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Reviews For: Realistic DX-160

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Realistic DX-160
Reviews: 16MSRP: 150.00
Description:
Improvement of the DX-160 series, with an external speaker.
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00163.6
KA1VF Rating: 2008-12-11
Owned mine since 1980 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought the realistic DX-160 new in 1980, and
it still works okay! I've never had the covers
off it, but it probably could use an alignment.
I keep it in the bedroom and only fire it up if
me or the XYL have insomnia! She doesn't have
much interest in listening to Ham Radio stuff.
But, she enjoys the foreign broadcasts when the
propagation is good enough for arm chair copy.
ELJAY Rating: 2007-11-06
Looks good on a shelf. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I found the DX-160 and matching outboard speaker in a pawn shop for around $15 about 10 years ago. It was appealing for its looks: rugged battleship gray and no-nonsense dials.

As practical radios go, it's pretty dismal. The audio isn't bad and it's okay on strong stations. But there are images, birdies and funky behaviors galore. I'd give it a 2.5 out of 5 as a radio.

But it looks so darned cool on a shelf. People can't keep their hands off it and that's fine because they can't break the darned thing. Get one as a conversation piece or den accent. I guarantee, nobody will give a dang about your Sony ICF-2010 but they'll like this thing. For that alone, it gets a 4.

Finally sold mine when I decided I'd gathered too many boat anchors. Wish I'd kept it now.
K2VI Rating: 2007-01-16
nice vintage radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
very easy to troubleshoot and repair,follow alignment procedures or you can really mess up the reciever.I enjoy the two i own,they are like new.i paid 45.00 and 60.00 in mint cond with the matching speakers and manual on qth.com.if you pay more than 60.00 for a mint dx-160 your a fool.I seen some ebayer bid up to 162.00 for a dx-100 which is a worthless piece of junk.the dx-160 is a very nice reciever.
W8GTX Rating: 2006-10-12
better than the 150 I own Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Like it's older brother the 150 series, it suffers poor audio quality. Better speakers help but not much. There are mods for the audio section though I haven't tried them. Sensitive receiver compared to my 150A/B. Maybe the 150 has a quieter noise floor? I aligned all 3 from top to bottom. Easy set to work on. Great for the hobbyist.
K9AUB Rating: 2005-09-10
Nice SWL Receiver Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I was attracted to this general coverage receiver because of its very attractive face. I was pleasantly surprised with its performance as well. This is a basic, no-frills receiver made by GRE of Japan for Radio Shack. It's an all-solid state design, so it's instant-on and runs very cool. Selectivity is fixed at 4 kHz, so it's intended more for voice than CW. But it does have a variable BFO, so CW and SSB is practical. Sensitivity is surprisingly good, and with a good antenna connected, I had no trouble hearing weak signals. Audio quality was average, but acceptable. The small matching external speaker could use some improvement. Stability left something to be desired; this particular receiver jumps frequency on the broadcast band, a problem I could probably track down to a loose solder joint, but I haven't bothered. All the SW bands are stable and sensitive. The attractive bandspread dial is a little hard to read due to its small size, but it tunes smoothly. Overall styling is extremely attractive, and the panel includes all the basics you'll need. It wouldn't do for a serious communications receiver, but if you want a very attractive general coverage receiver that covers the VLF band as well, this is a receiver you may want to acquire. By the way, although it runs off 117 VAC, there's a 12V DC plug on the back, so you COULD connect this receiver to a storage battery and use it as an emergency receiver in case of power failure.
NIGHTHAWK Rating: 2005-05-30
Great Radio!!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased this unit of off eBay for $62.50-it is a very pleasent radio to use. It's not without its faults though, first the dial in these older units tends to be off...no big deal. The band spread dial is useful, but a little hard to master sometimes. the SSB has a lot of whistles and birdies...but thats what the BFO is for. In all this is a good radio, I would recommend it to anyone.