Anyone looking for a AM radio with very good long distance reception should consider this, especially if you are going to be using it on a boat, at the beach, or of course in a shower or tub.
That’s very encouraging, Jason–thank you for sharing! The H201 might also be an ideal AM/FM radio for someone who likes listening to radio on the deck or patio as it can withstand the occasional rain shower. Can you tell I’ve been known to leave radios outdoors?
Note that Jeff McMahan doesn’t recommend using the H201 in the shower, however, as his unit only lasted two years in this environment. In truth, the shower is a pretty brutal environment for even “waterproof” radios–even though Sangean markets the H201 as such.
Too bad Sangean doesn’t make a shortwave version of the H201–yeah, wishful thinking, I know!
The Sangean H201 can be purchased from a number of retailers including Amazon, NewEgg, WalMart and, eBay.
Wow my comment got featured on the blog, thanks!
I bought mine for the shower and use it in that environment everyday with no issues. I think the secret is to ensure the battery compartment is put back on securely and tightly with no gaps when replacing the batteries (which I only do once a year, the radio gets around an hour of use a day).
This morning I was listening to 2WEB on 585 AM <– 10kw transmitter, 1129km from my location, received at 6am (the sunrise is officially 6:44am for today but it was dawn outside). This is with the radios internal antenna only.
The radio gets even better results with a loop, I'm considering buying a separate one just for use in the shower but I'd probably only use it to DX 2BH and maybe 3WV on weekend mornings.
Being that it only has a wire antenna, the radio isn't as spectacular on FM and at the same volume level is quiet in audio output too compared to AM. It still receives all my local FM stations fine. (I'm 38km from the local FM transmission towers on Mt Lofty)