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C Crane Skywave

cyberdad

cyberdad

After getting fed up with waiting for Amazon to have this radio in stock, I finally ordered one directly from C' Crane. I should've done that sooner. It arrived today....two days after I placed my order.

So at about 2pm CST local (2000 UTC). I took it for a test drive. Let's say it passed the audition with flying colors. Performed well on all my test frequencies. KWMT under WAUK on 540. WKZO and WMT listenable on 590 and 600 respectively, Check, check. Also KXIC and CKLW mixing with faint signals on 800 and WSUI perfectly listenable on 910. Nice. But the real surprise was a listenable daytime skywave signal on WKNR from Cleveland on 850. A first.

I guess they don't call the radio "skywave" for nothin'!
 
cyberdad said:
After getting fed up with waiting for Amazon to have this radio in stock, I finally ordered one directly from C' Crane. I should've done that sooner. It arrived today....two days after I placed my order.

So at about 2pm CST local (2000 UTC). I took it for a test drive. Let's say it passed the audition with flying colors. Performed well on all my test frequencies. KWMT under WAUK on 540. WKZO and WMT listenable on 590 and 600 respectively, Check, check. Also KXIC and CKLW mixing with faint signals on 800 and WSUI perfectly listenable on 910. Nice. But the real surprise was a listenable daytime skywave signal on WKNR from Cleveland on 850. A first.

I guess they don't call the radio "skywave" for nothin'!
Click to expand...

This is actually the only radio I use for AM radio DXing (other than my car radio). It's quite good, though I think my car radio is actually slightly better. For a while I also used a DX 400 from Radio Shack, which I got when I was about 11 years old in the early 80's. The Skywave definitely is better than that one, which stopped working a few months ago for unknown reasons.
 
Well, so far, so good. Packed with goodies and features and performing well. I like the compact size and what appears to be very good build quality. I'm guessing the radio is made by Sangean, which is a brand I've trusted for a long time.

For AM, which is my main interest, it definitey outperforms the radio it replaces, the SRF-37 Walkman. Yet, as Michael the Z indicated in his experience, it doesn't quite outperform a good car radio. Also in my case, it also isn't quite in the same class as the GE Superadio-2. But it's not all that far behind. Like the SRF-37, the skywave has weather band, and in this case it blows the doors off the little Sony.

Yet the SRF-37 is still going strong, But given that it's at least 15 years old, I'm concerned that its probably on borrowed time. I'll formally retire it at a cermony with full honors (translation: excuse for having a beer.) Seriously, I'll use it a a spare/secondary radio. Probably keep it packed in my briefcase.
 
There's no reason your Sony SRF-37 should blow up after just 15 years. I have radios from the 80's and 90's that still work well. I think the key is 'hard use'... If you take care of them, they'll generally last longer. My first transistor multiband, which was probably built in Japan in the late 1960s, still works, the only wear and tear being a couple pops between 800 and 900 from the tuner cap having some wear.
 
boombox4 said:
There's no reason your Sony SRF-37 should blow up after just 15 years. I have radios from the 80's and 90's that still work well. I think the key is 'hard use'... If you take care of them, they'll generally last longer. My first transistor multiband, which was probably built in Japan in the late 1960s, still works, the only wear and tear being a couple pops between 800 and 900 from the tuner cap having some wear.
Click to expand...
I've owned four SRF-37s down through the years. The one I have now is the only one still standing. One met its demise when it fell on a concrete floor at the DFW airport. Another was stolen from my room at the Saint Louis airport Marriott. Another just stopped working. Most of the time I kept one in my briefcase and another in my suitcase. The idea being that I like to keep a spare, but for the past few years, I've been without one. Since my retirement, my needs are different, but I still want to have a spare. So now the SRF goes in the briefcase....which I don't use as much as I used to. While the skywave becomes my main go-to. Alongside the bed when I'm home. In my suitcase when I resume occasional travel (hopefully in a few months).

I know what you're saying about being able to get more than fifteen years out of a good radio. My GE Superadio is 38 years old this year. Everything on it works as if it was still new.
 
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