I was looking for cheap radios, the sort of thing that could be given out to neighbors to raise awareness of a part 15 AM neighborhood station. My first stop was ebay to look for cheap junk from china that was a buck or two with free shipping. I found some AM/FM radios for $3.81 but they only tune to 1600 and are analog tuned. Most part 15 AM is done in the expanded band, so tuning to 1700 is needed. I have been to conferences where a cheap single chip FM radio is given away in the goody bag. Are there cheap single chip AM radios that do the expanded band?
You're going to need radios with reasonable sensitivity (something those el cheapos do not have).
A little while ago I purchased an AM/FM/shortwave radio with digital frequency display (analogue tuning) for around $10 at a 'dollar' store. It wasn't great, but it certainly worked better than the others you're looking at (they tend to receive only the strongest stations, and have absolutely no selectivity either, so the strong stations take over the entire band).
Here is something I found quickly on e-bay - it doesn't go above 1605Khz, but you might be able to find one that does, or something similar that covers the marine band (which includes the X band). The one I bought did cover the X band.
I would buy one first to check it out and make sure it does what you want it to do.
So, in short, if you spend US$10 (including shipping), you should be able to find something. It's better to give out a few that work, than a lot that don't.
Here's another one. It's got analogue tuning and display, and sometimes these will go well above 1600Khz.
I have a pre xband Sony Color Watchman that tunes to 1670 pretty easily, however a 1980s GE boombox I have can just barely get there if at all.
Has a anologe small portable model #PR-D6 http://www.sangean.com/products/product.asp?mid=118&cid=5, covers AM to 1700.
Mark
The QFX R-10 is a bit more than I wanted to spend, but it looks solid for the price. I will order one and see how it does. Thank you all for the suggestions.
I was at Walmart the other day and as I was leaving I looked at the quarter plastic egg machine by the exit, the sort that has a variety of prizes and dispenses one at random when several quarters are inserted into slots and a knob is cranked. There was a $0.75 machine where one of the possible prizes was an AM/FM radio and ear buds. That amused me. I doubt it was a very good radio. It amused me that a radio could be a prize in a machine targeting kids as their parents were leaving a store. It made me happy that it even had an AM section. (I did not feel like feeding the machine quarters until an egg with the radio came out.)
How did the QFX work out?
I was just looking over the radios yah-all suggested.. The QFX has 9 mediocore and bad user reviews.. However, the $9.99 Kaito KA228 has 166 praised user reviews
http://www.amazon.com/Kaito-KA228-Pocket-size-9-Band-Shortwave/dp/B00IMQL71U/ref=pd_cp_23_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1T1XJVD671H0JVJGN3H0