AM FM TV Reception Guide and Directory

It is difficult picking out a radio because it is not possible to choose your radio by appearance or feature or even brand because while one unit may be a champ another unit with all the same features from the same manufacturer may be deaf.

The Sony SRF-59 is a radio that you cannot tell anything by appearance. There is nothing about it that makes you think that it will work but work it does and for less than the $20 it is a radio that performs great on both AM and FM. For that money it is one that you can easily give as a gift or take to the ballpark.

The Sony SRF-59 has reached early legendary status among some AM DXers who have gotten barely believable results from this little radio.

You may or may not know that that the Sangean DT200VX is hands-down a favorite personal radio. Street price is around $50 so at 2.5 times the price of the SRF-59 a comparison would be unfair. Of course, that is the very comparison made. Both radios have excellent sensitivity and selectivity on both AM and FM. The headphones used are our favorite Sennheiser PX100 which improves the audio on both AM and FM on any personal radio and actually improves FM reception ability on radios that use the headphone cord for the antenna; both the Sangean DT-200VX and the Sony SRF-59 use the headphone cord for antenna.

Differences in the radios are considerable with the main one being that the Sangean DT200VX uses digital tuning while the Sony SRF-59 is analog which is a slide dial in this case. The Sangean has a backlight and memories as well. The two radios are generally the same size but the Sony is considerably lighter but in fairness I also used a lithium battery with the Sony while the Sangean uses 2 batteries and in this case a pair of alkalines was used making the Sangean heavier. The Sangean has a speaker but it is not a good one it is not recommended unless in an emergency or if more than one person absolutely needs to hear the broadcast.

Performance on FM was interesting. The Sony is very good but there were a couple of stations that did come in slightly better on the Sangean than the Sony. Reception was close but slightly better on the Sangean on each station. The Sony SRF-59 sounded better on music stations; the sound was richer and clearer and more pleasant.

Performance on AM was a bit surprising because of the obvious superiority of the Sangean. It is notoriously good on AM and it absolutely picked up stations with a readable signal that were not present on the Sony SRF-59 at all. The Sony was solid and picked up as well as any personal short of the Sangean and again the sound quality was nice though the same as the Sangean unlike on FM where the Sony sounded better.

Tuning is the biggest difference in the two radios. The Sangean DT200VX is a pleasure to use due to the digital tuning with backlight; the SRF-59 is tight and stations are VERY close together and at least the radio that I have is not calibrated correctly below 99 MHz on FM.

That’s it, the Sangean is the best personal radio available but the Sony is the best for less than $25. The Sangean is the one to get without question however for the casual radio user or for kids the Sony SRF-59 is a great choice.