Extreme Range?

I got the Radio Shack
"Extreme Range AM/FM/WX Radio"
(catalog #12-150)
and took it for a spin tonight...

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Mechanical/electrical:

The strap had flaws..the velcro pulled off
one side. I replaced that. Tsk.

The tuning action makes initial tuning very slow.

The D-cells should probably run long.
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Audio:

headphone: mono only. Scratchy treble, very thin bass.

tone controls: bass, treble, effective

via speaker: sounds clear and nice..hides flaws heard in 'phones.
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FM:

Sensitivity: fair

Selectivity: good

Spurious products: pretty messy, near a strong station
.....this would be be a troubled radio in inner suburbs,
Cut antenna height by half when you experience this.
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AM:

Sensitivity: Extreme-range? No.

--Just on par with the very small SRF-M37V Sony Walkman,
--Way behind the Sony ICF-S10MK2 ($10 pocket radio)
--way behind the AM on the Accurian HD radio.
---and well back from the Grundig S350.

The external wire antenna connection offers hope,
coupled with the narrow selectivity setting.

Selectivity:
The wide setting was super-wide, for daytime fidelity.
The narrow was super-narrow. 1010 WNDS knew
nothing at all about 1030 WBZ. Even 1020 freq. was unbothered.

AGC: (Audio Gain Control)...seems to be almost entirely
missing. Stations were very loud/very quiet/very
varying. Ooopsie.

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Weather band: Very easy to use...5 pre-fixed channels.
Sensitivity about like another other...scratchy but usable.

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Usage: Having 10 channels each band, with single-button
recall, is very nice.
The backlight is good. Tuning knob thing clunky.
Direct-entry of frequencies: excellent!

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Summary:

This is a $50 radio, and it has issues.
It doesn't live up to the "extreme-range" moniker,
and the chaff whipped up in the FM by next-door
stations make it tough near a city or antenna
farm.

But it is very convenient and pleasant regular listening on table
or carried to the backyard or worksite. The AM selectivity
combined with the digital and the outside antenna terminals
would make it a nice DX tuner with more input.

The FM memories and good speaker make it a nice table
radio for that. Swinging the whip around, the selectivity
can work the campus band pretty well from the outer
suburbs.

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Nutshell:

Not really a big-distance rig, but good for some night AM,
outer suburban breakfast FM or AM, and very convenient if you
flick around the dial for a lot of regular stations.
Good sound speaker, fair sound headphones.
~OK for the money, better with a long wire or tuned loop.

Definitely not in the leauge with the GE Superadio-3 for
AM, AMDX, FM, or audio performance. Better for easy
station flicking in memory.