Manufactured from 1984/1985 to 2002/2003, depending on which model version you're talking about and who you're listening to, this is certainly the most iconic portable short wave radio ever made, and for good reason. An amazingly long 18-year production run gives a good indication of how popular this radio was in its time, and for many SWLers and DXers it remains in the shack to this day, not simply as a portable radio but as a communications receiver in its own right.
I bought my 2010 in the late-1980s, and comparing it to the ICF-2002/7600D that I'd owned for several years previously, the differences in every way were stunning. The most startling difference by far was the phase-locked loop "Synchronous Detection" option, which dramatically (sometimes miraculously) reduced both fading and interference and pulled a signal that had seemed lost to the ionosphere up to listening quality.
A number of reviewers on eHam.net wince a bit at the exalted status that the ICF-2010 has gained over the years among users, but really, their caveats are caught up mostly in smaller issues such as SSB tuning and battery circuit design. From my own experience with the 2010, I'll have to go with popular sentiment and say this set really kicks butt. Over the past years, I've compared its sensitivity and selectivity with the excellent general coverage receiver in my Kenwood TS-940S transceiver, and the Sony 2010 always has come up on par with the Kenwood, sometimes performing even better than the Kenwood.
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