I have the shortwave one. Its AM/FM reception is pretty good. I haven't been able to get any shortwave reception where I am, but that's because I'm in a terrible listening area. If I take it somewhere else, it will probably work better. It's gotten some decent reviews from other people. Its main drawback is the tall tuning needle makes it somewhat hard to move the tuning dial. Basically I'd say this radio is excellent value if you want to listen to some shortwave stations now and then; otherwise I'd get a regular AM/FM radio $5.00 or whatever. I do have a decent $5.00 AM/FM radio from a drugstore, but I'll probably get one of the Countycomm AAA ones just to try it out.