I hate to disagree because it makes me sound grouchy. So far my experiences with Amazon have been great. I usually stick to items with free shipping, and returns have not been so difficult. They even fixed an ordering error I had made once when ordering tax software, and accidentally ordered the PC version when I needed the Mac version. I find their customer service easily accessible, and friendly to deal with. I would love to buy at a brick-and-mortar store, but here on Long Island, no one sells Shortwave or Amateur Radio gear, with the exception of Radio Shack, and the Hamfests, which I will wait for if there is one coming. Even at a Hamfest though, the chances of finding something like a Grundig G-4000 is pretty slim. Radio Shack does carry some nice radios, but customer service at Radio Shack is a roll of the dice, depending on the quality of the manager, and his staff. Some are better than others. I will agree that the overall quality of these radios peaked around 2008 or so, and seems to be in steady decline now. My Redsun RP-2000 is a horrible radio, constantly requiring jiggling of the controls or a reset to work properly, and my Tecsun PL-390 has a strange issue where if I don't use it at least weekly, the controls tend to "freak-out" when I go to use it next and have to spend 5 minutes working the dials and pressing buttons to alleviate the problem. I see the same thing in the Chinese Amateur Radio gear too. Although some of the radios are made to last, many are not.

'er' is supposed to stand for extended range, but the only difference I see is that the AM aircraft band starts at 110 MHz instead of 118.

The D95L was released back when the D96L came out. Pretty hard to find either of these now. I wonder if they are still in production. The D96L was a great MW performer, but was VERY prone to overload on SW. --Neil, W2NDG

Yes, agreed. The 2003 was quite numb in the sensitivity department. A very un-remarkable receiver. I think Dan is confusing this with the later versions (SW7600, etc) which were improved a bit, and added sync. Even those, however are not as sensitive as some of the new radios from Tecsun, and Degen, and no where near the performance of the 2010.

They corrected the original article, but I still consider it inaccurate and alarmist.

Just so everyone understands, this article belongs on The Onion, not the WSJ. It's absolute rubbish, and pretty hilarious.

specs and info here: http://tecsunradio.com/2012/05/12/redsun-rd1220-full-band-double-conversion-digital-display-radio/

How many days since the auction closed? I know it's hard to imagine for those of us that use email every day (hour, minute?), but there are people out there that don't check messages daily, or don't have a sense of urgency when it comes to closing a transaction. I've had this happen, and when the bidder has a perfect record, they have always paid, but sometimes a bit late. I think eBay allows 4 days before considering the item not paid for. I have gotten payments on the 5th day a few times after a couple of friendly reminder emails. It's the bidders with bad ratings that you have to watch for. I have had people win items and THEN start asking question as to whether the item will fir their needs. Almost always they have less than an 80% rating when that happens. I had one guy with a NEGATIVE transaction count once. He got it from doing just that: bidding and having the bids cancelled by the seller when he started backing out or giving an out-of-country address when it was clearly stated that the seller was shipping USA only. I don't think a deposit would work for all items on eBay, but maybe for items starting over $200 or higher. A little insurance that the bidder has the funds would help. All-in-all I have to say I have had mostly good experiences and my rating (160 @ 100%) speaks for that.

I couldn't agree more. We have a family friend who owns a biodiesel company, and his stories about how the regulations are structured to stifle innovation in diesel technology are real. He cannot sell his temperature-stable biodiesel for automotive use in this country, and will probably never be able to.

This is something I have felt and advised people of since the first Prius and Insight started selling. My mechanic friends can't stand these cars. I feel that hybrid technology has a long way to go before it makes any sense from a practical point of view. The economy can be almost equaled by modern gas engines, and equaled or bettered by modern diesels. Look at the numbers that the Hyundai Accent is putting up, and then look at the price. Add to that a much lower level of complexity, and to me it's a no-brainer. Now, in my case, I do more highway and 45-50 2-lane driving than city driving, so it works better for me. Diesels are more popular in Europe than gas engines these days. It might have been similar here, if the US auto industry hadn't killed diesel back in the 80's by producing diesel engines that were so bad that they had to buy them back in many cases. The other advantages are that diesel is lower maintenance, and longer lasting when maintained correctly. I watched my brother, who drives for a living, run a 99 Jetta TDi up to about 300,000 miles and the new owner is still going strong in it. I wonder how much it would cost someone to maintain a Prius through 300,000 miles of maintenance. If it makes it. My question for Toyota is this: You deigned a very aerodynamic body, and a super-efficient gas engine for the Prius. What would the numbers be without the hybrid add-ons? I'll bet higher than most people would expect. Honda tried to push their Civic Hybrid past the limits for decent battery life. When they "fixed" it with a software upgrade, the milage dropped so far that many of the owners sued Honda as they were getting about the same milage as the standard Civic. ( http://www.autoblog.com/2012/03/16/honda-civic-hybrid-small-claims-lawsuit-winner-trying-to-stop-cl/ ) Whoops!

I'm guessing that it is the Redsun version of the Grundig S450-DLX since they are probably the ones manufacturing that radio for Eton. Time will tell.

Ah, yes. The Unimog of radios.

Most likely from anesthesia. Should be temporary, but if there was nerve damage it could be permanent, at least partially. They warn you of this during more difficult procedures like those that an oral surgeon would do, but rarely happens from just a filling, unless an injection was not done correctly.

I didn't realize until this morning how much discussion this had sparked. I agree that modern AM radio will not sound as good as FM, but I'm not listening to music on it. For news and talk it is fine. This does not pass as an excuse for a poor-sounding AM radio though. The K-200 discussion that started this whole thread has been a bit exaggerated (possibly by my not clarifying the extent of the problem). Yes, it is muffled, but NOT to an unpleasant level. All in all it is much easier to listen to than some of my cheaper pocket models (Degen DE-205 for instance). There are some radios that make AM very pleasing to listen to though. Even though having adjustable bandwidth is a big help, my best sounding AM radio would probably be my antique Sears Silvertone tube radio. This is followed by the Redsun RP-2000, and the Tecsun PL390. The 390 is limited by speaker size, but has nice clear audio. My SuperRadio III (currently in my mother's senior apartment) is also pleasant enough to not cause migraines. The Kchibo D96L is actually a bit too bright, and sounds better with a dust cloth over the speaker. There is also a strange, and annoying "pumping" affect on strong AM stations (remedied by off-tuning by a couple kHz, but then that causes the soft-mute to kick in). The small headphone models that the Ultralight DX group recommend also sound very good when amplified through some basic computer or iPod speakers. The Sony SRF-M37 models are a bit too broad on bandwidth for serious DX-ing at times, but that shortcoming makes for great audio with strong local stations. The SRF-59 is also good amplified or through headphones. The mini that really disappoints in the audio department for me is my Degen DE-1123, which excels on FM for its size, but makes AM a bit murky. The K-200 will continue to play WCBS 880 every morning here on Long Island, and either the local NPR stations or WXPK-FM from White Plains the rest of the time. As I said, up on the fridge the acoustics are actually pleasant. There is a new FM all-news station in NYC now, but it's pretty awful. By the way, our other AM all-news station, 1010 WINS, still plays the teletype-ticker-tape sound effect in the background during the newscasts. Anyone else out there have this? I find it pretty hilarious.

So far so good with my K-200. I agree the AM audio is a little muffled, but I found that because of the speaker port design it is very dependent on placement. I have it on top of the fridge in the kitchen, and the acoustics work much better there. FM reception is phenomenal, and I use the night light and egg-timer all the time.

I'm pretty sure this just refers to set-top boxes and digital television receivers that SM was licensing the names for. The Grundig line in Europe is quite expansive. http://www.grundig.de/index.php?id=11&L=1

Here is the info from where I work (Sloan Kettering): http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/69383.cfm

Thanks! GOT ONE!

I owned one of these back when they were new. If I remember correctly it was very sensitive and a pleasure for broadcast listening, but the SSB was substandard due to too much drift. Reviews at eHam: http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/8949

Looking at his other items, I'm thinking this is just a glitch or fat-fingering. Both of these overpriced items are about $1100 higher than they should be.

I'm sorry.... Not a fair comparison. Like comparing a Corvette to an Audi R8. Although I use both Mac and PC, the Mac is my system of choice at the end of the workday. The tight integration between OS and hardware will always win with me. It's like the difference between a piece of clothing that's custom-fit and another that's one-size-fits all.

I forgot to mention that here, Cablevision, and our big newspaper, Newsday are the one and the same

It was the constant barrage of mail and phone calls that pushed me to switch to FIOS here. "Sign Up For Triple Play!" I DON"T want your phone service, I don't need your phone service, please leave me alone! It continued until I called one day and explained that if I received one more telemarketing call I was cancelling. The mail continued. I have to wonder how much they could have reduced my monthly bill if they didn't have to pay for designing, printing, and mailing all of the propaganda, and if they didn't have to pay telehawkers to annoy me. FIOS is wonderful by the way.

Penn and Teller did a great Bull#hit show on bottled water: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc I work in Manhattan which has some of the highest quality tap water in the world, and people here seem horrified when they see me drink the water. 20 years ago we thought it was ridiculous to PAY for water? In a bottle? NO WAY. I do buy it at times, but mostly for travel when I'm unsure about the quality.