ScanRiverside.com

Does anyone on here a SWL? And if so, can you recommend a good, inexpensive radio which receives USB/LSB, I am mostly interested in mil radio traffic. Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter. I have a Kaito curently, but is pretty much junk.

Inexpensive and good enough performance for SSB utility traffic are usually mutually exclusive parameters. I'd be watching eBay for something along the lines of an R75. Knowing what your budget is would be helpful.

You are right. I'm kinda out of the radio loop these days, thought maybe there was some super bitchin' inexpensive reciever that I never heard of. I've been looking for used Kenwoods on ebay, guess I'll keep looking for a good one. I used to have an Electra DX1000 that was cool, but it took a dump about 10 years ago. I like the rotary dials, all these modern tiny ones have all them tiny push buttons. To me, that ain't a SW receiver....thank you very much for your input, and I sorta forgot Icom made SW receivers I will look at R75's as well...you confirmed my suspicious

If you don't mind using a computer, the software defined radios are great. The best bang for the buck in my opinion is the Afedri SDR-NET. I think I picked mine up for around $220 or so. It receives the entire HF spectrum and can view/process about 1.33 MHz of bandwidth at a time. For software I am using HDSDR but it also works with SpectraVue and SDR-RADIO.NET. I am using one and have been very impressed with it. I also own an Icom R-75 and it's a great receiver for listening to utility stations (aircraft, military, federal, etc.) if you prefer traditional knobs and dials.

I run a blog at http://www.solarix.net which contains all of my HF radio logging and recorded audio that have been monitored from western Riverside County. It will give you some idea of what can be heard from these parts. My antenna setup is very modest, just a couple Pixel RF Pro-1a magnetic active loops and a PAR EF SWL (45 ft wire)

I will second the SDR idea. I have an RTLSDR dongle ($20 on eBay) and an upconverter ($75) and it makes a pretty decent HF receiver for not a lot of money. The waterfall display showing a chunk of spectrum at a glance is great.
I am probably going to pick up an afedri also, as I have read some excellent reviews on it. I really think SDR's are the way things are going and the market is on the verge of a small explosion, as I have seen a few that are still in development in addition to what's already available.
It's not for everybody, though, understandably. Some people like having a knob and buttons.

Mark

Thanks...the SDR thing looks interesting!