Can a 1982 Sony radio still in production be a vintage radio? If not, it has for sure become a sought after collectible classic. This is not a radio, however, that I would have actively sought to collect. It belonged to my Dad, and I acquired it after he passed away. When I got it, I installed batteries, and was disappointed to get only weak volume, lots of noise, and poor reception on most of the bands. I thought it would need to be recapped. However, I noticed reception improved somewhat as it played for a while, and I think probably that after a little playing time, the electrolytic capacitors reformed themselves, and after some cleaning of the volume control, tone control, and bandswitches, the radio began playing with nice volume and good sensitivity on all bands. I'm guessing the radio may not have been played for ten or fifteen years.

The original model, the ICF-7600 came out in 1978, and became very popular worldwide as it was a decent performing radio in a pocketbook size. The improved ICF-7600A came out in 1982. In 1983, Sony introduced the digital version, the ICF-7600D. The radio continues to be a popular seller today in its currrent edition, the Sony ICF-SW7600G. If you are interested in this modern "vintage" radio, check out Stephen Grossklass's website dedicated to the Sony 7600 series radios

The Sony ICF-2003 is a general coverage portable receiver with dual conversion chassis from about 1989. A big improvement over the ICF-7600 analog dial, the ICF-2003 sports an LCD digital dial with 5 kHz steps on shortwave and 10 on medium wave. Manual and automatic scan tuning are also provided. Up to ten stations can be memorized. The frequency range is 150 kHz to 29.995 mHz. Single Sideband (SSB) reception is possible, using the fine tuning control, but not very convenient. The Sony ICF-2003 is about the same size as the ICF-7600, measuring 7" x 4.5" x 1"

Sony ICF-2010

The much larger Sony ICF-2010 receives AM, FM, shortwave and the VHF aeronautical band. The key pad allows direct input of any frequency. One of the best features is a large manual tuning knob that allows continuous tuning the entire frequency range in each of the bands. It has all the bells and whistles associated with modern solid state multi-band radios, even though this radio is a 1980's design. Produced from 1985 to 2002, it still outperforms most contemporary radios and is highly collectible.

The AM band features controls to select wide or narrow filtering, USB/LSB/CW, and synch mode. The synch mode was unique and highly advanced in 1985. While many like it, I haven't found it that useful. The radio performs so well in all respects that I seldom see a need for it.

Tuning in SSB transmissions works well if the signal is strong, selecting the correct mode, LSB or USB, then using the manual tuning dial in slow mode to tune to the best sounding frequency for normal voice reproduction. The radio features a 4" speaker, but the audio quality is not exceptional. The vintage solid state Zenith Trans-Oceanics sound much better in my opinion, although they can't otherwise match the performance of the ICF-2010.

The Sony ICF-2010 measures 11.3" x 6.25" x 2.125".