A visit to the Asbury United Methodist Church's basement antique sale in Rochester, NY a couple of weekends ago resulted in the find of the year, a Panasonic RF-2200. Price? $50 - marked down on the last day from $200 because they couldn't sell it. The power cord was missing ($6 on EBay), but all the controls seemed to work freely and it was in clean shape, so I went for it. I could hardly contain my glee and keep from doing back flips as I passed the $50 to the cashier. Fingers crossed as I drove home, as there was no way to test it.
After a thorough cleaning with Q-tips, soft cloth and mild detergent, fixing a slightly bent switch lever, and removing a small amount of corrosion from the battery compartment, I installed batteries. Not only does the unit look new again, it operates wonderfully. The carrying strap is still in place, and the whip antenna is intact and undamaged. There are a two very tiny nicks in the cabinet at the top edge, but it's otherwise pristine. What remains is to pull the front and rear covers off and hit the controls and switches with electronic contact cleaner to remove some scratchiness. The radio is nearly flawless. What a find!
Mediumwave sensitivity is great, and mostly lives up to the review hype. The rotatable gyro ferrite antenna is in perfect shape and is totally functional. An RF gain control is included, something rarely found on a portable. Selectivity is good, and certainly much better than a non-DSP ultralight. Two bandwidths are available, wide and narrow. I do live in a high signal area, so there was a little overload at the high end of the mediumwave band near WXXI-1370, 5 KW at 1.2 miles distant. Also contributing to overload is WROC-950, 1 KW and WHTK-1280, 5 KW, each at 2 miles distant. The radio is big, however, and heavy. It takes four D-sized batteries. I found four D alkalines on sale at CVS for $5, another bargain. The earphone jack appears to be mono, so requires an adapter for stereo headphones. Check, I have that.
The next day I spent an hour or so at a card table outside in the bright daylight (can't see) and pulled the front and back covers off. I got the controls and switches clean using CRC QD Electronic Cleaner spray. The tuning scale reads about 25 KHz high. I may look into that this winter and do a bit of tweaking. Otherwise the complicated dial mechanism is in great shape and is tight. Dial slop is extremely small. The radio case was a bugger to get back together. Be wary and be careful! Old plastic is brittle.
The Panasonic RF-2200 receives the AM, FM and shortwave bands. Ranges: 525-1605 KHz, 3.9-8 MHz, 8-12 MHz, 12-16 MHz, 16-20 MHz, 20-24 Mhz and 24-28 MHz plus FM. This radio features a very accurate analog dial down to 10 KHz, and two tuning rates. It has an S-Meter (tuning strength 0-10), BFO, FM AFC, Bass, Treble, Record Jack, Dial Lamp, Dial Lamp Switch, RF Gain, Crystal Calibrator 125/500 KHz and External Antenna Terminals. The dual conversion circuit (1.985 MHz/455 KHz) features wide and narrow selectivity (reportedly 5/3.4 KHz at -6dB). The 8 inch rotatable ferrite rod antenna makes the RF-2200 a strong medium wave performer. Remarkable sensitivities are FM: 2 µV, MW: 14 µV/m, SW: 0.5 µV. Early production models where gray, later models where black.
On a side note, and just to further prove the point that bargains can also be had at thrift stores, last winter I found an old HP 32SII Programmable Calculator at a Salvation Army thrift shop in Arizona. It was pristine and had its manual and slip cover. I saw it sitting in the glass case at the counter. When I asked the woman attendant if I could see it and how much it was, she picked it up, looked at it with this questioning look on here face (I could almost see her mind spinning - just another dumb old calculator), and said "2 dollars". Check them out on eBay - they are worth anywhere from $70 to $200 or more depending on condition and whether they come with manual and case! Lesson - don't ignore thrift stores!
This new Panasonic RF-2200 radio will be a joy to DX with in remote Arizona this winter. I am headed cross-country again in about a week so we shall see!
 |
| The beautiful Panasonic RF-2200. Click to see a larger image. |
