ETON G5 AM/FM/Shortwave Portable Radio with SSB (Single Side Band)
by Eton
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List Price: Our Price: $97.95 You Save: $102.05 (51%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of ETON G5 AM/FM/Shortwave Portable Radio with SSB (Single Side Band)
Customer Review: Most EXCELLENT Nirvana !!! ,,, Or Complex Trivia ???
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently purchased the Grundig G5 [new for $120.00]. - I have had some experience with smaller Grundig Pocket Radios and was optimistic !!!
When I saw my new G5 I was impressed with its "look & feel" ,,, very nice!!! But then I read the myriad of buttons !!! And then I read the Manual !!! I WAS READY TO THROW THE "Grundig G5" INTO THE GARBAGE CAN !!! -- The Button labeling unintelligible ,,,, the Manual unfocused !!! :-(
At first, with or without the Manual, I could not even turn on the AM radio ,,, But wait ,,, WAIT !!! Don't THROW it AWAY yet !!! TRY USING IT FIRST !!! ,,, after a few minutes [without the manual] I was pleasantly SURPRISED !!!
THE G5 FIT INTO MY ELECTRONIC PERSONALITY SNUGLY & COMFORTABLY!!!! iluvit !!! :-) ,,, The Grundig G5 is GREAT !!! PERFECT !!! Most EXCELLENT !!!
Some reasons WHY I LOVE "USING" THE G5:
1- The "look" is very handsome & legible, the "feel" is exotic & comfy !!!
2- Careful extending the Whip Antenna indoors ,,, longest I've ever seen ,,, ha,ha
3- Display is readable WITHOUT the LCD backlight on.
4- Touch any button and LCD backlight comes ON, even when powered OFF.
5- "News / Music" Slider switch is cutting-edge [well labeled and functional].
6- The "selectivity & sensitivity" is the BEST amongst the rest !!!
7- Type any Band Frequency i.e. 1060, press AM ,,, and you have AM-1060.
8- Type any Band Frequency i.e. 915, press FM ,,, and you have FM-91.5.
9- Press F1 - F7 and you go directly to the respective SW Band.
10- Press SSB for easy access and high quality.
11- Press Scan UP any band, the G5 stops for 5 seconds on all sensitive signals.
12- Press Scan DOWN any band, G5 stops for 5 seconds on all sensitive signals.
[Press any button to stop the Auto Search.]
13- Volume Up & Down buttons ,,, fantastic, "+ / -".
14- Distant / Local Slider actually works.
15- External Antenna and LINE OUT are nice touches.
16- "Trickle-Charge" FUNCTION [easily accessible] for Ni-Cd and Li-Ion batteries.
17- Power Adapter ,,, and a gorgeous Carrying Case included.
18- Powered by FOUR AA batteries, standard Alkaline or Rechargeable [in unit].
Epilog:
The Grundig G5 is a very "peculiar" radio both in appearance [strange buttons but beautiful look & feel] and function [must experience to appreciate]. --- BUT ,,, I LOVE IT !!! The BEST pocket-radio I've ever "experienced" !!!
Customer Review: finr product for the money..
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Customer Review: G5 Portable Shortwave Radio Opinion
Summary: 3 Stars
This radio is good it has the continous 150 to 29999 kHz with no boundries. The AM and FM reception is superb, but LW and SW bands are medrocre. The LW band is fair to poor you would need a tunable loop antenna that covers 150 kHz to 520 kHz to pull in distant LW stations. The AM band is real good and the selectivity and sensitvity is good and well performing. The shortwave bands are fair to poor unless you use a external wire antenna with the G5. I could not pick weak signals, I hope I can get mine fixed. Please be careful not to use the radio in areas with high static electricity. When used with a Active Antenna or long wire antenna use an attenuator or preselector with this radio. There is a good line out jack on the right side so you can connect your radio to a stereo system or minidisc recorder to record your favorite shortwave radio programs. The radio requires 4 AA batteries, and sometimes it needs reset, the good thing is that the "reset" feature does not erase your preset memories even when the batteries are taken out. The SSB reception is very good if the reception was better.
This radio is a great shortwave portable when used with low gain active antennas and not so
big wire antennas. This radio is recommended for FM and AM DXing as well as shortwave radio
broadcast DXing.
Customer Review: Excellent, but compare with a Kaito 1103
Summary: 5 Stars
I have decided to raise my previous rating to 5 stars. I bought this radio first and still think it is an all-round great radio in its price class, lacking only synchronous sideband (which the Sony 7600GR has and supposedly does very well for roughly the same price when new). The G5 has no major problems and certainly has one of the best-designed user interfaces I have seen on a shortwave radio.
Later I bought a Degen DE1103 (basically the same as a Kaito KA1103). The Degen exhibits some of the worst user interface decisions ever made, but it seems to have fewer internally-generated bogus shortwave signals than the G5. I noticed weird spread-spectrum hash 10-20KHz wide in multiple places in the 160M band on the G5, and to my surprise that does not occur in the DE1103 even though these radios supposedly have closely-related designs. Other people recommend an external antenna on the G5, which might overpower the internal signals enough that they don't matter, but I have not tried that. Most complex radios have birdies of some kind at some point on the dial, so in retrospect I should not call this a significant indictment of the G5.
It seems to me that if you can stand the user interface AND there is a significant cost difference, the Degen/Kaito is the better buy. Otherwise, go with the G5.
Customer Review: Radio is very good, but price is nothing special
Summary: 4 Stars
The Grundig G5 is a fine performing world band radio. It just isn't worth the price IMO. I also own the Kaito KA1102, and Sony ICF-SW7600GR. The Kaito costs 1/2 the price and performs equally as well. IMO, the KA1102 is the best deal in world band receivers. It's not quite as easy to use as the G5, and the sound isn't quite as good, but it is a much better value. The Sony costs slightly less than the Grundig, but performs equally as well on AM, and beats the Grundig on SSB. Mainly due to its synchronous detection circuitry. The one thing I like about the Grundig over the Sony is the fact you can charge the batteries in the radio. You can also do this with the Kaito. You can't do that with the Sony, and it also doesn't include the AC adapter. All in all, you can go wrong with any of these 3 radios. But I can't see paying twice as much for it over the Kaito, and the Sony is a slightly better performing radio, that costs slightly less.
04/2010 Update:
Wow. Since my review from 2008, the price of this radio has dropped from $140, to under $90. At this price, it is a great bargain. It's easily a 5 star radio at it's current price.