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Reviews For: Sony ICF-5100 & ICF-5090 Earth Orbiter

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Sony ICF-5100 & ICF-5090 Earth Orbiter
Reviews: 1MSRP: $200.00
Description:
Multiband(10 band/ICF-5100 & 9 band/ICF-5090) portable very similar to the Zenith Trans-Oceanic 7000 series sets. Offered from 1975 - 1981
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0014
W8GTX Rating: 2006-07-11
Very good portable multiband receiver Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This single conversion receiver is without any doubt inspired by the classic Zenith Trans-Oceanic Royal 7000 series. Not much to say there except Sony did a decent job copying the big Zenith(the classic T/O still looks better IMHO). I own several and they're exactly on par with the Zeniths in reception selectivity and sensitivity. Some small differences I will note when compared to the T/Os. Image rejection is not quite as good. There are several images received from SW stations in the 160m HAM band. Also several station images in & around 8-9 mhz. I'm knocking it down to "4" for these reasons. It was designed to directly compete against the T/Os of the day which do not have these sometimes annoying characteristics.

The Sony lacks a narrow filter unlike the Zenith. The meter is nice and easy to read and it has a center fine tune knob. The set is built like a tank with excellent build quality. Weight & overall size are also about the same as the Zenith T/Os. Sound quality is slightly better than the Zeniths. Now some things to watch out for is looking for one of these sets. The dial scale drum is notorious for warpage. If you find one that you cannot see in person ASK ABOUT THIS! Also antennas always seem to be broken or missing in about 5 out of 10 sets I run across. Other than that not much else to say. The ICF-5090 is the same set minus the VHF 146-170 mhz band. I use mine for backyard picnics. If you can find a nice clean set with little to no faults buy it. You wont be disappointed.