Customer Reviews

Passport to World Band Radio 2001

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4 star:		(1)
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A "must have" for those who are interested in entering the growing society of world band radio enthusiasts. This unique book is a consumer's guide, radio guide and excellent introduction to shortwave radio.

Consumers Guide. This book is worth its price if just for the 72 digital radios reviewed in the book. From pocket to professional radios, each professional review gives you a `PRO', `CON' and `VERDICT'. Rating each unit with one star (junk) to five stars (stellar) you will find Sony's 7oz `cigarette pack size' receiver, rate three stars, quote "Superior overall world band performance for size"; to ICON's 44lb professional receiver, five star, "exceptional." . Prices range from ICON's mere $8,500, to the star and a half portable Chinese Bolong HS-490 , $45 dollars. The reviews of the receivers are followed up by a even dozen reviews on antennas.

You can shop the net for these radios and save an average of 15 to 20% over the recommended retail listed in the book. CON: Sadly there are NO listings of contact information for any of the manufacturers. There are NO side-by-side comparisons which would help make this a comprehensive reference. And, finally, these reviews DO NOT list size or weight of these radios; all of these points would greatly enhance the value of these reviews.

World Band Radio Guide. There is a wonderful channel-by-channel guide to world band schedules. So if you are a BBC junky, or need to tune in China Radio, `Passport' has conveniently listed their air-time schedules for you. Surprisingly, even though `Passport' fails to list the contact information for radio and antenna manufactures, they list addresses for hundreds of radio station throughout the world that broadcast. So, if you have been desperate to tell `Radio Vanuatu' your thoughts on the cross pollination of pineapple, the address and contact persons' name is here.

Especially useful is "Passport's" listings of broadcasts in English around the globe. So if you can't sleep, flip to 3:30am and find Radio Prague or Radio Tirana.

Solid Introduction, for entering the world band radio fraternity. Voice of Russia or Voice of America, you choose, throughout the world you are able to listen to world news in English. If you are a frequent world traveler, the world band radio becomes a friendly voice.

VERDICT: Get this book, even if you were just contemplating dropping into the world of shortwave. The ratings, the `when' and `what' to tune into, and the introductory information to World Band Radio makes `Passport to World Band Radio 2001' highly recommended. 4 1/2 stars.

I just obtained this book last night and I'm very impressed with the set-up, the tremendous blue pages lay-out of radio stations, and the extensive "what's on" time section of radio as to when, where and what. I am amazed! The reviews are excellent as well and they do give great detail into what to look for in a radio, both portable and tabletop to professional. They include things such as antennas, frequency responsiveness, etc. Everything anyone starting out would need, and all the information someone well into this hobby would desire.

This book is the ultimate shortwave guide. It has reviews of all the radios and a listing of every station. It is a good book for both beginners and experienced listeners.

It's fun to look back at bold predictions and see what became of some of the more outlandish. Back in the 1970s, Yamaha sponsored a series of symphony orchestra performances of a Mozart piano concerto with the soloist playing a Yamaha electronic piano. The computer and electronic press dutifully wrote the obituary for the acoustic piano. One columnist even stated that "by the turn of the century, the acoustic piano will take its rightful place in museums next to the harpsichord and the valveless Baroque trumpet as a quaint 'period' instrument." Today, Yamaha builds acoustic pianos in factories all over the world, including the USA, just to keep up with demand.

When the first purchasers of analog satellite receivers discovered that they could listen to worldwide broadcasters like the BBC and Deutsche Welle through their "dishes", it was both feared and hailed as the beginning of the end for world band (shortwave) radio as we know it. Why would you want to listen to shortwave when you could now hear the BBC with so much clarity, you could actually hear people walking past in the hallway outside the studio doors? Once more, the date given for the final nail to be driven into the coffin was the beginning of the next century, well, THIS century. Those quaint amplitude modulation transmitters, bouncing crackly signals between Earth and the ionosphere, would fall silent because EVERYONE was going to be listening to overseas radio over THE DISH! There was even talk of portable satellite audio receivers! And books like the annual "Passport to World Band Radio" would never, ever again have to be published.

Well, here we are at the REAL beginning of the next Millenium and world band radio is STILL alive and well. Though the demand for world band radios is a tiny fraction of the demand for, say, DVD players, the USA is still the largest and liveliest market for them. People who live in severe weather regions find that a battery-operated world band radio is often the ONLY source of news and information when local broadcast facilities are disabled by disaster. Broadcasters like the BBC and Radio Netherlands tend to "localize" their broadcasts beamed to North America for this very reason. The rains and flooding brought on by El Niño were covered in detail equaling that of local newscasts by the BBC's World Service.

Between such times of trial and tribulation, world band radio still delivers news, information and music that you can't get from local AM and FM, off the "dish" or over the internet, especially in a form that you can take with you. Today's portable world band radios selling for about $100 perform as well as $1000 "communications" receivers of only a few decades ago.

Whether you're buying a world band radio for an emergency or for entertainment or both, the Passport to World Band Radio continues to be the Bible for both the newcomer and the seasoned listener. Its equipment reviews cover EVERY worthwhile, easily available model sold in the USA, with a uniform 1-to-5 star rating scale. That means a 3-star $100 portable is pretty much equal in performance to a 3-star $1000 tabletop rig.

Once you've plopped down the price of a radio, the Passport guides you to worthwhile listening, giving detailed broadcast times and frequencies. The legendary "blue pages", arranged by frequency and time, let adventurous dial-twiddlers determine just who they might be hearing at a given time on a certain frequency. A listing of mailing addresses and phone numbers also gives, where available, internet links where world band broadcasters can be heard via computer.

As long as worldwide broadcasters continue to send music and information aflight via shortwave frequencies, there will always be a reason to buy the Passport to World Band Radio.

I am new to shortwave and had this book recommended to me on a Usenet newsgroup a few times. I checked out the 2001 edition from my local library and found it to be very, very useful. It has a comprehensive list of recievers and shortwave frequencies and broadcasters. There is just too much valuable information in this book. Its reciever ratings are very helpful, as they allow you to separate the good from the bad quite easily. The blue pages of this book are extremely handy for seeing what broadcaster you are listening to at the moment if you know the frequency. I plan to purchase the 2002 edition.

This book is a great book to anyone that is new to shorwave listening. First of all it has excelent reviews of all kinds of shorwave radios. It also features highly detailed sections on shorwave station adresses, shorwave broadcasts in english, program times, and more. The best thing about this book are the "blue pages" a listing of just about every shorwave station broadcasting. The "blue pages" are very easy to use, and they include just about all the information you would want to know (location, language, times broadcasting, etc.) Overall, I would highly recomend this book to anyone who enjoys listening to shorwave radio.