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Reviews Categories | Receivers: General Coverage | Sony ICF-2002 Help


Reviews Summary for Sony ICF-2002
Sony ICF-2002 Reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5/5 MSRP: $295.00
Description: First Digital Worldband radio (1983-86)
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KB2FBI Rating: 5/5 Aug 2, 2006 22:53 Send this review to a friend
Bought one at full retail!  Time owned: more than 12 months
Howdy:

I bought mine in the early 80's and paid dearly for it. Nonetheless, I got my money's worth. It has a whip and ten (count 'em!) memories. It also has a connector for a wire antenna (included with phono plug) an attenuator, a tape-out (even line level) ear phone jack and more. It came with, get this, an outboard battery pack of four C batteries. You can use external wall wart here as well. It has LW, MW, SW, and FM BCB. It has a SSB fine tune that is delicate and takes a patient hand. But it works very well. I heard the Gulf War I (The mini-series) in 1991 start over this radio. I heard November Mike November (US CG) give Advice to Mariners about the Persian Gulf. Anyway, great technology and very portable.
 
SLIDERULEX Rating: 4/5 Jan 1, 2006 10:24 Send this review to a friend
Good Performer, SW, SSB  Time owned: 0 to 3 months
I finally got around to buying this radio (22 years late, but better late than never). I bought it on ebay for $65.00 which also included shipping. I can tell you it was well worth it!

It has AM/FM/SW/SSB and a cute little clock. It is decent for AM and mono FM, but what I like about it is its SW performance. For such an old radio (early 80's) it performs quite well on SW. It has functional SSB, but that is not its best feature.

Tuning is digital tuning via the UP/DOWN buttons. Tuning is in 5 KHz steps for SW. For bandscanning, it requires you to listen carefully as you pass over stations. Stations which are active give a definate sound so you know you should go back and check it to see if it is something you want to listen to. It has 10 memories which are easy to use. I wish it had more, but hey, it's the 80's.

It is powered by 4-AA batteries for the audio, and 2-AA batteries for the computer control. When this first came out in the early 80's, it made quite a sensation in Germany at a radio fair it debuted in. It measures 7 x 4.5 x 1.0 inches and stands upright with reasonable stability if you don't push it. It has a 30 inch antenna and mine still works great collapsing properly.

Reception is good for AM and FM, but I decided to buy it for its SW performance. I am not disappointed. I would like to give it a 4.3-4.5 for SW performance while a 3.8-4.0 for AM and a 3.0-3.5 for FM, and a 3.0 for SSB. Overall, my rating (using the high scores) would be, on average, a 3.75, hence my 4.0 rating listed. This is in comparison to ALL of my other worldband radios which include the magnificent Sony 2010, the glorious Panasonic RF 2200. Comparing the Sony ICF-2002 to these noble performers still gives a 3.75-4.0 so that is quite respectable. I am happy with it and would not sell it.
 


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