{"id":54414,"date":"2022-10-26T08:26:55","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T12:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=54414"},"modified":"2022-10-26T08:26:55","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T12:26:55","slug":"which-radio-how-to-avoid-analysis-paralysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/which-radio-how-to-avoid-analysis-paralysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Which radio? How to avoid analysis paralysis&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Tecsun-PL-990-and-Tecsun-PL-880-1-4.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-45290\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Tecsun-PL-990-and-Tecsun-PL-880-1-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"932\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Tecsun-PL-990-and-Tecsun-PL-880-1-4.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Tecsun-PL-990-and-Tecsun-PL-880-1-4-300x233.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Tecsun-PL-990-and-Tecsun-PL-880-1-4-1024x795.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Tecsun-PL-990-and-Tecsun-PL-880-1-4-768x596.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Tecsun-PL-990-and-Tecsun-PL-880-1-4-624x485.jpeg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been running the <em>SWLing Post<\/em> for fourteen years (!!!) and during that time I&#8217;d say that one of the top three questions I receive is a variation of &#8220;<em>Which radio is better?<\/em>&#8221; followed by a list of radio makes and models.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes that question is easy to answer because the reader is new to the world of shortwave, they only have two choices, and one is an obvious winner.<\/p>\n<p>In truth, though, that&#8217;s <em>very<\/em> rare.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the time&#8211;and I&#8217;m speaking from having received hundreds of these questions&#8211;I&#8217;m asked to choose between a list of radios that the reader has <em>thoroughly<\/em> researched, uncovering radios DXers and enthusiasts consider to be the best in price class.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;ve already read numerous reviews, created spreadsheets comparing features\/specifications, and they&#8217;ve weighed all of the pros and cons by price class.<\/p>\n<p>But they can&#8217;t decide.<\/p>\n<h1>Analysis paralysis<\/h1>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Sangean-ATS-909X2-Tecsun-H-501x-Panasonic-RF-B65-e1617917235113.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48474\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Sangean-ATS-909X2-Tecsun-H-501x-Panasonic-RF-B65-e1617917235113.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"690\" \/><\/a>We&#8217;ve all been there, right?<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re ready to invest a bit of money in a new radio and there are many good options, but there&#8217;s no one stand-out&#8230;no &#8220;perfect&#8221; radio with everything we seek.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a slippery slope.\u00a0 We start our research with some obvious choices. We can&#8217;t decide which is best, so we broaden our research, we take deeper and deeper dives, <strong>but the more we research, the more confused we become<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Sound familiar? (Trust me: you&#8217;re not alone.)<\/p>\n<p>I remember receiving an email once from someone with a list of <em>two dozen<\/em> sub $150 radios on a multi-tab spreadsheet.They had every feature and specification listed for comparison. They wanted to know which of these radios was &#8220;the best.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t answer this questions for a very good reason.<\/p>\n<h1>It&#8217;s all about personal preference<\/h1>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Digitech-AR1780-Tecsun-PL-680-CC-Skywave.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-28841 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Digitech-AR1780-Tecsun-PL-680-CC-Skywave.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"918\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Digitech-AR1780-Tecsun-PL-680-CC-Skywave.jpg 918w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Digitech-AR1780-Tecsun-PL-680-CC-Skywave-215x300.jpg 215w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Digitech-AR1780-Tecsun-PL-680-CC-Skywave-768x1071.jpg 768w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Digitech-AR1780-Tecsun-PL-680-CC-Skywave-734x1024.jpg 734w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Digitech-AR1780-Tecsun-PL-680-CC-Skywave-624x870.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 918px) 100vw, 918px\" \/><\/a>My favorite radio from a list of twenty four will likely not be your favorite radio.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Enjoyment of a radio has <em>everything<\/em> to do with you as the radio&#8217;s operator.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ask yourself, &#8220;What&#8217;s my main goal&#8211;?&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>DXing?<\/li>\n<li>Weak signal work?<\/li>\n<li>Band-scanning?<\/li>\n<li>Pirate Radio hunting?<\/li>\n<li>Travel?<\/li>\n<li>Emergency communications?<\/li>\n<li>Casual broadcast listening?<\/li>\n<li>Digital mode decoding?<\/li>\n<li>Scanning?<\/li>\n<li>Mediumwave DXing?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Look at your options with this goal being given the priority.<\/p>\n<h1>A rather simple way to avoid analysis paralysis<\/h1>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Sangean-ATS-909X2-1-e1618319607876.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48530\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Sangean-ATS-909X2-1-e1618319607876.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve thoroughly researched multiple options, the likelihood is that overall performance between the models is comparable. Sure, some models might have better AGC, better sync, finer tuning, a better encoder, or better sensitivity, etc. but the overall performance package is similar else there&#8217;d be no difficult decision to make.<\/p>\n<p><strong>My advice is to pick the radio that you believe you&#8217;d <em>enjoy<\/em> the most.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you like the display and large encoder on one? Does it look like the sort of radio you could cuddle up to late into a cold winter evening? Go for it!<\/li>\n<li>Do you like the compact size and features of one? Does it look like a radio you could pack away for an international flight then use on a mini DXpedition in a foreign country? Grab it!<\/li>\n<li>Do you like the comments you&#8217;ve read about the robust audio and speaker of a particular model? Pull the trigger!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been communicating with a reader over the past few days that is stuck in analysis paralysis. No doubt, this is what prompted this post.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what I told him this morning:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>All of the models we&#8217;ve discussed are good ones and have overall excellent performance. I would simply pick the one you think you would enjoy using the most. <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>[Keep in mind that] DXing is a skill. <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>A skilled DXer can accomplish a lot with almost any radio! It&#8217;s easy to fall in the trap of options overload. Just find a good deal on a radio you think you would enjoy and go for it!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I suppose another way of stating it would be if you believe you&#8217;re stuck in analysis paralysis, <strong>follow your heart instead of your head.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been running the SWLing Post for fourteen years (!!!) and during that time I&#8217;d say that one of the top three questions I receive is a variation of &#8220;Which radio is better?&#8221; followed by a list of radio makes and models. Sometimes that question is easy to answer because the reader is new to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,26,129,43,154],"tags":[9989,9990,155,4085,4082],"class_list":["post-54414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-radios","category-reviews","category-shortwave-radio","category-shortwave-radio-reviews","tag-analysis-paralysis","tag-choosing-the-best-radio","tag-radio-reviews","tag-reviews","tag-shortwave-radio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-e9E","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3639,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/the-tecsun-pl-380-a-great-travel-radio\/","url_meta":{"origin":54414,"position":0},"title":"The Tecsun PL-380: a great travel radio","author":"Thomas","date":"May 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"SWLing Post reader, Alan, commented on our \"most durable radios for travel\" post: You should include the Tecsun PL-380 [on] the list. It is an excellent tuner with good selectivity. The ETM feature was made for a traveler. The radio is cheap enough that it won't bother you if you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/1-TecsunPL-380travel-296x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1413,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/ultralight-shortwave-radios-now-tagged-in-the-shortwave-radio-index-swri\/","url_meta":{"origin":54414,"position":1},"title":"Ultralight shortwave radios now tagged in the Shortwave Radio Index (SWRI)","author":"Thomas","date":"July 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I have gone through the SWRI and tagged all portable shortwave radios that are considered \"ultralights\" by the ultralight \"Definitions Committee.\" Note that \"ultralight dxing\" is primarily a Mediumwave hobby, but you will find that many of the best performing ultralights are also capable, if not best-in-class shortwave receivers. What\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Radios&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Radios","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/radios\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/db\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/TecsunPL-380.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8996,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/mehmet-burk-reviews-the-kaito-ka500-self-powered-radio\/","url_meta":{"origin":54414,"position":2},"title":"Mehmet Burk reviews the Kaito KA550 self-powered radio","author":"Thomas","date":"March 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to Mehmet Burk of ReliefAnalysis.com\u00a0for sharing his most positive review of the Kaito KA550\u00a0self-powered shortwave radio. [Note: I've updated this post to link to the Kaito\u00a0KA550. I initially linked to the older KA500 by mistake. Apologies!] Click here to read his full review: http:\/\/www.reliefanalysis.com\/2014\/03\/review-katio-ka550-terrific.html The Kaito KA550 currently\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"kaito-ka550","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/kaito-ka550-1024x884.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/kaito-ka550-1024x884.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/kaito-ka550-1024x884.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4003,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/do-you-own-a-quantum-shortwave-radio\/","url_meta":{"origin":54414,"position":3},"title":"Do you own a Quantum shortwave radio?","author":"Thomas","date":"July 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Several of you have written to me in the past few months asking about the new Quantum analog shortwave radios found on eBay.\u00a0The prices for the various models are anywhere between $20-40 US. I've resisted checking into these radios as they have very little technical information available and I assumed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;New Products&quot;","block_context":{"text":"New Products","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/new-products\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Quantum-fx-j-114u.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11639,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/coming-soon-c-crane-cc-skywave-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":54414,"position":4},"title":"Coming soon: C. Crane CC Skywave review","author":"Thomas","date":"December 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"C. Crane has sent me their new CC Skywave shortwave portable for review. I've been using it\u00a0since Friday and have started putting together a quick review. If you have any thoughts or questions, please comment and I'll try to address them in the upcoming post. Update: Click here to read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;New Products&quot;","block_context":{"text":"New Products","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/new-products\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_7856 (1)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_7856-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_7856-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_7856-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1051,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/our-new-shortwave-radio-index\/","url_meta":{"origin":54414,"position":5},"title":"Our New Shortwave Radio Index","author":"Thomas","date":"February 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"We're delighted to announce a new website in the SWLing.com family: The Shortwave Radio Index (SWRI). The SWRI is a comprehensive database featuring all known shortwave radios available on the market today. Each post contains a photo of the receiver, links to retailers, links to reviews, specifications, and a brief\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/SWRIscreengrab-300x248.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54414"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54417,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54414\/revisions\/54417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}