How well will that Sony do listening to USAF aircraft in the Gulf, or stations Wait it can’t receive shortwave or sideband. Also put the right antenna on the Icom that it was made for and then re-due the test. The results will come out different.

My Sangean 803 (now worth $40.00 will out perform my R-70 if you put a short stick antenna on both. But put a long wire on both and the Icom picks up things the other radio doesn’t even see at all.


They are really made for 2 different markets, even though they both pickup the same frequencies. It’s the same way with that Sony and it’s comparison with the R-75 on the AM band.

For a BOB the Sony will do fine for information, but at home hooked up to the right antenna I would guess that the R-75 will easily out perform it.

Another thing to take into account is that my R-70 was from the factory purposely made less sensitive on the AM band, an internal amplifier was turned off to prevent it from overloading the radio in the presence of strong signals. The guy that tuned up my radio turned this amp back on (the owners manual tells you how to do it) The R-75 may have this same feature, I don’t have one so I don’t know.

Icom’s also excel at digging out a single (quad conversion, and great filters & selectivity) that is buried among other signals, I’m sure that Sony will pick them all up at the same time and send the whole mess to the speaker.

The above doesn’t apply to the Ic R72, it was Icom’s only junk radio.