| LW4DYI |
Rating:      |
2008-03-21 | |
| Medium wave master |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| This radio deserves 5 out of 5 for its medium wave performance. Shortwave reception is very good (like the RF-2800, also from Panasonic), but medium wave, believe me, is fantastic. The gyro antenna is not the key of success, although it is very, very comfortable. That is, all medium wave capable receivers provide a ferrite-based antenna, so that is not a novel idea. The key is based on sensitivity AND selectivity values, both excellent. In other words, you will be able to bust not only weak signals: you will be able to do so in cases where you have a monster station at 10 KHz up/down. FM is also very good, but the outstanding feature is MW. |
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| KQ4O |
Rating:      |
2008-03-16 | |
| Great Radio! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have to counter Counteract's review and zero rating, and say that I have absolutely no clue what problems he/she is referring to. I've owned three of these great radios over the years (I keep selling them to buy something else, and regretting it so I buy another). Never experienced drift even once! Backlash when tuning is another matter, there is a slight bit but once you release your hand from the tuning dial, the tuning DOES NOT DRIFT. A zero rating for this radio should ban someone from eHam. Sorry for this rant, but that is just too wrong and drops the overall rating which it doesn't deserve.
This radio is a real pleasure to listen to, shortwave sounds very good, MW is terrific using the gyro antenna to kill local noise and FM is really good, and very sensitive and selective, the best FM portable I've ever used by far for bringing in distant stations. |
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| COUNTERACT |
Rating:  |
2007-09-10 | |
| Not a pleasure to listen to |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Nice concept and design but even for an analog receiver, it drifts so much, it is no pleasure to listen to. |
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| WA4053SWL |
Rating:      |
2006-08-12 | |
| Panasonic RF-2200, a true radio. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Hi there.
I have 3 portable radio to MW-DX, The General Electric "superradio III", The Sony ICF-2010, and Panasonic RF-2200, I love the GE, great, great sensitivy for $50.00, but my favorite is the RF-2200 by its accuracy in the dial, sensitivity and selectivity, S-meter, Sound, Dial Light, tone control Bass-Trebble, and by its elegance [hi,hi]a true radio with Shortwave bands exceptional, sincerely the Sony 2010 never I conform, and the good thing that has is the sinc-detector, 73 to all. |
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| Wil Schaffner |
Rating:     |
2006-08-09 | |
| Best Analog MW Portable Ever |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
At the time of the RF-2200's release there was quite a stable of shortwave receivers in Panasonic's lineup, a few tabletops and a few portables. I'm not sure if this one was meant to be a shortwave radio with a mediumwave gyro antenna thrown in, but over the years its developed a reputation as the best analog portable for the AM broadcast band ever made.
I've owned the GE Superradio I and II, there's no comparison. They're not even close regarding sensitivity, selectivity and certainly not frequency readout. The '2200 will give you 10 kHz readout and very accurately, too. The only portables that I've ever found to match its pulling power was the Channel Master 6515 Super Fringe and a Nordmende Mesa 9000 series, but neither had the ability to give you frequency readout, and you had to turn the radio (and therefore the speaker) around for nulling out and peaking frequencies, while the '2200 can sit firing the audio right at you while you adjust the gyro antenna. The CM didn't have anything for tone control (though it did have the ability to bring speech out of the static quite well), and the Nordmende just didn't sound nearly as good even with seperate bass and treble controls.
There's nothing like sitting out back or on your front porch cruising the MW band with one of these '2200s just seeing what's coming in, day or night. Modern digital portables just don't give you the same experience as an analog radio.
Now shortwave performance is another matter entirely. First off, the tuning system is unlike anything produced today. There's a reason they don't make them like this anymore. There are marks on the vernier dial to which you tune and hold down a switch that activates a crystal marker tone, which also locks the vernier dial. You then turn the dial (though the readout won't change) until you zero in on the frequency of the crystal marker. While it is fun if you're a hands-on radio person, it can be annoying if you simply want to tune in a station for a particular broadcast. For bandscanning it really doesn't matter unless you find something you like and want to know the frequency, in which case you have to go through the procedure and then retune your previous station.
Sensitivity on shortwave with the whip isn't bad, but reception with an external wire antenna is better. Panasonic made a tuner specifically for this radio, but I don't remember the part number and have never come across one. You can always use any antenna tuner available to match the impedence of your wire, and use the ground screw on the back of the radio. The '2200 is a good enough receiver to make it worth the trouble to set up a good antenna system for it.
While selectivity on MW is fine unless you want to dx Transatlantics, I've been frustrated by the narrow filter choice on the '2200. While the wide filter is great for the best audio on clear signals, there have been too many times when a program I was listening to had adjacent channel splatter which could not be cleaned up with the narrow choice. If the opposite channel was clear then I could always off-tune to that side, but many times that's not possible. From what I've been able to find out, the filters are LC circuits and therefore can't be replaced, such as going from a cheap ceramic filter to a good Murata ceramic filter.
Another problem with the shortwave section of this radio is the bleedover effect from the different SW bands. You can tune on SW1, for instance, and be receiving signals from SW2 or whatever band next to the one in use has a transmisson on it at that spot of the dial. This is a well known issue but I've found that jiggling the band selector will clear it up, so it never bothered me.
FM reception is outstanding, perhaps the best radio I've ever come across for dxing the FM band in a portable. Beatiful seperation and capture.
This radio is truly a classic and, aside from the SW tuning and narrow filter, a pure joy to use any time of day. I think it has a killer look to it, as well. |
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| RF2900 |
Rating:     |
2006-04-01 | |
| old fashoned sound and feel |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| this one is on all day. it has warm audio. makes music on shortave as good as it will sound anywhere. it reminds me of old am car radios. people used to say "good tone" but this expression makes audiophiles cringe.it's "tone" is much better than the later 2900 model. the tuning dial has crystal calibrated analog readout....very nostalgic and fun. if you're not feeling particularly nostalgic that day keep a digital radio around for checking. a bigger problem is tuning in ssb mode. it's quite a challenge, but CAN be done; if only out of pure meanness.the analog dial is a bit rubbery,but surprisingly stable once you leave it somewhere. the later 2900 model had a trimmer cap. one could be added here.i havn't done it yet. i would have to look inside. i was also thinking about a vernier reduction drive. however if it doesn't look good like it belongs there, the collector value is toast. like a lot of older radios, there is room inside to do other mods, but i have other radios.this one's just nice to look at and especially listen to. |
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| SCTVGUY1 |
Rating:      |
2006-03-03 | |
| Greatest portable I own |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I bought mine new while in the service. It has taken quite a lot of use over the years, losing its whip antenna in the process. It reminds me of the old boatanchors in its tuning process, which definitely takes skill in doing. This is a great radio for BCB DX'ing and beats modern radios hands down. It has a treasured place alongside my two S-38's and got used during the four hurricanes we had in Florida. I regularly listen to NYC stations on it here in South Florida, and it pulls them in like locals. |
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| N2HUN |
Rating:      |
2006-02-08 | |
| Outstanding |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I rate this radio top notch. I purchased my first RF-2200 brand new back in 1976 from Grand Central Radio in New York City, enjoyed it for a number of years until I sold it to buy my first ham station. Anyway, about 23 years later I purchased a used one because I missed this great portable receiver. The sensitivity, with only the internal whip antenna, is outstanding on shortwave. It's signals are about as strong as my FRG-7 with an external antenna.
For AM DX, with the rotatable antenna, it has picked up stations as far away as Nova Scotia. I have owned a number of portables as well as desktop SW radios, and this one beats all the portables.
There are some things I would have liked it to have, such as longwave and possibly a little more of the lower end of the shortwave spectrum (it only goes down to about 3.5 mHz). But it that doesn't bother you, get one of these, you will not be disappointed. |
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| WR2W |
Rating:   |
2005-12-14 | |
| A Banana Peel In A Puddle Of Oil |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I think everyone is over rating this one, and paying way too much for them... I had 3 of these from the time they first came out to the time they were discontinued, and all were bought New. Yes, it has a very good receiver on the lower frequencies of the HAM, SW, and AM broadcast. However, 20 through 10 meters had totally unacceptable frequency stability, and only fairly acceptable frequency stability from 20 meters to AM broadcast. This was also true of their other portables in the series as well as their base receiver. Panasonic did Nothing to correct the stability problem during their production runs. |
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| KF7CR |
Rating:      |
2005-12-10 | |
| Wonderful receiver |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| This is a great radio! I have perhaps 25, and I consider this my favorite. This is one of the best analog portable radios ever made. Accurate dial, stable sensitive and selective. Includes a crystal calibrator. Good BFO and SSB reception. While it is not a FRG-7 or Japan Radio super special, it is great. I used it India, back in the 70' and had to depend upon foreign news broadcasts to know what was going int the world. I gave up a lot of my airline baggage allowance to take this along. I have yet to find a digital portable radio that will light a candle to this. If you can get ahold of this radio, do it! |
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