IC-R8600

If you are a full licensed amateur, surely, at some point in time you’ve troubled yourself with a strange dilemma: why would anyone pay $4,000 for a receiver, when for less than half, he could have had a receiver AND transmitter, in the same box? Makes no sense, whatsoever.

To unpack this mystery would take pages and hours. Let’s just say that the answer lies in the fact that SWLs (short wave listeners) are a different kind of human to the rest of us. Fundamentally, they are not into talking; they gain their pleasure from listening. Tuning the knob slowly, parking onto a signal, listening for hours. Falling asleep with a glass of scotch on the table, comfortably in a rocking chair, with headphones on, long after the sign-off tune from a broadcaster on the other side of the world.

You think we are crazy introverts? That’s because you haven’t met a proper short wave listener, yet.

SWLs have their own bulletins and mailing list, high ranking old-timers, their own exclusive clubs. They go on DXpeditions – like we do – but to listen, not to call DX. They live in their own world – not because they want to live in isolation, but because we don’t really make an effort to understand their passion.

Today, we’ve just received IC-R8600 which has been out of stock for almost a year. If you are an SWL looking for one, you know what we’ve got.

And if you are asking yourself ‘why would anyone in the world pay that much for just a receiver…?’ then…

Let me just say this: the brushed dark grey casing trim is out of this world!