Anyone here have one which they could review?
The reason for this is I bought a Grundig, which was at one time a good name, from them and it was a disappointing hunk of junk.
I no longer buy on brand recognition alone.
Neil
Better read the reviews first..
I have one of them and it says on the front "RCA Superadio", but I got it from C.Crane not Radio Shack.
These were in the C.Crane catalog for only a brief time, and since I'd heard such raves about past versions of Superadio I ordered mine at the same time as ordering the C.Crane Radio Plus. Also, I wanted an analog dial instead of digital tuning, part of my reason for ordering.
The Radio Plus came very quickly but there was an unusual delay in finally receiving the Superadio.
Right at that time the Superadio was dropped from the C.Crane catalog.
Now then, how does it do?
I haven't used this one in perhaps two years and its almost buried in dust.
I remember one reason why I stopped using it.
My first wish was to use it to monitor the extended AM band, especially my signal up at 1680 kHz. The problem I had was that it kept detuning. I'd fine-tune it to center-carrier, and as soon as I had it perfectly, it would shift and become detuned.
For awhile I switched the AFC (Auto Freq Ctrl) switch off & on, which had no effect, but then Rich told me that AM radios don't have AFC, so I think the AFC switch applies to the FM section.
I did use the radio again while the Big Talker shortwave transmitter was on the air for testing... the Superadio was tuned to FM 107.1 for the audio which got sent across the room from a C.Crane FM transmitter. As I recall, that application worked as expected.
What I will do today is clean it, and run it through a bunch of reception tests. Maybe I should do that tonight so I can DX for distant stations.
Wait there for the next ten hours or so, when I'll be back.
When this radio was made by GE
(The Superadio version) I got 2
and are very good.
I have heard conflicting reports
about this RCA version. It looks
exactly the same. There are
conflicting reports about what is
on the inside. Some say the parts
are different and the radio is not
as good as the GE. Some say the
performance is as good as the GE
but don't know about the inside.
Bruce
GE=RCA. Yeah I know bal bla bla... But I say, Bla Bla Bla.
I have three of these, one a GE, one an RCA, and one labeled with the Radio Shack "Optimus" brand. Near as I can recall they all work splendidly and identically. Even if you get one that's a "lemon" it's probably going to sound better than most portable radios you can readily purchase these days. The big speaker and the fact that it takes 6 "D" batteries gives it good sound. Those batteries give it plenty of current to give good volume with no distortion and last a long long time.
I have one in my basement that I listen to my station on and the audio is so clear and full that I wish every radio sounded that good. I have one at work that we've been using when we do remote broadcasts for the past several years. It's the only radio I've found that will pick up AM radio in hard to reach locations, like say, inside a big grocery store adjacent to the freezers in the frozen food section, and reject interference from a Marti unit pumping 50 watts of RF back to the station just a few feet away from it, So we can hear off the air to pick up our cues for on location broadcasting.
Maybe these listed at RS are not as good. I'll find out, I just ordered two.
Tim in Bovey
It will soon be dark when I want to test mine, but it's still coated with dust and I'd like to open it up for the first time and inspect for anything out of place.
It does sound great, come to recall, and if I plan accordingly I could use it to hear the members at tomorrow's ALPB Meeting!
Having carefully wiped away all the dust, the RCA Super Radio looks like new.
I removed the C.Crane Radio Plus located on the right of the work station atop a foot-stool, the radio I use for monitoring.
I have no hard-wired monitor speakers, using only radio to hear computer audio.
The RCA Super on AM is picking up tons of noise from the computer and power supplies. When I do DXing later tonight I'll need to find a different location.
The AM tuning problem is terrible. By simply tuning across the dial there is horrible rumbly-thumpy noise that makes the speaker jump in its voice coil, and the more to the high end of dial the tuning noise gets worse. When I find a station and try to tune it, the station will jump, or move on the dial, and I need to try again and again to get a decent tune, which may not last.
Today I am on 1550 kHz from the AMT3000 with antenna 10-feet from here, and I can only listen to it with "Normal" bandwidth. When I set it for "Wide" bandwidth it seems like the radio overloads and I get a very thin version of the signal.
The inside of the radio has not been examined (yet), but I count 6 screws to remove the back.
The FM also tunes funny, but I've got my Wholehouse 2.0 tuned in at 101.5 MHz and it sounds great.
In addition to a large speaker that Tim mentioned, it also has a tweeter with what must be a well-planned crossover circuit.
It's been dark here for about 45-minutes, I moved the RCA Super Radio away from the noisy work station environment and out to the Upper Management Lounge, the backmost room in the building and 35-feet from the AMT3000 transmitter at 1550 kHz.
The radio's behavior is different back there... the AM dial is loaded with stations coming in from far away.
It is easier to tune 1550 being farther from the source.
The nearby 5kW station is now off, it's always caused problems here.
What I now suspect is that "super" means the front-end of this radio is hyper sensitive, and the environment here at certain times and locations swamps the RF input with signals and it gets overwhelmed and starts unstable fluttering.
What the (maybe) radio needs is an RF attenuator to cut down on the input level.
If you want to have ears for miles, get one while they last!
The RCA Superadio is not the same as the GE Superadio III. It looks the same, but the innards are different. There is confusion over the GE vs. RCA brand. The RCA Superadio is not the same as th GE Superadio III.
The GE and RCA brands have changed a lot over the years. The original GE and RCA have disintegrated.
I have a GE Superadio III. The distinguishing feature is a wideband AM audio switch. This was not present in the GE Superadio I or II, or in the newer RCA Superadio.
From my experience, the GE Superadio III is a superb receiver with ultra sensitivity and fidelity.
Search eBay for GE Superadio III.
I have no trouble accepting PhilB's report...
My RCA Super Radio would not have me going around bragging the way owners of GE Super Radios do.
The fump-fump-fump I get while dialing the extended AM band does not seem like the mark of a professional radio.
Still, back in the Upper Management Longe, many feet from the AMT3000 at 1550 kHz, the reception is acceptable and the audio quality pleasurable with the woofiness of low bass.
The radio that's been back there, a Panasonic-Radio Shack table model that doesn't actually have the extended AM band is being moved to the basement storm center.
I also examined the FM capacity of this RCA Super Thing, and it's decent, but no where near as good as the little TECSUN PL-310. The deciding factor is how well an FM receiver responds to low power signals. The RCA Super wants to drag in the nearest high power signal. The TECSUN sticks loyally to a low power signal and will not give it up.
I love my GE Superadio 3, but the
quality control was flaky. I sent away
for one. There were 6 weird whistles
across the AM dial. These were generated
by the radio. I sent it back. Later on, I
aquired 2 others. One was broken, and I
fixed it up. It sort of works. The last
Superadio 3 I bought has only 2 weird
"internally genrated whistle products"
on the AM dial. I decided that was OK.
(I was a real purist then.)
Also, dial calibration varies greatly - the third one
I got had a nicely calibrated analog readout. Some are
not calibrated well, but the DXers just tape a
cahrt on the front of the Superradio to solve that problem.
Some of them have ome backlash on
the tuning - again, my 3rd one was good
in this department.
Sensitivity is very good on the AM dail.
Selectivity is good to very good. That's right,
not as good as the Tecsuns. However, what you
get is a radio you can listen to all day long with
no fatigue. It sounds like a dream. If you open
up the selectivity with the "wide bandwidth switch"
you get clean HIFI. (Or at least as much HIFI as you
can get these days.) It's very good. It sounds more
like a tape player than a radio. (Not a CD player, of course.)
If I could give out radios to my listeners, it would be the
GE Superadio 3. It also has a huge "ferrite" bar antenna
inside that works well.
But, even better, is the GE Superadio 2. It is more sensitive
and selective, but it don't tune any higher than 1620 kHz.
(No X band.) The Superadio 2 used real tuning capacitors,
but the 3 model has some other kind of tuning arrangement.
(I can't remember what it is - but they must have decided
not to use real tuning capacitors anymore - for whatever reason).
The FM on the Superadio 2 is good to very good. (Again, not
as good as the Tecsun.)
There were other Superadios before models 2 and 3. There was
the original, and also a rare digital verson that was quickly
pulled from the market. (There might have been 2 different kinds
of "Model 1s", I'm not sure.
About the same time the Superadio 3 was sellling, Radio Shack
came out with 2 radios that sort of looked like the
Superadio. It ws downright silly, because it was obvious
they were imitations. The controls were switched around,
and the cases were a little different but not much.
One model was just AM and FM. The other was AM, FM,
and VHF/UHF TV sound. Great idea to be able to get
TV sound up into the UHF range, but I hear it was just
on awful radio. I bought the Optimus model that was
just AM and FM. It was not very good. I went inside
and everything was sub standard compared to the
Superadios, even the speakers. It made me
mad so the radio became a "parts radio.' One other
funny thing - the AM/FM markings on the front of the
radio had an error in the graphic design, and nobody
cared enough to check it and fix it. I wish I could
show a pcture of it here. Oh well.
The GE Superadios have their place in DXing
history, and there are many web pages devoted
to them.
As for the RCA version of the Superadio - well - y'know -
I am not the purist I used to be. If I aquired one of
the RCAs, I would probably put it to work in some application
here. As Carl said - it makes a good station monitor. That's
good enough for me.
Then there are the RadioShack TRF series of AM DX analog
portables. One model is legendary. But that's aonther story.
Bruce
I reread my above post which was
typed quickly. Sorry about the typos.
So I took my Superadio 3 outside for
AM listening while I was doing outside
chores. As I tuned it the dial cord started
to slip. Yikes - a tuning problem?! I've
never heard of that before. Oh well - anything
can happen, I guess.
Bruce
Everything will fail, if not today, tomorrow.
Aside from that we will muck on and manage to get something done.
I notice, now that my RCA Super Radio is in daily use, that it doesn't remain tuned in.
It slips out of tune and I here the "swoosh, swoosh" sound caused by high frequencies being detuned.
I'd get angry, except that I like twiddling with dials, so I go re-tune it every few hours.