Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I wanted a shortwave radio small enough to carry around and not too expensive--somewhere in between the $20 toys and the $100+ 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.
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AM/FM/LW/Shortwave Radio with ATS (Auto Tuning Storage)
