Ghod, I really miss my old GE Super Radio. It had an extra long internal ferrite antenna and had excellent AM radio reception. Are there any comparable portable AM radios out there today? Most lists on the interwebs are sponsored and talk about combined AM/FM reception and functionality and looks, and all I am interested is the best AM reception.
What have you got for me?
Something like this?
I’m not sure how you’d verify the long distance claim without lab test equipment.
I use 650 AM WSM in Nashville. It’s a clear-channel, intended to reach a wide range for the Opry broadcast. The signal reception varies in Little Rock. Some nights it wants to drift.
One of my old Zenith transistor radios seems to lock in more consistently.
I had one of those Sony ICF-SW radios; it came with both a telescopic antenna and a spool of wire antenna, also it had pretty good electronic tuning to stay on-frequency.
Like this one
I didn’t pay $300 though!? Must be inflation and/or something else… it is a great radio, at any rate.
If you are into hard-core hacking you can get these boards
but you will have to supply your own antenna and tinker with various computer software (but you can then customize and optimize the reception all you want); it’s not so much for casually listening to BBC World or the local news.
Not really looking for a transceiver that can intercept military communications or a multiband monstrosity that picks up every band under the sun. Just a portable radio that has the best AM radio reception. Please try to follow the KISS rule, if you can.
If you are talking about that Sony, it has a bunch of bands because it is electronic and it can just tune to any frequency from really low up to whatever it goes up to; that is not some unique feature and hardly a strike against it. It has good reception as-is, plus you can plug in an external antenna. I mostly used it to listen to music and news.
The price is inflated compared to when I got it, and there are definitely cheaper AM/FM radios. There is an old Grundig I had that they do not make any more; apart from that I cannot review models I have never seen nor heard but look for something with “digital PLL tuning” rather than something that may well have been made in the 1940s.
An external loop antenna can help.
In particular, how exceptional is the AM reception of that Sony?
Actually the HackRF one only goes down to 1MHz, US AM is 540 kHz to 1700 kHz. (The Hack RF Pro goes down to 100kHz)
A multi band radio may be designed to pick up weaker signals* but may also be designed to have external antenna only. Broadcast AM is such long wavelength that most folks don’t have the real estate for a (for example) dipole, which is why most AM radios fake it with a coil of some sort.
I don’t have a good suggestion for the OP, sorry.
Brian
* some amateur radio folks like making long distance contacts with 5 watts. This requires good radios, antennas, and/or conditions , often using weak signal modes.
Mine had Synchronous Detection, which can help capture fading signals, and was able to pick up BBC World signals from who knows how far away.
In looking up some quantitative data in order to answer your question with some numbers (NB in reviews even radio geeks describe it as having “rock-solid, reliable performance” and “solid and heavy with excellent overall performance for their size”, “fairly good at dealing with fluttering, wavering signals”), I seem to have discovered that that model was discontinued in 2018 (after 40 years!) [Also the MSRP was $180]
The review linked above includes a comparison of the reception of the Sony with several modern(!) portable radios and concludes that “…on AM the Sonys were almost as good as the modern radios. Of course, the modern radios offer multiple bandwidths and had somewhat better audio but overall, as AM/SW portables the Sonys held up very well which is amazing considering their age. Evolving technology does give us more radio for the money in today’s dollars…” Several of the “modern” radios are named in the review.
Note that he has a “AM Portables Mega Shootout – 2026 Update” (keep scrolling to get actual recommendations)
Brian
Watch eBay for a Grundig Yachtboy 400. They pop up every now and again. About the size of a paperback book and excellent performance. I have had mine for 30 yrs and still use it.
I had one of those once, back when shortwave stations were still a big thing. The AM reception was excellent!
I’m no expert but I think which radio you purchase is less important than whether you use an external antenna. So put your money into that?
The radio itself can really matter when it comes to AM reception. A longer internal ferrite antenna makes a real difference (ask anyone who had a Super Radio), the internal electronics makes a big difference, and most radios don’t have an output for an external AM antenna…and most of those do not have automatic (or any) shutoff of the internal antenna when an external is attached, so interference between the two can occur.
Did some digging, and it seems many radio enthusiasts consider the Panasonic RF-2200 the "Holy Grail” for AM reception. Existing specimens are not cheap.
A review from the site I trust most when it comes to radios-nice! He even rebuilt a damaged one, and it had amazing AM reception before the fix. The comparison to the C.Crane 2E and the Super Radio/Super Radio 2 and the fact that it was superior to both was a good point.
There are a couple things about AM broadcast around 1 MHz that make Best Reception a tricky moving target, even for highly sensitive receivers. Besides that there are time of day and solar activity complications in A-B comparing is that some locations simply lack signal at any strength due to a null or behind terrain, etc for a given sig but not others. This is most obvious in a moving car when signal fades out in a valley, parking garage, etc. AM broadcast band penetrates pretty well but it doesn’t bounce much.
AM is also prone to radio interference since there’s no capture effect, a property of FM that only passes the loudest signal. AM signals mix and overlap such that the desired signal may be interrupted or not be intelligible. For example, you can hear distant lightning crashes during AM listening.
I operate QRP, my Yaesu FT-817ND has a max output of 5W and I don’t use an amplifier or weak sig mode, SSB-phone. I’ve logged a couple confirmed QSOs over 5000 miles and many others all over North America/Carib on one Watt. I’ve also done some HF/shortwave portable or manpack at low power. It is difficult and requires patience.