For Amateur bands only coverage, the Eddystone 888A takes a lot of beating. Everything that I can hear on my RA-17 I can hear on that Eddy.
However, I do understand that you want a general-coverage receiver, Lawrence, and I have read your last Post. With that in mind, and as a supplement to my earlier post, some of the 1970's valve Japanese radios might be worth considering. Yes, agreed, they do indeed have their limitations (especially compared to an Eddy), but these days they are a lot cheaper to buy than an Eddy. (And they always were!) Most of them tend to be single-conversion superhets with one R.F. stage and an I.F. of 455 kHz; a sure recipe for poor image rejection above 14 MHz, but if you can live with that, your need for a general-purpose monitoring receiver could be well met by such a choice. And at an acquisition price that should it prove to be consequently unsuitable, you shouldn't lose too much money - if any - upon resale. I'm thinking of Trio, Lafayette, Kenwood and Realistic (Tandy / Radio Shack) to name a few, but, IMHO, there are some in that grouping that should be avoided, such as the Trio 9R59DE, although the earlier 9R59 / KT-340 doesn't suffer the same poor design features. And I don't care for the Trio JR500 either: IIRC, sadly lacking in user-controls.
Anyway, this rambling must stop: I've more important things to do: like more 'input' to The Gallery.
Al.
However, I do understand that you want a general-coverage receiver, Lawrence, and I have read your last Post. With that in mind, and as a supplement to my earlier post, some of the 1970's valve Japanese radios might be worth considering. Yes, agreed, they do indeed have their limitations (especially compared to an Eddy), but these days they are a lot cheaper to buy than an Eddy. (And they always were!) Most of them tend to be single-conversion superhets with one R.F. stage and an I.F. of 455 kHz; a sure recipe for poor image rejection above 14 MHz, but if you can live with that, your need for a general-purpose monitoring receiver could be well met by such a choice. And at an acquisition price that should it prove to be consequently unsuitable, you shouldn't lose too much money - if any - upon resale. I'm thinking of Trio, Lafayette, Kenwood and Realistic (Tandy / Radio Shack) to name a few, but, IMHO, there are some in that grouping that should be avoided, such as the Trio 9R59DE, although the earlier 9R59 / KT-340 doesn't suffer the same poor design features. And I don't care for the Trio JR500 either: IIRC, sadly lacking in user-controls.
Anyway, this rambling must stop: I've more important things to do: like more 'input' to The Gallery.
Al.
