Sony ICF-SW7600G shortwave / LW / MW / FM radio

[@vwestlife]

Actually I read the owner's manual (you can still get it on Sony's web site) and it says the line output is in stereo as long as you have something also plugged into the headphone jack. If you don't have headphones plugged in, it combines the two channels to mono for the built-in speaker, and this goes to the line output as well.

[@barrykery1175]

If you paid $3.99 for that radio, you got the deal of the century. Somebody did not know the value of that little radio. WOW ! I paid $199 from Ham Radio Outlet in 1995 for mine. I still have it and it's a great little radio. With a reasonable outside antenna, you will receive all kinds of stuff on the HF bands. The only downside of that radio is the rocker switch tuning. It's a pain since you have to step through the frequency range instead of smoothly tuning across it. Nice informative video. Thanks for sharing, Barry

[@vwestlife]

Off-tuning SSB would change the pitch, but with AM stations the signal is double-sideband, so off-tuning 3 kHz high (1253 instead of 1250 kHz, for example) would allow 3 kHz more high end to get through the filter on the upper sideband, while the lower sideband would get 3 kHz less. This gives a brighter sound at the cost of some distortion due to the two sidebands not being received equally.

[@joncleveland2639]

I love this radio. The sensitivity isn't that far off from my modern Sangean DSP radio, the SSB reception is fantastic, and the sync lock for AM is outstanding, This is my go to radio most of the time.

[@georgebarnes8163]

Brilliant little radio if a bit awkward to use, I have the GR variant which is my favourite small portable after my XHDATA d808 because the 808 is so much easier to use but I prefer the Sony for SSB use.

[@vwestlife]

The upper half of the display has indicators for the sleep timer and 2 alarms, as well as the preset number display, and large icons to indicate low battery and the key lock function.

[@vwestlife]

That was me off-tuning 640 WWJZ, the Philadelphia area Radio Disney station. Like most big airports, Newark doesn't use longwave beacons anymore, but many smaller airports still do. The ones we have here in northern NJ are 214 TE (Teterboro), 254 CAT (Chatham), and 369 TT (Trenton).

[@BokBarber]

I found a much older version of this, the ICF-2003 (which is a palate swapped ICF-2002) at a thrift store a couple years ago for something like $5 complete with a power supply and case. The 2003 is not a bad radio, under the right conditions I can pick up some impressively distant stations with just the whip, but your later model improves on it in every way. You can see the lessons Sony learned as they went along, adding USB/LSB and AM sync. That's a fantastic find; even though SW isn't used much anymore it's still fun to poke around and listen to the ham radio operators every now and then.

[@emedina73]

That's the deal of the century!!!! That thrift store clearly did not know what they had on their hands!! Back in the 90's this particular radio was about $180.00 dollars new!! Nowadays you can get them on eBay anywhere from $70-$100+ dollars depending on the condition.I bought mine on Amazon for $80 dollars in excellent condition about three years ago,I can say that it's one radio that I will never get rid of!

[@ki4gmx]

This was my first shortwave radio. I bought my from a store called "Bud's" in Illinois when I was a teenager. The price on it was $15 when it should have been $150 at the time. It's a great radio and my first introduction to shortwave and ham radio.

[@vwestlife]

No... I believe the synchronous detector uses Sony's AM Stereo decoder chip, but it was not designed to support AM Stereo directly. Google "Synchronous Detection of AM Signals - ARRL" for a PDF article describing how it works.

[@EastLight07]

It's also useful if you have an iTrip FM modulator and require some clear airspace to use it with - most of them can be configured to transmit in the Japanese FM band.

[@vwestlife]

That is WWV from Colorado, which transmits on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz shortwave. There is also WWVH in Hawaii, which transmits on all those same frequencies except 20 MHz, and uses a female announcer instead of WWV's male announcer.

[@punishedexistence]

Now that's pretty cool! Great reception, plenty of features and one heck of a good price, I envy you but in a good way. The possibilities are almost endless if you get into SWL.

[@HBC101TVStudios]

+punishedexistence I'm just glad to be a SW listener. The hobby of SWL is indeed interesting if you really enjoy DXing on SW.

[@vwestlife]

That's just the nature of SSB. It sounds robotic unless you get the fine tuning set exactly right.

[@mrflashport]

You got about $125 worth of radio for $3.99 . That is one of Sonys better SW portables, in production for quite a number of years. Yours is the later G version. Nice find!

[@oliverlotus]

I have one of these.... Superb radio. Hello from the UK by the way!!

[@PashPaw]

These are lovely radios. Great find at that price.

[@HBC101TVStudios]

PashPaw it's actually a great radio for newbie SW listeners to purchase.. and it is more affordable than the new SW receivers on the market today.

[@PashPaw]

HBC101TV Studios True. I cut my teeth on my mother's ICF-2003 (7600DS internationally) and the my 7600GR when I picked up the hobby again. I really wish that Sony would release an updated version of the GR that supports digital shortwave.

[@RelaxingASMR]

You run across some of the best stuff. Do you find most of these items at one particular thrift store or do you have several that you go to on a regular basis?

[@MrBrian8749]

If I had found this radio at that price... well I might have fainted before I could pay for it. Great find, Thank the good Lord of thrift stores! 73

[@senderjaeger]

Nice radio, nice video. Congrats on that superb bargain. By the way, China Radio International is actually transmitting from Albania towards North America on 6020 and 9570 kHz in your local evenings and from Cuba on 9570 kHz during your local mornings. They do not longer use the transmitters in Canada as the Sackville station was closed down several months ago.

[@BrianG61UK]

As far as I remember the line out is stereo but only if you also have stereo headphones plugged in the headphone socket!

[@M7TIN-TinManUK]

Looks like you got a really good bargin there. Those radios are fairly well sought after with shortwave enthusiasts and can go for quite a bit of money.

[@feraltex]

Ive had mine since 1992 Best SSB receiver for Field reception ,and for back up to my Comms Receivers,in Power outage. The SSB and Sync was far beyond its time and the first Portable with it that worked.f .

[@bobskie321]

I wish I have a radio like that which can tune continuously from 150 KHz - 30 MHz because I sometimes DX stations using a typical radio cassette with 4 band radio.

[@Trance88]

These radios are so cool! I wish there were more broadcasts on the LW/SW bands. Being able to pick up ham radio operators is cool too.

[@OriginalTLab3000]

Bought mine in 1994 for IIRC 200 Deutsche Mark. Still use it a lot - but mainly as an alarm clock. The back light should be a lot brighter! It seems you're missing the antenna extension, but it's not doing much anyway. Nice seeing other people still using this device!

[@dan_from_australia]

Does tuning a radio station off centre work as a pitch shift, or does it disable the IF filter? I've wondered how this works for some time!

[@johnreagannumber1]

Wow .. just really wow. No kidding about that being the best bargain. I'm a big ham radio listener and only in my dreams did I ever envision that someone could find a cheap shortwave radio with SSB. SSB is everything to me. In fact I recently spent $250 on a radio that does exactly what your radio does. Congratulations man, brilliant find!

[@vwestlife]

Beacons transmit their call sign in Morse code. The one I can pick up is "CAT" (Chatham, NJ). In Morse code, that's: -•-• •- - China Radio International used Radio Canada's transmitters up until recently, when the Sackville transmitter site was shut down. As Senderjaeger wrote below, CRI now transmits from Albania and Cuba.

[@bobskie321]

11:11 Back then during the 1980s, I used that time signal (10 MHz) to sync my wristwatch about once every few weeks to get as close to accurate time as possible.

[@HBC101TVStudios]

bobskie321 it is WWVH

[@1marcelfilms]

why do they write the price on the display Y? its the same where i live. they put those stickers on the worst places

[@georgebarnes8163]

flat surface, easy to remove

[@1marcelfilms]

@@georgebarnes8163 No it is not it is the worst!

[@TheMisterMonkeyman]

Thank you for the info. I just bought a Sony ICF-7600A at a yard sale for $2.00 and had no idea what any of the functions of SW, MW were. I'm in Orange County, California and now know basically how to use it. There is a graphic on the back of the radio dividing up the "World" into sections that correspond to some numbers (my area is -7) can you tell me what that means please? I read in the comments that you told someone else that they could find an online manual for his set at Sony's esupport website, I'm heading there now. Thank you again. Peace.

[@vwestlife]

TheMisterMonkeyman The graphic on the back shows the time zones of the world. The numbers are how many hours away you are from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) (also known as UTC). Since people are listening all over the world, shortwave stations use GMT as their time standard.

[@TheMisterMonkeyman]

Thank you for the info. I had no idea. Peace.

[@TheLucidLuxray]

A price written on the display of all places...

[@TheWorldOfBudgetVinylRecords]

You scored. These kind of receivers sell for a lot more then four dollars. I have the Tecsun pl-600 (It has all the features yours has except for the synchronous tuning). I have nothing on the long wave band here, not even a beacon! The unofficial pirate radio band (around 6925 khz) is fun to tune, most weekends you will hear one or two. I heard Radio North Wood (a pirate sw station) as clear as a bell the other night.

[@HBC101TVStudios]

+The World Of Budget Vinyl Records Another reason why you can't receive any beacons on your PL-600 are due to the lack of airports in your area.

[@billybonewhacker]

Than for the transmitter info , I had wondered why I was getting them in so clear....now my set up doesn't seem so impressive lol.

[@jungleman4921]

Miss a Tuning dial on that model,I own the same one and after over 20 yrs of buying it second hand it still performs as new compared to my other Sony SW 55 of which is a far newer radio and yet it is dead.

[@bratina501]

This radio might be one of the Sony shortwave tuners that uses the CX857 for synchronous AM.

[@414730]

I noticed you have a SEC 800 in the back round, ever thought of doing a review of it?

[@buburuzul25]

Cool! You got there even a romanian channel ... at min. 9 that’s a song from Romania :).

[@HBC101TVStudios]

Radio Romania International?

[@devilledhamman]

Thanks for the video! I just got one of these this morning at a yard sale for fifty cents. It didn't come with the manual or the 6 volt DC input device. Any ideas where I could get them?

[@vwestlife]

You can read the manual on Sony's eSupport web site.

[@breezie1337]

I really wonder why they made the line output mono... But this sure looks like a nice to have portable radio

[@sandmanxo]

Hell of a lot of radio for $4. During the day you should try 15Mhz for WWV, and with the sunspot cycle high right now, even 20Mhz may come in. They are also on 2.5Mhz and 5Mhz as well. CHU on 14,670Khz should also come in strong for you, as their 7,850Khz signal works great in the Houston, TX area at night.

[@HBC101TVStudios]

sandman x you almost forgotten CHU's signal on 3330!

[@H3adcrash]

Nice little machine you got there! :) If you tune it to 14.70MHz SSB, and plug it into a computers line input, and use a program like MixW, you can receive PSK31 traffic and read it as text :)

[@HBC101TVStudios]

Electricguy or you can just use Fldigi..

[@ilovealbundy]

3,99..., i can't believe it. Congratulations!

[@orange70383]

It is a tried and true quality design. The board used inside is megalithic as compared to other newer dx radios.

[@vwestlife]

I used a pencil eraser. The thrift store writes the prices using a grease pencil.

[@redneckbryon]

One thing you didn't mention, the little map on the stand on the back.

[@SangiTariq]

I love this radio

[@XMguy]

Would have loved to hear that FULL broadcast from 7:08 talking about Electric Guitars! Awesome!

[@KillaTbone1]

Holy crap! Nice find!

[@kaitlyn__L]

Heh, at first with the HAM conversation with the discussion of magnetic coils and phase inversion I was thinking “this could be a lot of things…”, then he said “humbucker” and I went “…oh! A HAM who plays guitar!” It’d be fun if they ever happened to watch this video over the interceding years.

[@Th0rnblade]

9525 hkz is SW for the romanian internationat broadcast of the public station. It is broadcast specially for the romanians in north and central america from somwhere on the continent... US or Canada, i haven't reasearched it too much...

[@HBC101TVStudios]

Radio Romania International

[@NJRoadfan]

What the heck was broadcasting on 642khz? Was the navigational beacon out of EWR?

[@sirajulislamkhan4396]

Fine radio. I bought it in 1994.

[@dictare]

You got a heck of a deal! I have the newer model which is grey, the black looks nicer and Sony still hasn't improved the audio. I'm thinking of making an external speaker.

[@jedw]

the guy on 7233 talking about guitar pickups sounds like somthing out of star wars- very interesting distortion there ..

[@LOLZpersonok]

Ah, I figured I'd be wrong. I couldn't really tell and the audio from it seemed reminiscent of one to me.

[@johnyoung4039]

Great radio!!

[@georgefiddler1742]

Does the Price written in pen come off?

[@mhmrules]

Wonder why Line Out was only mono?

[@XMguy]

Yeah I wish I could have been in on that broadcast. I have a guitar with Humbuckers. lol That would have been cool! Most HAM operators know their stuff! Compare that to the people on CB!!

[@LOLZpersonok]

You should try picking up some Numbers Stations. Try finding UVB-76 on USB and/or AM. It's frequency is 4625 kHz or 4.625 MHz. I don't know if it would work in your area, but you should give it a shot. If you do, you should make a video of it. Also, I noticed at 11:10 you *might* have picked up a numbers station but I highly doubt it was that. It just sounded like one to me.

[@HBC101TVStudios]

4625 KHz is receivable in North America, just you need the correct time and day

[@raymccue5569]

He must really have a great Thrift store near By. I rarely get that Lucky!

[@djwalter4]

Wow you get a lot of SW stations! When I had my SW radio (before it popped and started smoking, long story), I got only 2 or 3 stations. By the way, does it pick up AM stereo?

[@XMguy]

I've got a Grundig G3 that has AM SSB (and FM RDS). Then a Grundig (EU) Ocean Boy 510 with FM RDS and LW and MW. 220 AC power.

[@METECH101]

VWESTLIFE where can I buy your videos from ?

[@EastAngliaUK]

Looks well worth 3.99 good find. Nice Radio

[@HPad2]

I would love to find me a decent cheap Shortwave. Under $50 can never find anything good around here thrift wise

[@feraltex]

Ive had one since 1993. Its still the best SSB receiver an d is my back up when we have power outages, even at times out preforms my Icom Pcr1000.

[@mcdus78]

What a great deal for $3.99! Lucky you!

[@odogedogg]

pick up any number stations yet?

[@georgefiddler1742]

What I meant was, What would you use to get it off, Like Alcohol etc...

[@PINKBOY1006]

What freq was the time station ? Sw or am?

[@Polaventris]

Seems quite similar to my Sangean ATS-909. Can't beat that price though!

[@vwestlife]

That is WMGQ.

[@Dguyfromlongisland]

how get this radio in queens?

[@gecko4310]

Was that 3.99 for that radio. Holy smokes. That’s a steal

[@XMguy]

My G3 has SYNC mode. But it seems to hurt more than help.

[@everyonesloopy]

what was that at 10000?

[@ExNewfie]

Great find. I paid a lot more and it was worth every penny.

[@hdofu]

3.99?!!!!! That Radio?!!! Thats beyond a good deal!!!

[@robinj.9329]

I bought mine new way back in the 90's. Cost me about $200.

[@MrMikeyt65]

Does it receive aircraft band

[@vwestlife]

Mike Taylor No, not the 108-136 MHz VHF aircraft band, but there may still be some aircraft communications on shortwave.

[@KB2CWN]

You didn't buy that, you stole it!

[@AMDXplusplus]

what radio station is 9525 am shortwave radio

[@vwestlife]

I have no idea.

[@AMDXplusplus]

VWestlife here's the list of the shortwave radio stations kHz Station Location Program Type 3223 Radio SR Swaziland 3265 Radio Mozambique Maputo, Mozambique 3300 Radio Cultural Guatemala City, Guatemala Religious 3380 Radio Iris Esmeraldas, Ecuador Spanish 3285 FR3 Cayenne, French Guiana French 3396 Radio Kaduna Kaduna, Nigeria 4750 Radio Bertoua Bertoua, Cameroon 4755 Imo Regional Radio Imo, Nigeria 4777 Radio/TV Gabon Libreville, Gabon French 4795 Radio Nueva America La Paz, Bolivia Spanish 4820 Radio Paz y Bien Ambala, Ecuador Spanish 4832 Radio Reloj San Jose, Costa Rica Spanish 4855 Radio Clube do Para Belem, Brazil Portugese 4890 National Broadcasting Commission Papua, New Guinea 4915 Voice Kenya Nairobi, Kenya 4920 Australian Broadcasting Commission Brisbane, Australia 4945 Radio Colosal Neiva, Colombia Spanish 4965 Radio Santa Fe Bogota, Colombia Spanish 4980 Ecos del Torbes San Cristobal, Venezuela Spanish 5020 Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service Honiara, Solomon Islands 5057 Radio Gjirokaster Gjirokaster, Albania Albanian 5950 Guyana Broadcasting Service Georgetown, Guyana 5954 Radio Casino Puerto Limon, Costa Rica 5960 Radio Canada International Montreal, Canada 5980 Radio RSA Johannesburg, South Africa 6005 CFCX Montreal, Canada 6025 Radio Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Chinese 6045 Radio Australia Lyndhurst, Australia 6055 Nihon Shortwave Broadcasting Company Tokyo, Japan Japanese 6060 Radio Nacional Buenos Aires, Argentina Spanish 6075 Radio Sutatenza Bogota, Colombia Spanish 6090 Radio Luxembourg Ville Louvigny,Luxembourg 6095 Polskie Radio Warsaw, Poland 6105 Radio New Zealand Wellington, New Zealand 7140 Trans World Radio Monte Carlo, Monaco 7170 Radio Noumea Noumea, New Caledonia French 7300 Radio Noumea Tirana, Albania 9475 Radio Cairo Cairo, Egypt 9515 Voice of Greece Athens, Greece 9525 Radio Korea Seoul, South Korea 9530 Spanish Foreign Radio Madrid, Spain 9535 Swiss Radio International Berne, Switzerland 9540 Radio Prague Prague, Czech Republic 9570 Radio Bucharest Bucharest, Romania 9575 Italian Radio and Television Service Rome, Italy 9610 Radio-TV Algeria Algiers, Algeria Arabic 9620 Radio Berlin International Berlin, Germany 9645 Radio Norway Oslo, Norway 9720 Radio Iran Tehran, Iran Farsi 9745 HCJB Quita, Ecuador 9770 Austrian Radio Vienna, Austria 9800 Radio Kiev Kiev, Ukraine 9835 Radio Budapest Budapest, Hungary 10,040 Voice of Vietnam Hanoi, Vietnam 11,655 Israel Radio Jerusalem, Israel 11,690 Radio Kuwait Kuwait City, Kuwait 11,705 Radio Sweden Stockholm, Sweden 11,720 Radio Moscow Moscow, Russia 11,725 Radio Sofia Sofia, Bulgaria 11,745 Voice of Free China Taipei, Taiwan 11,815 Radio Japan Tokyo, Japan 11,825 Radio Tahiti Papeete, Tahiti Tahitian 11,835 4VEH Cap Haitien, Haiti 11,845 Radio Canada Montreal, Canada 11,850 Deutsche Welle Cologne, Germany 11,890 Voice of Chile Santiago, Chile 11,900 Radio RSA Johannesburg, South Africa 11,910 BBC London, England 11,930 Radio Havana Cuba Havana, Cuba 11,935 Radio Portugal Lisbon, Portugal 11,945 Radio Beijing Beijing, China 11,955 Voice of Turkey Ankara, Turkey 11,980 Radio Moscow Moscow, Russia 15,038 Saudi Arabian Broadcasting Service Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Arabic 15,084 Voice of Iran Tehran, Iran Farsi 15,135 Radio Moscow Moscow, Russia 15,165 HCJB Quito, Ecuador 15,190 ORU Brussels, Belgium 15,205 All India Radio New Delhi, India 15,260 BBC London, England 15,265 Finnish Radio Helsinki, Finland 15,275 Radio Sweden Stockholm, Sweden 15,305 Swiss Radio International Berne, Switzerland 15,310 Radio Japan Tokyo, Japan 15,320 Radio Australia Melbourne, Australia 14,400 BBC London, England 15,430 Radio Mexico Mexico City, Mexico Spanish 15,465 Radio Pakistan Islamabad, Pakistan Urdu 17,720 Radio France International Paris, France 17,825 Vatican Radio Vatican City 17,860 Austrian Radio Vienna, Austria 21,495 Israel Radio Jerusalem, Israel 21,525 Radio Australia Melbourne, Australia 21,625 Israel Radio Jerusalem, Israel 21,645 Radio France International Paris, France 21,735 Radio-TV Morocco Rabat, Morocco Arabic 25,790 Radio RSA Johannesburg, South Africa

[@AMDXplusplus]

VWestlife so expensive for a shortwave radio

[@cocojambo300]

Radio România Internațional

[@BillboardPenguin]

I never see anything that nice a thrift stores. Bummer.

[@dan_from_australia]

Thanks! I'll have to brush up on my Superhet maths theory!

[@classiclover9961]

I heard it 399$ as written on display . Was it 399$ or 3.99$ :-) . Are you using this machine or not ?

[@vwestlife]

$3.99

[@محمودكمال-ر9ظ]

خضرتك ان محتاج رديو ازى احصل عليه وسعر كام احن بنحترم قناتك ومتبعين حضرتك

[@amersadik3926]

بعد سنتين من سؤالك هل اشتريت مثل هذا الراديو وبكم ؟ هل يعمل بشكل جيد . ارجو الاجابه . شكرا

[@Prnencetti]

You get Cuba better then I do. I can pick up English Cuba broadcast in Syracuse new York but it is so bad I can't here it at all most of the time. I also get China as well. And wwv. Now I get the wwv as I have a atomic clock were I live it always picks up the time. This was one of the last atomic clocks I got at Kmart as my Kmart some time in 2017 will be closing and no longer has my atomic clock. I also can pick up Canada time as well.

[@Andythemanman3]

try UVB76! the Russian ghost signal, 4625khz!

[@halimearslan5765]

donde los venden yo tuve uno son muy buenos

[@Catswhiskerdetector]

Good ol' Brother scare...

[@a.szynwelski1073]

Poszukuję instrukcję programowania radia SONY ICF-7600D w języku polskim

[@joestokesbary7343]

I gotta go to the thrift store more often.

[@nickshor]

at 9:03 that's actually a Romanian station

[@HBC101TVStudios]

+Alexandru Nicolae Potoroaca yup.. but it's Radio Romania International from Tignanesti (the main transmitter) or from other SW broadcast transmitters around the world.

[@obaidCarkey]

3.99 or 399?

[@compositeguy4696]

3.99 haha not 399

[@22Dropinthebucket]

Great Vid buddy :D

[@jinggarcia]

i got mine for $40 :( but very happy with it anyway :)

[@vwestlife]

WWV.