The Sony ICF2010 egroup (now managed under groups.io) was started in December 1999 by yours truly and currently has over 1800 members. Sony has stopped making this radio, the last new ones from retailers were sold in early 2003. The icf2010 is an active group with many veteran and new Sony ICF-2010 owners. It is a great forum to get immediate feedback on questions you may have. Do consider joining this egroup if you own a Sony ICF-2010 or Sony ICF-2001D as you will find it informative and fun.
Click here for side views of the unit.
The Sony ICF-2010 is one of the early general coverage portable shortwave radios (1984) that featured "sync detection". In these days of quick obsolesence in computer hardware and peripherals, this radio is still considered to be a very good radio among portables costing around $300 (US) and holding its own more than a decade since its introduction . Depending on the model and specs, the radio covers different SW frequency bands including the FM and AIR band. I have found it to be quite sensitive for DX from the USA Midwest (where I initially started using it) and now use it in Northern California. Still doing very well almost 14 years later.
The early models like mine, which I bought in May 1986 (#61248) had a tendency to blow the frontend input transistor (an N channel FET) which would reduce the sensitivity of the radio considerably in the AM and SW bands. The device in question is Q303, whose part number is 8-729-800-42 or 2SK152. One can determine if this part is blown by measuring the voltages on the source, drain and gate terminals and comparing with the recommended values. To identify and fix the problem, the diagnosis page goes into more detail on where to find the device in the radio and how to prevent further damage.
Another problem that afflicts this radio is that the 3V power supply that keeps the memory and clock running occasionally gets wiped out due to mechanical vibration or general handling. This is a nuisance issue as one has to re-program all the memories from scratch and reset the time. One solution is to add a large capacitor in parallel with the 3V AA battery supply, that will keep the voltage from dropping too quickly in case of short power supply transients. I have put a 4700mF cap to dampen these glitches. Another solution is to feed the clock/computer power from the 4.5V supply with some circuitry to bring down the voltage to roughly 3V. This will keep the AA batteries charged by the main power. Note, I haven't tried this approach and cannot recommend it. A third solution I have read about (a mechanical one), is to jam the 2 AA batteries tight using some a small object like foam etc. to prevent rattling of the batteries that cause the intermittent contact.
A great resource for this and other issues, tips and general information on the Sony ICF-2010 is from the Michigan Area Radio enthusiasts | Sony 2010 FAQ.
Please join the egroup at the link shown at the top of this page. You can interact with other ICF-2010 owners, download various manuals related to this radio from the Files section of this user group.
Download the Sony 2010/2001D User manual here
Sony ICF2010/2001D serial number versus years 1984-1990 | 1990-present
Back to my main SW page.
Last updated: Nov 5, 2003. Comments, feedback? Please e-mail me. Thanks. 
