From: Jonathan P Marks <0003382983@MCIMAIL.COM>

Here is the copy of the ICF-SW100 review broadcast at the end of February. It
contains more information than broadcast due to the pressures of time in the
on-air version. I note this lead to some confusion in some peoples' mind for
which I apologise.

Cheers from Hilversum


SONY ICF-SW100(S/E)

This review was compiled with the assistance of the World Radio TV Handbook,
Amsterdam. Radio Netherlands has no financial connection with the WRTH, nor with
Sony, the manufacturer of the SW100.

INTRODUCTION

In the last three years, several manufacturers have tried to make smaller
versions of their best selling shortwave portable receivers. There's a growing
market of businessmen and women on the move, and the last thing you want on a
trip is another piece of bulky hardware. Computers have got more compact and
powerful, so have telephones and fax machines. In the radio field though, many
of miniaturisation projects have been a disaster. The size of the radio shrinks,
but in order to keep the costs down, many useful features on standard size
portables are either left out or become clumsy to operate. In many cases too,
the engineers concentrate on gimmicks rather than ensuring that the radio
performs well.


In 1987, Sony launched its SW-1 receiver. It was about the size of a cigarette
packet and offered complete coverage of the short, medium and longwave bands
plus stereo on FM. It's performance was as good as larger models, but at the
time we criticised the tuning...you could only move up and down the dial in
rather coarse steps of 5 kHz. On the crowded international broadcasting bands,
being able to off-tune slightly can make the difference between good reception
and no reception at all.

Now Sony has taken the best features of many of its receivers, including the
SW-1 and launched a new receiver called the SW-100. Again, the set is about the
size of a cigarette packet and weighs in at 240 grams including 2 penlight
batteries inside and a soft-leather protective case which folds over the radio
to protect it from scratches. Unlike other Sony designs so far, this radio is in
two parts. You press a button on the side of the set, after which you can lift
the lid on the SW-100. You open the radio to reveal a tiny loudspeaker and a
liquid crystal display in the lid, and 28 pushbuttons to control the radio are
laid out on the base.

So what have we got? Most versions of the radio offer FM coverage from 76 to 108
MHz and continuous AM coverage from 150 through to 29999 kHz. The version sold
in Italy has a section of the shortwave bands under 3850  kHz missing so as to
comply with national legislation. Reception on FM is in stereo when you use
headphone and the radio performs fine in this range in Europe. In areas with
high FM signal levels, performance is not as good. In that case, a DX/LOCAL
switch provides some relief from overloading.

But you'd buy this compact radio for its AM features. You can tune the radio in
a number of ways. If you know the frequency of the station you can just tap that
in on the keyboard. If you punch in 6020 for instance, then the display shows
the frequency selected and reminds you that you're in the 49 metre band. A tiny
protruding blip next to the key marked with the figure 5 is handy for users with
a visual disability who need an orientation point. There are four shuttle
buttons to let you move up and down the dial. The innermost buttons shift the
frequency by 1 kHz. If you press the outer two buttons you move in 5 kHz steps.
If press these buttons for a few seconds the radio starts scanning within the
chosen metre band, stopping on strong stations and letting you hear them for a
few seconds before the scan resumes.

There's also a third way. Sony has taken the station name tuning concept from
the SW-55 and SW-77 and put some of it into the SW-100. You can store up to 50
favourite stations in the memory. These are arranged in pages...Each page
consists of a station name and up to 5 pre-set frequencies. The radio comes with
30 frequencies already programmed in it, 10 regularly used channels from the
BBC, 10 from VOA and 10 from Radio Japan. But you can wipe these quite easily
and replace them with, for instance, the 10 most used frequencies of Radio
Netherlands and label them with a name of up to 6 letters. If you're a walking
encyclopaedia of station frequencies, you may regard the labelling feature as a
bit of gimmick. But if you rely on a station as a news-source being able to jump
to alternative frequencies at the press of a button is extremely useful. The
memory not only remembers the name and frequency of the station, it recalls the
mode you were listening in.

The SW-100 is first radio of this size to offer true synchronous detection. So
if you're listening to a station on 6085 and a strong station on 6090 is
splattering over the signal you're trying to hear, you can escape some of the
problem by selecting 6085 in the synchronised lower sideband mode. The radio
locks onto the signal so that you can enjoy music without the problems with the
wrong pitch that you'd get if you tried that with ordinary single sideband. The
radio is more sensitive in the sync mode and we found it a feature that you use
constantly. The radio also has upper and lower sideband. In the SSB mode, the
innermost buttons then tune in 100 Hz steps, although this is not shown on the
display. The tuning of SSB signals (especially RTTY signals) is possible, but
rather fiddly. In real situations, the need for utility signal reception on a
portable of this nature would definitely be the exception rather than the rule.
On the Sony ICF-SW-55 there was a rather annoying feature that tried to guess
the mode you would need, depending on the frequency selected. So if you tapped
in 8450 kHz, the radio jumped from AM to SSB. That was more of an annoyance,
especially because quite a few stations use frequencies outside the official
shortwave broadcast bands. The SW-100 doesn't try to guess, and as a result is
handier to use.


Design & Sound

We gave the radio to several non-technical people to experiment with. Several
commented on the clever compact design. Most of the comments came about the
audio...people either find it crisp and clear or too shrill..it really is a
matter for personal taste. The speaker in the radio is only 3 cm in diameter,
but by matching the characteristics of the speaker with the lid, and making some
discrete holes in the back, the mid and low-end response is improved. Naturally,
the sound level cannot compare with a full-size portable. The radio works from
only 2 penlights, so the maximum output of 250 mW is designed for purely
personal listening when there is not too much background noise. Ideally, for
concentrated listening, the supplied headphones provide the best solution. If
you use hi-fi headphones you get the same full-range response as on any
full-size portable.

Packaging and Power

There are two packages for the SW-100 that are appearing. The SW-100E package
consists of the radio, carrying case, in-ear headphones and a washing-line type
of external antenna. A more complete and more expensive package, the SW-100S,
also includes an active antenna and AC power supply. In Europe, you don't really
need the active antenna because the set is sensitive enough without it. And the
power supply is as big as the radio and takes away some of the charm of the
SW-100's unique size. Another solution would be the use rechargeable batteries
on trips instead of dragging the power supply along. We got around 17 hours of
listening to shortwave using a fresh set of alkaline batteries. Rechargeables
work for a much shorter period but can be recycled.

If you're travelling from North America to either Europe or Asia it is important
to set the dual time-zone clock. The difference between local time and UTC is
used to set the difference between 9 or 10 kHz channel spacing on medium wave.

Conclusion

The ICF-SW100 is a really excellent compact portable receiver with a lot of
unique features for its size. It costs D649 (US$350) in Holland, which puts it
between the Sony ICF-SW55 and ICF-SW-7600. The SW-100 doesn't make as much noise
as its larger brothers, but it does have synchronous detection which makes
overall reception quality a lot better. In Europe the package being sold
generally comes with a pair of earphones only. It is labelled the SW100E. In the
USA, the set will cost around 350 US dollars with an active antenna and power
supply already included in the price. Bearing in mind sets like the Grundig
Yacht Boy 400 are around 100 dollars cheaper in the US, we think the Sony
receiver is slightly on the expensive side in North America, even though the
accessories are included.

The instruction book with the radio is not as clear as it could be in
English...the Dutch translation from the Japanese is much clearer in explaining
the more complicated functions. The use of new micro-technology has meant that
more features can be packed into a smaller space. And the price in Holland is
around 150 guilders (US$80) less than when the SW-1 was first introduced seven
years ago.

) CMC 4 Radio Netherlands February 1994


That's it. Hope it is of use.


Jonathan Marks
Editor Media Network