I have one of those Countycomm radios. It's ok if you want a cheap portable shortwave receiver. Otherwise I'd just get a generic AM/FM portable radio. The trouble with the Countycomm is the tuning control is a bit of a pain to use, because it has to move that rather large cursor across the dial (because of all the different shortwave bands on the radio). Mine works fine on both AM and FM, but I haven't been able to get any shortwave stations with it. I think that's the fault of the terrible reception area I'm using it in, rather than the radio's fault though.

For a home kit, I'd say get a bigger radio (small boom box) powered by D cells instead of a pocket radio. The D cells will run the radio practically forever, and the bigger speaker is useful for playing loud enough for several people to listen at once.