Take a Grundig Satellit 2000/2100, add some useful features - and imagine You had to work in a development laboratory in the seventies: You might end in constructing a set like the Galaxy Mesa 9000.

The Galaxy Mesa 9000 is one of the biggest (49x27x12 cm) and heaviest (7 kg) portable radios and has similar dimensions as Grundg's Satellit 2000 / 2100 or some Sony sets from the CRF-series.

At the top face of receiver, You find the band selector pushbuttons, two telescopic antennas for AM and FM and a rugged carrying handle; at the back the compartments for six batteries and the mains cable.

A bit more then a third of the front panel is taken by the large speaker grill.
The green coloured frequency dial is similar to the one found on the Galaxy Mesa 7000: Below the dials for long- and mediumwaves, You find the dials for SW1 (tropical bands, SW2 / SW3 cover the complete shortwave range up to 18,5 MHz and cover most our of band channels without bandspread.
A handle folds out from the middle tuning knob, it will change the shortwave BANDS by rotating the turret tuner arrangement. As found in earlier models, a red triangular mark printed on the dial points to the selected waveband indicator on the dial. The outer part of the middle tuning knob will tune within the selected shortwave band.
The bottom tuning knob tunes the FM broadcast band. In case You are sitting in front of the 9000'st (stands for stereo) model, a green light will indicate a stereo signal.

Four slide controls below the frequency dial are used as volume, bass and treble and stereo balance controls, a row of four switches aktivate the AFC and stereo mode on FM, set the set to PU / amplifier mode and activate the BFO for single sideband reception. Six FM presets store the frequency of Your favourite FM stations, they work in a similar way as the presets found in old television sets - without digital technology.

Operating the Galaxy Mesa 9000 is uncomplicated: When the set is switched on, press the button BANDS and select the desired shortwave band with the middle tuning knob. The red triangular mark should indicate 49 meters and You will see a coarse dial for the 49 m shortwave band in the bandspread dial window. You should find the german news of Deutsche Welle Cologne somewhere between the 6.05 and 6.1 marks, the S meter will indicate sufficient signal strength, as long as You live in central Europe.
The BFO has to be activated for CW reseption on the amateur bands, single sideband reception is possible but a bit awkward, fine tuning is possible only within the spread shortwave bands.

In conclusion the Galaxy Mesa 9000 is more a collectors item and might find use as a secondary receiver, but it's not the ultimate "DX machine". When it was sold, the Galaxy Mesa 9000st offered everything considered as necessary to be a dream home shortwave receiver. In commercial receivers, single sideband reception with filters for bith sidebands, hich grade I.F. filters, double conversion technology and a accurate dial giving You a frequency accuracy of better the 5 kHz - all this could be found in the sixties. But not too many private listeners could afford a Collins R-390A or a 51S-1...