Category Archives: News

Jerry spots a rare Sony CRF-1 on eBay

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Jerry (WWØE), who shares a link to this rare Sony CRF-1 on eBay.

Here’s an excerpt from Bigapple59’s (the Seller) description:

This Ebay listing is for a Sony CRF-1 “portable” radio manufactured in Japan from 1981- 1986 and selling for a new price of around $1,795 not including the power supply. When using the CPI inflation calculator, the price when adjusted for 2016 dollars would be over $4,600! As you can determine, this radio was a premium portable that would outside the price range of anyone except the wealthy who desired the absolute best radio and had the money to purchase it. The time of this manufacture was also a time when Sony reached a height in worldwide respectability with it’s manufacture of Walk*man cassette players. From what we can determine gleaned from various sources, this radio was used by well-heeled buyers and by various media personnel who wanted a good shortwave radio to tune to the BBC, Voice of America, and other stations when they traveled internationally and to remote locations. Indeed, information related to this radio mentions that it can be tucked under the airline seat.

The CRF-1 is very scarce and is sought after by collectors. We have sold hundreds of radios and receivers here on Ebay, but do not commonly have a CRF-1 to offer for sale. Not only is this a scarce unit, but it is in nice overall cosmetic and operational condition. There are a couple of minor marks on the radio, but these can be considered as acceptable for the age of this unit and for it’s relative scarcity. Please note that there is a modification of extra inputs on the rear panel which are believed to be for external antenna and ground, but untested to verify.

Operationally, the radio works wonderfully with no known issues or problems. The front panel lights all illuminate and give off a nice green glow in a darkened room, but which are hard to see during daylight and do not show in my pictures. The included power supply can be adjusted to accommodate voltages ranging from 100 – 240 volts AC. Beneath the power supply is a battery harness clip that is used when you install D cell batteries for operation.

This CRF-1 comes with it’s AC power cord, a copy of the user manual, receiver reviews, copy of the service manual, a Theory of Operation document (not shown), and a CD that has many of the aforementioned documents on it. The unit has the battery holder at the bottom of the battery compartment. This is removed and then snapped on top of the batteries to secure them when the power supply is not being used. This CRF-1 also comes with it’s internal ACP-122W power supply which is not always present and can sell for a handsome sum of money when located for sale. One of these ACP-122W’s sold awhile back in Germany for nearly $300.

I’m sure SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, will know all about the CRF-1 and can, perhaps, comment.

The BuyItNow price for the CRF-1 is $1,695.00 US–a hefty sum and well out of my budget. For what it’s worth, Bigapple59 has a very good reputation on eBay and seems to specialize in the sale of rare solid-state receivers.

Regardless if you’re a Sony collector or not, it’s still mighty fun to take a close look at these benchmark receivers of yesteryear. Hey–one can dream!

Click here to view on eBay.

Useful Services for Shortwave DX’ers

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I’m always tinkering, experimenting…trying different antennas and set ups and what not. But, the downside is, I don’t have the patience or a lot of technical skills to hand build stuff, so I have to buy it pre-made.

Like most, I don’t like throwing my money at a crap product. I have found two different folks who make some quality stuff that I wanted to share with the rest of you. I make ABSOLUTELY ZERO $$ from referring anyone to these two folks, but since quality products, good customer service and sometimes, customization are hard to come by, I wanted to share these.

User “lowbander” on eBay makes longwires and dipoles. They come in stock 80 feet lengths with a 9:1 balun and a way to shunt common mode noise to ground. And unlike many longwires/dipoles, lowbanders products come with quality belden coax as well. So you order from him. you’re all set to plug and play

His dipoles and longwires range from $49 to $59, I do believe. Do you need a custom length? Want something shorter or longer then 80 feet? Send him an Ebay message and he’ll take care of you.

Do you need something other then the stock PL259 connector on your cable HE an likely help with that, let him know!

http://ebay.to/28KVp1g

My next find is Craig at K1CRA.COM. It’s mainly a store geared towards ham operators, but he also has a service useful to DX’ers.

He sells RG58 cable for 25 cents a foot, that’s right. 25 cents a foot. It’s the cheapest I’ve found anywhere. For those of us needing cable for our antennas going to our radios, this is a good option. For $8, he can put pl259 connectors on each end. Need something other then PL259’s? Put an order through and add comments on what connections you need and he can do that…I’ve had him do PL259s, 1/8th” (3.5mm) headphone jack types and BNC male connectors on cable for me

https://www.k1cra.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=DAVISRG58C-U

Select how many feet you want by changing the quantity.. say you want 25 feet? Make the quantity 25. The option to add the connectors is a bit down the page, with a checkbox.

Both lowbander on eBay and Craig at K1CRA ship via USPS priority mail. I had lowbander send me a package from Kansas City on a Friday and I had it here in Alaska on a Tuesday!

I have probably close to $500 worth of Lowbanders antennas and Around $150 worth of product from K1CRA.com stuff

I live in an area far from most of anything now, so finding good quality products at an affordable price from people you can trust is hard, and I just wanted to share these two.

Paul Walker is located in Galena, Alaska and is a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Be sure to check out Paul’s YouTube channel and SoundCloud channel where everything he logs is recorded and posted. Click here to read his other contributions on the SWLing Post.

VORW Radio International broadcast this week

Video: Yaesu FT-1000MP Repair

Ivan notes a used JRC NRD-525

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The Japan Radio Company NRD 525 receiver. Photo: Universal Radio

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Ivan, who writes:

[U]niversal radio has a used NRD 525 for $699.

If I had the time to use it I would have picked it up already. These are so hard to come by and represent the best of the shortwave listening era.

I’ve never owned a JRC NRD-525, but I’ve heard good comments about the radio and its performance. The NRD-525 can be found in Universal Radio’s Used Radio List. No photo of the actual unit has been provided, but the condition is listed as “good.” Universal Radio is a trustworthy retailer, so used equipment can be purchase with confidence. Indeed, all of their used equipment (save items marked “as-is”) come with a 60 day limited warranty.

Jeff reviews the Sangean WR-2

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I’ve just learned that my buddy Jeff, over at the Herculodge, has reviewed the Sangean WR-2.

Jeff writes:

I haven’t had a Sangean WR-2 in a year because a year ago Southern Cal Edison fried all the electronics on our block doing unauthorized work. They had to pay tens of thousands of dollars to residents. I was paid about $400 for the loss of some of my electronics, including my Sangean WR-2.

[…]I decided to get my beloved black WR-2 back. This radio, which I first purchased in 2005, is one of those radios that marks my entry into being “radio-minded,” a guy who is very aware of the radio performance hierarchy.

Click here to read Jeff’s full review on the Herculodge.

SDRuno: SDRplay introduces a free native app for the RSP

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(Source: SDRplay Press Release)

SDRplay is pleased to announce the official release of SDRuno for the RSP. SDRuno is the new name for the RSP compatible version of Studio1, the rights to which we obtained and announced on 28th April. SDRuno contains native support for the SDRplay RSP and no extra plugins are required. Third party hardware can also be supported via the ExtIO interface, but with reduced functionality.

SDRuno provides a rugged and flexible, high performance SDR receiver capability and boasts some excellent features:

Multiple ‘Virtual Receivers’ which allow for simultaneous reception and demodulation of different types of signals within the same receiver bandwidth.
A selectivity filter with an ultimate rejection greater than 140 dB.
A unique distortion-free double stage AGC with fully adjustable parameters.
Multiple notch filters with BW adjustable down to 1 Hz, Notch Lock feature.
A unique synchronous AM mode with selectable/adjustable sidebands, dedicated PLL input filter, and selectable PLL time constants.
SNR (stereo noise reduction), featuring a proprietary noise reduction algorithm for stereo broadcast.
AFC for FM signals.
Calibration for receiver frequency errors.

Over time, we plan to add many more features to SDRuno to enhance the user’s experience of this very powerful piece of software. This software runs on Windows and we don’t yet know how easy it will be to migrate it to other platforms but this is something we will be investigating.

SDRuno will be made freely available to all current and future users of the RSP – to download a copy – simply go to http://www.sdrplay.com/windows.html

Our support for SDRuno in no way lessens our commitment to support HDSDR, SDR Console, Cubic SDR or ANY other software solution where the authors are willing to work with us. We fully recognise that many people have strong preferences for particular pieces of software and we do not want to do anything to undermine the options that people have to use their favoured software packages. Indeed, our view is quite the opposite. Our objective remains aim to have our hardware platforms support any and every SDR package out there. This of course may not be possible, but it is our philosophy and part of the ethos of our company.

About Studio 1:

Studio1 was developed in Italy by SDR Applications S.a.s. and has hundreds of happy customers around the world. Studio 1 is known for its user friendly stylish GUI, CPU efficiency and advanced DSP capabilities, including features not available on other SDR software packages.

www.sdrapplications.it

About SDRplay:

SDRplay limited is a UK company and consists of a small group of engineers with strong connections to the UK Wireless semiconductor industry. SDRplay announced its first product, the RSP1 in August 2014