Review by Ian:

I have had this radio for about a week now..

the instruction booklet is a little skimpy and setup can be confusing, however this is a fine radio.

FM selectivity is good, and quality through earphones is excellent, on SW the SSB feature is necessary to listen to HAM radio..its just a shame its not synchronous sideband detection..you must fine tune to select USB or LSB…Other than that the sensitivity is good, my only conclusion is that its not as good as my Satellit 800, but its also 1/20 the size and < 1/2 price.

There is a nifty “time zone” feature that allows the traveller to easily select which time zone he is in..the glaring omission however is that while GMT can be set (=UTC or world time and the basis for SW radio) all time zones are simply linked directly to GMT..or put it another way, there is zero capability to deal with any summer time…you need to muck about faking a time zone for BST, EDT or whatever.. this is a silly error.

The feel of the slightly rubberized surface is excellent, as is the display lighting and three methods of tune .. a rotary know (thankfully), seek, and direct frequency input.

If you are looking for a decent portable radio with SW, packed with the necessary features for enjoyable listening and without unnecessary frills, i cannot think of a better buy.

Review by Craig Still:

Extremely nice, easily configured potable radio. AM broadcast band and FM performance is exceptionally good. SSB (Single Side Band) although BFO tuned, is very good. Shortwave performance is on par with radios in the 0.00 price class. Display back lighting is great and the display is easily read. Although a bit more expensive than the Sony ICF-SW7600GR, and does not offer synchronous detection, it is worth the price.

Note: Some offerings includ ear buds, travel case and roll-up antenna – some do not. The manual indicates these are are included although that is not always the case.

Review by VS:

I just received my M400 and these are my first impressions. The radio is very slim and just a bit wider than previous Grundig models (100 and 300), which makes it a perfect pocket companion.

Pros:

- great SW reception (on par with Grundig G1000, for instance)

- good AM reception/selectivity (strong stations don’t bleed too much into the adjacent frequencies)

- solid feel. non-slippery plastic body

Cons:

- some mirror images from powerful FM stations on SW (not a huge problem, though)

- FM is quirky – without the extended antenna only the most powerful stations are heard, but if you extend antenna for just one inch, they overload the receiver so I couldn’t listen to some of the weaker stations in my area (like 90.3 or 91.1).

- touching the unit below the LCD panel changes the tuning by a couple of kHz, so I learned to hold it a little lower to prevent a station drift.

Overall, not a bad buy for .

UPDATE (after 1 week): I essentially gave up on the FM band in this radio – it’s practically useless as it fares much worse that any other radio I have. There’s no way for me to change the initial 4-star rating but I’d give it 3 stars based on this fact

Review by Clarence Miracle II:

ONE STAR RATING!!! I’ve used this radio for a while now. Please buy something else. It drives me crazy. the drifting is getting worse and I have to retune the radio every 15 minutes or so. Buy the Sangean or a Kaito KA11. I did and now this radio is in a drawer. I will give it away at some point.

I bought this to carry to baseball games and it sure fits in a pocket well. The little speaker does a nice job, talk radio is tolerable and a ball game sounds OK as long as you are in a quiet place while listening. It’s not great but for this size radio it’s very acceptable. FM reception seems very good, AM is spotty at best, and SW I don’t know enough about to inform so I’m not saying a word. A bass boost would have been a great option as well as a lock for the tuning (more on that in a moment).Now that I have said the most positive things I can about this radios lets move on to it’s shortcomings.

The volume control is unguarded so when you drop this into your pocket or the supplied carrying case the volume goes to 11 and you either jump like an idiot or your ears are bleeding. Seriously the volume control is very easily rotated so it goes to zero while removing it from the case and all the way up while inserting back into the case.

This radio drifts, and I mean alot. You can tune in a strong AM station and just watch the digital tuning go up or down. Also as another reviewer wrote, if you hold it in the wrong place this will definately move your tuning point.

I wouldn’t recommend this radio to a friend. It has a few good points, but the negatives really hold this radio back. I’ve thought about returning it but by the time I pay to ship it back to Amazon, it just isn’t worth it. Sangean makes a good AM/FM pocket radio with a speaker….try that first. It’s more expensive but you tend to get what you pay for. Another option is the CCrane SWP. I have one coming in after borrowing a pals. It isn’t perfect but it’s a much better product.

Review by Mark:

Grundig’s M300 World Radio has been updated with some improvements and may meet your needs for a portable radio with some basic shortwave functionality. There are actually two versions of this radio and I own them both. The original version I bought here from Amazon has a shiny plastic surface and comes in a wider variety of colors. The newer version has a matte surface that seems to have a rubber coating. I saw one on sale at a local retailer and picked it up to see if there were improvements. Well, other than not slipping out of your hand as easily, they seem to have little enhancements. But at least this way you know if you got an old version or a newer one. Even at the *old* product page many people discuss having received a newer model, so be aware of that.

The Grundig M300R Mini300 Handheld Shortwave Radio (Metallic Red) has come along with me on trips for going on two years. It is very good for certain things but do not expect very strong reception on any of the bands. If you need an FM radio for use on the go, and don’t plan on tuning too many different SW stations, this is the radio for you. At the prevailing price the SW and AM bands are virtually icing on the cake. The main usefulness of the shortwave radio bands is in picking up some of the major stations like Radio France and BBC News.

PROS:

+ Tucks away for compact storage and portability

+ OK short wave reception for larger broadcasters

+ Decent FM reception for most local stations

+ Improved body adds a little durability to the device

+ Takes two AA batteries and has no trouble with rechargeable batteries

+ Has good battery life given the performance

+ Standard 3.5mm connector for headphones

+ Included speaker is another nice extra for tuning, listening or as a backup

+ Max speaker volume is quite loud

+ Included case and buds are nothing to write home about but they are nice extras for back-up

+ Alarm and sleep timers are nice features in this class of device

+ Equipped with 7 short-wave bands (49, 41, 31, 25, 22, 19 and 16 meters)

+ Included 12 hour clock is also a nice extra (Military clock would have been a nice extra)

+ Very good value considering the list and selling prices (good as a spare unit)

CONS:

- Tuner has relatively low accuracy and no auto-scan, making it hard to get stations you tuned before

- Screen doesn’t display *which* SW band you are in, meaning you have to *know* what to tune it to

- Long and non-bendable antenna makes it harder to maneuver while in use

- No station pre-sets means you can’t *save* the stations you find

- Very easy to lose a station signal with minimal movement

- The tuner dial is too soft and tends to drift; a digital tuner would have been better

- Build quality is somewhat flimsy so handle with care; mainly good for indoor or stationary use

– Once you change your batteries you will have to do the set-up over again

- AM Reception is really lacking, though all bands could use improvement

- Included travel case works, but it’s made from a cheap vinyl

- Clock only shows time while radio is off

- Buttons can be difficult to press accurately

- Somewhat dim read-out screen

The instructions will guide you through when and how to get the best signals. Or course that will vary depending on where you are and what stations you are trying to access. In general both AM and shortwave broadcasts seem better later in the evenings and at night. FM is better all around but the AM was not as good for me as they advertise.

Using shortwave without a digital tuner, band display and auto-scan takes some basic knowledge at the very least and some patience as well. If you are a shortwave novice, you will need to study up a little to be able to pick up stations consistently. Very few people just want to search for random stations. The irony is that experienced shortwave radio enthusiasts may be disappointed by the relatively weak reception and lack of features. But they will do in a pinch. With 7 included bands, you can definitely pick up some stations. Knowing what stations you are picking up is the real challenge.

Even once you do successfully tune to a station, there is still some drift in the tuner. Stations go out of tune often and it’s common to have to make adjustments. Very small turns of the tuner dial seem to equate to differences that are too large. If you plan ahead for travel or only listen to a few higher power broadcasts, you should be able to get enough stations to keep you busy.

The display has a few flaws. It will tell you when you are in FM or AM , but not what shortwave band you’re tuned to. It only shows “SW” for shortwave. And it also won’t display the time while the radio is turned on. This seems like a minor detail but when you are travelling having an extra clock is useful. It’s also a pain when you are waiting for a program to come on the air and you have to choose between listening or seeing the time.

You can still at least see your band and tuned station, which for AM and FM are enough. Once again, you will need basic understanding of the shortwave bands before you can remember what the different ones mean and how to duplicate them.

The alarm does work, but I tend to be a heavy sleeper and it took a while to wake me up the one time I tried it. That’s OK as long as you are travelling alone.

One of the things that is a clear plus for this unit is its portability. I have tucked this away in my travel bag with no problems, and I always keep some spare batteries just in case I need to use it. The small speaker on the body is not very clear but can certainly get louder than most people will need. This unit is ideal used with headphones, though the included buds are probably only good as extras.

The unit is less compact while in use because of the antenna, which sticks out a few inches to begin with. Note that AM reception uses an internal antenna but FM and shortwave reception use the antenna. It takes some getting used to the rather long antenna. Unlike many mid-sized models, this antenna extends straight up and cannot be swiveled or bent. It’s almost two feet long. Therefore, it’s only practical for places where you have plenty of clearance, like on a windowsill or out in the open. Sitting in a bus or train with low clearance will cut it close. If you are in a smaller area you may find it uncomfortable to maneuver the unit with the antenna fully extended. And if you want decent reception you need to fully extend it.

CONCLUSION

Perhaps the main consideration is that shortwave novices will have trouble tuning to the same stations consistently. So if you want to get a particular station while travelling, you will need to read a book on SW or look up some info and write down the frequencies before you go. With this analog and very drifty tuner, it is near impossible to tell what station exactly you are tuning to, much less to repeat that tuning.

It is hard to fault this unit too much considering how small, light and affordable it is. Granted it has its flaws. But they have added a number of small improvements and as long as you know your needs this might very well meet them.

As long as your expectations are reasonable, this is a very good value.

Enjoy.

Review by Thomas Anonymous:

BIG PROS: It’s about the size of PDA only a tad smaller. The unit has a nice feel to the buttons with a very accurate tuner dial, I like the fact that it doesn’t budge when placing or removing the radio in it’s pouch so it can hold stations well. Seems very well built, has a VERY long integrated telescopic antenna and nice soft carrying pouch. Signal reception on local AM/FM stations is excellent with some SW bands received fairly clear but location is key too. Did I mention well built? I dropped it accidentally (DOH!) 5ft and it still works just fine, no cracks or serious scuffs surprisingly.

Now for a few minor CONS: the FM band isn’t stereo. The LCD is a little smallish. the stubby antenna is part of the case and kinda takes away from it’s compactness. There’s no provision for radio presets because of the analog tuner and the headphones are Blah but for the price it’s not really a big deal.

Bottom line: a good little take anywhere companion if you like to listen to the radio and like that SW stuff.

Review by Still Spinning Vinyl:

I purchased this radio to replace a Panasonic RF1100 that I have had since it was new sometime in the 1970’s. The 350DL has a lot of useful features and the primary ones for me include the sleep timer, alarm colck and the published claim of good sensitivity. The overall sound quality of this radio is pleasing. The sensitivity compared to cheap radios selling for a lot less is good although not as sensitive as my GE Super Radios models 2 and 3. As I have more sophisticated equipemnt for listening to shortwave, this was not one of my primary objectives for buying this radio although the inclusion of shortwave is a nice plus.

The controls are nicely laid out, the instruction manual quite easy to understand to enable you to derive the full enjoyment of all this radio has to offer.

The big drawback and dissapointment I found with the 350DL is the tuning control. There is a lot of ” slop ” in the control, not just the knob but from what is behingd the control panel. Another problem with the tuning control is an overabundant ” backlash ” when trying to set the tuning on a station, particularly when tuning in shortwave stations. You tune in the station or desired frequency, let go of the tuning knob and you can actually see it change as it moves forward or backward from where you left it. For those desiring to tune around the shortwave bands to see what is there this is a big drawback. I actually wonder how long the tuning control will last on this radio before it falls apart. The entire tuning knob assembly wiggles and wobbles while you turn it. This should not happen, and I feel is a major cause for concern. For the 0 price tag I am not expecting a mil-spec radio by any means but the poorly designed tuning system in this radio gives me no other choice than to down rate it. That is unfortunate too as this radio has many other features so worthwhile.

If you are planning on purchasing this radio to use for AM & FM broadcast reception and not change stations too frequently, it’s a decent radio. If you plan on tuning to different stations frequently you may wish to consider looking at other makes and models befoe buying this.

I purchsed this radio primarily to use as a bedside clock radio with sleep timer and only occasional tuning. The digital display is not absolutely accurate but for the price it is good enough.

Review by Ed:

Glad to see they’re producing the new S350DL models with the option to get the Grundig name on them.

Our RCA Superadio III is by far the best reception and sound radio in our armamentarium, until…

The GS350DL Sound, AM, FM, and Sortwave reception are a source of pure pleasure. After a lot of research and some confusion with all the presentations of this radio, finally buying it proved to be an excellent decision.

There are a lot of nice features that deserve a few minutes with the manual. It’s well written and concise. Some reviews with complaints are giveaways the the owner just didn’t take the few minutes to check out the instructions. While everything is fairly intuitive, it does help to see what the manufacturer has to say. So spend a few well worth minutes and read it!

The only time I got sexual feelings for an inanimate object was with my 1965 Mustang. This radio is trying to do it to me again…

Review by Mike K:

At first glance the FR 300 (sold under several names including Grundig and Eton) appears to be a modification of the very successful FR 200. It seems to use the same case and it has similar looking controls including a hand crank generator. However, with close inspection it really is quite a different radio. The FR 300 eliminates the 2 shortwave bands of the FR 200. It their place it adds the VHF TV reception (audio only) and the weather band. In addition it adds a number of gizmos.

I love the older FR 200. No one would say that the FR 200 was the height of radio engineering and it certainly has a few electronic warts. With that said its pleasant sound, sensitive receiver and cool hand crank generator makes it a winner in my book (see my review in epinions). When the FR 300 came out I was anxious to give it a try so it was off to Circuit City to pick one up.

The Box: The radio appears to be housed in a case very similar to the FR 200. The box is approximately 5.5 inches square and around 2 inches thick. Like the FR 200 it has a nice handle and it some with a nifty nylon case. One side of the radio has a hand crank to charge the rechargeable battery pack. This pack appears to be of the common cordless phone variety if you ever need to change it. The other side of the radio has a volume control and a ganged course/fine tuning control, which operates the analog slide rule dial. Instead of using the primary color theme of the FR 200, the ABS plastic is a classy silver and the speaker grill also has a more polished look. Because the FR 300 has more gizmos than the FR 200 it has a few more controls on the face of the radio. This may add a little more confusion to the technically challenged. With that said, the controls and operation are very simple. Instead of using the flush controls of the FR 200, The FR 300 has a number of raised controls. These may be easier to grasp but they also add some additional thickness to the radio. The addition of all of this spit and polish makes the radio look like a baby version of the popular Grundig S350 rather than a twin of the FR 200.

Power Source: Like the FR 200, the FR 300 can be powered up in a number of ways. You can use 3 AA batteries, which should give you a very long playtime in this energy sipping radio. In addition you can charge the separate battery pack by vigorously turning the dynamo (generator) handle. 90 seconds at two turns per second should give you over an hour of playtime at low volume. You can also use an optional adaptor. Circuit City did not have the Grundig adaptor when I bought the radio. You can use a third party adaptor, but this must be done with caution. If the adaptor is under 200 milliamps it will power the radio and trickle change the battery pack. You can leave the adaptor permantetly connected. If the adaptor is over 200 mg , leaving it connected can overcharge the battery pack and damage the radio. You can remove or disconnect the battery pack and leave a larger adaptor plugged in, but this defeats the “emergency radio” concept.

Gizmos: The FR 300 is decked out in a variety of cool sounding gizmos. Let’s take a look at some them to see if they have merit.

Flashlight: Like the FR 200 you have an LED flashlight built in. LEDs are great because they are very durable and use less power than a traditional flashlight bulb. The FR 300 has a 2 LED system providing somewhat better illumination than the FR 200. Think of it as a penlight. It would be OK to change a fuse or even read a newspaper. It won’t light up a room. All in all, a useful feature.

Strobe: There is also a bright, flashing red LED. It is very cool, but I was wondering what you would use it for. A warning for a disabled car? A cheap reflective banner would work better. A beacon to attract airplanes if you are stranded on a deserted island? Sorry no trips planed. How about an emergency signal to attract the Good Humor Man? Hmmm…. Anyways, I would rate the strobe as a gimmick.

Siren: The FR 300 has a very loud siren. This seems to be a popular (cheap?) addition to a number of emergency radios. This is another feature that leaves me scratching my head. Let’s say you were hiking and got lost. A simple whistle around your neck would do the job nicely. Let’s say you were trapped under a building that collapsed. Well maybe, but you would have to have the radio at your side, which seems sort of unlikely. The Siren would preclude giving this radio to most pre-adolescent boys, unless, of course, his parents gave your kid a drum set for Christmas. Another gimmick.

Cell Phone Charger: The FR 300 comes with a number of adaptors that could allow you the ability to charge your cell phone by turning the radios dynamo. Pretty cool. You could also use a AC power adaptor (not supplied) to charge you phone through the radio. Frankly, in the later case you should use the charging set up supplied with the phone. The question is, can you charge your phone using the dynamo? As mentioned above, The FR 300 is designed to sip at the energy bar. My LG cell phone has two separate LCD displays, one in color. It also has a keypad that lights up and (being a cell phone) a transmitter. The FR 300 manual wisely omits crank times for cell phones, but you can assume that it would be a bicep building experience. I can image that there may be very rare times when this feature could have some utility, but not often and probably a means of last resort. Likely a gimmick.

All radio testing was done with fresh AA batteries.

Sound: Like the FR 200 the FR 300 has a 2.5 inch speaker. There isn’t much base but the sound is pleasant and clear. Plug in some headphones and you get wonderful sound out of both earpieces. The sound is mono, however. It is clear that the FR 300 amplifier section is of a higher quality then what you would find in a cheap pocket radio.

AM (medium wave): Like the FR 200 the FR 300 has a very nice AM tuner. You can hear some weak images of stronger stations on the dial but they aren’t too objectionable. Tuning accuracy is approximate, but it does the job. Sensitivity is very good and I was able to hear a number of out-of-state stations with ease. AGC was average. Reception was similar to the FR 200. All in all a nice little AM radio.

Weather Band: The FR 300 picks up the 7 channel weather band which is used in the US and Canada. I was able to pick up 3 channels on the radio, two very clearly. My car radio was able to pick up 4 weather channels (as a comparison). As a bonus, a nice, big knob controls the channels. In addition you can use an alert function. You leave the radio turned on and this function keeps it mutes the audio until the radio picks up a special signal for the weather service. Sounds nice, but don’t forget this radio does not come with an AC adaptor. Leaving the radio on and then cranking it or changing the batteries doesn’t make a lot of sense. Overall, I would rate the weather band as very good.

VHF TV Reception: Chicagoland has 5 VHF TV outlets (channels 2,5,7,9,11). The FR 300 allows VHF TV reception via two separate bands. One for channels 2-6 and the other for channels 7 and above. Using the FR 300 to pick up TV was a painful experience. As I would turn down the TV band I would encounter image after image of blaring distorted FM stations. On the lower VHF this garbage obliterated band channel 5. This problem was also present on the upper VHF band, but less so. Channel 9 was obliterated here. Changing rooms or reducing the length of the antenna did not help this problem. I also tried the radio at my office (further away from local FM broadcasters and more shielded from RF). It was still horrible. I exchanged the radio and the second one was slightly better, I now could get channel 9 but not channel 5. There was still tons of garbage from FM on these bands. TV performance was not acceptable.

FM performance: The FR 200 had a flawed but quite useable FM section (see my epinion on the FR 200). I thought that the FR 300 would offer similar performance, but I was very wrong. First off, the FM section occupies only one part of the tuning dial with the low VHF TV channels occupying the rest. I was estimate that the FM portion is only about 1/3 of the dial making any tuning difficult. When I first tried FM I was shocked at the incredibly poor reception. Our two local FM broadcasters were imaged all over the dial, and I mean everywhere. Even a flea-powered local college station was imaged up and down the dial. Every once in a while I could tease another station out of the mess. It was truly horrible. Reducing the antenna length, etc did not help. I took the radio to my office, which is much farther from our local broadcasters. In addition, the building shields lot of RF. Here I still heard the local broadcaster smeared over the dial. The flea-powered college station was absent but now the local junior college’s station was popping up everywhere. FM was unusable. I saw one user report on the FR 300 noting good FM reception (Circuit City web page) so I thought I might have a defective radio. I exchanged it hoping that radio #2 would redeem the Grundig name. This radio had it own set of problems on FM. The dial wasn’t totally dominated by images from the local broadcasters, but they were present. The local college station at 89.1 obliterated the FM spectrum below and all the way up to 92 MHz. Similarly, the local oldies station at 95.9 smeared itself to WMFT at 98.7. It also smeared downward, but it was such a mess I couldn’t tell what was what. It was clear that the way that this particular radio “fix” the multiple image problem was to turn down the sensitivity on FM, so even when I could get a Chicago station the reception was poor. Even more bizarre was what happened when I tuned around 100 MHz. There, I started to receive VHF aircraft traffic, I don’t live near any commercial airport.

I love radios, I collect them and play around with them. The FR 300 has, by far, the worst FM reception of any radio that I have ever used, including cheapo pocket radios. This appears to be partly due to poor quality control (two radios with two different problems) but I also suspect design flaws.

As a radio collector I’m about to do something that I never do, I’m going to return this radio for a refund. All the bells and whistles and gizmos are useless if you can’t use a major portion of a radio (the FM band). As more people review this radio I will be curious with the results. If lots of people like the FM portion of the radio it is likely that this is a QC issue that will eventually get resolved (and I just happened to get two bad radios). I addition, I have to wonder about the logic of including functions, like the weather alert option, but not including an AC adaptor as standard equipment. With the myriad of portable radios available, including the nice FR 200, I can’t image why anyone would buy this radio. Definitely, not recommended.

Review by Jen:

I got this specifically for emergencies. In the big fires we had here a couple years ago, radio was pretty much useless on the first day – several stations were off the air due to power failures and the press conferences with the police and fire chief were all on TV. Eventually, the radio stations advised people to watch their TVs. This unit gets good audio reception on three local broadcast TV stations plus a whack of AM and FM stations. Another reviewer indicated that the FM tuning isn’t great. They’re right – it isn’t. That’s the missing star in my rating. The NOAA weather stations come in well too. Once there’s no more free broadcast TV signals, I guess this will be an expensive hand-cranked AM radio.

Review by Ricky Gervais:

I wanted a shortwave radio small enough to carry around and not too expensive–somewhere in between the toys and the 0+ serious boys. Well, this is it. It’s not perfect, but it’s reasonably powerful, has useful features, is fun to use, looks and feels good (with a matte black soft rubber finish), and comes with a handy pouch and earphones. Just what I wanted.

The display is excellent, with an orange backlit screen that’s the best I’ve seen on any radio of this size. One click lights it up for a few seconds and a longer one keeps it on; it switches itself on briefly with a change of frequency. The information in the display is configurable and can include the following: frequency, battery strength, signal strength (in dBmicron and dB S/N), time, alarm, temperature (!), shortwave band, memory locations, and timer.

FM, SW, and AM/LW all sound good to me and are reasonably sensitive. FM pulls in a lot of stations, including the one I wanted most: KING-FM 98.1 in Seattle, which the more expensive Grundig Aviator A6 couldn’t get from where I live on Vancouver Island. Ditto KOMO 1000 on AM. SW reception is good, too. Auto search only catches the strongest ones, but manual tuning gets scores more. I’ve heard Australia, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, Zagreb, etc. in the short time I’ve had it. It all depends on time and the atmosphere. At 6.30 a.m. the 31m band is packed with stations. And there’s continuous coverage from 3150-21950 kHz, not just the selections that come on many shortwave radios. If only there was a setting to filter out the religious stations that come in so loud and clear. Scanning is by thumbwheel in 1 or 5 kHz steps, or by band, or by auto scanning in 5 kHz steps. Both the tuning and volume knobs move by detents.

One particularly nice touch is that the radio remembers the last station you were listening to in each waveband when you switch off. Another nice touch is that radio is silent during auto scanning. A lot of thought has gone into the user-friendliness of this little portable. Short and long button presses for different functions can be annoying, but on this radio they are sensible and intuitive.

Hidden under a front panel are buttons for setting memory locations, time, and alarm, with a recessed button for resetting the radio. There is also a large dial to set the radio to any of the world’s time zones, which apparently gives the radio its name. This looks impressive, as does the world map inside the panel, but unless you’re constantly changing time zones it’s really just a marketing frill. I’d have preferred a direct entry keypad here instead.

The only sour note is the feeble manual, which covers the basics but has no technical information about the radio or more advanced help (such as explaining dBmicron and dB S/N). You shouldn’t have to Google things like this. Some parts of the manual are poorly explained or just plain wrong, like telling you to have the radio off or on to set up a function when it means the exact opposite. I’ve noticed the same thing with other Grundig/Eton manuals, even on their “serious” radios like the S350DL. They really should put more effort in here.

Despite the poor manual, this is a very competent portable that is easy to use and sounds good. A larger speaker might help and there is no tone control, though neither of these noticeably compromised sound quality on the stronger stations. With these slight reservations, this radio earns 4.5 stars from me, but since that’s not possible, I’m happy to give it 5.

Review by Gary DeBock:

All reviewers have been unanimous in their praise of this Chinese-made model, but they may be unaware of the primary reason for this radio’s breakthrough AM and FM selectivity. The Grundig G8 is a clone of the Tecsun PL-300WT Chinese-market model, and it contains a DSP (digital signal processing) IC chip which controls all of the AM and FM functions. This fact is not mentioned in any of the Grundig advertising, although it is common knowledge among the Ultralight Radio AM-DXing enthusiast group.

The G8’s AM selectivity is in a class by itself among pocket radios, as is its FM selectivity. FM sensitivity is also outstanding, providing reception of fringe stations typically only heard on communication receivers. Although my G8 model from Amazon arrived with very good AM sensitivity, there have been variations in the AM sensitivity levels of the identical PL-300WT Chinese-market models, due to the Tecsun company’s manufacturing process (specifically, their neglect in matching the inductance of the loopstick coil to the value required by a varactor in the DSP chip). Since Tecsun also manufactures all of the G8’s for Grundig, this may also be an issue with these G8 models, although it’s too early to tell.

Despite this, the Grundig G8 is a superlative value for both AM and FM DXers, especially with Amazon’s free shipping option. This model’s DSP-enhanced performance is sure to please those who enjoy fringe-station chasing on either band.

73, Gary DeBock (N7EKX)

Review by Mark E. Lacy:

The features of this radio made it sound like it would be a good thing to have handy in case of an emergency, particularly the ability to recharge a cell phone from it. But I was very disappointed to learn that this radio was made so poorly, and so many things were wrong with it that I’m having to send it back for a refund. The backlight for the display did not work. The alert button would not operate. I could run it on crank power but the button to switch to battery power would not operate. I could get AM stations only (not even static on FM or shortwave) and it would not stay on a single station for long. The instructions were minimal. The overall design is poor. It’s made of cheap plastic and everything feels like it might break if you bumped it. I won’t be buying another one of these, that’s for sure.

Review by Jabbo:

I am sorry that I didnt read the reviews before I bought this piece of junk. This thing goes through batteries so fast that I cant keep up with it. I’ve had better service with a transistor radio. If you like to crank your arm off then buy one. In case of an emergency they’ll find your body with your hand wrapped around the crank handle because you probably used up your batteries in about 1 hour.

Review by mbv:

Purchased the G3 from Amazon and returned the next day. On the FM band the radio was unstable: it produced an internally generated rapidly knocking/ticking sound audible in the pauses of the program audio. The sensitivity in the AM/MW band was essentially nonexistent. The synchro failed to firmly lock even on rather strong signals – looked totally useless. The display is crisp and well illuminated, although the largest part of it is allocated to textual information – RDS info on FM, USB/LSB/synchro etc. By comparison the clock lettering is tiny. The keypad is not illuminated. On the positive side: the SW performance is fine, on par with the venerable Degen/Kaito 1103, the SSB is better due to the USB/LSB selection with stable fine tuning. The same feature allows to suppress adjacent interference on some broadcast signals by engaging SSB and zero beating the carrier. The sound is OK. The line-in feature is useful.

Review by jr_Tech:

I had high hopes for this radio, hoping that I could replace my much-used and beat up Eton E5. Sadly, this will not be the case. While the G3 adds some features such as the Aircraft band, LSB/USB switch, RDS and Sync detector (which sorta works), several important traits/features of the E5 are not carried over to the new model.

1. FM sensitivity is not as good. Several FM stations in Eugene Oregon (about 110 miles away) that are easy catches for the E5 can still be heard with the G3 but not as clearly, and with much more effort to get the antenna “just right”.

2. MW (AM) sensitivity is not as good…side by side comparison on several weak AM stations that yield decent reception with the E5 are heard with more noise and hiss on the G3.

3. Ditto for LW… several aircraft beacons are heard, but with more hiss on the G3.

4. The “wide/narrow” switch does not also function as “voice/music” tone control on FM, as it does on the E5.

5. The push-buttons are NOT illuminated on the G3.

6. Tuning steps increased from 25 kHz to 50Khz on FM… not what is needed to pull in a weak DX station that is first adjacent to a strong local!

The good points:

1. The RDS functions well.

2. SSB stations are MUCH easier to tune with the G3 than the E5.

3. The Aircraft band works well, this will be great for airshows.

4. Under some conditions (stations that are not too weak) the sync detector does provide improvement. I find that I must tune 1 kHz LOW to get it to work, so there could be some alignment issues with my particular radio. The feature does not work as well as it does on my Sony ICF-SW7600GR and is not even close to the performance of my Sony ICF 2010!

5. The G3 is less likely to “overload” in strong signal areas than the E5… perhaps the sensitivity was reduced on purpose to provide better reception for city dwellers, at the expense of reducing DX capabilities.

So, I will keep my beat up old Eton E5, and use both… sad!

Review by Robert Lonn:

I finally took the plunge and had to find out for myself about this nice looking radio. People complained about SSB reception and the Filters. I was glad I made the decision to purchase this radio as my radio has none of these issues with a serial number in the 1400’s! A QSO was going on this morning on 3872.00. I turned on my Yaesu HF rig to verify the this was exactly 3872.00 LSB. To start the comparison against several other radios, I placed the ETON E-1 on 3872.00 and hit LSB and bingo, audio was fine as you would expect it to be. Time for the Sony ICF-2010. Same results, first I hit the USB and audio was weak but audible, hit the correct LSB setting and audio was loud and clear.

OK, now onto the Satellit 750. Placed the radio on 3872, hit USB, BFO set at 1 o’clock position, Normal, and audio was weak but audible, hit LSB and audio was strong and clear. The 750 acted exactly the same as the Sony did …..

This tells me that the 750 has absolutely no issues with SSB reception…

Naturally the operating instructions are not clear on the 1 o’clock position for SSB control. It came from the factory set at 1 o’clock. My Collins 75A-4 has a 1 o’clock position for LSB and a 11 o’clock position for USB, the 750 acts the same way… Since the 750 tunes in 1 KHz steps, you will need to tune the SSB knob at times, but the USB and LSB bandpass circuitry is fine. Yes they should have made the radio tune in 100Hz steps when SSB is on, but that is not the case. The E-1 does tune in 10 Hz steps so it does not need this. The Sony tunes in 100 Hz steps so you can get SSB Close but not exact.. For that reason the 750 is better than the ICF-2010… I used the narrow filter for these test.

OK, now to the issue of the wide filter… After playing with this for about 10 minutes on local AM stations and I mean STARING closely at the S-meter, I would say that the filter has a very slight kick up on the very edges, I mean out at 4 KHz offset. + or – 3 KHz the signal just rolls off, normal operation, as you hit 4 KHz on each end the S-meter might move up a tad, but at 4 KHz you are already loosing signal and reaching the end of the filter. But +- 2 khz the S-meter is flat.. If something is obvious, I do not see it. Tune in a station, S-meter is peaked , tune away either side and the s-meter will fall off as you hit 5 KHz in wide mode. I used the attenuator to keep the s-meter in its mid range.

I am not saying something is not present, but after close examination I see nothing that indicates a problem. I have the Scott and BR sports show on now, 1090, XX1090 San Diego, and have it in wide position for full audio… Sounds great!

OK, all this positive talk, must be something that concerns me, right?? I do have a concern about the battery cover. It does look very delicate, as does the entire radio. This is not a radio to drag off to the beach,,, This is not to say that the battery cover is not strong and one just needs to be careful. The E-1 battery cover has the same concern but so far after many battery changes, the Eton E-1 cover is still fine.

This radio is a fun to use. Keyboard entry is fast and flawless, can’t say that about the E-1. E-1 needs to have the decimal pushed, 750 does not… I have not got into the memory or scan functions or timer mode yet.. That should be straightforward…

The Monitoring Times review is way out of line… He made non qualified assumptions with many parts of the evaluation. He was concerned it was only a dual conversion and not a triple conversion and might have issues with strong local signals. Here in San Diego, NOT THE CASE…. Plus with an RF gain and 3 position attenuator, you would never have an issue. With Zero attenuation and full RF gain and tuning around a 75K watt AM station, 690, no issues, and I was able to NULL out with the top antenna 90% of this powerhouse station.. Larry Van Horn has done a great injustice to this radio in Monitoring Times. I was skeptical, but had to just prove to myself, I am glad I took the plunge, this radio is not being packed up for return to Amazon… Now I have to figure out where it is going to go in the house. I honestly think it may replace the Sony ICF-6800W now sitting next to my Sangean WFR-1 WiFi radio.. You just have to love radios that have a real S-meter to use…

Review by Ann E. Revelle:

Grundig definitely has a winner with with the Satellit 750 radio! I am extremely impressed right out of the box with how well it performs on its own attached whip telescopic antenna and its rotatble ferrite rod antenna even for quite weak signals with both very good sensitivity as well as selectivity on ALL bands. The current price of about $ 220 on Amazon (including FREE shipping) is a fantastic value and should be a great bargain for many avid radio listeners.

PROS:

1) A double conversion, PLL (Phase-locked loop), fully digital portable radio that that comes with a AC/DC power adaptor and a readable, but too brief manual.

2) Excellent weak signal reception on ALL bands (AM/FM/SW/LW/Airband) using four separate band selector switches. It really performs very well! The LW band is simply selected by double clicking on the AM band control switch.

3) It has very useful bass and treble tone dials with fm stereo through earphones (NOT supplied) as well as a continuously variable RF gain knob as well as a continuously variable Squelch control (for the airband).

4) A separate backlight control that nicely illuminates the display as well as two alarms for wake-up/snooze,etc.

5) A dedicated wide/narrow bandwidth control switch and a SSB (single-sideband) switch whose functions are controlled for the USB (upper side-band) and LSB (Lower side-band) choices by as separate BFO (Beat frequency oscillator) control dial. On my unit this system is very stable and works extremely well. If you change bands and come back to SW however you will have to reset up the USB/LSB and SSB choice to get back to your previous SSB selection however. The two bandwidth choices (Narrow/wide) on the Satellit 750 are usually adequate, but not as good as those currently available on the Kaito series of KA1101/KA1102/KA1103 or of the Tecsun PL-450/PL-600 radios in my opinion.

6) Numerous tuning methods are available including a fine or a coarse tuning setting button for ALL bands and including an ATS storage system for 1000 presets (automatic tuning system), direct keyboard frequency entry without hitting an “ENTER” key, up/down scanning keys, a fine and smooth, manual tuning knob with a dimple for your finger, etc.

7) Very high quality and very readable backlight controlled display with many many icons for indicating battery life, wide/narrow bandwidth filter setting choice, RF gain attenuation, external/internal antenna choice, fm stereo setting, etc. Clock time and station frequency are displayed simultaneously, with the meter band setting also briefly replacing the clock display during tuning of the system.

Good battery life is available using only 4 D cell batteries and the unit can be separately powered by the included AC/DC adaptor as well.

9) Easy channel memory presetting and automatic preset recall of the 1000 preset memory locations (100 for each band, plus 500 presets which can be arbitrarily chosen by the user).

10) It has an easy to use reset control button (but it is located too close to the manual tuning knob).

11) There are ports for two types of external antennas (with both high and low impedance type jacks available). In addition the internal ferrite rod antenna can be fully rotated manually on the top of the unit for optimizing the detection of AM signals and thefully extendable telescopic whip antenna (for FM/SW/Airband) is very adequate for many weak signals as well.

12) It has a very nice foldable top carrying handle and can also be easily moved by the two side rack mount handles as well.

13) A nice (but recessed) and sensitive analog signal strength meter right next to the LCD display as well as a line-in and an fm stereo earphone output jack. This unit also has nice rubber feet on its bottom to keep it from slipping on a table.

CONS:

1) Smallish speaker, but the sound quality is very good for its size.

2) This unit cannot recharge the batteries internally.

3) Some of the knobs are a bit small for efficient control.

4) The BFO knob control is fairly coarse (compared with other similar portable radios) for full control of SSB fine tuning for such a high quality radio. One other reviewer who also liked this radio quite a lot overall also noted this lack of BFO frequency control as well (with 1 KHz BFO tuning available, but where using 10 Hz BFO tuning would have been much much better).

5) No synchronous detection circuit (for controling of fading due to interference) is available on the Grundig Satellit 750 which is present on the SONY ICF-7600GR or on the forthcoming Grundig G3 (soon to be available in April 2009). Both of these latter units are about 0-150 so $ 220-240 for the Satellite 750 seems to be a reasonable price given all its other fine features.

6) It is a faily large and fairly heavy, but still a readily portable unit (except perhaps on airplane flights!). It was built for Grundig in China specifically as a scaled-down version of its famously popular Satellite 800 radio which has a fine design with very fine reception capabilities. With the Satellit 750, they did accomplish a significant reduction in both size and weight and also a much smaller price tag (especially right now) and still retained many of the features of the Satellit 800 however.

Review by Chris Compton:

When the G6 arrived I must say I was a little shocked as I was expecting a larger package, but as the old expression goes “Size Makes no Difference”,and that applies to the G6!

The build quality was extremely good, the rubberized coating and the “just right” weight make for a very good, solid feel.

After a brief scan of the operating manual I placed 2 AA Alkaline batteries in the G6 (you can also use NI-MH batteries and charge them in the G6) but I was very excited and did not want to wait one minute longer, I wanted to play now!

I powered the G6 up and selected the MW AM Broadcast Band, my favorite

for chasing weak, distant signals. I then thought to myself, I need a “Standard” in which to compare the G6. Being an avid radio collector I selected a Tough Act to Follow” radio from my collection for the AM MW Blue Ribbon. I chose my Panasonic RF2900.

Both radios had brand new alkaline batteries installed, as I did not want to deal with AC power line noise, induced into the units by operating from the AC Mains.

It was in middle of the day so I selected a station on 1360 KHz, KWDJ, 1000 watts day, in Ridgecrest, CA, about 100 miles from my location in Lancaster, Ca. At that distance the measured signal strength of KWDJ was less than 100 Micro volts/Meter (Measured on Potomac FIM 22 AM field strength meter)

I placed both radios on the same table ,and rotated the units so their loopsticks were optimized for reception from the direction of Ridgecrest, Ca.

Also note, that in Lancaster, there is a 1000-watt AM station on 1380 KHZ

Its transmitter, less than 3 miles from my location, and in the same heading as

Ridgecrest!

As I tuned the RF2900 to 1360 I heard Dr. Laura, pretty clear along with a fair amount of background noise.

I listened for about 2 minutes to make sure that the signal was steady, which it was.

Now it was “ShowTime” I powered the G6 up, and using the Jog Wheel, I tuned the G6 to 1360…and with the volume set about halfway….I heard Dr. Laura, with about the same amount of noise as the RF2900!

Needless to say, I was impressed.

OK I said, lets take a listen to the low side of the band.

How about a lowly 100 watt AM station XSURF on 540 KHZ in Mexico, over 100 miles away.

I rotated the radios toward Mexico, tuned the RF2900 to 540 ,and there in the noise was XSURF on 540.

I should call the G6, the “Little Engine that Could” because when I tuned it to 540 KHZ, there was XSURF with just slightly more noise than the RF2900, WOW!

The G6 had no trouble in pulling in most all of the Los Angeles radio AM signals which ranged from 75 to 100 miles away with only one 50,000 Watt signal.

Ok, I was convinced that the G6 had great performance on MW AM, but how about FM?

I went back to my radio collection looking for a portable radio to make the comparison, a unit with better than average FM reception, my Eton E5.

On FM a good test would be pulling in KGZO, 90.9 in Shafter, CA

Operating with only 1.9 KW of power, over 100 miles away.

This is a good test of sensitivity and selectivity as my location in Lancaster, Ca, is within the 1MV contour of Superpower 110,000 Watt KPFK at 90.7.

In the past the Eton E5 had no problem in pulling in the KGZO signal in full stereo, with only a slight intrusion from KPFK.

The Eton E5 repeated this task as expected.

After tuning the G6 to 90.9 and with a little playing with the rod antenna, there was KGZO in stereo with just a slightly more amount of intrusion by KPFK, but still listenable!

The G6 had no trouble in pulling in signals from all the Los Angeles FM signals from Mount Wilson, the location of 99% of Los Angeles FM Signals.

On more thing…. do not let the small speaker size fool you, this little baby can fill a small room with pretty good volume.

On Shortwave the G6 is comparable in selectivity and sensitivity to several of my Shortwave rigs including my Eton E5, my Sony 6500 ,and my Sangean 909. The BFO makes copy of SSB a breeze as well.

On VHF I can hear signals from Aircraft and from LAX and Lancaster’s Fox Airfield.

On a scale of 1 through 10 the Buzz Aldrin Edition Grundig G6 gets a

BIG 10!

Chris Compton

Professional Broadcast Engineer, and Avid Radio Collector for over 35 Years

Lancaster, CA

Review by Ann E. Revelle:

This Buzz Aldrin edition of the G6 aviator radio is indeed an excellent new product. Identical in all aspects (except for some printing on the front of the unit) to the standard G6 aviator radio, it seems very well made and should last a long time if treated with care. The radio is both extremely small (almost the same size as the Kaito KA11!) and readily transportable yet the reception is still excellent on all available bands. It is certainly not as fine a radio as the Kaito KA1103 by any means, but for its size and weight it is quite exceptional, plus it has the aircraft band frequencies (see below for further details and limitations, etc.).

I like being able to change the news/music switch in order to slightly improve AM and SW signal audio fidelity (on my unit it is certainly NOT a deep bass boost switch however with little tonal changes being evident as the switch changes its position). Unfortunately this is also NOT a narrow/wide bandwidth filter switch which is not available on this radio at all. Using the SSB (single sideband) BFO (beat frequency oscillator) tuner is also very easy and straight forward with a key press on the front of the radio and in fine increments using the tuning dial as well. Unlike some other radios, SSB tuning is also available on the G6 on the AM band as well as on SW which is a very useful feature. The separate ability to step tune in very small increments with the jog dial setting is also excellent in my opinion once a signal of interest has been located. The unit also has an attached 20 inch telescopic antenna as well as an external antenna jack which is especially nice for receiving the weaker FM/SW/Aircraft band stations as well as an earphone jack for private listening (including FM stereo). LW and MW (AM) stations are tuned using the internal ferrite antenna coil.

I rather like the digital volume controls as well. The steps between each setting are sufficiently small that quite precise control of the volume levels can be attained, especially when using earphones which is my most common mode of operating this radio given the smallness of its speaker (but still adequate).

In addition, the Grundig manual for the G6 although too brief and lacking in some important technical details is just fine to read with no English translation problems as with the Degen (Kaito) radio manuals for the KA1102/KA1103. Degen now makes the G3, G4, G5 and G6 for Grundig (whose designs originated from the Degen engineering brainpower from some 6 years ago now). These radios are now advertised as designed in California (by the Eton Corporation) and made in China, but to be fair Grundig has capitalized on a proven Degen/Kaito design and greatly improved on the ergonomics for using these fine radios.

The availability of the complete LW spectrum (formally from 153-279 KHz), but continuous on this radio from 150 KHz all the way to the start of the AM (MW) band at 520 KHz and of the Aircraft bands (117-137 MHz) and of the complete SW spectrum (1.711 to 29.999 MHz) on this unit is also true of the G5 as well (with the exception of the aircraft band that is available on the new G3 which should be available in th3e middle of April this year). The Eton Corporation will soon start to advertise the availability of the complete LW band features on these new Grundig branded radios since it was originally and inadvertently overlooked by the marketers. (If you still have any doubts read the back of the radio in zoom mode on this website). The Sony ICF-SW7600GR also has the full spectrum of LW/AM(MW) and SW bands too and has advertised it all along, but that radio also lacks the aircraft band that is available on the new G6 Aviator radio. Especially for international travelers, the 10 KHz AM tuning step for N. America can also be changed to the 9 KHz step that is standard in Europe and Asia too.

One negative item is that the airband can not be automatically scanned like all of the other available bands on this radio. Another very negative item (see also below for those of you who live in heavily urban areas with lots of simultaneous interfering signals possible), is that there is no RF gain switch (DX/normal/local, etc.) on this radio at all either. Considering just how sensitive the front end of this radio is to weak signals, this is a very surprising error of omission in my humble opinion and one that should be rectified by Grundig (PUN intended!).

The G6 even has alarms and time zone capabilities and 700 memories that can be labeled along with with multiple and very useful ways I might add to tune and store information in this very versatile, dual conversion PLL (phase locked loop) synthesized, diminutive “micro-receiver style” radio. These memories are arranged for all of the 100 pages with 7 memories to a page. Each of these 100 pages can be labeled alphanumerically in groupings to boot. The presets can also be chosen on each page randomly regardless of the band. In addition, numerous pre-stored time zones (~30) from all around the globe can also be easily chosen while traveling in order to make changing your local time setting with respect to UTC world time very convenient.

On another website there is a discussion of some occasional small microprocessor problems when loading two adjacent presets on a single page. The radio apparently can lock up, but it is easy to unlock and simply reload the page once again with no further preset storage problems.

There is even an on-screen clock as well as the day of the week and a battery level indicator, a hold switch for locking all of the buttons as well as a separate lock switch chosen through the jog dial for the tuned frequency. There is also a very nice on screen and very detailed signal strength meter and a nice orange back-light system. The radio can also charge batteries inside the radio (sounds like the KA1102/KA1103 proven technology once again- eh?) and it even comes with a one year warranty, a slip case as well as a AC/DC adapter charger. It runs on 2 AA batteries normally while in its portable state. It even has a nice carrying strap permanently attached to the radio as well which is a nice touch given its very small size.

UPDATE: May 27, 2008:

I am in Alabama on travel and I too have now experienced very significant bleeding of apparently high power am stations directly on to the aircraft band at several frequencies. As a heads up, this just goes to show that to adequately test any radio it should be done at several locations. However, I have experienced none of this am frequency bleeding at my home location in the high mountains of New Mexico for example. This suggests that the dual conversion available at two IF (intermerdiate frequencies) in this radio are not adequate in some locations to adequately block unwanted noise from the aircraft bands.

June 18, 2008 UPDATE:

Yes, as I had previously indicated above, the G6 Aviator is a PLL (Phase locked loop) dual conversion receiver with a digital display and 700 presetable memories (Information recently confirmed by Walter Hess, Technical Support Manager, Etón Corporation, 1015 Corporation Way. Palo Alto, CA 94303 USA)

Finally, I look forward very much to having the fun of using this radio for the high quality sounds of music, news and just general LW/AM(MW) broadcast band, shortwave and aircraft band listening from all over the globe for a very long time.

September 8, 2008: UPDATE

For those of you who really really like this radio (and there is a lot to like), in order to compensate for its extremely good sensitivity (except perhaps in the am band), a trick that I learned about by reading other web reviews is to actually shorten the whip antenna length significantly when bleeding and other interference occurs. This allows the arriving radio signals to not overload the system and be received with very significant improvement. Ironically, usually we are always interested in lengthening the radio antenna (especially outdoors if it is not too noisy at the radio frequencies of interest). I hope that this may help you to continue to enjoy your new Grundig radio! Out in the open countryside this bleeding is NOT a problem at all, so only the big city radio listeners (or travelers to big cities) need to be beware of this potential problem for the G6.

April 3, 2009: UPDATE

Amazon currently has a great sale on the Buzz Aldrin G6 aviator radio for about including shipping or about 2 including shipping with the Kaito passive wire, reel antenna (AN-03L) that makes this an even greater bargain item!

April 11, 2009: UPDATE

One very nice feature of the 24 hour clock system is that it is fully adjustable for traveling including a GMT (Zulu or UTC) setting. With the radio off you simply press and hold the #8 key until a long list of coded city names appears. Next, you simply choose the time zone code closest to the one that you are currently within using the tuning knob and wait 8 seconds and you are all set (it is then automatically stored until you change it again). If you desire to know the Universal (UTC) time separately, you simply choose the “GMT” choice briefly to find the time in Greenwich, England and then repeat the above procedure and go right back to your current timezone location. (Unfortunately there is no provision in the G6 for entering the date or activating daylight savings time so at certain times of the year your indicated GMT time could be up to 1 hour off unless you live in Arizona, etc.) As you continue to travel this process is easily repeated as often as may be needed.

Review by J. Ray:

BUY THREE!

I’ve never written an online review before but his radio is great and is worth the trouble.

I’m a Ham Operator and I restore tube radios for a hobby so I’ve spent a few hours listening to DX, I know crap, I know hype, and I know a miracle when I trip over one. I started looking around for a pocket radio to keep in my truck because sometimes I would be caught working away from the shop for hours without any news or music. If you’re a radio nut you can guess what happened next. A month later, probably twenty hours online and more than a hundred bucks worth of pocket radios and I wasn’t happy. I’d had fun and now had some radios handy around the house for “adequate” use (radios & led flashlights, can’t have enough!). Even though I had run across this radio online and in reviews I didn’t put it on my list of probables, It was just a .00 radio and I was limiting myself to vintage radios with discrete transistor designs or new IC designs over or dollars. After all I wanted a “good radio”. I was pretty much interested in an analog radio because in this price range digital sets are usually noisey, battery hogs, and plauged by “birdies”. Finally, I ordered one of these because “what the heck” ten bucks, if it sucks I’ll give it away. When it showed up I plopped in a set of AA’s tuned the dial and heard lots of stations, good sign. Any radio that has analog tuning with a dial thats two inches across is a challenge, but thats ok. Low and behold theres KGNC from over 120 miles away and it’s 1500hrs(3pm). What the hay! Listen up buyers, This radio is TEN BUCKS and it can hear stations others can’t. No one has learned how to put sensitivity, selectivity, and audio into one box this size but this radio is a miracle! Don’t get me wrong this is not a Sony 2010 or a GE SRIII, but it’s small enough and cheap enough to have one in every room of the house and in each car. And the speaker is good enough that you don’t have to use phones. It has a telescoping antenna for FM. Some radios that cost 6X as much don’t have a tele. ant., they use the headphone cables. That means even if your using the speaker you have to have the headphones plugged in or the FM stinks. Since this is still a new toy it hasn’t yet made it to the glove box in the truck, I’m still playing with it. I live in the Panhadle of Texas and last night I listened to a talk show in Nebraska before bed; woke up and touched the dial and there was a great morning show in San Antonio. If this radio was .00 I’d give it 3 or 3.5 stars, for TEN to FOURTEEN dollars it is a true bargain! Some others may review this radio and subtract points because of selectivity or something, remember this radio cost less than a good burger and fries! I’ve spent thousands of dollars on radios; Collins,Icom,Yaesu,Sony, and others. I have better radios than this one but I’ve never had anything for >.00 that was this good.

Buy two or three, I did.

Jeff

Review by Andrew Hildreth:

I’m one of “those people” that always seems to have room for one more radio, even if it is roughly the same as many others I own. After reading several reviews for the ICF-S10MK2 and seeing the price tag, I couldn’t resist. After spending a few days of extensive listening, it has sent a few other radios to the display shelf. The Sony is a bare-bones FM/AM transistor – no clock, dial lighting, bells or whistles. The clear plastic front and splash of brushed aluminum around the dial selector give it just enough style to be noticed. Controls are kept to a minimum at volume, tuning, and band-selection. The audio quality is good, but par for a transistor radio. As long as awe-inspiring surround sound isn’t expected, you won’t be disappointed. The FM antenna folds out from the left side of the radio and swivels around for optimal reception. A much better option than just protruding from the top. The earphone plug on the side is mono only, and will only play in the left ear with a standard set of headphones. FM performance is good – a little too good, as the signals tend to overload a bit. Away from the city areas, FM signals come in distant and fairly well. The AM band is where this little Sony really shines. While most small radios can’t cope with decent AM reception, this one goes above and beyond radios 3 times its size and 6 times the price. The AM tuner has excellent sensitivity and selectivity, and gives you the option of some tougher signal catches. I have been able to listen to a small station 35 miles away at 1140khz, while almost next to the antennas of a 50,000 watt monster at 1180. The S10MK2 performs some good feats on only 2 AA batteries, with an average listening life of 40-45 hours per set. Alot of enjoyment for little money. For a quick breakdown:

Pros:

- Long life on batteries

- Fairly loud volume without distortion

- easy to operate

- excellent reception

- cheap price tag

Cons:

- earphone audio in left ear only without special adaptor

- minimal styling. Won’t stand out in a crowd

- antenna arcs, but doesn’t swivel

- FM selectivity not all that it could be

- audio quality is OK, but not spectacular

- battery door isn’t hinged and could be easily lost

- no option for AC power. Batteries only

Although there are some radios that perform better than this particular Sony, you won’t find any of them this inexpensive. For good listening on the cheap, make sure to get one…or two. Maybe 3 just in case.

Review by Tim:

The ICF-38 radio is identical to the ICF-36, minus the weather and TV bands. Sony obviously created this newer model because, as of February 2009, the TV band will no longer be available on analog radio. It’s a shame they couldn’t have carried over the NOAA weather band, though, which is very useful for weather reports, storm warnings, and other emergencies. But then again, it didn’t work so well on the older model.

The ICF-38 is a decent AM/FM portable radio and is very easy to operate. The controls include an on/off switch, an AM/FM switch, separate tuning and volume wheels, and a high/low tone switch. That’s it! There’s also a fold-up handle and a 24″ whip antenna that swivels in all directions. The tone of the radio is good, though somewhat thin, in spite of the tone switch. The reception of both AM and FM is excellent – considerably better than most portable radios in this price range. Tuning the radio is helped by a tiny red tuning eye that lights up when a station frequency has been located. The ICF-38 can be powered either by a wall outlet or 4 AA batteries. Battery consumption seems to be minimal.

One criticism. In modifying this radio, Sony should have seen to the one consistent complaint that users made about the ICF-36: the headphone output is mono, which means it plays out of only one side of a set of head phones. The same is still true for this newer model.

The Sony ICF-38 is a very good, sturdy, and practical radio. It’s fairly small and light weight, and the speaker has at least a decent tone quality. It would make an excellent radio to carry around the house or yard or to the park. Its extreme (almost severe) simplicity of design and function makes it a refreshing change from the far more sophisticated digital radios that are now the norm. I would think it would be a suitable radio for an elderly person. The lack of a lighted display window and digital clock – which some people would find disappointing – means that the batteries will last all the longer. Yes, such simplicity is good, and leaves you to spend all your time enjoying the pleasures of music, news, and talk radio, rather than thumbing through a multi-cultural manual, trying to figure out how on earth to program an overly-complicated machine. For its price and overall capability, the ICF-38 is an excellent item. I highly recommend this radio.

Review by J. Root:

This radio brings in distant stations, sounds good, and takes up little space. The controls are easy for me to use. These were the qualities I was looking for so I am pleased I made the choice to buy Sony ICF38.

Review by Michele:

I purchased 2 of these to replace the Midlands I lost in a tornado on July 13, 2004. The old radio saved the lives of myself, our 5 yr old and 3 of our grandchildren. If the radio had not been gone off, we would likely be dead. I never would have looked out the back door in time to get us all in the basement before an F4 hit our home. We live in the country and I have always had a weather radio. I tell everyone I know to get weather radio .

This is a nice model and I like the AM/FM feature. The problem I continually have had with every radio is that we live in the middle of the coverage areas and don’t get the best signal at times. I have solved this by putting a Chore Boy stainless steel scrub pad on the antenna. It definitely improves the reception and seems to do better that foil. Other than that I think this is the best one I have had.

Review by miket:

After having tried just about every SAME technology weatheradio out there, I found the WR-300 to be one of the better ones, and definitely the best of the Midland weatheradios to date.

One of the best features it has is that it allows you to disable the audiable alerts for every watch/warning except life threatening ones like tornado warning, or biological hazard warning, etc. Other brands and models will only allow you to disable the most harmless events. I do not wish to be alerted at 3am because of a severe thunderstorm warning, or tornado watch. With the WR-300, I won’t be alerted unless there is actually a tornado warning.

The blue LED backlit LCD display is pretty sharp looking, too! There is a menu feature that allows you to continuously keep the blue backlighting on, although I think it would be too bright in a bedroom at night, especially if the WR-300 is right next to the bed on a nightstand.

Some people have complained about the beeps for every keypress, and I did not find that to bother me. Maybe a softer “click” sound for every keypress would be better. Also, others have reported that their WR-300 leaked audio when the WX is muted. I did not have this problem at all; it worked fine for me.

Things I really liked about the WR-300:

1) Extensive audiable alert disable ability

2) Form factor and relatively small size

3) Blue backlit display

4) 4-AA battery backup (instead of 9v transistor batt)

5) Am/Fm/clock/alarm features

6) Menu flexibility (although not that intuitive)

I gave the WR-300 a 4 instead of 5 star rating because of the following minor issues:

1) No display of event(s) remaining time(s)

2) Menu navigation and master alert disable/enable operation was not intuitive.

3) No visual indication as to whether or not the master audible alert is enabled or disabled.

Review by Hugh Phillips:

This clock radio shares an obvious family resemblance to its highly successful predecessor, the Sony ICF-C218 Automatic Time Set Clock Radio (Black): 90% of the buttons and functions of the earlier version are implemented and placed identically in the newer model. The buttons and their labeling are so intuitive that a manual is hardly needed (but helpful for the Sleep and Time Zone buttons). The ICF-C318 possesses four new buttons, switches and controls and a feature that make it a more desirable model than the earlier one: a 3-level brightness button, a two-level buzzer volume switch, a second alarm mode rotary switch, a second alarm time setting control, and most importantly, the ‘No Power No Problem’ feature means the alarm will still sound even if the AC power is off when the alarm was set to ring. The efficacy of those new contols and feature were assessed.

The brightness control was a feature requested by many users of the ICF-C218 who complained it was too bright in a darkened room. There is no doubt that the display of the newer ICF-C318 can be set to be very dim (thus pleasing insomniacs bothered by the ‘nighlight effect’) but at its brightest setting it is still too dim to be seen clearly in a brightly lit room. The alarm buzzer is not really a buzzer, its a peeper and the two level slide control has little noticeable effect on volume – its just not very loud either way. When ignored the alarm peeps more frequently. If you need a really loud alarm, you will be safer using the radio alarm rather than the buzzer. The rotary switches to set alarm mode (off, buzzer, radio) are improved in that the indicator on the switch is a larger, more visible groove than the the tiny, hard-to-see pit of the earlier model. The alarm time set knobs allow a new time to be set very quickly and easily; they are just a little clunkier looking than the sleek recessed toggle control of the earler model. The ‘No Power No Problem’ feature is the best new feature for this unit that sets it apart from the ICF-C218. I expect my alarm clock to work at a very high level of reliability, a power outage is no excuse for failure of that function. In this regard, the ICF-C318 performs as expected, but the ICF-C218 fails miserably. If the alarm mode is set to radio and the AC power is off when the alarm should ring, the ICF-C318 uses the buzzer (peeper) alarm instead; the buzzer probably drains less energy from the tiny backup battery than the radio.

The radio portion of this clock radio performs adequately. The sound can be quite clear for a strong station but it is obviously not high fidelity. The radio portion of this unit is just gravy – the alarm and clock function are the only real crucial parts to me. It seems to keep good time. I synchronised it with an atomic clock initially and a week later see no difference between the two when they were compared again. Clock time is maintained by a Li wafer battery even when the AC power is off; I don’t know why they didn’t use a more common, cheaper, higher capacity backup battery like an AA. The clock will perform automatic advance and setback of the time for regions that follow daylight savings time. Fortunately, this feature can be disabled for regions like the state of Arizona that do not use DST. By comparison, Emerson clock radios that have ‘SmartSet’ are crippled – DST advance and setback cannot be disabled.

How about aesthetics? In my opinion the earlier version’s (ICF-C218) simpler shape and flat faceplate were snappier looking. The rounded faceplate and rear of the newer ICF-C318 seem less attractive. But its easy to dismiss the skin-deep homeliness when the other good features of the ICF-C318 are considered. The ICF-C318 comes in a white case and a black case version (complete Sony model numbers ICF-C318/WC and ICF-C318/BC respectively). This review applies to both color models because they are functionally identical. Although I don’t normally like white appliances, it is a little bit easier to read the black button labels on the white case than the white button labels on the black case.

It took a while for me to understand that with this clock there is both a manual and an automated way to spring clock time forward for Daylight Saving Time and to ‘fall back’ when Standard Time resumes. These two mechanisms don’t always play nice together and that can lead to confusion. Well, at least it confused me. I should also point out that the instructions that came with the clock just discuss US Time Zones which have designated DST start/stop dates at least until 2015, and spring forward and fall back at 2AM. In other parts of the world, the designated DST dates and times often differ from the US so it is unlikely that the automated DST adjustment of this clock will be of any use (except in Canada). So where you don’t fall into a US time zone, the automatic DST adjustment should be disabled; just remember to use the manual method on the appropriate date. And of course if you live in a part of the US (like Arizona) where DST is not observed, the automatic DST adjustment should likewise be disabled.

I have concluded that the Time Zone setting has no effect on anything including automatic DST adjustment. I can only envision one situation where it would matter or be helpful to set or adjust the Time Zone: if you take the alarm clock with you when you travel and in your travels you cross time zone boundaries. Adjusting the Time Zone allows the clock time to be altered in 1 hour increments without having to go through the Clock button to manually reset the time. Its easy to set the Time Zone, so why don’t you set it for your zone anyway?

I will spare you some of the trial and error I went through to try to figure out how DST was implemented and if it worked correctly on this clock. DST adjustments are explained in the manual that came with the clock but those explanations didn’t go quite far enough. I wanted to understand it so I could set this up for my mom and know exactly what would happen when DST started and stopped. Maybe my explanation will help you.

Before you start, use the Snooze button to verify the year, month and day. If incorrect, then set using the Clock button.

To Disable Automatic DST Adjustment For Places That Don’t Observe DST

Hold down the DST button until ‘Aut’ then ‘OFF’ appear, then release. If ‘Aut’ then ‘On’ appear, release the DST button then press and hold it again to display ‘Aut’ then ‘OFF’ and release the DST button. If the DST LED is illuminated on the front of the clock, press the DST button momentarily: this will have the effect of extinguishing the DST LED and setting back the time 1 hour. If the time is incorrect, find a good reference time source and use the Clock and + – buttons to adjust. So now you are good to go in places like Arizona that don’t observe DST. Put some clear tape across the Time Zone and DST buttons so you won’t be inadvertantly adjusting them as you are stabbing for the Alarm Reset button in the dark.

To Manually Invoke DST Adjustment

First, make sure you have disabled automatic DST adjustment by holding down the DST button to get Aut’ then ‘OFF’ in the display. To ’spring forward’ the clock, momentarily press the DST button. This will illuminate the DST LED and set the clock ahead 1 hour. To ‘fall back’ momentarily press the DST button. This will extinguish the DST LED and set the clock back 1 hour. By this method you can easily compensate for DST changes in locations other than the US where the date or time for DST start/end are different from the US.

Automatic DST Adjustment

If you live in a US time zone where DST is implemented, the automatic DST adjustment of this clock is handy. It’s handy because you don’t have to remember to do it and because it’s easier than manually changing the time on your clock. To enable automatic DST adjustment, hold down the DST button until ‘Aut’ then ‘On’ appear, then release. If ‘Aut’ then ‘OFF’ appear, release the button and repeat to display ‘Aut’ then ‘On’ and release the DST button. If the date is within the range for DST, then the DST LED illuminates. If the date is within the range for Standard Time, then the DST LED is extinguished. If automatic DST adjustment is on, then at 2 AM on March 9, 2008 for example the clock suddenly jumped forward to display 3 AM and the DST LED became illuminated.

Future Proof Automatic DST Adjustment?

I set the clock ahead to March 8, 2015 and verified that it ’sprung forward’ at 2 AM like it should. Without checking the years between 2008 and 2015, I assume the clock would also apply and remove DST on the appropriate date for those years. So the automated DST adjustment of this clock is probably good for at least the next seven years unless DST gets discontinued or altered by Congress before then.

Review by cnypete:

So easy to set & price is right. Radio works good too.

2 seperate alarms, radio or beep. Time is correct out of the box – that’s the only “automatic time set” in play here – -1 star for the “automatic time set” which isn’t really… Battery backup built in – not a 9v, aaa or aa…looks like it will last – round, flat battery of some type like a watch battery, only larger.

3 settings for display. The lowest is dim enough not to bother me and the highest is fairly bright – low is tough to see in full daylight..

Good value here IMHO. Would buy again ….

Review by Timothy Lam:

When we went up to a cabin in the mountain last month with lots of foliage around, we were pleasantly surprised at how well these walkie talkies work. We were able to keep in touch within a mile from the cabin. We are aware that these will not provide the distance listed, especially in steep terrain with lots of trees blocking the signal. That being said, these work really well, and the sound is clear. The double-charger base is a nice touch. If I leave the radio on, even without using them, the battery lasts about 24hrs. They are certainly not the smallest/most-portable radio around, but for the price you can’t beat it.

Review by Jerry H. Bond:

The Midland LXT480 Series GMRS/FRS Radios are professional quality. They have 22 transmitting channels, however, channels 1-7 and 15-22 require an FCC license. To obtain a license, contact 1-888-CALL FCC and request form 605. Serious penalties could result for unlicensed use of GMRS channels.

I might be safe transmitting high power on GMRS in the Avatar (Hallelujah) Mountains, but Big Brother has a mighty long arm. I’d rather not risk it unless faced with a genuine emergency. In such a case, forgiveness is easier to obtain than permission.

This leaves 7 transmission channels for unlicensed users like myself. The power setting for transmitting on these 7 channels (8-14) is permanently set to LOW at the factory per FCC regulations.

Channels 1-7 and 15-22 can be set on high power.

On the bright side, each channel has 121 privacy codes.

Therefore, the remainder of my review covers only 7 channels set on low power.

In spite of the limitations, I am pleased. In several tests with both radios inside of brick houses one mile apart, separated by woods, a hill and a few other buildings, the audible was consistently clear and sharp. This is all the distance I needed. Another desirable feature is the vibrating call alert. This is great in more ways than one when silence is important. In normal call mode, press the call button on one radio and the other radio rings like a telephone. This is a great option. In regions of the country where many cell phones find dead zones, these radios can be life savers.

Every company I’ve ever dealt with from automobiles (gas mileage) to radios (range) advertise the extremes of their products under ideal conditions. Since I’m unable to verify these claims while orbiting the earth or in the or the Bonneville Salt Flats, I’m compelled to go with 5 stars until I can prove otherwise.

Review by Jason M. Page:

I am a long time owner of Squeezebox products and was pretty excited to find out about the little table top Squeezebox Radio model. I picked one up and thought I would share my thoughts.

The first thing you notice is how much heft this little player has. It is really well built and the fit and finish is superb. It has plenty of weight and solid rubber feet so that it won’t skid around on your night stand or table top. The screen looks great and all of the buttons have a nice solid tactile feel. Compared to many other cheap wireless network streaming radios, this device feels an entire order of magnitude better in its construction quality. The only disappointment here is the lack of back lit buttons, for using the radio in low lighting. It’s also worth noting that the entire radio has a high gloss finish that will be a magnet for fingerprints. Looks great though!

The biggest challenge for most consumers with this device will be the initial set up. You need to create an account at [...] in order to set up your new Squeezebox Radio. The device uses this connection to play free internet music services as well as download software updates, etc, to the Radio. I already had a Squeezebox account so this was not a huge challenge for me, but it might be for some people who might be confused that they need to set up an account before they can use the device. There is an option to set up the account from the device itself. Don’t do this (it is slow and tedious)! Go to the website and set it up in a few seconds and then just type your login and password on the device.

Other than the laborious task of entering my full email and password for [...] the rest of the setup is very easy. The Squeezebox Radio supports push to connect wi-fi set up which is common on many newer model wireless routers. It’s similar to programming a garage door opener. Simply point the Squeezebox Radio at your wireless network and for 120 seconds it will try to connect with the push to connect functionality. Then just push the connect button on your router and it’s automagically all set up.

Once set up the Radio will update its firmware and reboot, a process that takes a few extra minutes. After that you are good to go.

In addition to the many built in free online services, you can also play your own music through the Squeezebox Server application. I run the Squeezebox Server application on my HP EX495 Windows Home Server but you can also run Squeezebox Server on any Mac, Windows PC or even Linux box (there are even installable distributions for many Network Attached Storage units). This allows the Squeezebox Radio (and any other Squeeze players) to access all of the music on my home network. It’s absolutely wonderful to be able to take the little table top radio anywhere in the home and listen to your entire music collection.

Sound quality is very good, easily enough to fill a small to medium sized room. It gets quite loud with little to no distortion and the controls are easy to use to change tracks, change volume, etc. Wireless strength is superb. I get a full signal anywhere within about 40 feet of my router, and the radio works anywhere on my suburban property with no audio hiccups or dropouts.

In addition to the intuitive controls such as “home”, “play”, “stop”, “back”, etc, the unit also features six programmable “preset” buttons similar to what you have on a car radio. Setting these up is a bit more of a challenge than you would expect. You are supposed to be able to hold these down on any song, album, playlist, etc, that is being displayed in the radio menu and have it added as a preset. Unfortunately some items don’t add correctly and must first be programmed as a “favorite”. It turns out that you can only add favorites for some items (such as playlists) from the Squeezebox Server web based menu, which is quite inconvenient. I don’t doubt that Slim Devices (the arm of Logitech that makes these devices) will fix this soon enough.

Other minor glitches include some weird alarm behavior (it will show the time of the alarm when it is going off but strangely won’t show the current time, which is annoying if you have hit the snooze button a few times and need to know what time it is), some auto dimming issues (the auto dimming works great but gets almost TOO dim in a dark room to see the radio) and a few other very minor nits.

Slim Devices have a long history of enhancement and improvement of device firmware, so I would expect a lot of these issues to be worked out in the coming months. Additionally there will soon be a battery pack and small infrared remote for the Squeezebox Radio available as a $[...] add on purchase. Personally I think at $[...] the Radio should include these items, but considering the great sound of the radio, the high quality screen and the superb fit and finish it is justified that this device costs as much as it does.

Also worth noting is that if you have an iPod Touch or iPhone you can get the iPeng application $[...] from the Apple App Store which makes controlling and programming your Squeezebox Radio an absolute breeze. iPeng is really a must have if you have these devices and want a wonderful pocket control that works from anywhere in your home. Beats the pants off of what Sonus has to offer!

//Update 1 (Nov 2nd 2009)

Yesterday my SB Radio lost all of the preset buttons which is most annoying. It also turns out that many of the requests for fixes around the alarms functionality have not been addressed and don’t appear to be scheduled to be addressed in the next release or two of the software. If your primary use will be a night stand alarm clock I would recommend holding off for now until Logitech addresses alarm functionality issues. If the issues are not resolved I will reconsider my four star rating as it should then be a three star product.

Review by William G. Schmidt:

I’ve had the Squeezebox Radio for just over a week but that’s long enough to decide what I like and what still needs some work. First, set-up was a snap. The radio found my wireless network instantly and I was able to enter the password and connect quickly. The radio them updated its own software so I was working with the newest release.

What do I like? The radio seems solid. It’s heavy enough that you can press the buttons with the radio on a nightstand and not have it slide. The front is angled back which helps even more. I’d call the sound quality – though not stereo – excellent. There’s no comparison between how this radio sounds and the Sony clock radio I replaced it with. It has a very clear, crisp sound.

What don’t I like? I had the radio only three days when it lost all it’s presets. I re-entered them and all has been well since. This is a well known bug. I am using [...] and NOT using my PC so the problem is likely there. Presets should be stored locally, not on a server. I saved all my presets as favorites so they MIGHT be there the next time this happens (then again, maybe the favorites list will be erased, too). I’d like to see an easier way to set the sleep timer. You have to use the menu and it should be a simple button press. Why not use the power button and cycle through sleep settings? i.e. ON … 45 … 30 … 15 … OFF? There also needs to be a simple way to snooze. Maybe the big button in the middle?

The auto-dimming setting gets awfully dark at night! I should be able to set a minimum brightness level that suits me.

And I’d love to see the apps include weather radar. Yes, this is a radio but it’s got a great color display and being able to watch live weather radar on the screen would be super. A general weather app that makes use of this display would be a plus! Come on Logitech, get with it! This radio has more possibilities than, well, radio!

Later: I’ve had the radio for a month now and am no longer quite so excited. I reduced my initial 4 stars to just 2 stars. This radio is buggy! My initial loss of the presets has now been followed by a loss of the volume control. There was absolutely no way to get it back besides a “factory reset” which removes every setting I so carefully made. You should be able to simply sit down and enjoy a radio, not beta test a product.

I am returning it within Amazon’s 30 day window. I’ve had enough.

Review by Ann E. Revelle:

Comments for prospective buyers:

1) PLL (Phase locked loop) digitally synthesized, am/fm/weatherband radio with very low noise, i.e., very good sensitivity as well as good selectivity (the ability to distinguish between adjacent frequency, interfering signals).

2) This radio can only be manually tunned by pressing the + (forward/up) or – (back/down) frequency tuning button. It will even advance semi-automatically if you hold the button down and you will hear the stations as the radio sweeps through the frequencies so you know how/where to locate stations (unlike Sangean pocket radios which mute during automatic scan and seek functions). Thus, there is no fully automatic, press and scan or even a seek function, but I have found this manual tuning capability totally adequate because of the simplicity of the five preset tuning buttons for each band (with 2 sets of five presets on the fm band). It is quite silly that Sony didn’t take the time right now to also add 5 more presets on a second set of am bands just as they did on fm on the SRF-M37V for example which has 25 presets available and not 20 presets as on this newest model. This is especially because the am reception on this radio is quite exceptional in addition to all of its other very nice features.

3) It is as good as the Sangean pocket radios that I have recently tried as well (including the famous DT-200VX). It remains to be seen if the new (June 2008) Sangean DT-400W (with NOAA weather coverage and broadcast alerts) will compete with the Sony SFR-37W.

4) It has a one year limited warranty and clearly not just 90 days as listed on numerous websites, including Amazon.com. This time limit is clearly listed on the instructions with the radio (the included Sony warranty certificate comes attached to the radio instructions).

5) I get excellent reception here in the mountains of New Mexico for a super-portable am/fm/weatherband radio receiver with 20 presets (5 on am/10 on fm and 5 for weather) that lasts 30-54 hours on one AAA battery. Weatherband signals are weak by the nature of the short range, low power NOAA transmitters and you must turn up the volume to adequately hear them and then adjust it back down for most am/fm stations especially.

6) All presets are very intuitive and extremely easy to use (a one button press system) as well as very easy to set. They are also easy to change as needed, especially if you travel a lot. Also, as long as you change the battery within 3 minutes of removing it, no presets will be lost (fortunately changing the battery is a snap).

7) The SRF-M37W is as extremely durable and well made and should last a very long time. In fact, my son’s SRF-37V (its immediate predecessor) was extensively chewed 3 years ago by his young puppy (whose name is his gal Friday since he first got her on a Friday) and it still works quite well! Also, the battery cover is normally hinged to the radio so that it can’t be lost (unless excessive force is used when it is opened and in this case it is designed not to break, but instead to simply pop out, but can easily be reinstalled as shown in the Sony manual). It also comes with a belt clip that nicely and firmly attaches to the radio for convenience. It also has a lock switch to keep all settings unchanged (except for the volume control) with an LCD screen indicator for the locked position as well as a battery level indicator, etc.

When using it inside a building go as close to the windows/doors as you can to get the very best reception. Radio waves do not penetrate very thick structures well so the best reception should generally be found outdoors for hiking, jogging, just plain walking, etc.

9) As others have stated you probably will want a better set of earphones to fully enjoy listening on all bands, but the supplied pair is certainly adequate for most purposes. In addition, however, I have found that if you use a set of headphones with a longer cord (such as the ~1 m cord on the Sony MDR-Q22LP clip-on earphones), substantially improved fm reception results since the cord acts as the fm antenna on these radios.

10) For those like me who will use this device near a computer, some degree of RF (radio frequency) interference (static on both the am and fm bands) can be expected. The RF interference is substantially reduced the further you move away from the computer or if you hold the radio in your hand or if you can extend the headphone cord fully.

This Sony is my personal update for an old analog Sony radio (the SRF-19W am/fm stereo radio Walkman) from the late 1980’s that is still working (also with no speaker and with a DX RF (radio frequency) gain switch even way back then)!

Review by Randy Allen:

I bought this Walkman for mowing the lawn and have ended up using it all the time, riding my bike two miles to work, while putting around my shop,and mowing the yard. The reception is crisp and clear, and even here in “Radio Free Wyoming”, I can pick up several F.M. stations and the weather band. It is like having a mini-stereo system.

Review by G. Thompson:

I very rarely write reviews but I love this radio so much I felt inspired. (Actually I own the S79V, but it seems to be identical to this one.) It is simply the perfect shower radio. Reception is excellent and better than some of the more expensive radios in my house. It has a clever suction cup aerial that sticks to shower tile well. The controls are simple and I particularly like the timer function, so I don’t need to worry about turning it off. It goes forever on a set of batteries. I also like that this isn’t equipped with a CD player, which would add bulk for a questionable extra function.

The white plastic has yellowed over time (four years?), and the top control panel membrane has deteriorated slightly, but it’s still going strong. I purchased a replacement just to have a spare handy should I need one and find that Sony has stopped making these gems.

Review by Kathy A:

I love this radio! We own 2, and I’m about to buy 2 more – one more for our home and one for a gift. I keep one with my gardening tools and carry it around with me and listen while gardening. The others travel between the bathrooms and bedrooms. Good sound quality, takes dirt and water abuse, and the preset buttons are great for a portable radio. No playing around trying to tune in favorite stations. The batteries seem to last forever (I don’t even know what kind they take, since I’ve never changed them and we’ve had our 2 units for years). So the time is always right, even with the occasional power outs we have in our area, which messes up all the plug in radio times. The best portable radio ever!

Review by Todd D. Hartzel:

The EM1000R radios are very good. They are good for short range 2-way radio general usage. You must remember that there is NO scramble mode on these radios, so absolutely no possibility of any privacy at all (000%). Motorola refers to the CTCSS & DCS codes correctly as Eliminator Codes. Too many manufacturers refer to them as Privacy Codes (which is INCORRECT). CTCSS/DCS do not offer any privacy at all. They help keep out unwanted conversations from being received by the radio. But do not block or prevent anyone else on any other FRS/GMRS or SCANNER radio from hearing you. The EM1000R has all 38 standard CTCSS tones. And has 83 DCS codes available.

Here are a couple of things I really like about the EM1000R radios:

- Very good pickup on the built-in MIC

- Very good audio on the built-in speaker (perhaps the best)

- the QT mode is very cool. When ENABLED, it prevents other

radio users using the same CHANNEL and QUIET CODE from being

heard by blocking reception of those radios. Very very cool

feature. It blocks the other non-motorola radios even if they

are using the same CTCSS/DCS code. Again, very cool feature.

- the ALERT button is cool. Its very similar to EMERGENCY

buttons used on Motorola Trunk and Conventional Radio Systems.

It activates the PTT with an ALERT for 8 seconds, then turns ON the MIC

automatically on the affected radio for 22 seconds. And turns

the VOLUME UP all the way on any and all other Motorola EM1000R

radios that are receiving the signal. Then cranks the VOLUME

back down to the regular level after the 22 seconds. Very cool

function/feature. Very well thought out Motorola. Congrats!

- Weather Radio Alert is always nice, thank you Motorola

- LED flashlight is very cool, thank you Motorola

- The many, many ways to recharge the batteries. Way to go Motorola.

- The END Squelch Tail is eliminated when using either CTCSS or DCS codes on any channel. Hooray, glad to see the END Squelch Tail finally eliminated. Motorola, you are the BEST, thank you. I have been wanting radios that eliminate that darn END Squelch tail. It is so annoying. Thank you Motorola for including this feature in the EM1000R radio!

Now for the things I do NOT like about the EM1000R:

- No basic SCRAMBLE mode (Inversion Mode would have better than none)

- Power output is at fixed level while on GMRS channels. Would of

liked to have either HI/LO or HI/MED/LO options while on GMRS channels.

FRS channels 8-14 are locked at 1/2-watt power output on all radios, of course, per the FCC.

- There is a SCAN/SEARCH feature. No FRS/MURS/GMRS radio should have ever been manufactured with a SEARCH/SCAN feature. It is the reason we have so many problems/complaints with these services. If you want to SCAN, get a SCANNER radio. That is what they are designed to do. FRS/MURS/GMRS radios should have never been made with SCAN/SEARCH feaures. One of the biggest mistakes ever made to these radio services.

That is why we have so much on-air HARRASSMENT and RF STALKING that takes place by your snooping neighbors.

To summarize, I really really like the QT mode. It keeps out non-EM1000R radios from being heard on your radio even if they are using the correct CHANNEL and CTCSS/DCS code. Having a RF power setting would have been nice while on the GMRS channels, to control the power output. And no SCRAMBLE mode means there is privacy from other FRS/GMRS and SCANNER radios. Of course, Audio-Inversion scrambling does not offer much protection from ease-dropping anyway. But it offers at least alittle bit. So, when operating these or any FRS/MURS/GMRS radio, make sure to use CODES, NICKNAMES and do NOT give out REAL NAMES, PHONE NUMBERS, EMAIL ADDRESSES and try not to give out your location. Use abbreviations when possible, and use CODED-LOCATIONs, if you must. Say things like: I am on the A street, or B street, or similar. Remember, there are KIDDIES-PUNKs listening. There are OLD-FARTS and CROOKS listening too, just waiting to use your personal info against you.

Review by Traveler:

This radio works very well in hilly terrain and is easy to use. Reception is clear. One suggestion: the online product information should indicate that the “R” in EM1000R refers to the fact that the pair of radios comes with a recharging bay (with a slot for each radio). This will make comparison among products clearer.

Review by Mike K:

At first glance the FR 300 (sold under several names including Grundig and Eton) appears to be a modification of the very successful FR 200. It seems to use the same case and it has similar looking controls including a hand crank generator. However, with close inspection it really is quite a different radio. The FR 300 eliminates the 2 shortwave bands of the FR 200. It their place it adds the VHF TV reception (audio only) and the weather band. In addition it adds a number of gizmos.

I love the older FR 200. No one would say that the FR 200 was the height of radio engineering and it certainly has a few electronic warts. With that said its pleasant sound, sensitive receiver and cool hand crank generator makes it a winner in my book (see my review in epinions). When the FR 300 came out I was anxious to give it a try so it was off to Circuit City to pick one up.

The Box: The radio appears to be housed in a case very similar to the FR 200. The box is approximately 5.5 inches square and around 2 inches thick. Like the FR 200 it has a nice handle and it some with a nifty nylon case. One side of the radio has a hand crank to charge the rechargeable battery pack. This pack appears to be of the common cordless phone variety if you ever need to change it. The other side of the radio has a volume control and a ganged course/fine tuning control, which operates the analog slide rule dial. Instead of using the primary color theme of the FR 200, the ABS plastic is a classy silver and the speaker grill also has a more polished look. Because the FR 300 has more gizmos than the FR 200 it has a few more controls on the face of the radio. This may add a little more confusion to the technically challenged. With that said, the controls and operation are very simple. Instead of using the flush controls of the FR 200, The FR 300 has a number of raised controls. These may be easier to grasp but they also add some additional thickness to the radio. The addition of all of this spit and polish makes the radio look like a baby version of the popular Grundig S350 rather than a twin of the FR 200.

Power Source: Like the FR 200, the FR 300 can be powered up in a number of ways. You can use 3 AA batteries, which should give you a very long playtime in this energy sipping radio. In addition you can charge the separate battery pack by vigorously turning the dynamo (generator) handle. 90 seconds at two turns per second should give you over an hour of playtime at low volume. You can also use an optional adaptor. Circuit City did not have the Grundig adaptor when I bought the radio. You can use a third party adaptor, but this must be done with caution. If the adaptor is under 200 milliamps it will power the radio and trickle change the battery pack. You can leave the adaptor permantetly connected. If the adaptor is over 200 mg , leaving it connected can overcharge the battery pack and damage the radio. You can remove or disconnect the battery pack and leave a larger adaptor plugged in, but this defeats the “emergency radio” concept.

Gizmos: The FR 300 is decked out in a variety of cool sounding gizmos. Let’s take a look at some them to see if they have merit.

Flashlight: Like the FR 200 you have an LED flashlight built in. LEDs are great because they are very durable and use less power than a traditional flashlight bulb. The FR 300 has a 2 LED system providing somewhat better illumination than the FR 200. Think of it as a penlight. It would be OK to change a fuse or even read a newspaper. It won’t light up a room. All in all, a useful feature.

Strobe: There is also a bright, flashing red LED. It is very cool, but I was wondering what you would use it for. A warning for a disabled car? A cheap reflective banner would work better. A beacon to attract airplanes if you are stranded on a deserted island? Sorry no trips planed. How about an emergency signal to attract the Good Humor Man? Hmmm…. Anyways, I would rate the strobe as a gimmick.

Siren: The FR 300 has a very loud siren. This seems to be a popular (cheap?) addition to a number of emergency radios. This is another feature that leaves me scratching my head. Let’s say you were hiking and got lost. A simple whistle around your neck would do the job nicely. Let’s say you were trapped under a building that collapsed. Well maybe, but you would have to have the radio at your side, which seems sort of unlikely. The Siren would preclude giving this radio to most pre-adolescent boys, unless, of course, his parents gave your kid a drum set for Christmas. Another gimmick.

Cell Phone Charger: The FR 300 comes with a number of adaptors that could allow you the ability to charge your cell phone by turning the radios dynamo. Pretty cool. You could also use a AC power adaptor (not supplied) to charge you phone through the radio. Frankly, in the later case you should use the charging set up supplied with the phone. The question is, can you charge your phone using the dynamo? As mentioned above, The FR 300 is designed to sip at the energy bar. My LG cell phone has two separate LCD displays, one in color. It also has a keypad that lights up and (being a cell phone) a transmitter. The FR 300 manual wisely omits crank times for cell phones, but you can assume that it would be a bicep building experience. I can image that there may be very rare times when this feature could have some utility, but not often and probably a means of last resort. Likely a gimmick.

All radio testing was done with fresh AA batteries.

Sound: Like the FR 200 the FR 300 has a 2.5 inch speaker. There isn’t much base but the sound is pleasant and clear. Plug in some headphones and you get wonderful sound out of both earpieces. The sound is mono, however. It is clear that the FR 300 amplifier section is of a higher quality then what you would find in a cheap pocket radio.

AM (medium wave): Like the FR 200 the FR 300 has a very nice AM tuner. You can hear some weak images of stronger stations on the dial but they aren’t too objectionable. Tuning accuracy is approximate, but it does the job. Sensitivity is very good and I was able to hear a number of out-of-state stations with ease. AGC was average. Reception was similar to the FR 200. All in all a nice little AM radio.

Weather Band: The FR 300 picks up the 7 channel weather band which is used in the US and Canada. I was able to pick up 3 channels on the radio, two very clearly. My car radio was able to pick up 4 weather channels (as a comparison). As a bonus, a nice, big knob controls the channels. In addition you can use an alert function. You leave the radio turned on and this function keeps it mutes the audio until the radio picks up a special signal for the weather service. Sounds nice, but don’t forget this radio does not come with an AC adaptor. Leaving the radio on and then cranking it or changing the batteries doesn’t make a lot of sense. Overall, I would rate the weather band as very good.

VHF TV Reception: Chicagoland has 5 VHF TV outlets (channels 2,5,7,9,11). The FR 300 allows VHF TV reception via two separate bands. One for channels 2-6 and the other for channels 7 and above. Using the FR 300 to pick up TV was a painful experience. As I would turn down the TV band I would encounter image after image of blaring distorted FM stations. On the lower VHF this garbage obliterated band channel 5. This problem was also present on the upper VHF band, but less so. Channel 9 was obliterated here. Changing rooms or reducing the length of the antenna did not help this problem. I also tried the radio at my office (further away from local FM broadcasters and more shielded from RF). It was still horrible. I exchanged the radio and the second one was slightly better, I now could get channel 9 but not channel 5. There was still tons of garbage from FM on these bands. TV performance was not acceptable.

FM performance: The FR 200 had a flawed but quite useable FM section (see my epinion on the FR 200). I thought that the FR 300 would offer similar performance, but I was very wrong. First off, the FM section occupies only one part of the tuning dial with the low VHF TV channels occupying the rest. I was estimate that the FM portion is only about 1/3 of the dial making any tuning difficult. When I first tried FM I was shocked at the incredibly poor reception. Our two local FM broadcasters were imaged all over the dial, and I mean everywhere. Even a flea-powered local college station was imaged up and down the dial. Every once in a while I could tease another station out of the mess. It was truly horrible. Reducing the antenna length, etc did not help. I took the radio to my office, which is much farther from our local broadcasters. In addition, the building shields lot of RF. Here I still heard the local broadcaster smeared over the dial. The flea-powered college station was absent but now the local junior college’s station was popping up everywhere. FM was unusable. I saw one user report on the FR 300 noting good FM reception (Circuit City web page) so I thought I might have a defective radio. I exchanged it hoping that radio #2 would redeem the Grundig name. This radio had it own set of problems on FM. The dial wasn’t totally dominated by images from the local broadcasters, but they were present. The local college station at 89.1 obliterated the FM spectrum below and all the way up to 92 MHz. Similarly, the local oldies station at 95.9 smeared itself to WMFT at 98.7. It also smeared downward, but it was such a mess I couldn’t tell what was what. It was clear that the way that this particular radio “fix” the multiple image problem was to turn down the sensitivity on FM, so even when I could get a Chicago station the reception was poor. Even more bizarre was what happened when I tuned around 100 MHz. There, I started to receive VHF aircraft traffic, I don’t live near any commercial airport.

I love radios, I collect them and play around with them. The FR 300 has, by far, the worst FM reception of any radio that I have ever used, including cheapo pocket radios. This appears to be partly due to poor quality control (two radios with two different problems) but I also suspect design flaws.

As a radio collector I’m about to do something that I never do, I’m going to return this radio for a refund. All the bells and whistles and gizmos are useless if you can’t use a major portion of a radio (the FM band). As more people review this radio I will be curious with the results. If lots of people like the FM portion of the radio it is likely that this is a QC issue that will eventually get resolved (and I just happened to get two bad radios). I addition, I have to wonder about the logic of including functions, like the weather alert option, but not including an AC adaptor as standard equipment. With the myriad of portable radios available, including the nice FR 200, I can’t image why anyone would buy this radio. Definitely, not recommended.

Review by Jen:

I got this specifically for emergencies. In the big fires we had here a couple years ago, radio was pretty much useless on the first day – several stations were off the air due to power failures and the press conferences with the police and fire chief were all on TV. Eventually, the radio stations advised people to watch their TVs. This unit gets good audio reception on three local broadcast TV stations plus a whack of AM and FM stations. Another reviewer indicated that the FM tuning isn’t great. They’re right – it isn’t. That’s the missing star in my rating. The NOAA weather stations come in well too. Once there’s no more free broadcast TV signals, I guess this will be an expensive hand-cranked AM radio.

Review by S. R. W.:

On newsgroups and message boards, this handy and compact little radio is being touted as a good choice for beginning shortwave listeners: but I would disagree. As usual for the current line of low-end Grundig products, the “single conversion” intermediate frequency design has resulted in serious image problems: in other words, you pick up a single strong station at two, or sometimes three, places on the dial: in the correct location at the intended frequency, plus one or two spurious images above and below it. In the crowded shortwave bands, this makes listening extremely difficult, as the images cause wobbling whistles and lots of interference (and make it hard to even know WHERE the radio is tuned.) In addition, the planetary tuning mechanism has really dreadful backlash: to tune in a shortwave station, you have to go past it, then back up and tune around until you *finally* get it centered. Then, the radio drifts and a few minutes later you are forced to do it all over again: maddening.
AM (called mediumwave in Europe and much of the world) is more satisfying as the stations are not crowded together as much as shortwave, and the band is shorter so there is more spread from one end to the other: the tuning isn’t nearly as critical. Selectivity is pretty good, and sensitivity is excellent. I have not noticed image problems that are as troublesome as in the SW bands.
FM reception was disappointing; selectivity seems poor, and sensitivity rather low. Stations “mush” together — if they can be picked up at all. Expect only the strongest signals in your reception area.
The generator system works very well though a trio of new AA cells gives more output and slightly better sensitivity.
I tried six units and found that performance varied slightly. One brand new radio had a weak set of batteries that would not charge correctly; another had extremely tinny sound that lacked fullness (surprising to me but probably due to a poor speaker or bad audio capacitor.) A couple of the sets weren’t as sensitive as others. So quality control apparently varies somewhat.
The unit I purchased is very satisfactory as a simple emergency and/or AM broadcast receiver, though not much useful for FM or shortwave. But it sounds a bit better than pocket sets, and definitely outperforms most of them in terms of AM sensitivity. (I am a retired broadcast station chief engineer in the SF bay area, with fifty years experience as a shortwave listener.)

Review by clickz4:

From reading the other reviews, I see most people love this radio, but some dog it. They’re both right. Your level of satisfaction with this radio will have more to do with your buying motivations than the product.

Grundig has a well established reputation for making fine products. If you are a shortwave enthusiast who is looking for a good shortwave radio, sadly I must admit that you need to keep looking. The tuner is iffy (by your standards) and it does not have the ‘Grundig Feel’ of their more expensive products.

But notice Grudig calls it an ‘Emergency Radio,’ not a shortwave radio.

If you want something for peace of mind -that you will never be caught without a radio because of dead batteries- then this is a great product. I live in a hurricane zone and every time there is a storm approaching, all my friends wait in long lines to buy batteries. I know I’m ready 24/7. As an added bonus I’ll always have a flashlight with me. (which is more handy than I would have guessed)

(Here is the kicker-) If you want an emergency radio AND you like to listen to the BBC or Radio Canada every once in a while, then this is definitely the product for you.

I’ve had mine for a year and a half and I use it at least 3 times per week. The best way to describe the tuner is “credible.” It can pick up all the big name stations, even indoors, but it is not stunning. The tonal quality is acceptable but I’m usually listening to the spoken word and not music. (I have an iPod for that

I bought it because I wanted a cheap shortwave. The fact it had a crank and a flashlight was gravy at first, but it is more and more important as I use it.

Some notes about the battery:

You’ll never turn the hand crank enough to fully charge the internal battery. I have a fancy NiCad charger so I charged the battery fully and it lasted 6 weeks of near daily use during Gulf War II. (I’d guess 120+ hours, I was amazed) Problem is, your arm would fall off before you got there. Even if you don’t give it a full charge, I find the cranking to listening ratio pretty good.

But do what I do- I run it on NIMH AA’s and it lasts for weeks. I never pay for batteries but I never have to crank it either. (unless the batteries die)

And a final thought on durability which some people discuss.

I’ve dropped mine several times even once from about 6 feet up while I was painting. I have one scratch on it but other than that, it really does look much like the day I bought it. The case is still tight and the controls firm. I give it to my 6 year old nephew and he cranks for hours with no ill effect. I’d say durability is quite good.

I hope this review helps you get a feel for the radio. If your needs come even close to matching what this radio was designed to do, then I feel confident it will exceed your expectations in the long run.

=====Update=======

Well, 2 years -and Hurricane Katrina later- I’ll never be without this radio. We left town 2 days before the storm and I brought it with me. At night I could pick up WWL radio (50,000 watt clear channel) from Memphis.

My nephew (who I mentioned above) broke the antenna off for me so no shortwave for me any more but AM/FM works fine… That was homicide, don’t blame the radio. It’s now approaching 4 years old, I still use it weekly and it is still in good shape otherwise.

BTW- I came back in town just a few days after the storm to rescue some friends’ pets and help get some people out of town. I brought extra gas, extra water, 5 days of food and this radio. That probably say it all.

Review by Gus:

I was given this radio as a gift, and had absolutely no expectations. I have owned it for almost two years and have never put a single battery in it, I have never plugged it in (it doesn’t come with an A/C adapter) and it still runs well (though I can tell it’s days are numbered since I need to crank it more to get the same radio time). It has the best reception of the four radios I have tried in my apartment, and all without any electricity. I live in Cincinnati and can pick up Cleveland stations (about 250 miles away) at night.

I have used it as a flashlight in emergency situations and the light is surprisingly effective for the size. The only problem with the light is it will dim after a minute of use. You have to crank it for a few seconds every 2 or 3 minutes to keep it bright.

The cell phone charger says that you have to crank it for about 15 minutes to get one minute of phone time. That’s so awful that I never even bothered to turn in the card they give you to get the free adapter.

Overall I love this radio because it gets great reception and I don’t have to use any electricity or waste batteries. It’s very helpful in that during an emergency it does exactly what you need it to do and nothing more. I have recommended this radio to many people and will continue to do so.

Review by Kate:

I’m wondering if anyone else has really tested the hand crank power on this radio. I let the rechargeable battery run down completely (not intentionally, but a good test for emergency preparedness), and I found that after cranking for a full 90 seconds, the radio only worked for a couple minutes. I was very disappointed and returned it, since I felt that in an emergency, this would be more frustrating than helpful.

Review by Mike K:

At first glance the FR 300 (sold under several names including Grundig and Eton) appears to be a modification of the very successful FR 200. It seems to use the same case and it has similar looking controls including a hand crank generator. However, with close inspection it really is quite a different radio. The FR 300 eliminates the 2 shortwave bands of the FR 200. It their place it adds the VHF TV reception (audio only) and the weather band. In addition it adds a number of gizmos.

I love the older FR 200. No one would say that the FR 200 was the height of radio engineering and it certainly has a few electronic warts. With that said its pleasant sound, sensitive receiver and cool hand crank generator makes it a winner in my book (see my review in epinions). When the FR 300 came out I was anxious to give it a try so it was off to Circuit City to pick one up.

The Box: The radio appears to be housed in a case very similar to the FR 200. The box is approximately 5.5 inches square and around 2 inches thick. Like the FR 200 it has a nice handle and it some with a nifty nylon case. One side of the radio has a hand crank to charge the rechargeable battery pack. This pack appears to be of the common cordless phone variety if you ever need to change it. The other side of the radio has a volume control and a ganged course/fine tuning control, which operates the analog slide rule dial. Instead of using the primary color theme of the FR 200, the ABS plastic is a classy silver and the speaker grill also has a more polished look. Because the FR 300 has more gizmos than the FR 200 it has a few more controls on the face of the radio. This may add a little more confusion to the technically challenged. With that said, the controls and operation are very simple. Instead of using the flush controls of the FR 200, The FR 300 has a number of raised controls. These may be easier to grasp but they also add some additional thickness to the radio. The addition of all of this spit and polish makes the radio look like a baby version of the popular Grundig S350 rather than a twin of the FR 200.

Power Source: Like the FR 200, the FR 300 can be powered up in a number of ways. You can use 3 AA batteries, which should give you a very long playtime in this energy sipping radio. In addition you can charge the separate battery pack by vigorously turning the dynamo (generator) handle. 90 seconds at two turns per second should give you over an hour of playtime at low volume. You can also use an optional adaptor. Circuit City did not have the Grundig adaptor when I bought the radio. You can use a third party adaptor, but this must be done with caution. If the adaptor is under 200 milliamps it will power the radio and trickle change the battery pack. You can leave the adaptor permantetly connected. If the adaptor is over 200 mg , leaving it connected can overcharge the battery pack and damage the radio. You can remove or disconnect the battery pack and leave a larger adaptor plugged in, but this defeats the “emergency radio” concept.

Gizmos: The FR 300 is decked out in a variety of cool sounding gizmos. Let’s take a look at some them to see if they have merit.

Flashlight: Like the FR 200 you have an LED flashlight built in. LEDs are great because they are very durable and use less power than a traditional flashlight bulb. The FR 300 has a 2 LED system providing somewhat better illumination than the FR 200. Think of it as a penlight. It would be OK to change a fuse or even read a newspaper. It won’t light up a room. All in all, a useful feature.

Strobe: There is also a bright, flashing red LED. It is very cool, but I was wondering what you would use it for. A warning for a disabled car? A cheap reflective banner would work better. A beacon to attract airplanes if you are stranded on a deserted island? Sorry no trips planed. How about an emergency signal to attract the Good Humor Man? Hmmm…. Anyways, I would rate the strobe as a gimmick.

Siren: The FR 300 has a very loud siren. This seems to be a popular (cheap?) addition to a number of emergency radios. This is another feature that leaves me scratching my head. Let’s say you were hiking and got lost. A simple whistle around your neck would do the job nicely. Let’s say you were trapped under a building that collapsed. Well maybe, but you would have to have the radio at your side, which seems sort of unlikely. The Siren would preclude giving this radio to most pre-adolescent boys, unless, of course, his parents gave your kid a drum set for Christmas. Another gimmick.

Cell Phone Charger: The FR 300 comes with a number of adaptors that could allow you the ability to charge your cell phone by turning the radios dynamo. Pretty cool. You could also use a AC power adaptor (not supplied) to charge you phone through the radio. Frankly, in the later case you should use the charging set up supplied with the phone. The question is, can you charge your phone using the dynamo? As mentioned above, The FR 300 is designed to sip at the energy bar. My LG cell phone has two separate LCD displays, one in color. It also has a keypad that lights up and (being a cell phone) a transmitter. The FR 300 manual wisely omits crank times for cell phones, but you can assume that it would be a bicep building experience. I can image that there may be very rare times when this feature could have some utility, but not often and probably a means of last resort. Likely a gimmick.

All radio testing was done with fresh AA batteries.

Sound: Like the FR 200 the FR 300 has a 2.5 inch speaker. There isn’t much base but the sound is pleasant and clear. Plug in some headphones and you get wonderful sound out of both earpieces. The sound is mono, however. It is clear that the FR 300 amplifier section is of a higher quality then what you would find in a cheap pocket radio.

AM (medium wave): Like the FR 200 the FR 300 has a very nice AM tuner. You can hear some weak images of stronger stations on the dial but they aren’t too objectionable. Tuning accuracy is approximate, but it does the job. Sensitivity is very good and I was able to hear a number of out-of-state stations with ease. AGC was average. Reception was similar to the FR 200. All in all a nice little AM radio.

Weather Band: The FR 300 picks up the 7 channel weather band which is used in the US and Canada. I was able to pick up 3 channels on the radio, two very clearly. My car radio was able to pick up 4 weather channels (as a comparison). As a bonus, a nice, big knob controls the channels. In addition you can use an alert function. You leave the radio turned on and this function keeps it mutes the audio until the radio picks up a special signal for the weather service. Sounds nice, but don’t forget this radio does not come with an AC adaptor. Leaving the radio on and then cranking it or changing the batteries doesn’t make a lot of sense. Overall, I would rate the weather band as very good.

VHF TV Reception: Chicagoland has 5 VHF TV outlets (channels 2,5,7,9,11). The FR 300 allows VHF TV reception via two separate bands. One for channels 2-6 and the other for channels 7 and above. Using the FR 300 to pick up TV was a painful experience. As I would turn down the TV band I would encounter image after image of blaring distorted FM stations. On the lower VHF this garbage obliterated band channel 5. This problem was also present on the upper VHF band, but less so. Channel 9 was obliterated here. Changing rooms or reducing the length of the antenna did not help this problem. I also tried the radio at my office (further away from local FM broadcasters and more shielded from RF). It was still horrible. I exchanged the radio and the second one was slightly better, I now could get channel 9 but not channel 5. There was still tons of garbage from FM on these bands. TV performance was not acceptable.

FM performance: The FR 200 had a flawed but quite useable FM section (see my epinion on the FR 200). I thought that the FR 300 would offer similar performance, but I was very wrong. First off, the FM section occupies only one part of the tuning dial with the low VHF TV channels occupying the rest. I was estimate that the FM portion is only about 1/3 of the dial making any tuning difficult. When I first tried FM I was shocked at the incredibly poor reception. Our two local FM broadcasters were imaged all over the dial, and I mean everywhere. Even a flea-powered local college station was imaged up and down the dial. Every once in a while I could tease another station out of the mess. It was truly horrible. Reducing the antenna length, etc did not help. I took the radio to my office, which is much farther from our local broadcasters. In addition, the building shields lot of RF. Here I still heard the local broadcaster smeared over the dial. The flea-powered college station was absent but now the local junior college’s station was popping up everywhere. FM was unusable. I saw one user report on the FR 300 noting good FM reception (Circuit City web page) so I thought I might have a defective radio. I exchanged it hoping that radio #2 would redeem the Grundig name. This radio had it own set of problems on FM. The dial wasn’t totally dominated by images from the local broadcasters, but they were present. The local college station at 89.1 obliterated the FM spectrum below and all the way up to 92 MHz. Similarly, the local oldies station at 95.9 smeared itself to WMFT at 98.7. It also smeared downward, but it was such a mess I couldn’t tell what was what. It was clear that the way that this particular radio “fix” the multiple image problem was to turn down the sensitivity on FM, so even when I could get a Chicago station the reception was poor. Even more bizarre was what happened when I tuned around 100 MHz. There, I started to receive VHF aircraft traffic, I don’t live near any commercial airport.

I love radios, I collect them and play around with them. The FR 300 has, by far, the worst FM reception of any radio that I have ever used, including cheapo pocket radios. This appears to be partly due to poor quality control (two radios with two different problems) but I also suspect design flaws.

As a radio collector I’m about to do something that I never do, I’m going to return this radio for a refund. All the bells and whistles and gizmos are useless if you can’t use a major portion of a radio (the FM band). As more people review this radio I will be curious with the results. If lots of people like the FM portion of the radio it is likely that this is a QC issue that will eventually get resolved (and I just happened to get two bad radios). I addition, I have to wonder about the logic of including functions, like the weather alert option, but not including an AC adaptor as standard equipment. With the myriad of portable radios available, including the nice FR 200, I can’t image why anyone would buy this radio. Definitely, not recommended.

Review by Jen:

I got this specifically for emergencies. In the big fires we had here a couple years ago, radio was pretty much useless on the first day – several stations were off the air due to power failures and the press conferences with the police and fire chief were all on TV. Eventually, the radio stations advised people to watch their TVs. This unit gets good audio reception on three local broadcast TV stations plus a whack of AM and FM stations. Another reviewer indicated that the FM tuning isn’t great. They’re right – it isn’t. That’s the missing star in my rating. The NOAA weather stations come in well too. Once there’s no more free broadcast TV signals, I guess this will be an expensive hand-cranked AM radio.

Review by S. J. Northrip:

After noting some less than satisfactory reviews by others on similar Eaton products , I decided to go ahead and buy this product. I found that the FR400 meets all my criteria in a weather radio. First, the crank system covers our communications need should we have an extended power outage.This past week, over 100,000 people were without power in our area. The crank generating system works excellent. It actually works easier than I thought that it would. I also find the Alert function very important. You simple turn a Selector Knob to Alert, and when the National Weather Service issues an alert, the radio comes on automatically. This alert gives you advance warning of dangerous weather, and can save your life in case a tornado is about to happen near you.It also warns you of other bad weather conditions such as extreme straight line winds and hail. Flood Warnings are also covered in these alerts.

Yes we have tornado sirens for impending tornados. Since we have satellite TV reception, we usually lose our TV signal just as the bad storms get close to us. With the FR400, we easily can slide the selection bar and tune in any of several TV stations, and pick up the sound portion of the broadcast. We can also access our local FM and AM radio channels.The reception is excellent on both AM and FM bands. I have mine set to Channel ll the CBS TV affiliate in Dallas/Fort Worth. The tuning bar reads TV2. Channel 5, a lower number would be set on TV1. We consider this product an excellent value, and recommend this model due to the included AC Adapter. The included cell phone adapters fit both my wife’s cell phone and my own. Hers is an ancient Motorola and mine is a recent LG. There are excellent set up instructions should you need them from the Eton website. It’s actually very simple to set up. Lights, Sirens, Radio, Crank and Auto settings are clearly marked. Dialing is no problem, and the TV and Weather Service reception is excellent. This product has it all, and is a must for having a dependable weather warning or disaster communication radio.

Review by J. A. Trombetta:

This radio is reviewed on Amazon several times, but most are under the Red Cross version’s listing, even though this is exactly the same radio. I read several negative reviews prior to buying this item. Well, as it turns out I think this is a nice little unit. I would describe the sound overall as good. Maybe I’ll amend this review in the future, but I’m happy with the features, design & performance.

Opening the battery cover and connecting the battery was just that simple, and it has remained securely closed. Maybe the design has been modified because that procedure has gotten a lot of negative feedback, but I can’t see any reason there would be a problem. The cellphone charging cord & several connectors (let’s be honest…we’re never going to use this) were included, and my Sanyo phone is covered.

This is a light, inexpensive case. The tuner seems fine. Here in NYC I’ve had no trouble tuning in the various AM & FM stations that I like. This is not a high-end indestructable radio. I think this is a good, relatively solidly built & designed radio that can be used every day. I charged it over night with the included adapter. It’s brought me a few ballgames over the past few days without needing a charge (I’m just going to let it drain completely once to complete a battery cycle). I like this little radio very much.

Review by Arthur Niederfringer:

I love the Kaito KA1107 analog portable radio. This is the best paperback-size radio I have ever owned.

This radio is most stellar on the FM band. I get stations loud and clear 65 miles away using the internal whip antenna. The reception exceeds any of my radios. Sensitivity and selectivity rival that of a good FM receiver. The antenna rotates and angles down for optimum reception of vertically, horizontally and mixed polarized FM antennas, allowing more stations to be heard clearly. This radio is rated at less than 5 MV FM sensitivity, and i do believe it.

SW and MW sensitivity and selectivity rival that of larger radios on the market. MW stations during the day come in loud and clear. Nighttime reception is sensitive across the band, though AM suffers from selective fading and man-made interference. I cannot honestly rate reception on the individual SW bands. I rarely use SW any more, due to man-made interference, selective fading and the low sunspot count.

The sound quality of the Kaito 1107 is a big surprise, with the two-step tone control offering room-filling audio. The two-step tone control logically selects between music and voice reception.

The side-mounted knob provides velvet tuning which a joy to turn, unlike many of the cheap Chinese-made radios on the market today.The three-step sensitivity control is useless except on SW. The large band-switch knob on the side of the radio is a joy. The volume control is recessed, protecting the radio in case of a fall, and is a good feature.

The clock, power, tone, and sensitivity buttons are poorly laid out and not suited for the less dexterous. The buttons are small and the labels are hard see for anybody with a visual impairment. I’ve placed masking tape with large-print writing to remedy reading some of the controls on the face of the radio.

You may buy this radio with confidence. The price is right for the value.- Arthur.

Review by Hal9000:

For the price you can’t do better than this nice little portable radio. I was initially looking for a portable to fulfill an interest I had for a “ultralight DX” radio, but felt the current crop of highly-rated high performance ultralights wouldn’t be a very good choice since most were never intended to be exported out of China (i.e. 240V power supplies, Chinese instructions, hard-to-decipher controls, etc.). I was about to give up & wait for awhile, when I stumbled across this little gem. For the price it can’t be beat. AM mediumwave sensitivity is phenomenal, which is exactly what I was looking for. Tuning is very sharp, with no overload problems detected, and even though I occasionally hear a strong local 50kw AM station over my telephone lines it doesn’t seem to bother this radio. FM sensitivity is equally good, although the FM band is somewhat compressed since the scale covers both US and foreign FM bandplans. Shortwave seems very good as well, with amazingly good audio received from some AM amateur radio operators on both 80m and 40m with the built-in whip antenna (note though that these are the only two ham bands this radio covers, since they lie near two commercial shortwave bands). The bass response from the small speaker is exceptional when the appropriate switch is placed in the “bass” mode. And finally, a dial light that will stay on until you turn it off! (You can even turn in on while the radio is off). Battery life also seems to be very long even when using the light all the time (it imparts a very nice warm glow to the dial). Are there any shortcomings? Sure – after all, it is analog, so frequency determination will just be a guesstimate, but after all isn’t that what makes it fun? The tuning is a little “spongy”, with some dial backlash, so you tend to need to “rock the dial” back & forth to center in on the signal, but at least the dial moves very smoothly so this is quite easy. The numbers on the dial could be a little bigger, and the green numbers could be a brighter color, but some of that is probably my 50 year old eyes. And SSB reception would certainly be nice for the ham bands, but would probably add considerably to the price. Overall, it just can’t be beat for price vs. performance, and easily beats all of my vintage transistor radios for ultralight portable AM DX, and blows away my Sony ICF-SW100 in the same arena (although the Sony can do much more, it isn’t nearly the mediumwave AM DX machine that this is).

Review by M. D. Rorick:

Eton’s FR350 emergency radio provides a solid solution for folks who want to stock their emergency kits with a waterproof, feature-packed unit. Given that I use mine primarily for listening to baseball while doing yardwork, I haven’t gotten much use out of the shortwave receiver, siren, flashlight, and cell phone charger, but it’s nice to know they’re there.

Radio reception on this unit is solid, and while the dial is not rigorously gradated by frequency the signals from individual stations tend to be so clear that finding the one you’re after is usually no problem.

My only two complaints about the unit are the following: First, the hand-crank dynamo seems to give inconsistent charge to the batteries. Sometimes after the recommended 90 second crank I could listen to a whole game without recharging the unit, but other times, for no clear reason, the volume would die down and after just a couple of innings it would require another hand-cranking.

Second, the position of the flashlight switch is situated such that it can be easily turned on inadvertently, particularly when the unit is being cranked for a charge. The power drain from using the flashlight is significant, and while this only requires another round of hand-cranking (and subsequent turning off of the light), it is an annoying design feature that could have easily been moved elsewhere on the casing.

Those two flaws, though, are minor considering the overall performance I’ve experienced with the FR350, and based on my happiness with the unit, I can recommend it without hesitation.

Review by Peri Winkle:

Great concept and probably pretty good otherwise, but antenna is stiff and broke at base almost right out of the box. Our old plug in radio’s antenna has held up close to 30 years. No excuse for one like this. Technology is not new; poor execution, weak materials, something.

Review by Chris Compton:

When the G6 arrived I must say I was a little shocked as I was expecting a larger package, but as the old expression goes “Size Makes no Difference”,and that applies to the G6!

The build quality was extremely good, the rubberized coating and the “just right” weight make for a very good, solid feel.

After a brief scan of the operating manual I placed 2 AA Alkaline batteries in the G6 (you can also use NI-MH batteries and charge them in the G6) but I was very excited and did not want to wait one minute longer, I wanted to play now!

I powered the G6 up and selected the MW AM Broadcast Band, my favorite

for chasing weak, distant signals. I then thought to myself, I need a “Standard” in which to compare the G6. Being an avid radio collector I selected a Tough Act to Follow” radio from my collection for the AM MW Blue Ribbon. I chose my Panasonic RF2900.

Both radios had brand new alkaline batteries installed, as I did not want to deal with AC power line noise, induced into the units by operating from the AC Mains.

It was in middle of the day so I selected a station on 1360 KHz, KWDJ, 1000 watts day, in Ridgecrest, CA, about 100 miles from my location in Lancaster, Ca. At that distance the measured signal strength of KWDJ was less than 100 Micro volts/Meter (Measured on Potomac FIM 22 AM field strength meter)

I placed both radios on the same table ,and rotated the units so their loopsticks were optimized for reception from the direction of Ridgecrest, Ca.

Also note, that in Lancaster, there is a 1000-watt AM station on 1380 KHZ

Its transmitter, less than 3 miles from my location, and in the same heading as

Ridgecrest!

As I tuned the RF2900 to 1360 I heard Dr. Laura, pretty clear along with a fair amount of background noise.

I listened for about 2 minutes to make sure that the signal was steady, which it was.

Now it was “ShowTime” I powered the G6 up, and using the Jog Wheel, I tuned the G6 to 1360…and with the volume set about halfway….I heard Dr. Laura, with about the same amount of noise as the RF2900!

Needless to say, I was impressed.

OK I said, lets take a listen to the low side of the band.

How about a lowly 100 watt AM station XSURF on 540 KHZ in Mexico, over 100 miles away.

I rotated the radios toward Mexico, tuned the RF2900 to 540 ,and there in the noise was XSURF on 540.

I should call the G6, the “Little Engine that Could” because when I tuned it to 540 KHZ, there was XSURF with just slightly more noise than the RF2900, WOW!

The G6 had no trouble in pulling in most all of the Los Angeles radio AM signals which ranged from 75 to 100 miles away with only one 50,000 Watt signal.

Ok, I was convinced that the G6 had great performance on MW AM, but how about FM?

I went back to my radio collection looking for a portable radio to make the comparison, a unit with better than average FM reception, my Eton E5.

On FM a good test would be pulling in KGZO, 90.9 in Shafter, CA

Operating with only 1.9 KW of power, over 100 miles away.

This is a good test of sensitivity and selectivity as my location in Lancaster, Ca, is within the 1MV contour of Superpower 110,000 Watt KPFK at 90.7.

In the past the Eton E5 had no problem in pulling in the KGZO signal in full stereo, with only a slight intrusion from KPFK.

The Eton E5 repeated this task as expected.

After tuning the G6 to 90.9 and with a little playing with the rod antenna, there was KGZO in stereo with just a slightly more amount of intrusion by KPFK, but still listenable!

The G6 had no trouble in pulling in signals from all the Los Angeles FM signals from Mount Wilson, the location of 99% of Los Angeles FM Signals.

On more thing…. do not let the small speaker size fool you, this little baby can fill a small room with pretty good volume.

On Shortwave the G6 is comparable in selectivity and sensitivity to several of my Shortwave rigs including my Eton E5, my Sony 6500 ,and my Sangean 909. The BFO makes copy of SSB a breeze as well.

On VHF I can hear signals from Aircraft and from LAX and Lancaster’s Fox Airfield.

On a scale of 1 through 10 the Buzz Aldrin Edition Grundig G6 gets a

BIG 10!

Chris Compton

Professional Broadcast Engineer, and Avid Radio Collector for over 35 Years

Lancaster, CA

Review by Ann E. Revelle:

This Buzz Aldrin edition of the G6 aviator radio is indeed an excellent new product. Identical in all aspects (except for some printing on the front of the unit) to the standard G6 aviator radio, it seems very well made and should last a long time if treated with care. The radio is both extremely small (almost the same size as the Kaito KA11!) and readily transportable yet the reception is still excellent on all available bands. It is certainly not as fine a radio as the Kaito KA1103 by any means, but for its size and weight it is quite exceptional, plus it has the aircraft band frequencies (see below for further details and limitations, etc.).

I like being able to change the news/music switch in order to slightly improve AM and SW signal audio fidelity (on my unit it is certainly NOT a deep bass boost switch however with little tonal changes being evident as the switch changes its position). Unfortunately this is also NOT a narrow/wide bandwidth filter switch which is not available on this radio at all. Using the SSB (single sideband) BFO (beat frequency oscillator) tuner is also very easy and straight forward with a key press on the front of the radio and in fine increments using the tuning dial as well. Unlike some other radios, SSB tuning is also available on the G6 on the AM band as well as on SW which is a very useful feature. The separate ability to step tune in very small increments with the jog dial setting is also excellent in my opinion once a signal of interest has been located. The unit also has an attached 20 inch telescopic antenna as well as an external antenna jack which is especially nice for receiving the weaker FM/SW/Aircraft band stations as well as an earphone jack for private listening (including FM stereo). LW and MW (AM) stations are tuned using the internal ferrite antenna coil.

I rather like the digital volume controls as well. The steps between each setting are sufficiently small that quite precise control of the volume levels can be attained, especially when using earphones which is my most common mode of operating this radio given the smallness of its speaker (but still adequate).

In addition, the Grundig manual for the G6 although too brief and lacking in some important technical details is just fine to read with no English translation problems as with the Degen (Kaito) radio manuals for the KA1102/KA1103. Degen now makes the G3, G4, G5 and G6 for Grundig (whose designs originated from the Degen engineering brainpower from some 6 years ago now). These radios are now advertised as designed in California (by the Eton Corporation) and made in China, but to be fair Grundig has capitalized on a proven Degen/Kaito design and greatly improved on the ergonomics for using these fine radios.

The availability of the complete LW spectrum (formally from 153-279 KHz), but continuous on this radio from 150 KHz all the way to the start of the AM (MW) band at 520 KHz and of the Aircraft bands (117-137 MHz) and of the complete SW spectrum (1.711 to 29.999 MHz) on this unit is also true of the G5 as well (with the exception of the aircraft band that is available on the new G3 which should be available in th3e middle of April this year). The Eton Corporation will soon start to advertise the availability of the complete LW band features on these new Grundig branded radios since it was originally and inadvertently overlooked by the marketers. (If you still have any doubts read the back of the radio in zoom mode on this website). The Sony ICF-SW7600GR also has the full spectrum of LW/AM(MW) and SW bands too and has advertised it all along, but that radio also lacks the aircraft band that is available on the new G6 Aviator radio. Especially for international travelers, the 10 KHz AM tuning step for N. America can also be changed to the 9 KHz step that is standard in Europe and Asia too.

One negative item is that the airband can not be automatically scanned like all of the other available bands on this radio. Another very negative item (see also below for those of you who live in heavily urban areas with lots of simultaneous interfering signals possible), is that there is no RF gain switch (DX/normal/local, etc.) on this radio at all either. Considering just how sensitive the front end of this radio is to weak signals, this is a very surprising error of omission in my humble opinion and one that should be rectified by Grundig (PUN intended!).

The G6 even has alarms and time zone capabilities and 700 memories that can be labeled along with with multiple and very useful ways I might add to tune and store information in this very versatile, dual conversion PLL (phase locked loop) synthesized, diminutive “micro-receiver style” radio. These memories are arranged for all of the 100 pages with 7 memories to a page. Each of these 100 pages can be labeled alphanumerically in groupings to boot. The presets can also be chosen on each page randomly regardless of the band. In addition, numerous pre-stored time zones (~30) from all around the globe can also be easily chosen while traveling in order to make changing your local time setting with respect to UTC world time very convenient.

On another website there is a discussion of some occasional small microprocessor problems when loading two adjacent presets on a single page. The radio apparently can lock up, but it is easy to unlock and simply reload the page once again with no further preset storage problems.

There is even an on-screen clock as well as the day of the week and a battery level indicator, a hold switch for locking all of the buttons as well as a separate lock switch chosen through the jog dial for the tuned frequency. There is also a very nice on screen and very detailed signal strength meter and a nice orange back-light system. The radio can also charge batteries inside the radio (sounds like the KA1102/KA1103 proven technology once again- eh?) and it even comes with a one year warranty, a slip case as well as a AC/DC adapter charger. It runs on 2 AA batteries normally while in its portable state. It even has a nice carrying strap permanently attached to the radio as well which is a nice touch given its very small size.

UPDATE: May 27, 2008:

I am in Alabama on travel and I too have now experienced very significant bleeding of apparently high power am stations directly on to the aircraft band at several frequencies. As a heads up, this just goes to show that to adequately test any radio it should be done at several locations. However, I have experienced none of this am frequency bleeding at my home location in the high mountains of New Mexico for example. This suggests that the dual conversion available at two IF (intermerdiate frequencies) in this radio are not adequate in some locations to adequately block unwanted noise from the aircraft bands.

June 18, 2008 UPDATE:

Yes, as I had previously indicated above, the G6 Aviator is a PLL (Phase locked loop) dual conversion receiver with a digital display and 700 presetable memories (Information recently confirmed by Walter Hess, Technical Support Manager, Etón Corporation, 1015 Corporation Way. Palo Alto, CA 94303 USA)

Finally, I look forward very much to having the fun of using this radio for the high quality sounds of music, news and just general LW/AM(MW) broadcast band, shortwave and aircraft band listening from all over the globe for a very long time.

September 8, 2008: UPDATE

For those of you who really really like this radio (and there is a lot to like), in order to compensate for its extremely good sensitivity (except perhaps in the am band), a trick that I learned about by reading other web reviews is to actually shorten the whip antenna length significantly when bleeding and other interference occurs. This allows the arriving radio signals to not overload the system and be received with very significant improvement. Ironically, usually we are always interested in lengthening the radio antenna (especially outdoors if it is not too noisy at the radio frequencies of interest). I hope that this may help you to continue to enjoy your new Grundig radio! Out in the open countryside this bleeding is NOT a problem at all, so only the big city radio listeners (or travelers to big cities) need to be beware of this potential problem for the G6.

April 3, 2009: UPDATE

Amazon currently has a great sale on the Buzz Aldrin G6 aviator radio for about including shipping or about 2 including shipping with the Kaito passive wire, reel antenna (AN-03L) that makes this an even greater bargain item!

April 11, 2009: UPDATE

One very nice feature of the 24 hour clock system is that it is fully adjustable for traveling including a GMT (Zulu or UTC) setting. With the radio off you simply press and hold the #8 key until a long list of coded city names appears. Next, you simply choose the time zone code closest to the one that you are currently within using the tuning knob and wait 8 seconds and you are all set (it is then automatically stored until you change it again). If you desire to know the Universal (UTC) time separately, you simply choose the “GMT” choice briefly to find the time in Greenwich, England and then repeat the above procedure and go right back to your current timezone location. (Unfortunately there is no provision in the G6 for entering the date or activating daylight savings time so at certain times of the year your indicated GMT time could be up to 1 hour off unless you live in Arizona, etc.) As you continue to travel this process is easily repeated as often as may be needed.

Review by Dr. Goode:

Besides being great for EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, I found the AccuManager 27 to be something that most crank units are NOT – that is, PRACTICAL, RELIABLE and USEFUL for everyday AND emergency needs.

I’ve found most crank units to be clumsy and boxy, making them portable in theory only. The AccuPower is the right shape and size (resembling a walkie-talkie) for the hand, holster, pocket, glove box, knapsack, whatever. The unit is very easy to use, the radio sounds nice enough for music (with/without ear phones, the LED light is powerful and designed for use as a good flashlight, and it has a reliable clock alarm feature which is handy for travel, camping and emergencies. The inputs/outputs (dc in, dc out, 3 voltage levels,headphones, cell phone charging, etc) are impressive. The siren is piercing – I hope I never need it. To me, cell phone charging is a huge plus.

Unlike many units, this one uses removeable AAA batteries rather than a quirky built-in battery pac, making it easy to charge the batteries externally with a regular charger. That done, the unit stays charged for a long time without cranking. However, I use the crank for charging my cell phone (as well as the unit and other things) when the need arises. This unit is tough and the crank seems very sturdy and well made. I emphasize this because the other units I’ve seen seem flimsy – especially the crank. One last thing: I like the idea of solar and tested several units with a built-in solar cell. Frankly, it takes way too much time (and daylight)for a solar cell to accomplish what a crank can do in a minute.

There seems to be an abundance of junky, not-so-practical emergency units on the market today (some pricy, some very inexpensive). I would not call the AccuManager 27 a high-end unit, but if you want something very practical and reliable – this would be a great choice.

Review by Leonard Elliott:

just like the first review,this is one cool emergency radio.it has every thing you need.everything works great.very nice product.shipping was fast and on time to.good job bearwobble. r.elliott

Review by Mark E. Lacy:

The features of this radio made it sound like it would be a good thing to have handy in case of an emergency, particularly the ability to recharge a cell phone from it. But I was very disappointed to learn that this radio was made so poorly, and so many things were wrong with it that I’m having to send it back for a refund. The backlight for the display did not work. The alert button would not operate. I could run it on crank power but the button to switch to battery power would not operate. I could get AM stations only (not even static on FM or shortwave) and it would not stay on a single station for long. The instructions were minimal. The overall design is poor. It’s made of cheap plastic and everything feels like it might break if you bumped it. I won’t be buying another one of these, that’s for sure.

Review by Jabbo:

I am sorry that I didnt read the reviews before I bought this piece of junk. This thing goes through batteries so fast that I cant keep up with it. I’ve had better service with a transistor radio. If you like to crank your arm off then buy one. In case of an emergency they’ll find your body with your hand wrapped around the crank handle because you probably used up your batteries in about 1 hour.