Category Archives: Guest Posts

Jam, TV and Records

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Hi to all our SWLing Post friends. Here’s what Imaginary Stations has planned this week for your shortwave radio/SDR listening pleasure.

On Wednesday 21st October 2026, at 0200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz. We have another new broadcast of WHFM: Herman’s Radio & Record Room on WRMI  this week with vintage tunes & old-time radio programs from the 1930s through the 1960’s.

Later that day at 1800 hrs UTC on 3975 kHz/6160 kHz via Shortwave Gold to Europe and beyond, we’re still jamming out with Skybird Jams – lots of extended jams in all musical genres.

And at the weekend, on Saturday 24th October at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 25th October at 1000 hrs and 1400hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and 2000 hrs UTC on 3975 kHz via Shortwave Gold, TV on the Radio continues this week without the annoying adverts and no dancing with the stars. Tune in for a mix of music from TV shows across the decades.

Subscribe to djfrederick.substack.com for updates and exclusive materials related to all things Skybird (and Imaginary Stations). and check out our archived shows at our Mixcloud page here.

FastRadioBurst23

The Vietnam Wars – Connecting the Pieces Through Radio: A Personal Journey Part 1

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The Vietnam Wars

Connecting the Pieces Through Radio: A Personal Journey

by Don Moore

Part One

Don’s traveling DX stories can be found in his book Tales of a Vagabond DXer [SWLing Post affiliate link]. If you’ve already read his book and enjoyed it, do Don a favor and leave a review on Amazon.

Except where noted otherwise, all photos are from the Vietnamese Military History Museum in Hanoi.

Last winter, I spent several months traveling through Southeast Asia. When I arrived in Hanoi I had the usual plans on my agenda. I wanted to learn more about Vietnamese culture and history. I wanted to sample authentic local food. I wanted to spend a few days outside the city to see some natural sites. And there was one more thing. I wanted to understand the Vietnam War better.

Understanding history is always at the top of my agenda when I travel. But this time was different, as it was also very personal. I was too young to have been in the Vietnam War, but the war was a constant presence throughout my childhood. It was on the front page of the daily newspaper. It was in the radio news reports. And it was on television. The Vietnam War is often called the first television war, as television brought the reality of the war directly into our living rooms. My family regularly watched the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and his calm, controlled manner in reporting the news. I remember videos of soldiers hacking their way through dense jungle foliage. I remember bombed-out buildings, helicopters crashing, and wounded soldiers being carried in stretchers. It wasn’t like the war stories in my history books.

Early in the war, around 1966, one of my mother’s cousins was drafted and sent to Vietnam. A few months later, he suffered a severe head wound and was sent home. I was nine years old, and I remember him watching me play with my toy soldiers in a corner at a family gathering. What did he think of my childish innocence? That was the last time I saw him. He left the area and lived a disturbed, difficult life until passing away several years ago.

Once a week, Walter Cronkite would report the official casualty counts from the Pentagon. Whatever the number of American dead was, our South Vietnamese allies generally had about twice that number. And our Viet Cong and North Vietnamese enemies? They always suffered about ten dead for every American killed. The pattern was very consistent, and the numbers said it all. We were winning. So why did the nightly news also carry reports of massive anti-war protests around the country?

The war and the protests against it continued. In 1970, I was in junior high school and still several years too young for the draft. That didn’t stop my mother from worrying that the war would last long enough to drag me into it. It certainly seemed possible. My parents and many of the adults around me didn’t think highly of the hippies doing the protesting. But those same adults were also questioning whether the war was worth the cost. I didn’t understand that. Shouldn’t we want to win the war, whatever the cost?

American history was my passion when I was a child. I read a steady stream of history books that always put my country and its great leaders in the best possible light. My heroes were people like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, perfect and admirable in every way. And John Wayne. I loved his western and World War II movies. I was becoming a flag-waving my-country-does-no-wrong super patriot. I believed that the Vietnam War was a good thing and that we were on the side of right. I saw the war as just one more chapter in our glorious history. My parents did not teach me to think that way. That wasn’t who they were. I had gotten that way by taking the books I chose to read and the movies I chose to watch too seriously.

In 1971, I discovered shortwave radio. I wasn’t surprised by the anti-American sentiment on stations like Radio Moscow and Radio Havana. They were on the side of evil. And some of the language they used was humorous. Imperialist running dogs? Really? What puzzled me was what I heard on stations like the BBC, Radio Canada, Radio Netherlands, and Deutsche Welle. They were good guys on our side. Why were our friends so strongly questioning what we were doing in Vietnam? Something didn’t add up.

Mark Twain famously said that travel is fatal to prejudice and narrow-minded thinking. With me, it started with shortwave radio. I expanded my reading list to include history and recent events from the rest of the world, especially Latin America. In the school library, I began critically reading the news reports from Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times. I began to understand that reality was different from what I had come to believe. Until 1971, the world was black and white. Good versus evil. Bad guys versus good guys. That’s how a child thinks. In 1971, I began to learn that reality has many shades of gray. Understanding the Vietnam War was a key part of that change.

The Vietnam War ended just before I graduated from high school in 1975. Soon other events and wars around the world filled the daily news cycle. The Vietnam War faded from memory. Then about twenty years ago, I came across bound copies of old Time and Newsweek magazines while browsing at the Penn State University library. I pulled out a volume from the late 1960s and began leafing through it. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading about the war as it happened. That rekindled my interest in the era that I grew up in, and since then I’ve read several books on the Vietnam War. But I always knew I was missing part of the story. That is what I was searching for when I landed at Hanoi airport.

Two Sculptures

One of the first places I sought out was the John McCain memorial. A young Navy pilot when his plane was shot down over Hanoi in late 1967, McCain spent over five years in Hanoi’s notorious Hoa Lo Prison. Later, he became a congressman and a senator, and in 2008 he ran for president against Barack Obama. McCain wasn’t perfect; heroes never are. But he was a highly principled, independently thinking man, and even those who disagreed with his politics respected him for that.

A river runs through Hanoi, and there are several small lakes within the central city. American forces launched over a million air sorties against the north during the war. When their planes were hit by enemy fire, American pilots attempted to direct their damaged aircraft towards water for a better chance of survival versus crashing into buildings. That’s what injured John McCain did. This picture from the Ho Loa Prison Museum shows Vietnamese civilians who went into the lake and pulled McCain from the water before he could drown. They did that for dozens of downed American pilots.

As I stood there looking over the now peaceful lake, I tried to picture the scene as a Vietnamese civilian at the time. Enemy planes are flying overhead, dropping bombs to destroy my city and kill my people. Shells are exploding above me as my side tries to shoot them down. And in front of me in the lake is an injured enemy pilot about to drown as his nearby plane sinks below the surface. Amidst all the chaos, would I risk my life by going into the lake to save his? I know that a part of me would want to let the $%#* drown. Would I save him? I don’t know the answer.

A few days later, I visited the Vietnam Military History Museum, the best place in Hanoi to learn about the war. This statue of Ho Chi Minh, flanked by a man with binoculars and another man with a field telephone, is more meaningful than you might think just by giving it a casual glance.

Ho Chi Minh understood that two essential components of winning a war are intelligence gathering and good communication. And that viewpoint carries over into the museum displays. The museum has all kinds of fighting equipment on display. But along the way, there is also an extensive collection of radio equipment with good explanations of how and when it was used. Photos of the radios in the museum would, by themselves, make for an interesting pictorial. But they are meaningless without understanding the context they belong to.

Two Thousand Years of Warfare

The use of radio communication in warfare has only been around for a little over a century, and this story begins long before that. That’s why the title refers to “The Vietnam Wars.” The Vietnam Military History Museum has three sections, and the first is totally focused on China. The story told in that room is long and complex. Two thousand years ago, Vietnam was ruled by China. Then in the year 40 CE, two sisters, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, began a rebellion. They raised an army of 80,000 men and women (including numerous women generals) and successfully pushed the Chinese out of their region.

Three years later, a much larger Chinese army put the rebellion down and executed the sisters. But it didn’t end there. The Vietnamese people continued to rebel and eventually pushed the Chinese out. In the following centuries, China continued to attempt to rule Vietnam. Sometimes they succeeded, but the Vietnamese never accepted Chinese rule. Men and women, together, would rise up to fight the invaders. The lesson in this room is that the Vietnamese people have been fighting to keep foreign powers from controlling their country for over two thousand years. It’s a sobering thought.

By the 19th century, China was in decline but Southeast Asia was now a target for European colonialism. So the subject of the second section of the museum is France. In 1858, French troops landed in Da Nang, along the central coast. That initial attack was repulsed but the French regrouped and a year later attacked Saigon, in the south of the country. This time they established a foothold and the three years of war that followed resulted in France gaining control of three southern provinces. The next few decades were a series of wars followed by treaties intended to be broken until eventually France gained control of all of Vietnam as well as neighboring Cambodia and Laos.

Taking control of Vietnam wasn’t easy and neither was ruling it afterwards. The Vietnamese never stopped resisting French rule and major rebellions broke out every few years. But the best place to understand the scope of Vietnamese resistance is at the Hoa Lo Prison Museum, where John McCain and other American POWs were kept. The prison had seven cellblocks when the French colonial government opened it in 1901. Two cellblocks were for criminals and five for political prisoners. That’s an incredible ratio. And as bad as American POWs had it later, the Vietnamese political prisoners of the early 1900s had it far worse, as shown in this display in one of the actual rooms at the prison museum.

The Japanese Occupation

In June 1940, the French government surrendered to Hitler’s Germany, resulting in the formation of the puppet Fascist Vichy French government in the south of France. Most of France’s overseas territories, including French Indochina, came under control of the Vichy government. But France was a long way from Indochina, and their control was tenuous. In June 1940, Japan invaded northern Vietnam. Initially, there was some scattered fighting, but the two sides, both allies of Hitler’s regime, soon came to an understanding. The Vichy French would continue to nominally rule French Indochina, but the Japanese were really in charge.

Needless to say, the Vietnamese people did not acquiesce. And as bad as treatment from the French had been, the Japanese were worse. Once again the Vietnamese rebelled and gradually all the resistance forces became united under the leadership of the Viet Minh organization and its founder, Ho Chi Minh. For most of the war they were on their own, but by early 1945 the United States began air-dropping supplies and advisors from the OSS (later CIA).

On 15 August 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, which would lead to the official surrender ceremony a few weeks later. It was understood that Japanese troops would remain in control of the various territories they had occupied until the European colonial powers could send in forces to replace them. The Viet Minh, however, did not agree. The very next day, Ho Chi Minh convened a meeting of the Viet Minh leadership. Also present were several American advisors.

The result of the meeting was what became known as the General Uprising. American-made radio equipment made it very easy to coordinate plans throughout the country. Over the next two weeks, Viet Minh forces marched in and took over cities and towns all across Vietnam. In one or two places the Japanese soldiers briefly resisted but mostly it was a peaceful takeover. The Japanese soldiers understood that the war was over and saw no reason to fight and die for French rule in Vietnam.

The Wireless Set No. 19 was developed in 1940 by the British War Office and saw heavy use in the North African desert campaigns. The Mark II models were primarily made by several manufacturers in Canada in 1942. Most of those had Cyrillic labels and were sent to the Soviet Union. A small number of Mark II models, including this one, were made in Chicago by the Zenith Corporation.

There were no markings to indicate who made this next set, which appears to be homebrew.

The next piece is truly a spy radio. The first photo shows the SSR-1-G unit, which was the receiver in the SSTR-1 set. The second photo, from Wikimedia Commons, shows the complete set.

The name stands for Strategic Services Transmitter Receiver Number 1. Developed by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services in 1942, it consisted of a receiver, a transmitter, a power supply, and a box of spare parts. It could run off either AC or DC, and everything could fit in a small suitcase. The versatility and portability of the set made it perfect for use by resistance fighters in Europe during World War II and later by spies in the early days of the Cold War. And some units found their way to the Vietnam theater.

A New Beginning

On 30 August 1945, the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh controlled all of Vietnam. Over the next few days, the Viet Minh leadership, with assistance from their American advisors, drafted a Declaration of Independence. It was heavily modeled on the American Declaration of Independence and even directly lifted some phrases in a few places. On 2 September 1945, Ho Chi Minh read the declaration in public and over the radio airwaves. Vietnam was now a single united independent country, totally free of foreign rule.

Next: Part Two

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An Informal Hands-On Comparison of the Tecsun H-501x, Belka, and Sony ICF-2010/2001D

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Radio Thoughts and Reflections: An informal hands-on review of the Tecsun H501x, Belka, Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D

by Julian Stargardt

This review started as a comparative review of the Tecsun H501x and the Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D. It developed into something more.

I fell in love with radio when as a 5 or 6 year old child, my parents parked an old multi-band thermionic valve / tube radio on a small table in my bedroom. After a few evenings of staring at this wooden beast with its glass face on one side of the front with rows of numbers, I plucked up courage to plug it in, and turn it on. It lit up and after a while it hissed at me. I twiddled some knobs and eventually found some faint speech and then some quite loud music, presumably a local MW broadcaster of the sort for whom a central heating radiator will suffice as a receiver – yes if you’re near enough to the transmitter an old fashioned cast iron water-filled ribbed radiator will work as a MW receiver, the audio isn’t great but you can hear it. A phenomenon that should appeal to steam punks. After a few days, I figured out that I could plug a long wire – actually quite short to start with, only about 5 feet initially, later this grew into a long wire mostly outside. Wow! I could hear all sorts of stations in all sorts of languages. My favourite was an American station that broadcast Country and Western. I invited my younger brother to my room and explained that the Country and Western music was “cowboy music”…. So a love affair started that persists to this day.

In my 20s and early 30s, I set up a National HRO with its coils and external power supply in my study at home, with an excellent long dipole in the garden; that setup could pick up anything from anywhere…

A Sony ICF 2001D aka 2010 also entered my life. Much more portable than the HRO. By the way, for reasons best known to itself, Sony sold the same radio under two different names; in the USA it was called the Sony ICF 2010, and in the rest of the world it was called the Sony ICF 2001D – not to be confused with the 2001….

The Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D was made from 1985 to 2003. That must be a record or close to a record for a consumer portable broadband radio receiver. And it reflects on what a wonderful radio the 2010 / 2001D is. To many of us it’s a benchmark. For people who worked in remote areas in the pre-internet age it was a window on the world that brought in news, views and entertainment from around the world. At times it could be a life-saver.

So 23 years on is there a worthy equivalent or successor to the Sony 2010 / 2001D?

Yes, there is.

There are any number of radios available today that perform as well as or in some ways better than the Sony 2010 / 2001D. Some are out of production but still readily available on the 2nd hand market. A number are in production. Some are larger and heavier; some are smaller; a few are much smaller.

The Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D has a certain presence and form factor. It brought phase-locked loop and synchronous detection to the consumer market, though I’m not sure it was the first. It was part of a wave of radios of that era, some of which are notably better, but Sony captured the lion’s share of that segment of the consumer market and won the hearts and minds of many. So what, in my view, is the modern current production successor in size and capability to the Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D?

It’s the Tecsun H501 / H501x. In Tecsun usage, the “x” or “X” suffix denotes the export version, with literature and labeling in English.

So how does the Tecsun H501x compare with the Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D?

In a word or two: It’s better.

Yes, I know, that verdict might be controversial to some and will raise some eyebrows here and there.

“What about the synchronous detection?” some will ask.

The Sony has legendary synchronous detection, which is generally, though not always, better than the Tecsun’s

But the Sony’s synch is nowhere near as good as today’s Belka’s. I mention that because some reviewers appear to give the impression that the Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D’s synchronous detection is the best available. It is good. But it’s not the best.

A brief digression about the Belka and some Antenna Options

And if you want a pocket-sized high-end communications receiver and you’re willing to pay a few hundred US dollars for the privilege, the Belka is in a league of its own. It’s tiny. It’s robust (the case is thick aluminium). The battery lasts, well, not quite forever, but nearly. Alex, who designed and makes the Belka, claims conservatively that the battery lasts 24 hours of continuous reception.

The Belka has features usually only found in professional rigs. But it doesn’t have FM, and relying on a whip antenna makes listening to Medium Wave or Long Wave in a radio-frequency-interference-rich urban environment either impossible or at least a challenge. But there are solutions to that MW reception issue:

  1. a compact Medium Wave magnetic loop or
  2. a ferrite rod.

You could make your own compact magnetic loop or ferrite rod, or you can buy a ready-made one. Keep in mind that the Belka does not have an internal ferrite rod so inductive coupling will not work, you’ll need a BNC connector to connect to the Belka’s antenna socket.

There are a number of compact magnetic loops on the market; one interesting manufacturer is PK Loop, a family-owned business that specializes in magnetic loop antennae and makes indoor and outdoor, passive and active LW, MW and SW loops. These have been reviewed on SWLing; I haven’t got one yet, so I have no personal experience of them. They’re helpful and respond promptly to emails. Their website is: https://www.amradioantennas.com/

I use, and I recommend Tecsun’s AN100 or AN200 compact passive tunable MW magnetic loops. They’re basically the same loop; they just feature different bases. You’ll need a BNC adaptor

Alternatively, you could buy Tecsun’s AN48x active loop set, which comes complete with a wide assortment of adapters, including a compact ferrite rod antenna for inductive coupling of the AN48x’s active loop to the internal ferrite rod of a radio that lacks an external antenna. Tecsun’s little ferrite rod works well on its own as a MW ferrite rod and can be connected to the Belka using the AN48x’s supplied 3.5mm / BNC adapter. I recommend the Tecsun AN48x kit, not only for the AN48x active loop antenna but especially for the wide selection of connectors supplied with this kit, including RCA, BNC, 3.5mm, crocodile clips, and the ferrite rod. At Anon-Co.com, it retails for US$29.99; US stock is sold out, so if you’re in the USA and order it, you will currently possibly have to pay a surcharge for tariffs. Anon-Co.com’s listing for the AN48x is at: https://www.anon-co.com/product/tecsun-an48x-antenna

I digress. I’ll probably do so again.

Back to the Tecsun H501x.

Why do I say the H501x is a worthy successor to the Sony? Well, look at the comparative photos. They’re both pretty much the same size. The Sony’s a touch longer and a touch thicker. The Tecsun is a tad higher, but we’re talking millimetres here folks, so to the non-anal among us they’re roughly the same size. They’re both well built, almost robustly built. But the Sony weighs more, a lot more. And with batteries loaded, that weight difference is all the more noticeable.

The Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D weighs 1.8kg / 4lbs with its batteries.

The Tecsun H501x weighs about 1.1kg / 2.4lbs with both batteries fitted, though only one is needed to operate the radio.

The Tecsun beats the Sony hands down on ergonomics and on ease of operation. Though the Sony is also very simple to use. For example, entering a direct frequency input on the Sony requires 2 steps: step 1, enter the frequency; step 2, press enter- no big deal. On the Tecsun, in common with most Tecsun communication receivers, enter the frequency, and that’s it. Just one step.

Another big-ish difference: chuffing. The Sony chuffs. When rotating the tuning knob on the Sony, it chuffs; the chuff isn’t as awful as on some radios, but it’s there, and it’s noticeable. The Tecsun, like most Tecsuns, doesn’t chuff. And speaking of tuning knobs… some reviewers complain about how the Tecsun tuning knobs are set into the body of the radio and how this makes tuning difficult. Well, the Sony tuning knob is recessed slightly into the body of the radio. OK, the Sony tuning knob has a dimple in it into which one can fit a finger to twirl the tuning knob as it chuffs through frequencies. But if you’re trying to tune the Sony using the tuning knob without the dimple, then the aperture on the front panel of the Sony is noticeably smaller than on the Tecsun. And the Tecsun tuning knob is a little proud of the body so it can be grasped, and it has a synthetic rubber inset that makes twirling it without chuffing through the frequencies quite easy.

Looking at the Tecsun, the main tuning knob and the fine tuning knob are on the right side. On the right side of the radio, above the main tuning knob are an AM, ie LW, MW and SW external antenna socket and an FM antenna socket, and below the fine tuning knob is a USB charging socket, a Type-C socket on current production and a Type-B on older models. The Tecsun comes with a charging adaptor plug and cable; alternatively, one can charge using a 5 volt charger. On the left side, the 3 knobs are, from top to bottom: volume, treble, and bass knobs. On the lower left of the front face are the Headphone socket, a line-in socket, and a line-out socket. The tuning and audio knobs are accessible via apertures on the front of the radio, or they can be turned from the side either by grasping the slender portion of the knob that stands proud of the body of the radio, or by placing one’s finger on the synthetic rubber inset and twirling the knob that way.

The Tecsun comes with a high-quality cotton-lined – at least I think it’s cotton – leatherette vinyl travel bag, stereo headphones, 2 x lithium-ion 1860 batteries, a comprehensive, well-illustrated, easy-to-follow instruction manual and a double-sided wall chart, on one side is a large map of the world showing time zones, on the other side is a colour illustrated quick start guide to the radio. One of the extras the H501x is supplied with is a micro-SD Card player; there is a micro-SD card slot fitted to the radio, and a micro-SD card is provided. The H501x micro-SD does not record; it only plays. By the way, the AM antenna socket serves all AM bands, LW, MW, and SW; I think that’s a nice touch. It means one can attach an external antenna for all bands without hassle. If your antenna has an RCA or BNC connector, you will need an adaptor to a 3.5mm antenna plug

Why is this Tecsun called the H501? Why not the PLXXX? The name is a tribute by Tecsun’s founder to his Alma Mater and to his class. A nice touch in my view. Tecsun’s founder is passionate about radio. He’s been building radios since he was a boy. We owe Tecsun’s continuing production of high-quality consumer portable radios to their founder’s love and passion for radios, and in particular shortwave listening.

I understand that Tecsun’s founder has done everything he can to optimise the SI radio chips but that the issues other reviewers have mentioned about synchronous detection and USB and LSB are inherent to the SI chip architecture. Don’t get me wrong, synchronous detection works and it can be useful; USB and LSB also work. But their audio is not great because low frequency is cut off at a point that affects the overall sound quality. Like everyone else, including Tecsun’s founder, I wish something could be done about this too.

I find the H501x’s volume and separate tone controls are very useful in helping to resolve shortwave signals, especially in a radio frequency interference-rich environment.

Long wave, Medium wave and FM performance are all good. In LW and MW, the maximum bandwidth is 9KHz, or likely wider, which enables hi-fi-like audio from strong stations.

FM stereo performance is impeccable, especially with headphones.

The Tecsun H501x has multiple bandwidths. In broadband listening, these range from 2.3 to 9 in LW and MW and from 2.3 to 6 kHz in SW. In practice, it seems the bandwidths might be wider than stated. The Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D has 2 bandwidths, “Wide” and “Narrow”.

What are those two grilles on either side of the front (and the back) of the H501x? They are the stereo speaker grilles. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the H501x is a true stereo radio, and the audio is good. It’s not going to replace a high-end HiFi system, by the way, Tecsun are venturing into those too, but for a portable radio, the on-board loudspeaker audio is good, and via good quality headphones, or via the line-out socket on the H501x’s front panel to your stereo system, the audio is excellent.

The Tecsun operates on one lithium 18650 battery, this has become a widely available battery. The H501x comes with two batteries. Yes, batteries are included. And the H501x has two battery slots. The radio only needs one battery to operate and the battery slots are switchable by a switch on the base of the radio. This means that if one of these long lasting batteries is nearing its recharging time, you can switch to the fresh battery already in place.

Why did I choose the Tecsun H501x and not another receiver as the successor to the Sony 2010?

Mainly because the Tecsun H501x has taken the size, form factor, and user-friendliness of the Sony and improved on it; in terms of audio, ergonomics, user-friendliness, and weight, the Tecsun H501x is a considerable improvement on the Sony. One can see some design cues in the H501x, mainly in the overall shape, from the Sony, but where the Sony is very angular, the Tecsun is rounded. The Tecsun’s design cues come more from the classic Grundig Satelit 700, a competitor of the Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D. And that is no surprise; Tecsun manufactures, or used to, Grundig-branded radios. The Grundig Satelit 700 looked better and had superior ergonomics to the Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D, but, so I understand, the Grundig performed less well on SW reception, and if memory serves me correctly, that was also my experience when I did an A / B test of the two radios back in the early 1990s. I currently have several Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D radios and I do an almost daily comparison between a selection of my radios’ shortwave reception. The Sony is good, very good. And when you consider that it’s a 30+ year old radio, that is an excellent result. But the Tecsun H501x is better, with the solitary exception of synchronous detection discussed above. The Tecsun’s sync works; the Sony’s works considerably better. Does one need synch? Rarely. Or not really, depending on your SW listening preferences.

There are still plenty of Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D on the market, and one can pick them up in varying conditions. But expect to pay at least US$300.00 plus shipping for a Sony in adequate condition; prices vary, and there are sellers out there offering Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D for 4 figures. For US$500.00 or so plus shipping, you should be able to find a Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D in good, clean condition and good working order. Remember the Sony ICF 2010 / 2001D is at least 23 years old and more likely 30+ years old.

Common failings are the back-light, bleeding LCD, battery leaks, and circuit faults. The Sony was supplied with a power adaptor – this is not a charging unit. The Sony uses 2 x AA batteries to power the clock and computer and 3 x D Cells to power the radio. The Sony has two power switches. A main power switch on the side and an on-off switch on the top front panel to the immediate left of the LCD. First, turn on the main power switch, then turn on the front panel switch. If the LCD shows “ERROR 3” wait a moment to see if the error message goes away. If the error message persists, check that the main power switch at the lower left side of the radio is ‘On’. If both power switches are on, check that the batteries are properly installed, that all battery connections are dry, and that there’s a good battery circuit; also check the power of your batteries with a voltmeter. If you still can’t power on your Sony, do a thorough circuit test and check to find the fault.

So how much is the Tecsun H501x?

Well, its new price from Anon-Co.com in the USA and in the rest of the world is US$298.00. Remember, if you’re in the USA and you’re ordering from Anon-Co.com, make sure you order the USA delivery item so you’re not hit with tariffs.

I love Tecsun radios, and I am delighted that Tecsun continues to produce this kind of high-quality broadband radio. I wish they could overcome the synchronous detector audio and stability issues and the USB / LSB audio issues; on the other hand, I love the fact that in USB mode, Tecsun’s high-end shortwave radios tune in 10Hz steps. I remember my astonishment when the PL880x came out and tuned in 10Hz steps; not so long ago, a 10Hz tuning step was unavailable except on expensive professional gear. To find that kind of sophistication in a radio the size of a not-very-large paperback book took my breath away. 10Hz tuning steps have become a tradition for Tecsun in their medium- and high-end portable broadband receivers, even in the inexpensive pocket-sized PL330 or PL540.

Tecsun produce a wide range of radios, you can feast your eyes on their radios and accessories either at Tecsun’s own website, or at Anon-Co.com or at Tecsun Radios Australia – www.tecsunaustralia.com.au

I’ve enjoyed writing this review and I might follow up with another comparative review of vintage and modern radios.

FYI: I don’t have shares in or get free radios from any of the brands and businesses mentioned above. I’m just a keen SW Listener who delights in the fact that Tecsun continues to produce good quality shortwave radios and accessories.

Video Clips

TV on shortwave radio

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Hi to all our SWLing Post friends. Here’s this week’s Imaginary Stations schedule for your shortwave radio/SDR listening pleasure.

On Wednesday 14th October 2026, at 0200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz we have a new episode of WHFM: Herman’s Radio & Record Room on WRMI this week, with vintage tunes & even old-time radio shows from the 1930’s through the 1960’s.

Later that day at 1800 hrs UTC on 3975 kHz/6160 kHz via Shortwave Gold to Europe and beyond, we’re jamming out with Skybird Jams, lots of extended jazz and rock tunes. Challenge your attention span!

And at the weekend, on Saturday 17th October at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 18th October at 1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and 2000 hrs UTC on 3975 kHz/6160 kHz via Shortwave Gold, we debut TV on the Radio.

Yes it can be done, and our Imaginary Engineers will demonstrate exactly how during the broadcast. Just kidding! Tune in for a surprising mix of music from TV shows across the decades.

Subscribe to djfrederick.substack.com for updates and exclusive materials related to all things Skybird (and Imaginary Stations). and check out our archived shows at our Mixcloud page here.

FastRadioBurst23

International classic(al) shortwave vibes

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Hi to all our SWLing Post friends. Here’s this week’s Imaginary Stations schedule for your shortwave radio/SDR listening pleasure.

On Wednesday 7th October 2026, at 0200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz we bring you another episode of  WHFM Herman’s Radio & Record Room via WRMI. They’ll be many vintage tunes and even a few old time radio shows from the 1930s through the 1960’s.

Later that day at 1800 hrs UTC on 3975 kHz/6160 kHz via Shortwave Gold, we revisit a 2023 broadcast of Skybird Radio International with an audio trip around the whirled.

And at the weekend, on Saturday 10th October at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 11th October at 1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and 2000 hrs UTC on 3975 kHz/6160 kHz via Shortwave Gold, we have the third in our classical series for the non-serious, CLSC3 before we turn our attention to the rest of our new autumn programs!

Subscribe to djfrederick.substack.com for updates and exclusive materials related to all things Skybird (and Imaginary Stations). and check out our archived shows at our Mixcloud page here.

FastRadioBurst23

More classical jams served up in the radio room

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Hi to all our SWLing Post friends. Here’s this week’s Imaginary Stations schedule for your shortwave radio/SDR listening pleasure.

On Wednesday 30th September 2026, at 0200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz we bring you WHFM Herman’s Radio & Record Room via WRMI. The show returns to the airwaves with new episodes featuring mid-century music from all genres from the 1930s right through to the 1960s.

Later that day at 1800 hrs UTC on 3975 kHz/6160 kHz via Shortwave Gold, tune in for more Skybird Jams. Imaginary Stations brings you an encore presentation of the show featuring music to challenge your attention span!

And at the weekend, on Saturday 3rd October at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 4th October at 1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and 2000 hrs UTC on 3975 kHz/6160 kHz via Shortwave Gold, for CLSC 2. We present the second program of classical(ish) tunes via CLSC. Be forewarned – it might not appeal to classical music purists, but we will continue experimenting with CLSC until we get it right! Or wrong.

For more information on all our shows, please write to us at [email protected] and check out our old shows at our Mixcloud page here.

FastRadioBurst23

Bob’s Radio Corner: Focusing on Hardware

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Figure contributed by Copilot

By Bob Colegrove

I have a friend who has collected antique cars for many years. So far, his collection is no immediate challenge to that of Jay Leno. However, it is his collection, and he is very proud of it. The cars festoon the inside of a large barn on his rural property. You will rarely see one of his vehicles out on the interstate. He has gone beyond the primary function of using these cars to get from Point A to Point B. Instead, he has chosen to focus on the means of transport – the cars themselves – the hardware.

By way of that analogy my point is that whatever your interest, the primary objective of the endeavor may become incidental, and the focus transforms to hardware. Take radio for example. I have spoken a couple of times about the many facets of radio. The primary interest is simply listening to program content, with perhaps a concentration in DXing. Others among us have gone beyond this function and attend seriously to the container the sound comes from – the radio – the hardware. This interest might be subdivided into collecting, restoring or modifying radios.

As proof, I have observed that the most interest in this blog is generated by radio reviews. There is a noticeable increase in the pulse rate whenever a new model comes to market. We seem easily infected with curiosity, and comments soon append the original posting. What are the possibilities? Does it have SSB? What are the bandwidths, etc.? Appearance is important; features are important; ergonomics is important. How well does it perform?

What Attracts Us to Hardware

Appearances

Our reaction is sometimes irrational. Techno-appeal might very well be the first grabber. Certain radios are captivating, irresistible. Examples are the Transoceanic, the old German manufacturers like Grundig, Blaupunkt, Telefunken, and then that RCA dial that shows up here on SWLing Post occasionally. You get the idea. In each of these examples, the beauty of the beast draws us into a closer look. There is a feeling that this radio will carry us off on an exciting adventure.

An attractive setup conjured by Copilot

Appearance gets serious attention from the manufacturers. Raymond Lowey, a noted industrial designer of the last century, was hired by Hallicrafters to bring some of its products out of the pre-WWII functional motif into a more appealing modern appearance. Examples included the SX-42 (1946), S-40A (1947), and S-38/S-38A (1946–47). These models helped shift Hallicrafters from purely technical ham gear to stylish consumer electronics, blending streamlined industrial design with functional engineering.

Raymond Lowey

Features

Of course, features are an important checkbox. We all have our lists. Although there is an ordered list of popular items, features come down to personal preferences. You know what you want. Sometimes it is a compromise based on what is available. Sometimes it is a compromise based on economics.

Ergonomics

The relative ease of operation generally occupies a portion of receiver reviews – the ergonomics. In general, entry and recall of memory locations has become a feature of diminishing returns (see https://swling.com/blog/2023/11/if-memory-serves-me-right/).

  • Excessive direct entry key presses can be annoying.
  • Locating controls along the sides.
  • Poor display arrangements.
  • Overly complex clock/alarm setup.

I could go on and present some examples, but you get the idea.

Control Curiosity

We have an insatiable curiosity about how things work. Despite the foregoing pitfalls of ergonomics, many of us are fascinated with the operational intricacies of radios – pressing buttons, twirling knobs, throwing switches. I am easily entertained. To amuse myself, I once did a full-page cause-effect flowchart of button presses for the Tecsun PL-660. It was interesting and kept me out of mischief for a while.

Performance

Performance is a gray area – sensitivity, selectivity, tone quality, etc. Lacking laboratory test results or side-by-side comparisons, the review of a new radio may fall short. Additionally, accepting the manufacturer’s specifications can be misleading or confusing. Ideally, variables must be isolated and controlled. We should not rush to judgment. Still, the typical consumer can render an honest appraisal if it is properly qualified.

Accessories

The radio stands as the centerpiece. For today’s all-in-one portables, an external antenna and a pair of earphones may be the only other hardware needed. In earlier times, the radio was likely a fixed unit requiring AC power. Many models were not as capable as even a moderately priced portable today. As a result, accessories such as external speakers, q-multipliers, and crystal calibrators complemented the capabilities of the radio. Knowledgeable operators who knew how to fix things might have servicing gear like signal generators, vacuum-tube voltmeters, and oscilloscopes positioned on nearby shelves. All this hardware was a source of pride and gave one the assurance that the listening experience was the best possible.

Thinking inside the Box

Beware of SWLs with soldering irons. There is a quantum leap in going from a listener to a certified tinker. It’s not for everybody. It’s the result of long mystic contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with the radio – Zen and the art of radio maintenance. Ultimately, you gather the tools. You open the case. You’re on the way to either Valhalla or complete annihilation. As you open the cover, you are transported down a long, dark cavern and suddenly arrive at an alien Tron-like world of strangely shaped parts.

An inside view by Copilot

Some folks are prepared for the adventure. They have read a book, taken a course, or earned their ham ticket. Others, like me, have thrown caution to the wind with no assurance of success, just a curiosity impervious to reason and a glimmer of hope that we can touch something and make it better. For us, it’s an embarkation on a long encounter with trial and error. Only by persistence and occasional reference to the previously neglected training materials will we finally earn our stripes.

Before I took up the soldering iron, I tackled alignment. I have heard beginners mistakenly thinking that every one of those slotted screws needed to be completely torqued down. Somehow, I had been cautioned that each one had a sweet spot at which the receiver displayed optimum performance. Each one of these adjustments operated in series with all the others, and near total synchronization was necessary to produce even a whisper of signal. It is a sort of electronic Rubik’s Cube; there are many combinations but only one solution.

To be sure, I made my share of mistakes. Initially I did all this by ear without the benefit of an RF generator, voltmeter, or even an insulated tool. I do remember one occasion getting an intermediate frequency adjusted up into the broadcast band. What a squeal that made. Over a period of a few years, I made progress and gradually came to tackle the dual-conversion Hammarlund SP-600 with great aplomb.

Source: Better Shortwave Reception, William I. Orr, W6SAI,
Radio Publications, Inc., Wilton, CT, 1957.

The purported goal in all of this is to squeeze every microvolt of signal out of the ether and hear more stations. In truth, that is only a cover so we can play with the hardware.

Today’s radios don’t have nearly as many adjustments. Through digital processing and phase-locked loops, most of the resonant circuits of old radios have been eliminated. It might be an improvement in performance and reliability, but it’s not the same.

Even the tinker’s quintessential soldering iron has mostly gone cold. The large-scale integration and surface-mounted, robotically-installed components have rendered radio repair and modification intimidating if not impossible. Only a few isolated Merlins of wizardry can deal with this.

For that reason, tinkers have largely retreated to experimentation with antennas. It does not require post-doctoral work in electronic engineering to produce tangible results. While there is a valid wealth of professional theory and practice which has gone into antenna design, the rest of us can still amuse ourselves by hanging wire, winding coils, and empirically evaluating the results.

Collecting

It only takes one radio to get things started. Where it goes from there depends on your interest. About 10 years ago I bought a Hallicrafters S-38E in virtually unused condition. The Hallicrafters lettering was printed on each of the original tubes. There wasn’t a mark on it. Obviously, someone bought this radio new, circa 1959, decided they weren’t interested in shortwave radio, and stored it in an environmentally ideal closet for more than half a century. (No, I have not felt the slightest need to recap it.)

I also bought my first S-38E in 1959. Unlike the first owner of my current S-38E, I have had a persistent affair with radios over the years. It started with just one radio, but I didn’t start collecting them for many years. Instead, I traded up, first an S-40B, then an SX-43, and ultimately the Hammarlund SP-600. It was at that point I was well into tinkering and wound up with three -600s plus one hulk for parts. The Sony ICF-2010 came along in the ‘80s, and I have just kept collecting from time to time with no thought to downsizing.

Let’s look at the economics of the thing. The S-38E cost $55 in 1959. Adjusted for inflation, this would be roughly $600 today. How many folks would be induced to spend that kind of money today to try out shortwave radio? If you bought a $600 radio today, it would be far superior in quality and features to the humble S-38E. Even an entry-level $55 radio today is better. We just can’t make comparisons other than to say radio has become a cheap hobby, unless, of course, you are a collector.

Hardware Groups

There are at least two healthy user groups in groups.io which deal with radio hardware: https://groups.io/g/HallicraftersRadios/topics and https://groups.io/g/SonyICF20102001Dusergroup/topics. There are others, but I am most familiar with these.

For these folks, listening and reporting station reception is incidental to the acquisition, care, and feeding of the radio – the hardware. What are you hearing on the radio? More specifically, are you hearing anything you hadn’t heard before? These questions often go unasked in these groups.

It amazes me that both groups remain very active long after the hardware production ended. Hallicrafters ceased operation in 1980. The Sony ICF-2010 and 2001D radios were manufactured from 1984/1985 to 2002/2003, depending on your reference. Yet each interest group has a core membership steeped in the history and technology of these radios and is quick to address the inquiries of others.

The Hallicrafters Group

The Hallicrafters Group focuses on both receivers and transmitters from the 1930s through the 1960s – the vacuum tube or “hollow state” era. For most purposes, a soldering tool is essential, schematics are necessary documentation, and diagnostics is a required skill.

It was a hands-on era; repair was down to the component level. Today, parts are becoming an issue. While tubes, capacitors, and resistors are still reasonably common, unique items such as transformers, variable capacitors, and various mechanical items (knobs and dials in particular) are more of a problem. This has resulted in cannibalization or “parting out” units in more extreme states of deterioration for their valued parts. This isn’t always a helpful solution, as a defective part may be a common occurrence among other units. A few enterprising vendors have taken up the challenge and come up with innovative solutions, including the use of 3-D printing to replicate parts such as knobs. Bottom line: Restoration of antique hardware appears to be a primary focus of this group.

The Sony ICF-2010/2001D Group

The Sony ICF-2010/2001D Group represents another generation of radios, which were produced in the closing decades of the 20th century. Even more amazing, their interest focuses essentially on a single model receiver. There were at least 6 different versions tailored to local regulations. The -2010 was the North American version.

The complexity of these radios was orders of magnitude greater than those of the vacuum tube era. Being solid-state, they were relatively compact and reasonably portable. They achieved the pinnacle of excellence in portable shortwave reception. Among aficionados, they are still regarded as such today.

Memory capacity of a digital radio can quickly become a point of diminishing returns. While not the first portable to have digital memory, these radios sported an 8 x 4 matrix of memory buttons. Recall is instantaneous, not only frequency but other tuning parameters.

Today’s group remains quite active. Due to the complexity of these radios, troubleshooting and repair are much less common compared with the Hallicrafters Group. However, from time to time capable repair sources have shown up to provide this service as well as several useful modifications. The ICF-2010 and -2001D occupy a unique spot in the hardware collection arena, commanding high prices on the used market. They are regarded as truly classic radios worthy of preservation. They also remain high-performance shortwave receivers today.

Conclusion

Cars and radios are similar. They do not necessarily have to be driven or tuned to be enjoyed. The proof is in the barns and shacks of true hardware lovers. On the other hand, you may have just one radio, but it’s still a special piece of hardware and a captive testimony of your love of technology.

Good DXing.