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Sangean ATS-803A

N

nocomradio

Guest
Was digging through the local thrift store and came out with a Sangean ATS-803A for $5!

Brought it home and it was filthy, but cleaned up like new both inside and out. Defunked it, and cleaned the scratchy slide volume, bass, treble and balance controls and then added some batteries and it works like a charm.

The AM side is pretty decent, but the FM isn't very selective. Anyone else have any experience with this model?
 
I never had this radio but I wished I had. I have read that the AM and SW are good and FM selectivity was ordinary. Radio Shack's version was the DX-440. I think the $5 is quite good deal.
 
Nice going, and it beats my record for finding one (DX-440 version) at a local flea market for $10 :) I think it's a decent radio for LW/MW/SW reception. I don't DX FM, so I can't comment there, but I've had no issues with casual FM listening. I heard my first Trans-Atlantic broadcast band DX using a DX-440 and I've pulled in LW broadcast stations from Europe using just the built-in antenna during the dead of winter when conditions were good. If you like to DX the AM broadcast band then I think you'll have a lot of fun with it. The BFO control is also nice for shortwave if you're into utility or ham monitoring, and it'll take an external antenna without much overloading trouble unlike most other portables. I've had 500' beverage antennas connected to mine!
 
Good to know.

After playing with it last night and this morning, I found the FM side of things isn't that good. At least not for DX'ing anyway. I have a local on 103.1 and sometimes if conditions are right I can pull in 103.3 on the Eastern Shore of VA. With my Grundig G3 it will not have any bleed over onto 103.3 from 103.1, but with the Sangean I can still hear 103.1 on 103.3 pretty loudly.

No problem though, as on AM it pulls in everything well so far. I can't wait until winter to see what this one will do over the G3. The SW bands have been a bit quieter lately, so not much to report there.

I'm happy with my new purchase.
 
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