It is beginning to look like the leading candidate for bike touring is the Sony SRF-M37 Walkman
No, it's not...at least so far.
I got the little SRF-M37 this afternoon, and I'm pretty disappointed. I'll wait till nightfall when DX'ing conditions are more optimal to decide whether to keep it, but so far, this example isn't meeting the customer reviews:
- Indoor performance compared to other, cheaper AM/FM/Weather radios is abysmal. The radio isn't particularly affected by interference, it just doesn't grab any but the strongest stations, and those not very well.
- Sound
quality is abysmal; I didn't expect much, but there is
no fidelity on FM regardless of the headphones used. The Sennheisers made it sound worse, if anything, better reproducing all the lack of quality in the signal section. There's a really significant hiss caused by the LCD driver, and the volume cannot be turned "off", so the low setting is objectionably loud in a quiet setting (depending of course on headphone impedence). I have really good ears, and can usually still hear a television set to "MUTE" in a quiet room. I would definitely need to use this with an inline volume control. Radio volume control is by variable rotary potentiometer, and works smoothly. Time will tell if it becomes subject to moisture- and humidity-caused static (the radio is completely unshielded from dust, dirt, and moisture).
- Despite a PLL (phase-locked loop) tuner, there is very poor adjacent-channel rejection and selectivity, and reception wanders. There is a lot of bleed-over between AM stations and FM stations, and any strong local station washes over an entire section of the available band. I got in the car and took the radio out of town, and even in a rural setting away from strong stations, there is bleedover and lack of discrimination between frequencies.
- Weather-band broadcasts vary strongly in reception and volume on this radio compared to several weather-band radios I have on hand. There is a pretty big variation in reception from moment to moment, even with the earphone cord held steady and taut (it serves as the antenna for FM and weather band, but only the weather-band varies; FM varies less but still won't lock-on steady). [EDIT: Thinking the various earbud cords might not be the same length as the factory-supplied headphones, I tried the factory 'phones,since the radio uses the cord as the antenna for FM and weather-band. No difference in performance]
- Due the internal ferrite rod antenna, AM is very directional, as expected, but has pretty good daylight range. Not exceptional, but good, except for the lack of adjacent-channel rejection (selectivity). On all bands, the Local/Distance switch seems to have little effect on tuner sensitivity.
- On the good side, there is no beep or mute on channel-scans, so one can troll for stations and hear when one pops up; nice when traveling in an unfamiliar area. The battery door is nicely captive and can be replaced if dislodged. The clock is nice, but cannot be seen when the radio is on, and there is no display backlight.
- The Hold/key lock button is really necessary, as all buttons operate with a soft touch and protrude above the surface where they can be easily changed with any pressure, including brushing with a sleeve.
At USD$42 from US electronics chain Best Buy, it seems a bit lacking, especially when one can readily obtain the top-rated Tecsun PL-380 shortwave/AM/FM radio for only about USD$7 more. Sadly, that radio does not appear to receive US government weather broadcasts.
At this point, the Sony SRF-M37 Walkman doesn't look too viable as a bike-touring radio.
Best,
Dan.
