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Reviews For: Nexxtech/RadioShack SP-2004

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Nexxtech/RadioShack SP-2004
Reviews: 2MSRP: 30
Description:
Small receiver about the same size as a Grundig Mini 100 PE. Has clock, alarm, SW/AM/FM. (Price mentioned in Canadian Dollars)
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0023
N3HAM Rating: 2006-02-25
get the mini100pe or WRX911 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
As far as this being a starter radio for someone trying sw listening, forget it. The Grundig mini 100pe or the Kaito WRX911 are the right choice.In my venture into low cost mini sw portables, I have been pleasantly surprised mainly because of these radios, so I purchased the SP-2004 hoping my luck would go. You know, how low can you go, and get a sw bargain? Guess I finally hit the brakes. Even with the radio set to local it suffered from overload. I live in a high rf area so any receiver failing is going to be magnified. The tuning range did not match what is actually listed on the back case. A local am station is heard all over the am band. The other radios mentioned with their dual conversion fared much better. Still as an alarm clock with a nice case and a led backlighted display, I guess it could be ok for travelling.
IANCHRISTIE Rating: 2004-01-17
A good starter radio. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a compact little unit. It has a digital display which shows the time when the radio is not on and also has an alarm that turns the radio on. There's a soft orange light for the display, similar is effect to the Indiglo in Timex watches.

The AM and FM reception's pretty good, although not quite as good as the Grundig FR-200 I have. Shortwave is split up into 8 bands, because of limitations to the tuning mechanism. It can pull in SW stations almost as well as the FR-200.

Sound quality through the 1.5" speaker is tinny, but not bad and headphones are much better. It came with a set of earbuds.

Opperation is realatively easy. Tunning could do with a fine tuning knob, the tunning knob is a bit stiff in opperation. Use of the shortwave is a little counter-intuitive. First you have to press the button for AM and then move a slider switch from AM to one of the SW bands. Also when the radio is shut off, it defaults to FM when turned back on, so make sure you ahve an FM station tuned before using the alarm. There's a Local/DX switch for strong and weak signals that affects AM and SW.

The display is clear and easy to read, even with the light which creates a nice even glow. The biggest downside to the display is in SW mode. It will only display 2 decimal places. Radio Netherlands was coming in somewhere between 9.59MHz and 9.60MHz. There's a small signal LED that helps you tune the signal in.

All things considered, this makes a good starting radio. It may not match the Grundig Mini 100 PE, but it still makes a good start. Also there is a little flip-out stand so the radio can be setup on a table at about a 30-45 degree angle to the table top.

Shortwave coverage

SW1 - 5.72-6.66MHz
SW2 - 6.91-7.96MHz
SW3 - 9.49-10.58MHz
SW4 - 11.45-12.46MHz
SW5 - 13.32-14.39MHz
SW6 - 14.91-16.03MHz
SW7 - 17.45-18.58MHz
SW8 - 20.97-22.50MHz

The manual is almost useless, it just brief explanation of the controls. Also included is a small carry bag which doesn't do much to protect the radio.