Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)CCrane/Redsun (its Chinese manufacturer) definitely has a winner with with the CC-SWP(Pocket) radio! I needed a small AM/FM/SW radio for travel and have compared several portable receivers including the Kaito KA11, Grundig G6 Aviator, Grundig YB-550PE, Sony ICF-SW35, Grundig eTraveller VII, Kaito KA1101, Kaito KA1102 and the Eton E100, etc. I am still not completely done with all my evaluations, but I definitely think that the CC SWP (CCRANE Shortwave pocket) or the Redsun RP-300 radio (available directly from China) is a great, extremely small (and one of the smallest available!) and also inexpensive and yet a very excellent receiver! I am extremely impressed right out of the box how well it performs even for quite weak signals with both very good sensitivity as well as selectivity.
PROS:
1) A single conversion, PLL (Phase-locked loop), fully digital pocket-sized radio that comes with a velcro slip case, carrying strap, earbuds and a VERY readable manual heavily edited by CCRANE (available on-line on their website too).
2) Excellent weak signal reception on ALL bands (am/fm/sw1/sw2). It really performs very well!
3) It has a fine and very useful tone switch (Music/news) with stereo through the earbuds as well as a two position Local/DX switch (RF gain attenuator for SW frequencies). This "tone" switch works well on both FM as well as on SW frequenices, thus providing a very effective frequency filter for detecting weaker signals on SW.
4) Lock switch and backlight control (with 8 second duration orange backlighting illuminating the display, only from the left side however).
5) A dedicated DISPLAY button with a different set of information provided by sucessive key pushes with the radio either on or off.
6) Numerous tuning methods are available including a fine tuning knob for AM and SW and including an ATS (automatic station retrieval tuning system), but unfortunately NOT for the automatic storage of available radio frequencies, direct keyboard frequency entry, etc. Coarser tuning is also available from the up/down scanning keys themselves. FM frequencies however only have the coarse tuning step available (0.10 MHz) regardless of the tuning method used.
7) Very high quality and very readable display with many many icons for indicating battery life (at a low battery condition) and a signal reception TUNE icon (as on the two digital Sony radios still available) and that works extremely well, wide/narrow (Music/News) tone filter setting (AM/SW), etc. Clock time and station frequency are not displayed simultaneously, but can be found on two separate DISPLAY screens.
8) Very long battery life (up to ~70 hours) using only 2 AA batteries
9) Easy channel memory presetting and automatic preset recall system using the tuning knob for the recall of 200 (00-199) preset memory locations.
10) It has an easy to use reset control pin hole on the bottom of the radio.
11) It has an internal group of setting for storing key performance features such as 9/10 kHz steps for international travel, 12/24 hour world clock time, wake-up alarms with times and a stored radio frequency or separately using an internal buzzer alarm, sleep mode (0 - 90 minutes in 5 minute increments), etc. These items are indicated on the unit's dedicated DISPLAY key indicated earlier above.
CONS: These are all extremely small however and of no great significance to me whatsoever!
1) Smallish speaker, but the sound quality is very good for its size.
2) Volume controls are a little awkward and uneven in level changes. 16 digital levels are also indicated on the screen. In addition, on other radios switching bands from SW to FM for example can be a very instantaneous ear blasting situation, but not so on the CC SWP radio which has a time delay built in between switching the individual bands giving the user a reaction time to change (usually lower) the volume levels. If the uneven volume levels are of concern to you a $7.95 volume control switch can be bought directly from CCRANE to adjust the levels analog-style with a "potentiometer" {pot) and the volume buttons on the keyboard once set initially can be left alone entirely. Plans are also apparently underway for a second version of this radio to be issued by Redsun in China with the volume control level unevenness issue due to be corrected. Personally I have not found this issue much of a problem at all especially with the easily connected volume control switch which is inserted in series along with the earphones for easy listening.
3) Most keys are initially hard to get to function unless a significant pressing is made. As time goes on they are definitely getting easier to push much more reliably however.
4) Shortwave reception is done in two very broad, but separate bands with a small frequency gap from 7.50 to 9.0 MHz (this gap region is NOT a super important part of the overall SW radio spectrum however). The two bands for SW are SW1: 2.30 - 7.50 MHz and SW2: 9.00 - 22.00 MHz which covers the vast majority of the available shortwave meterband spectrum.
5) It doesn't recharge the batteries internally and the battery compartment door is NOT attached to the radio, but the door nonetheless fits very snugly as the unit is quite well made and yet also very inexpensive compared with many other radios.
6) There is no external antenna jack available, but the internal ferrite rod antenna and the telescopic whip antenna seem to both pick up stations very reliably.
7) Band scanning is a little bit slow compared to several other portable receivers, but reception is NOT muted during scanning so stations can be very readily identified for listening).
8) FM stereo reception is always supplied to the earbuds. There is no control switch to ever be able to turn it off. For the stronger FM stations that is just fine, but for very weak FM it is of course somewhat problematic.
9) It doesn't come with an AC/DC adaptor charger unit, but one is available at least and quite inexpensively.
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The new CCRadio-SWPocket AM/FM/Shortwave Pocket Radio has exceptional AM reception and audio quality for its small size. It's sensitive enough to outperform all comparable radios in its class, and small enough to tuck in your briefcase or purse.
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