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write your own review of the Grundig S350 AM/FM/SW World Receiver.
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KB2NZO
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Rating: 0/5
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Sep 11, 2011 09:44
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crap
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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GOT MY S350DL NEW,AND PAID $87 NOT HAPPY. IT DRIFTS
DISPLAY JUMPS IN KCS JUST CRAP.
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ZOTZPLC
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 21, 2011 05:30
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Very nice SWL radio
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I bought one of the older model S350 (not DL) radios from a local thrift store for $5. It was not terribly pretty, but it worked when I got it home. Had to go buy a power supply for it too (went back to the same thrift store and found one that worked for $2). So for $7 total I am sitting here with an older Grundig S350. Not bad!
I had my doubts when I saw it because of some of the things that others had said here at eHam about this radio. Is mine drifty like so many others have claimed? Yes indeed! But it seems to me every analog SW radio I've ever owned and loved -- including an almighty Panasonic RF-2200, I might say -- was drifty to some greater or lesser extent. My S350 is certainly no worse than average. I think some of the complaints about the S350's drifting may have to do with the fact that it actually has a digital readout, which, perhaps *not* to the radio's advantage, shows exactly how many kHz you've drifted off from your target frequency. I wonder if many old-school analog radios with standard dials and needles drifted just as much, but it was harder to tell with that big wide needle and those little bitty numbers behind it. Just a thought...
Well anyway, sound-wise the S350 is very good, and my dials, though plastic (so were the RF-2200's), all work a-OK. None of my pots were noisy and the RF gain actually works great. It is VERY sensitive too, with just the whip antenna: I found the best way to use it on SW is to set the RF gain to about 3-4 and then search the bands. Setting the gain any higher just brings up all sorts of noise everywhere. FM sensitivity is incredible also. I actually had to put the whip all the way down to keep the local NPR affiliate from being buried by bleed-over from the local FM pop station.
My only complaint is, gee whiz, I wish it had a BFO...but whaddaya want for $7? In summary, I am quite pleased, and I think I would be even if I'd paid $70 for it instead (though for that sort of scratch, I'd expect to get a wall wart too). Guess I musta got a good one, huh?
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K4AXF
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 5, 2011 12:18
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Whadayawantforahunerdbucks
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I bought my Grundig S350DL used, but like-new condition, from Universal Radio for $60. I was bummed at first by the tuning knob which had a lot of wobble and backlash (like the old dial cord days). After playing with it a while I realized that the "backlash" was mainly in the outer, coarse tuning ring on the concentric knob. By using the coarse tuning just to get to the frequency range I wanted then switching to the fine tuning (inner knob) to tune within the chosen band, things went a lot better. If the tuning knob slop were fixed I would give this radio a 5.0.
Currently I also own a Drake SW-8 and a Statellit 800. Also a couple of HF transceivers with general coverage that I also use for SWL. I have never had a pocket AM-FM-SW portable that I liked well enough to keep. For me the S350DL nicely fills in the portable radio niche.
The big speaker gives the nicest sound this side of a Satellit 800. Once a station is tuned in it doesn't drift off (the earlier, plain S350 evidently had a bad drifting problem - which seems to be fixed in the -DL version).
It works well as an alarm clock if you use FM. But not on SW; it will not come up frequency for the shortwave station to which you tuned the night before.
The frequency display is sometimes a couple of kHz off.
The narrow-wide bandpass switch actually works better than any other portable I've used.
I haven't figured out what the LP (low pass?) filter is supposed to do.
Shortwave sensitivity and selectivity are good.
AM reception is good.
FM reception is very good.
It feels good and solid.
My wife thinks it looks great.
It's a fun radio to tune around on, stopping to listen a while when the program is interesting.
So at $100 I think it's a really good radio. Even better at $60!
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BXLISTENER
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Rating: 1/5
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Jan 22, 2011 11:31
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Missed opportunity
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I bought the Eton S350DL version of this radio. It sounds great and D cells last forever but after that it's all bad news. The drift has to be seen to be believed. I had mine on a table by a window on a cloudy day, the sun came out and shone on the radio. It drifted down frequency by 5kHz in 20 minutes!!! After a few months the tuning became erratic and eventually went totally haywire so I scrapped the radio. If Eton just used better quality compenents then this radio would have been great for broadcast listening. I also had the flagship E1, great radio untill the screen died about 18 months after I bought it. Thanks Eton! I see they are bringing out a new model, the S450 DLX or something. Early reviews suggest the same old QC and durability issues. I'll never buy another Eton product again.
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OLDSWLSD
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Rating: 2/5
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Dec 20, 2010 04:53
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For casual listening only.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I picked up my DL model about 2 1/2 years ago cheap at a rummage and was underwhelmed when I got it home and started using it.
The sloppy tuning dial problem I've seen others here mention was present in mine but I found that pushing on the dial to re-seat it solved the problem . The tuning does jump quite a few KHz when coming off lock but overall I've found it well behaved after that.
MW is where this radio shines, great tone and even in the basement sensitive enough to pull in fringe stations without the image frequency problems on the HF bands.
I rarely listen to FM so I can't say much about that band.
HF with the internal whip is good with some birdies here and there but connecting an external antenna of any length overloads the front end even with a high-pass filter to remove the local MW signals. Intermods and images quickly outweigh any gain in signal unless I'm using a homebrew active antenna with a tight preselector.
Mine has been relegated to a shelf in the shop where it's used mostly for local MW listening while I'm working on other projects and will probably be on Ebay before long.
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KB0XR
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Rating: 2/5
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Jan 9, 2010 05:26
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Drifter
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought my original 350 on Ebay. It arrived from overseas with japanese labels on the controls. I found an English manual on line and figured out how to run it. Also purchases was a 110v/220v wall wart. The radio is plenty sensitive but the drift problem is really frustrating. I also don't like the tuning jumping 3-5 khz everytime you touch the knob. It's sitting on a shelf out in the garage. I understand the newer versions are better in frequency stability so I guess I jumped the gun when the original was introduced. About $80 wasted I guess. Wasn't the first time and I am sure it won't be the last time I got hosed.
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VK2IMM
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Rating: 3/5
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Jan 8, 2010 17:49
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Nice but not without issues
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have a S350DL version of this receiver.
Clearly it has some decent features that work well i.e wide and narrow bandwidth options, bass and treble controls, RF Gain. I am also impressed by decent size of the whip antenna which is about 1m long,. Speaker sound is nice.
Reception is quite good on SW bands up to 15 MHz at least. Sensitivity is getting somewhat low above that. FM bands and AM MW performance is good also.
There are couple of things which disappoint me a lot. Tuning dial is rather “loose”, moves left and right and up and down and does not have a precise feel at all. In addition to that frequency may simply jump by several KHz in some cases during tuning that makes it hard to get to some exact frequency as you may end up either above or below it. If this is a design issue or my receiver is simply faulty I don’t know as I have not disassembled it to investigate the problem. When placed onto right frequency stability is decent 10-15 minutes after turning receiver on. It may well keep the frequency within a Khz during an hour or two of listening.
There is also an issue with images and stations are quite audible just over 900 Khz below broadcast frequency.
Many interesting stations could be heard with a whip antenna. AM HAM stations on 3.8 MHz, RTTY stations on 14 Mhz. SSB and CW can’t be demodulated completely as there is no such mode option but presence of many stations can be heard on amateur bands.
If not the issue with a tuning dial I think this is a rather decent inexpensive receiver for short wave bands as well as for MW and VHF broadcasts. Short wave’s performance seems to be a bit lower comparing with an ATS-909 that I had about 8 years ago and where none of the mentioned problems had been observed.
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SSBSWLFAN
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Rating: 3/5
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Sep 7, 2009 23:04
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Decent starter receiver
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This receiver is how I got my feet wet into shortwave. I have the older s3-"drifty"(not the DLS model), but it still is valuable despite the drifting.
Obviously, the longer the set is on the less drifting occurs.
Love the layout of the radio and especially enjoy the main inner/outer knob.
The reception for FM is phenomenal on my unit. I can easily pull in stations 30-40 miles away.
As others have noted, images are all over the shortwave dial even as much as 1 mhz with mine. However, this thing can receive the BC stations about as well as my Realistic DX-302.
The timer function is really easy to use for me. That's probably why I still have the radio. I know, sad but true.
No SSB on this radio, but you can still hear the distorted voices of hams down on 80 meters. It makes you want a radio that does have SSB for sure.
AM reception is decent. It rivals the reception I have on my CD player. I can get 1180 from Rochester, NY from here in Michigan as well as 1100 from Cleveland, the Score from Chicago(1000), and 1530 from Cincy. Good, but I am sure a CCrane Radio will better suit AM DX'ers for sure.
My S350 has recently suffered some mechanical problems recently though. The narrow to wide switch for the filters sticks quite a bit. It can cause the sound to be very low which makes me fiddle with the knob. The good thing is I can get it back to normal after flicking it around 4 times. The SW1/SW2 switches stick as well but not as bad as the filter switch.
One day unfortunately I did knock the receiver off my desk, and it caused the plastic to be jarred off the face display. I slid this back into place, and it's fine for now.
Test your switches if you buy one used in person.
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W2UIS
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 31, 2009 17:01
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Update
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I added the Grundig AN 200 tunable loop antenna for BCB DX. I was impressed with the results.
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N4NYY
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 29, 2009 20:52
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S350DL - Superb AM DXer for the money
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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OK. The year is 2003. I moved to South Jersey about 120 miles from NYC. I am a Yankees fan, and now cannot pickup the radio station. So I do a search and found several long distance AM radios.
I order what appears to be the cream of the crop, the CCradio plus. After a few days, I deem it a disaster. AM reception was horrible. I returned it for a full refund.
I then order an GE Superadio III. It has superior AM reception to the CCradio. Drifts more, but I can pick up the station. Works well for several years.
Fast forward to 2009. The GE radio is not a nightmare for the last 2 years. It drifts repeatedly, and needs constant turning of the tuner. Enough is enough.
I end up trying the Grundig S350DL. This is supposed to be an improvement over the S350. I have enough credit card points, so that the radio is free. Upon trying it, reception is clearly superior to the GE Superadio. I had them side by side, and it was no comparison. The Grundig receiver was far more sensative and selective.
After a Google, I then decided to install the Kiwa filters and audio upgrade. I installed them on my own, with the parts costing $60. So now, I have a Grundig S350DL with Kiwa filters and audio upgrade for a total cost of $60.
The new filters were superior. The original stock filters were useless. I installed the audio upgrade because I'd figure for an extra $15, it can't hurt. The radio was already apart and it would only take about 1 hour more.
The audio is superb. Problem was that I did not have it long enough to know if it was an improvement. But it sounds great with the audio upgrade.
Regarding performance, you cannot beat it for the price. The frequency lock feature works great. It very occasionally drifts, but you can tell and reset the tuner. But it was so infrequent. Reception on AM was superb, even with no signal bars. It gets even better with 1 or 2 bars. I only tried it on a few SW channels, and it was flawless. I do not use it for FM.
If I have one complaint, it's that the fine adjust knob on the tuner is too course. You can simply get away with the course dial.
I could not believe some of the negative reviews for this radio. Maybe it's because they are for the old version S350. This is the DL (deluxe). Too many people were a bit harsh. I think they were expecting top end receiver, and they forgot that it is a $100 radio. You are not going to get several thousand dollars worth of performance, from a $100 radio. So don't expect it. For for the cost, it blows away the GE and CCradio.
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