Best Shortwave Radios of 2026

Six ounces and a 4.75-inch case shouldn't receive this much. The Skywave SSB 2 covers AM, FM, shortwave from 1711 to 29999 kHz, single sideband, the VHF aviation band and NOAA weather with alert, and it does it on two AA cells — which is why it's the radio we reach for when a trip involves a plane, a tent or a power strip we don't trust.

Everything that usually gets cut from a travel radio is here. There are 400 memories with direct frequency entry, auto scan and store, and selectable bandwidths for narrowing a passband when two stations are fighting. The ten aviation memories can be scanned for activity, which is more entertaining in an airport hotel than it has any right to be. A pair of alkalines is rated for about 70 hours through the earbuds and 60 through the speaker, so a long weekend costs you one set of batteries.

The box is unusually complete: earphones, a carry case and the adapter that lets you clip a wire antenna to the jack. We appreciate that, because a radio this small lives or dies on the antenna you can attach to it, and the included adapter is the difference between using the jack and ignoring it. If you'll listen at a desk every night, the PL330 does more for less money; if the radio has to travel, this is the one that arrives.

The ATS-909X2 is a receiver you set up rather than carry: 1,674 presets across three memory banks, FM, MW, LW, shortwave and the VHF air band, SSB with 10 or 20 Hz fine tuning, RDS text, a signal-strength meter and a clock that covers 42 time zones.

The money goes into tuning. Five methods — direct entry, the rotary knob, the keypad, auto tuning and memory scan — let you nudge a weak signal a few hertz at a time or jump straight to a stored frequency, and the tone control for music, normal and news is a small thing we appreciated on a set with a cabinet this size. It also arrives with the accessories you'd otherwise buy: a switchable AC adapter, a wire antenna, a carry pouch and stereo earbuds.

Our reservation is the price. It costs more than our top pick and our travel pick together, and the return is a set that does everything capably rather than anything uniquely — if you mostly want international broadcasters, the PL330 gets you most of the way there. Where the Sangean pulls ahead is permanence: four AA cells with a built-in charger, mains power and a line output make it a fixture for the desk.

A Bluetooth app that mirrors the whole radio on your phone is the RF320's party trick: you can retune, manage presets and read the display from across the room instead of squinting at a two-inch screen. Underneath the app is a broad receiver — AIR, FM, AM, VHF, shortwave and weather band — with 955 storage slots and a 9.8-foot wire antenna in the box.

We like it best as a second radio or a gift for someone who likes gadgets. Air band and VHF coverage is what you're paying for: tower traffic at a regional airport is a different kind of listening from a broadcast band, and the retro-military case is more fun to look at than anything else here. It also takes a wire antenna seriously, which is unusual at this price.

The controls are the catch. Knob-tuning across 955 memories is slow enough that the app stops being a novelty and becomes the sensible way to set the thing up, so budget a session with your phone before you judge it. The band labels also assume you already know what AIR and WB mean, and the manual explains it eventually.

Two AA batteries, a 125-gram body and a tuning knob: the D220 is the least expensive radio here and the one we hand to anyone who isn't sure they'll stick with shortwave. It tunes AM, FM and shortwave from 5.6 to 22 MHz, and the DSP chip inside pulls in local AM and FM better than the price suggests.

The compromises are in the tuning. It's an analog dial, so finding a specific shortwave station means creeping up on it and nudging back when it drifts — the AM band is far more forgiving than shortwave, and the FM side easier still. What you get in return is a radio that runs on cells from any gas station, has a headphone jack, and slips into a back pocket.

Treat the whip carefully. The telescopic antenna is the part that can give out, so extend it from the base, don't carry the radio by it, and don't force it past its stop. Looked after that way, the D220 is the set that lives in a garden shed or a glovebox and still works when you remember it exists.

A TF card slot, an MP3 player and a recording function are not things you expect from a pocket radio, and they're why the V115 has stayed popular. It tunes AM, FM and shortwave with direct keypad entry and presets, remembers the last station, and will record the radio onto a card at three quality settings.

The parts we appreciate most aren't the headline ones. It plays while it charges, so a USB-C cable doubles as a wall adapter, and the 1,000 mAh cell sits in a compartment you can open. The 2 W speaker is loud enough for a kitchen, the hand strap means it survives being carried around, and the sound is better than the size suggests.

Programming is the friction. Auto search and store does the heavy lifting, but the keypad logic isn't obvious and the manual is thin, so plan on a session with it before the presets make sense. That's also why it sits below the D220 here if shortwave is your main interest, and above it if recording and card playback are.

Where it earns its place: clipped to a backpack, loaded with a card of podcasts, pulling in an FM station at a campsite with shortwave as a bonus. Most radios this small do one thing; this one does four, and it does them for very little money.

An 8 cm speaker, two D cells and a case that looks like it wandered in from 1975: the RF-562D is the only radio here that asks nothing of you but a dial. It tunes AM, FM and shortwave with a mechanical knob and has no presets, no clock and no menu — which is either the point or a dealbreaker, depending on what you want from a radio.

On shortwave, the dial is a skill. Stations sit close together, so you creep up on one and nudge back when it drifts; the band also behaves like a tide, opening after dark and closing again in daylight, so a frequency that's silent at noon can be loud at midnight. The AM side is where this set is happiest, and it's a pleasant thing to have humming on a workbench.

We like it for the absence of everything. There's nothing to program, nothing to update and nothing to learn beyond the band switch, and two D cells mean you're not hunting for a charger. For a kitchen counter, a garage or a parent who wants the evening news without a manual, that simplicity is worth more than any feature on this list.

A weather band with an alert function plus a 4,000 mAh battery makes the Jazmm an emergency radio first and a shortwave receiver second, and that's the right way to judge it. It covers AM, FM, shortwave and the NOAA weather band, and it will make itself heard when the weather service issues a warning.

For a power cut it's well set up. A charge takes about five hours over USB-C, the sleep timer runs from 10 to 90 minutes, and there are 40 presets plus keypad entry so you're not hunting for the local station in the dark. It also plays MP3s from a micro SD card or a USB stick, which is more useful than it sounds when the power is out and the phone is dying.

Reception is the part to be realistic about. The whip is short and the set is at its best on FM and weather; shortwave comes and goes with the hour and the band, and a distant international broadcaster is a stretch. That's normal for a portable this shape, but it means this isn't the radio to buy if hearing the other side of the world is the whole point.

Our take: keep it charged in a closet and it earns its place, especially if you want weather alerts without a scanner or a subscription. For nightly shortwave listening the PL330 is far more rewarding; for storm season, this is the easier thing to live with.