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überarbeitet am 23.10.2010
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In the field of consumer electronics, Sony managed to construct some
miniaturized sets that became milestones of the development. Not only
Sony's Walkman(r), the Camcorder(r), the Diskman(r) were very famous sets,
Sony also supported the travelling shortwave listener with excellent sets.
They covered the whole range from the miniaturized double conversion SW-1
to the large and heavy sets in the CRF-series, but Sony never entered the
Amateur radio market.
The portable ICF-5900 W with it's
double conversion design, a reliable dial combining a crystal calibrator and a linear
dial with a 250 kHz segment around the calibrator centre frequency, and SSB
reception using a BFO became very popular in 1976, it was soon followed by the
legendary ICF-6800 W. This set, specially the
later version with orange colour lettering, soon became the DXers dream receiver.
With it's digital frequency readout, reasonable rejection of spurious signals
by means of a preselector and two IF bandwidths, the ICF-6800 W
was one the earliest portable rigs outperforming the bulky heavy hollow state
receivers still relying on meins power supply. The CRF-320
was too large, too heavy and too privey to be carried around the world on
trips; of the CRF-1 - a set resembling desktop ham
receivers from Kenwood or Yaesu - only very few set's made their way to Europe.
Another milestone was the ICF-2001, Sony's first
microprocessor - controlled fully synthesized double conversion receiver
with it's direct frequency entry keypad and six (!) digital memories.
The successor ICF-2001D / ICF-2010 with it's SYNC detector,
which made automated single sideband reception of only one sideband of a AM signal
available with pushing one button and with it's frequency display telling You the
nearest 100 Hz of the reception frequency has been unequalled as travel portable set
for many years. I still rely on this set for shortwave listening in my holidays
despite of it's slightly bigger size. The later ICF-SW77
with it's alphanumeric memory channels and world clock timer did not catch up
with the sensitivity of the ICF-2001D / ICF-2010.
Sony is still very well known for squeezing very advanced technology into a
tiny cabinet: the ICF-7600D was the first
synthesized double conversion receiver featuring fine tuning and SSB reception
on the market, this model has been followed by a whole bunch of radios in
the same pocketbook dimensions and superior reception quality. This kind of gear,
is the one I would take on airplane trips.
In the last years, Sony produced even more mini - mini fully featured sets
like the ICF-SW1 (double matchbox size) and the ICF-SW1000T with it's integrated
cassette recorder, which is not much bigger then the box of an audio cassette
itself.
Desktop Shortwave Receivers
CRF-150 (1968?): FM, LW, MW,
10 x SW (160 - 75, 60, 49, 41, 31, 25, 19, 16, 13,
11 m), FM/AM, (no BFO!),
analog dial, S-Meter, two IF bandwidths |
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| CRF-160 (1969/70?):
double conversion, FM, LW, MW,
10 X SW bands; FM, AM, SSB(BFO),analog dial |
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| CRF-220
(1967?): double conversion, FM (88 - 108 MHz), LW, MW,
19 x SW (1,6 - 29,8 MHz), FM, AM, SSB(BFO),
linear analog dial |
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| CRF-230
(1968): double conversion, 2 x FM (64 - 108 MHz), LW, MW,
19 x SW (1,6 - 29,8 MHz), FM/AM, SSB(BFO),
linear analog dial |
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| CRF-5080
/ CRF-5090 / "Earth Orbiter" (1972): single conversion, FM, LW, MW,
5 x SW(1,6-26 MHz), FM,AM,SSB(BFO), analog dial |
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| ICF-5500 / Captain 55 (1974?):
single conversion, FM, MW, 2 x SW (1,6-14,5 / 4,5-12 MHz),
FM (VHF), AM, analog dial |
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| ICF-5800 / Captain 77 (1974?):
single conversion, FM, MW, 2 x SW (1,6-14,5 / 4,5-12 MHz),
FM (VHF), AM, analog dial |
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| ICF-5900W (1976):
single conversion, FM, MW, 2 x SW (3,9-10 11,6-28 MHz),
FM,AM,SSB(BFO), analog dial with crystal calibrator |
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| ICF-6700L(1978):
double conversion, FM,MW,SW 1-30 MHz, AM,SSB,
preselector, digital frequency display (1 kHz), 2 IF bandwidths |
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| ICF-6800W(1978):
double conversion, FM,MW,SW 1-30 MHz, AM,SSB,
preselector, digital frequency display (1 kHz), 2 IF bandwidths |
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| ICF-6800WA,
orange: double conversion, FM,MW,SW
1-30 MHz, AM,SSB, preselector, digital frequency display (1
kHz), 2 IF bandwidths, later version with improved front-end |
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| CRF-320A
/ CRF-330K with cassette recorder (1978):
double conversion, FM,LW,MW,SW 1,6-30 MHz, FM, AM,
SSB, digital frequency display (1 kHz), clock/timer |
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| CRF-1(1978):
double conversion, AM 10 kHz - 30 MHz, digital frequency display (1
kHz), AM,SSB, 2 IF bandwidths, preselector |
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| ICF-6500W
(L) (1982): double conversion, FM,LW,MW,
SW (3,9-26,1 MHz), FM,AM,SSB(BFO), digital frequency display |
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| CRF-V21
(1989): double conversion, FM, AM 9 kHz - 30 MHz, AM,
AM-Sync, SSB, FM-n/w, digital frequency display, 350
memories, HF/NF- spectrum analyzer,
RTTY/FAX - decoder, printer, clock |
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Desktop Receivers with Casette Recorders
| CF-950S (1976):
Receiver basing on the ICF-5900 with mono casette recorder |
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| CRF-330K (1978):
Receiver basing on the CRF-320 with mono casette recorder |
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