Sony ICF-SW23 FM / MW / SW1-7 Portable World Band Receiver R

In the United States, on the East coast, anyway, the 41 meter band has taken on greater importance than in the past. There are not that many international broadcasters around anymore and I find myself using the 41 meter band more and more, both for SSB, which this radio lacks, and for broadcasting. This radio has instead the lower 75 meter band, which is apparently more important for Japan.If a prospective purchaser wants the 41 meter band, then he or she is unlikely to be as happy with this new incarnation of the Sony design, as he or she would be with the Sony ICF-SW20. One can do a google image search to compare the ICF-SW20 and ICF-SW23. Both are attractive radios in my estimation and both are the same size and have the same lay-out, but have different speaker components and buttons for operation.Another choice is the original of this design, which is the Sony ICF-4920. In the U.S., these have the same coverage as the ICF-SW20, These are the same size vertically as the ICF-SW23, but are about three centimeters longer horizontally.The 20, 23 and 4920 all are double conversion, which is not true for some of the other radios mentioned on here. They also all have effective tone controls.I own all of these various models and performance seems to be about the same among all of them. They are all very attractive small radios that are perfect for putting in your breast pocket and heading to the game or fishing or wherever. All are a true pleasure to use, with their smooth analog tuning. If I had to pick, I would probably chose the ICF-4920 for tuning, because it just feels right in your hands and it is so easy to tune and change the volume.On the other hand, the SW20 and SW23 are significantly more compact, and come with nifty carrying cases, which was something Sony failed to include with the ICF-4920, which may explain why they are often a bit rough on the used market.I love this radio and anyone who loves taking a really good radio in his shirt pocket to the baseball game will be thrilled with it, both on AM and on shortwave. One caveat, all these radios need a mono to headphone adapter if you want to use headphones to listen as opposed to ear plugs. Otherwise, sound will only come through one channel.On a related point, shortwave is far from dead. It is essentially, the only medium where you can get constant news without anyone knowing what you are listening to, be it Cuba, China, Iran, or Russia. Hmmm, maybe that is why all of those countries are still broadcasting in English to the U.S. With a run of a mill shortwave radio, one can still easily listen to Cuba or China at virtually any time of day. Radio Romania has broadcast after broadcast in the evenings. I still find Radio Taiwan and Radio Japan in English and both have enjoyable programming. Yes, there are too many religious shows for my taste, but if they can all afford to pay the freight, shortwave must not be all that expensive after all.Finally, the above radios are not designed for use with outboard antennas, but using one with a slightly bigger unit, it is possible to receive broadcasts from Africa fairly easily, in English, French and Portuguese. Radio is still a big deal in Africa and unlike the internet, you don't have to own a computer, or know how to read to use it and it is far more difficult for governments to shut down.What I have done with the SW23 is take it to a place that is far from electrical noise, say a large backyard or soccer field and then it will really perform on shortwave. The Voice of America transmitting to Africa came in loud and clear once I left the house and went out to the children's backyard swingset.If you love Sony, Shortwave and well designed miniatures, buy one of these. I have bought two ICF-SW23's through Amazon and I can vouch for their character.

Pro- VERY good AM,- low battery consumption- small- nice sound (enough bass)- solid build-quality- rock stable tuning, no drift- the volume of an FM station does not change, when your hand is removed from the vicinity of the radio(a nuisance with the new crop of $20 to $50 DSP radios, e.g. Kaito KA321, Tecsun PL-606 & PL-380)Con- the combined Japanese & US FM band squeezed, real difficult to find a favorite FM station- only manual tuning- no memories- no "Sleep"-timer (runs all night and drains battery if you fall asleep)- no clock/ wake-up alarm- no thermometer- no LED flash light- no Russian FM band- no LW (important for Europe)- no 41m band (important in Europe)

Definetely is a good quality product, is smaller than expected, but fits perfect in any pocket, the sound is good for a small radio like this, the quality of reception is fine, But, be advised that this product cmes with an extra non built in antenna..!!!..unfortunately is not mentioned in accesories, andunfortunately i bought it separately, butanyway probaly I will try to return the extra antenna that I bought to amazon. It comes with an extra SW antenna, an simple mono earphone and a pair of AA batteries.Update January 3, 2016Radio started turning on automatically with no reason. Simply touch changes it to FM. Keep changing to FM when you are in another band. No crash or damage was done on the device. Definetely I will reduce the rating for this device.

It is much less than expected. Voice distortion by raising the small volume available. The receiver is much lower than my previous radio SONY 12 Bands Radio World Band Receiver ICF-SW11 | Introductory Model SW (Japan Import) you kidding radio.by Sony.Que possess even after 8 years .I regret buying, Best had bought another 12 Bands SONY Radio World Band Receiver ICF-SW11 | SW cheaper and proven quality.

I tend to prefer analog over digital tuning for casual MW and SW listening, and while this analog radio features decent reception, it's not up to Sony standards in terms of build quality. Among the annoyances: the case is very slightly non-symmetrical and feels rather cheap; the antenna doesn't align flush with the case when folded; the tuning indicator needle is not straight - it slants slightly downwards across the dial; the tuning knob itself varies in ease-of-turning during travel from the top to the bottom of the dial; the audio is poor and distorts at low volumes - I have $10 radios with vastly superior audio; the included earphone (just one ear, not two) is garbage; there is no external power option, no display illumination, and no external antenna jack.If this radio were $50 or so, I'd give it four stars, but given the over $100 price tag, it's a rip-off.

I had a radio like this around 1992. It was such a nice little radio that I wrote a song about how much I adored it: "My Sony Radio" (which you can hear at [ ... ]) I had dropped my radio so many times that it wasn't working anymore. Sad. Meanwhile, all efforts to find the same radio just didn't work out . . . it seemed that nobody in the world was making a SMALL fm/mw/sw radio like this. I had given up. Recently, while searching the internet for radios just out of curiosity, I was amazed to find that this little Sony radio was again available in Japan. I found it online via Amazon and ordered it immediately. It seems to be a newer version of the wonderful little radio that I had . . . same size, same buttons, good sound. It's a sweetie, and I'm so happy to have received it right in time for my birthday! A real treasure if you're into radio like I am.