Panasonic RF 2200
D. Schopp
days to play with it I thought I would post my impressions
I was surprised to find the shoulder strap attached and the original ear bud
still in it's compartment in the back of the radio. I was also pleasantly
surprised that there is no wall mart but a cord that plugs into the back of
the radio and into an outlet for AC reception
It took me a day to familiarize myself with using the crystal markers to
calibrate the SW dial. Now calibrating the dial and determining the
frequency is very easy. I really like manually tuning the radio and the way
the radio tunes.
I'm amazed by the sensitivity of this radio on all bands, SW, MW, and FM.
I've owned a Sony 2010 and the 2200 IMHO is the more sensitive radio. This
morning, from my location in suburban St. Louis Radio Australia, on 9580,
came in loud and clear, with the RF gained only turned up to 5. There is no
need to connect this radio to an external antenna, the whip antenna is more
than sufficient. Selectivity is also very good . The wide filter on the last
2010 I owned was so bad I had to replace it with the Kiwa model. No such
problem with the 2200. The narrow filter works well, it cuts down on
interference yet the voice quality is still listenable.
The audio is excellent , I call it full and rich. This is the first SW radio
I owned that makes listening to music on SW and MW enjoyable. Yesterday I
was able to enjoy the jazz and country and western music on Deutsche Welle's
African broadcast. Although reception is mono, the audio quality through
mono headphones is very good. This unit has bass and treble controls which
allows one to adjust the audio.
FM reception is also excellent. A local college station, which was barely
heard on my YB 305 pegged the S meter on the 2200. Again the audio is
excellent. MW reception, with the adjustable antenna, is better than my GE
SR III. WINS, , New York, and WBZ, Boston, come in loud and clear after the
sun goes down. I was able to pick up these stations on my SR III but noise
prevented me from listening to them. This morning, at 11:30 CST, I was able
to listen to WHO, 1040, Des Moines, from here in suburban St. Louis. I've
never heard WHO during the day on my SR III. Chicago stations are also
listenable during daylight.
It's a big box to move around, it lacks the tuning ease and features of a
digital receiver, but the excellent sound, sensitivity, and selectivity,
make this my radio of choice. If this radio was still made today I would buy
another one tomorrow. Granted digital receivers have their advantages but a
good analog receiver is hard to beat.
D. Schopp
I
Jerry Franks
than replacing the whip antenna( which the kids broke but denied it) it has
given me no trouble in 20 something years of service.
It's still in daily use. I saw one for sale on Ebay a couple of days ago and
was surprised to see the final bid was $189. That's about $40 more than I
paid for mine.
Tune it in to a foreign language broadcast and when the tele-marketers start
making their evening calls crank up the volume and set the phone down in
front of the speaker.
Jerry
W4RF
John Berenyi
ever made bar none!!!
John
D. Schopp <dsc...@sprintmail.com> wrote in article
<75m84j$iar$1...@birch.prod.itd.earthlink.net>...
TubePwr813
second.
Chris
Robert Lonn
39 of these radios, along with the RF-5000, RF-8000 and RF-9000. The
2200 was designed by a team of Kenwood and Yaesu engineers on assignment
to Panasonic. That is how it go that Collins/Drake tuning look.. Enjoy
one of the best radios of its time. With this radio, who needs digital
radios, however I have many such radios in my 350 plus collection of
radios. BTW, I have seen this radio sell on eBay for as high as $475.00,
and BTW, I hold that record, I sold one of mine.. since it was one radio
I had in the original box, and never had been used. With so many radios,
I decided to see how much I could get for it and did not expect to sell
it. Set my reserve at $475.00 and got it.. Should have set it higher,
but needed the money.. In any case enjoy and good luck with your
radios..
Robert Lonn
now it is vacation time and a little R&R, so the computer goes into the
OFF mode...
Paul A. Froehlich
Seeing this article brought back fond memories of my RF 2200. It was my first real radio,
acquired when I was 14 (was a Christmas gift to me in 1979). I heard so much stuff with just the
whip antenna! It was a wonderful introduction into the world of SW DX. I think of some of the
unusual catches I would get, such as Mongolia, Grenada, Uganda (in English like a local on 19
m!), etc. and be just amazed. You would hook an outdoor antenna to the thing and it would
overload unless you backed the gain way off (I lived in Balto. at the time). Even though it is not
small, I took the radio everywhere I went.
Working the crystal calibrator was kind of strange to me at first. The radio would fall of freq if
you strayed too far from a marker, but eventually you got to know the radio so well that you just
knew where you were even if the freq readout wasn't quite true.
As to the comparison between the Sony 2010 and the RF 2200, there is none, at least to me.
The RF 2200 runs circles around the Sony in terms of sensitivity. When I bought a Sony 2010, I
was rather disappointed with it since I had been spoiled on the RF2200! The Sony 2010
seemed deaf to me, with a lot of circuit noise. Well, the digital freq readout and memories
were an upgrade, but that's about it.
The one annoying feature of the RF 2200 was that signals on one band tended to "bleed over"
onto the same dial position on adjacent bands. Fortunately, the international broadcast bands
were staggered so as not to cause too many problems.
These days, all my work and interest is with old vacuum tube boatanchors- my fav is a
National HRO 60. I also use a very hot Hammarlund HQ120X from 1938. My modern
receivers have become expensive frequency counters. The rich vacuum tube audio just
seems to agree with me more, esp with SW listening. The RF 2200 was the one solid state
receiver I had that seemed to come closest to replicating that full sounding tone.
Now, unfortunately, my RF 2200 has fallen silent. SIGH!!! I cannot hear anything on SW or AM,
but FM still works fine. This makes me think it is some sort of problem in the RF stages of the
SW/AM part of the radio. While I am successful at repairing vacuum tube radios, I don't know
jack about fixing stuff with silicon in it. I would love to be able to use this set again when going
"mobile". Can anyone help me locate someone who does COMPETENT repair of these
units? I'd be afraid to send it to Panasonic- is that an unreasonable fear? I can just see some
guy that repairs boomboxes all day not knowing what the heck to do with it.
Thank you in advance for any help and advice- and thanks for the memories. I didn't know
these RF 2200 were so highly regarded by others. For $140 (orginal purchase price when
new), it was a pretty nice unit.
Regards
Paul Froehlich
In article <75m84j$iar$1...@birch.prod.itd.earthlink.net>, dsc...@sprintmail.com says...
>
>My anxiously awaited Panasonic RF 2200 arrived Friday.Now that I've had four
>days to play with it I thought I would post my impressions
>
>I was surprised to find the shoulder strap attached and the original ear bud
>still in it's compartment in the back of the radio. I was also pleasantly
>surprised that there is no wall mart but a cord that plugs into the back of
>the radio and into an outlet for AC reception
>
>It took me a day to familiarize myself with using the crystal markers to
>calibrate the SW dial. Now calibrating the dial and determining the
>frequency is very easy. I really like manually tuning the radio and the way
>D. Schopp
>I
>
>
>
Fredric J. Einstein
Froehlich) wrote:
>Hi All.
>
>Seeing this article brought back fond memories of my RF 2200. It was my first real radio,
>acquired when I was 14 (was a Christmas gift to me in 1979). I heard so much stuff with just the
>whip antenna! It was a wonderful introduction into the world of SW DX. I think of some of the
>unusual catches I would get, such as Mongolia, Grenada, Uganda (in English like a local on 19
>m!), etc. and be just amazed. You would hook an outdoor antenna to the thing and it would
>overload unless you backed the gain way off (I lived in Balto. at the time). Even though it is not
>small, I took the radio everywhere I went.
I have the "international" model of the RF-2200 called the "National
RF-22" It truly does sound nice. I believe that the only difference
between these two receivers was that the FM goes from 76 to 108 on my
RF-22 and that it has a dual voltage (100-120V or 220-240 V AC) switch
on it.
It really is a big shame that PLL synthesized tuners have been foisted
upon us by the manufacturers and pundits in the SWL review (e.g.
Passport, Monitoring Times etc.). The harshness and the digital noise
introduced by these tuners combined makes shortwave listening a chore.
In fact, the cheapest Sony and Grundig analogue portables are easier
to listen to than the digital models.
When I want to listen to pleasant sounding shortwave with strong
signals, I use my RF-22.
Klezmer
I have one of these wonderful radios too and have had the same problem some
years ago. In my case, the AM/FM/SW selector switch and the bandswitch were the
causes of the problem and a simple cleaning with a good contact cleaner did the
trick. These switches had a tendency to become easily compromised by dirt and
corrosion, but get some spray in there and see what happpens.
73s,
Ken Maltz
Syosset, NY
NRD-535D, 60' long wire, MLB balun
Charles P. Hobbs
received in 1979, it still gets occasional use (my primary receiver
is a Sony 2010)
Only three problems with the 2800
a. The audio can suddenly cut off in the middle of the program.
Twiddling
the tuning dial usually brings it back, but it's annoying
b. The BFO doesn't work; trying the BFO switch can also cut off all
the audio.
c. The upper band (16-30 mHz) isn't anywhere near as sensitive as
it used to be. . .
dus...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>
> I love the RF2200 also! I am buying one later this week from someone who has
> two!! I had an RF2200 that I purchased early in 1977 at about $200. I gave
> it away to bring in a Sangean ATS803a. Not smart at all on my part. The
> radio chuffed and never came close to the old Panasonic. I can't wait to
> turn that dial again!
>
> David Dustan
>
> In article <75pvpo$aka$1...@news.doit.wisc.edu>,
dus...@my-dejanews.com
two!! I had an RF2200 that I purchased early in 1977 at about $200. I gave
it away to bring in a Sangean ATS803a. Not smart at all on my part. The
radio chuffed and never came close to the old Panasonic. I can't wait to
turn that dial again!
David Dustan
In article <75pvpo$aka$1...@news.doit.wisc.edu>,
pafr...@facstaff.wisc.edu (Paul A. Froehlich) wrote:
> Hi All.
>
> Seeing this article brought back fond memories of my RF 2200. It was my first
real radio,
> acquired when I was 14 (was a Christmas gift to me in 1979). I heard so much
stuff with just the
> whip antenna! It was a wonderful introduction into the world of SW DX. I
think of some of the
> unusual catches I would get, such as Mongolia, Grenada, Uganda (in English
like a local on 19
> m!), etc. and be just amazed. You would hook an outdoor antenna to the thing
and it would
> overload unless you backed the gain way off (I lived in Balto. at the time).
Even though it is not
> small, I took the radio everywhere I went.
>
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
andybo...@gmail.com
> My anxiously awaited Panasonic RF 2200 arrived Friday.Now that I've had four
> days to play with it I thought I would post my impressions
>
> I was surprised to find the shoulder strap attached and the original ear bud
> still in it's compartment in the back of the radio. I was also pleasantly
> surprised that there is no wall mart but a cord that plugs into the back of
> the radio and into an outlet for AC reception
>
> It took me a day to familiarize myself with using the crystal markers to
> calibrate the SW dial. Now calibrating the dial and determining the
> frequency is very easy. I really like manually tuning the radio and the way
Frank
> Does anyone have whip antenna for sale or know where I might find one for
> the rf 2200? My radio was in near perfect condition when I purchased it
> but my son used it,