Rawad takes a peek inside the Sony ICF-SW11

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Rawad Hamwi, who writes:

Recently, I’d acquired a vintage Sony ICF-SW11 from my grandparents and it was in a good shape. After removing its back cover, I did some housekeeping inside and took couple of photos:

I know that this radio is somehow a basic shortwave receiver, lacking some features such as a dedicated external antenna jack.

While waiting this radio to be delivered, I was searching the internet for a hack or trick in which I can utilize my existing long wire antenna and use it on this radio for MW specially. Usually, I depend heavily on my 30 m long wire antenna since the noise level inside my room is somehow high. But I found nothing.

I was amazed when I plugged my 3.5 mm external antenna jack only half way through the Sony’s audio jack. At this moment, the reception was enhanced dramatically on all the bands (FM/LW/MW/SW). I’m not sure how and why but this trick seems to be working! No more noise, the device was pulling signals out of the long wire directly

I found that quite cool. This simple hack had solved my noise problems and I would recommend it to all Sony ICF-SW11 owners. I hope that this wouldn’t affect my device badly on the long run!

One final [note], as far as I know, the telescopic antenna is designed for the FM and SW on this radio. However, whenever I touch that antenna while tuning in to MW, I notice some changes in the signal strengths. Maybe the telescopic antenna works alongside with the ferrite antenna? Or there may be some sort of a short circuit inside?

Thanks for sharing your notes and photos, Rawad. The ICF-SW11 is a great little analog radio–I have one here at SWLing Post HQ and plan to give it to an elderly friend when I next see him. It’s such a simple radio to operate.

In terms of improved performance on MW when you touch the telescoping antenna, I suspect you’re grounding the radio and that’s giving reception a boost. Maybe that’s what’s also happening when you add the longwire to the audio jack?  Comments, anyone?

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