Recently on a radio message board, a participant asked if the CC Radio was “all that.” Apparently, he/she had heard the hype, seen the advertisements here on Radio Geek Heaven, and wanted to know if the radio measured up.
I found my first CC Radio at a Florida pawn shop back in 2001. Sticker price was $29.99 and I paid $25 out the door. Price new was $180. Obviously, the pawn shop had no idea what this was. They just assumed it was a standard AM/FM portable and priced it accordingly.
FM and TV band performance (Channels 2-13) was very good. But it’s the AM sensitivity that really makes this radio a champ. Reception was nearly equal to my GM Delco car radio with fixed mast antenna. That’s saying a LOT since the Delcos with a whip are true DX hounds. What makes it superior to other portables? Better circuitry and a larger, heavier ferrite bar antenna. Most internal AM antennas are about 3 inches long. The CC’s is 8+ inches! You’ll FEEL the difference too, as soon as you lift the radio. They’re much heavier than your average portable. That’s a good thing.
Besides pulling in distant stations, the big ferrite bar also allows the CC Radio to be extremely directional. Again, this is a good thing, since it allows you to separate stations on the same frequency. Ferrite bars receive best off their sides and null off their ends. Just like a horizontal longwire antenna. So, this works best if the 2 stations are close to 90 degrees opposite of each other. Example: 1340Khz in the Fargo, North Dakota area. On a car radio, you can hear 2 stations fighting for the channel: KDLM/Detroit Lakes, MN and KXPO/Grafton, ND. Even though Grafton is twice as far away, the signals are relatively equal because the soil conductivity between Fargo-Grafton is much better vs Fargo-Detroit Lakes. It drops rapidly as you go east into Minnesota. On a car radio, you hear a mess of both stations. Standing in the parking lot of West Acres Mall and holding the CC Radio, I was able to receive both stations completely free of the other, simply by rotating the radio 90 degrees! Ditto for 1230 with Morris, MN vs Thief River Falls, MN. This is very useful if you’re trying to pull out a distant station that’s co-channel with a stronger one.
My only gripe was the LED frequency segments. They gradually began going out, one at a time, until there weren’t enough segments left to read the frequency. This took about 3 years. I didn’t want to hassle with sending it in for repairs, so I sold it “as-is” on eBay for $46. Which meant I made a profit of $21 and had free use of the radio for 3 years I understand this problem has been addressed and fixed in the newer versions. (Mine was a first generation CC Radio.)
The current version is the CC Radio 2. Since TV has gone digital and the TV band on these radios has been rendered worthless, it has been replaced with 2 meter ham band reception. The 162Mhz weather frequencies are also included.
C. Crane sells these new for $159.95 on their website. But you can save $10 by purchasing through Amazon.com. Price is $149.95 with FREE Super Saver shipping. For complete info, just click the link immediately preceeding or following this post.
In short, if you’re a radio DX’ing geek and can afford it, this radio is a must-have. To answer the message board poster’s question: yes, this radio IS definitely “all that.”