Sony ICFP26 Portable AM/FM Radio,Black

Crisp audio which helps with those with high frequency hearing loss. Sensitivity is good on fm and am. Beautiful looking radio with wide dials which I prefer to those on the s10mk2. Ok, now for notes on performance. Here is just a synopsis of my radio credentials so to speak as people might be interested in that as I will go against the grain as far as other owners of this radio have not properly addressed one VERY IMPORTANT issue regarding the am performance versus the s10mk2. I am almost 70 years old and started to listen avidly to shortwave and am radio when I was 7 years old. I am an Extra class amateur radio operator going on 35 years. I did military communications for the U.S. Army and also served in the U.S. Navy. Ok, here is the area of gross neglect by some other reviewers who compared this little radio's am performance unfavorably with the s10mk2. SIGNAL to NOISE RATIO! I live in a terrible area for both am and fm reception as my town is surrounded on all 4 sides by hills and mountains. Yesterday afternoon I did a direct comparison using WBZ am 1030 in Boston and WGAN am 560 in Portland, Me as two benchmarks. The noise floor on the s10 mk2 is so incredibly high that even though they came in louder on the s10 both signals were unusable as it was a battle between noise and the signal itself which means, even with headphones it would be no dice. I then put the s10 by my Tecsun passive loop antenna and all that happened was that everything got far louder but unlistenable for all intents and purposes. You see, the signal to noise ratio didn't change one iota. Now for the test with the new p26. Again, same time in the afternoon the p26 has such a low noise floor that both stations came in pretty much clearly but not loudly. However, putting a good pair of earbuds or headphones you get about a 20 decibel improvement in perceived signal quality and this is true no matter if it is fm, am, shortwave, radiotelegraph or any other radio mode of transmission. On the p26 I could listen to both of these stations with headphones for hours if I wanted. I then put on headphones with the s10 and both stations were coming in very loudly but with totally unusable signals due to the high noise level. In fact the s10 is absolutely the worst I have ever encountered with regards to the noise floor on am. At night the s10 did better with stronger signals as the signal to noise ratio seemed better but with weaker am signals I couldn't tolerate listening to those for very long. The sensitivity on the p26 is not as high but the low noise floor make weaker signals come with more clarity. I recommend using headphones when hunting for distant am signals at night no matter which radio you use but the p26 is better than the s10 for the reasons stated above. I tested both radios out in my back yard near where miles of forest begin and the results for both radios were roughly equivalent. If anything the p26's am reception got better but the horrendous noise floor on the s10 didn't change. The s10 has warmer audio and has great fm performance which is my primary use. The p26 is roughly equivalent in fm performance but I prefer the crisper audio as it increases intelligibility for me on both bands. On any inexpensive radio one may experience overloading due to stronger fm signals swamping weaker ones that you might want to hear. Collapse the whip to one or two sections and that may render the radio more selective. On both the s10 and the p26 try this and you might be impressed with the improvement. I love my s10 for fm but in the am band the p26 wins hands down. If you want to really capture am stations far away at night time with the p26 use good earbuds and even spend around 25 bucks for a Tecsun AN-200 loop aerial which makes an unbeatable combination. Also, I like the p26 having the audio jack feed both sides of a stereo pair of earbuds etc. even though the fm output is monaural which is actually better for weak fm signals. More expensive radios have a stereo monaural switch for fm but, for weaker fm signals monaural is better. The s10 only feeds audio to one side which forces me tohave to use an adaptor if wanting audio on both sides. All radios can vary in alignment from the factory so results may vary from radio to radio. I hope to check the alignment of the p26 in the future and optomize it if needed. Do not attempt this unless you have the proper alignment tools and know what you are doing! On the s10 I doubt there is any way to reduce the horrendous noise but I love it for fm and use it every day. I am sure others can benefit from my insights here. As far as the p26 goes I have a radio friend for life! WBZ in Boston, about 135 miles by air. WGAN in Portland, ME about 55 miles by air. Even using the speaker on the p26 daytime reception on both stations fairly good but not great amounts of volume but listenable. The s10 is totally useless on both stations. All electronic products can have a certain percentage of defects. Instead of giving a simplistic 1 star review consider that Amazon is good about returns and refunds or a replacement if so desired. The p26 is a great little radio for the price. I know what I am talking about.

Shades of the early 60s when there were primarily top 40 AM channels and a transistor radio is what you wanted for Christmas or your birthday. I like this radio as well as I did my first one as a teen. I cannot address any of the negative reviews but I am exceedingly happy with this purchase!The radio arrived quickly and intact. It is a bit larger than I thought but still a good size. I put it to use immediately. I primarily listen to AM while working in the shop or yard. The radio worked well both places. I can pick up all of the local channels with no problem, both AM and FM. I have used it every day since I received it with no problems. I can understand why some didn't like the antenna but I can put the radio in my shirt pocket and use it as a pocket clip by folding it down outside of the shirt pocket. With the volume almost on high, I can hear the radio well and not disturb anyone past 10 feet away. I have not tried the earplug option yet. I like the placement of the on/ off switch with the AM and FM selections better than on the volume control. Like any analog dial, it isn't as perfect as digital but having the red station fixed light, makes it easier to locate and lock channels. I have had no station slippage and it is in my shirt pocket. Since I listen to mainly one station in each band, presets don't matter to me.If you listen to a lot of different channels, are in a heavily saturated radio market or want anything beyond the basics, you may want something different but right now this radio is perfect for my needs.

I like Sony products. So it's made in China. I trust Sony to assure this product is made in a Chinese plant where it will be made according to Sony's specifications and standards. That's why I knew this little radio would work perfectly right out of the box. And it does. I have three Walkman radios and they work fine too, but I wanted a small radio with a speaker so I could listen with or without ear phones. The sound is great out of the earphones and very respectable from the 2" speaker. So why four stars. I have three complaints. First of all, the antenna doesn't stow snugly behind the case. It sticks out slightly from where it is supposed to rest between two small plastic tabs on the back left side of the case. Secondly, the earphones I'm using have a jack that is straight off the end of the cord. When plugged into the radio the jack sticks out from the side by 3/4". This makes it difficult to put into my shirt pocket. I will try to find earphones with a 90 degree elbow jack so the cord can go up and out of my pocket, but the jack port should have been located on the top of the case to facilitate using it while it's in the pocket. Finally, the mode switch (FM or AM) is incorporated with the "Off" switch on the right side of the case. The "off" position is on the bottom, the "AM" notch is in the center and the "FM" notch is on the top. Since I will probably never use the "AM" band, I see no reason to have to pass the "AM" notch every time I turn the "FM" band on or off. It would make more sense if the "Off" position were in the center so the switch could go one notch to either the "AM" or "FM" band. In spite of these annoyances this little radio works well and I'm happy with it.