After 9½ years of service, several trips to the Kripalu Center and other yoga retreats, and a pilgrimage to India, my 1993 Panasonic RFB-45 virtually died. One day it was working fine; I was listening to Imus on WFAN in the morning, but at lunch hour I tried to listen to Jim Rome on WGR-550 and found the tuning had completely conked out. (since CHUM axed the sports, I've been taking my dx rig to work, just to listen to Rome!) Since the cost to have it fixed would be almost as much as a new radio, I chose the latter option. Yesterday I got a Grundig Yacht Boy 400 PE, for $CDN195 at Bay-Bloor Radio, a long-established electronics shop in downtown Toronto at -- DUH!! -- the corner of Bay and Bloor streets.
The YB400PE is slightly larger and maybe an ounce or two heftier than the RFB-45, and takes 6 AA batteries, not 4. The jury is still out on battery life. I haven't done any serious dxing on it yet, but so far I like it. It's got some features the RFB-45 didn't have, like a clock display that doesn't disappear when the radio is turned on, 40 pre-sets (RFB-45 had only 18) and a dial light. Of course for serious AM dxing, it won't beat my trusty old 1978 RF-2200 that's been pulling in DX since the Carter administration. What's with the stupid name "Yacht Boy"? Why don't they call it a "Yacht Girl", given the typical male predilection for slapping feminine monickers on cars, boats, and other machinery. Hopefully this YB400PE will pick up as much good karma as my RFB-45 did. Maybe I will take it with me on another Indian pilgrimage, to Kerala and Tamil Nadu, later this decade! 73 Mike Brooker Toronto, ON ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- World Radio TV Handbook 2003 is out! Order it now! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823059677/hardcoredxcom ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www2.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://dsl.org/copyleft/dsl.txt
