Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The C Crane Skywave was received as a Christmas gift. I was able to compare it to the similar Tecsun PL-380, which I have owned for over a year. Let me say that I was attracted to the tuning knob, being a listener who appreciates and uses this feature more than the keypad or up-down slew buttons. In addition, although not a factor in performance, I was pleased that C Crane would call this little radio the Skywave. It reminded me of the days when companies used descriptive words like World Traveler and Trans-Oceanic. Pros Well built for such a small receiver; the quality certainly went into the design before C Crane put their name on it The tuning knob is tight and solid, with no "hash" sounds while adjusting frequencies Keypad controls are also solid and very responsive to the touch The bar tuning meter is very sensitive to signal strength Performance on FM and SW is very good Performance on AM is excellent, due to the built in ferrite bar antenna Uses only two AA alkaline batteries, with an exceptional listed battery life of 60-70 hours Cons The weather band only receives two channels in my area; however this is adequate for my purposes The whip antenna is only 16 inches fully extended; it seems to me the circuitry is excellent and greater sensitivity could have been obtained with a longer built in antenna. The Air Band is new to me, but thus far, I have picked up very few transmissions and those were weak. I don't believe this is due to my location, since I am six miles from Morristown airport and 12 miles from Newark International. Although the Skywave is listed at $90, as compared to the Tecsun PL-380 at $55, the extra cost is worth considering in terms of versatility, design and quality control that has gone into the manufacture of the C Crane Skywave.