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write your own review of the Grundig S350 AM/FM/SW World Receiver.
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N5IVZ
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Rating: 3/5
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Jun 18, 2009 05:03
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Good for Local AM
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have owned it for several years... ok audio but the drift is annoying...
good for the bedside at night listening to George Norry and Coast to Coast...
Not a DX radio!
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N3NXD
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 10, 2009 17:01
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The perfect bedside radio
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I exchanged my A6 Aviator for this. The reception of this unit is superb. No reception of house electronics at bedside. Lot's of filtering, if needed. Not hypersensitive like the aviator. No drift, the wobbly tuning knob is made for finger spinning, not an issue. No SSB. I have a MFJ-8100 for SSB. A classic you won't regret. Plain rugged,yet sexy.
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OLLIEOXEN27
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Rating: 4/5
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Mar 17, 2009 14:17
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Poor performer made acceptable
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought the S350 about five years ago but put it on the shelf due to the unacceptable audio - squeals, howels, hisses, you name it.
Recently I got it down and worked out a solution. First thing I did was connect the radio to an outside antenna. I now run the radio with RF gain at just above minimum. I use the narrow filter in the radio and off tune by a couple of khz which helps. Then I built an el cheapo external variable low pass filter by running the audio in series with a 5k potentiometer and a .1uf capacitor in parallel. This setup removes about 95% of the squeals and high pitch headache makers that made using the radio so fatiging before.
Now I listen to the radio often and I am pleased with it's performance. It's no 7030 but it's worth what I paid.
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VK3DWZ
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Rating: 3/5
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Mar 4, 2009 03:07
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Good bedside radio.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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After seeing this radio reviewed in "Passport to Worldband Radio" (2004 edition), I decided to purchase one. A surprise trip to Beijing had me searching for it there where (in China) it was called "Tecsun BCL-2000".
How does it perform? No great DX receiver, but more than adequate for casual listening. The sensitivity is good everywhere -- importantat this QTH where signals are often very marginal. Very good audio, too.
Yes, its flaws are real: overloads easily; lousy tuning; "useless" R-F gain control; "woeful" single conversion has phantom signals everywhere; very drifty, but as a casual short-wave receiver it's pretty good.
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M1MBZ
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Rating: 2/5
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Oct 21, 2007 10:29
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Big radio but performs like a cheap toy.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I've played with one and have a review.
The first thing about this radio is it's size, it's not a compact portable receiver, this one is huge!
The first thing wrong with this receiver is it's mode switch, it's not clear at first that there is one switch to switch between FM (afc on) and FM (afc off) and AM, there is then another switch to switch between the MF am band and three shortwave selections, this could all be done with one switch, and the AFC function should be done with a separate button.
Volume and tone controls are straight forward.
Why is there a shortwave low pass filter option? It kills reception of the top half of shortwave, I can only imagine it's there to save the owners of the radio from problems with local 27MHz operators.
Audio is loud but not particularly clear, the tone control does not really help bring any clarity to the audio, the IF wide option being too wide to be practical, so you have to use the narrow filter to make the radio useful at all.
Tuning on any of the shortwave bands needs a steady hand as a twitch of the tune knob will send the receiver 20kHz away from your wanted station, this is an analogue tuner with a digital frequency readout, there is no dial lock or frequency lock, also no memory functions, like I said, this is a plain old analogue radio with a digital read out.
The receiver has external antenna sockets, but there is no way to disengage the built in whip or AM bar antenna. Thankfully there is an RF gain control, although that seems to reach it's peak gain when the knob is only turned 1/4 of the way, turning it the rest of the way does nothing.
This thing takes 4 x D cells, big batteries for a big radio, some might call this a field radio, although it's not really practical in the field. I can think of a number of simpler, smaller, cheaper radios that work, that would be better in the 'field' than this one.
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VE1BLL
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 26, 2007 17:00
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Eton S350DL - better than I expected
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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My review is about the Eton S350DL; a slight variation on the Grundig S350.
I picked up this funny red radio at The Source in Canada for Cdn$60 (August 2007). I bought it specifically to bring along on a month-long vacation to the Philippines. We planned to be on a smaller island for a full week (rustic, no easy Internet access) and I knew that a SW radio would get a good work-out. Mostly for listening to BBC World Service, but also to tune up and down the bands to see what's on SW in SE Asia.
At the outset I considered this radio to be a 'clown' radio (not really a serious radio) but this meant that if my luggage was lost I wouldn't be too upset. Others have called this type of radio 'cheap and cheerful' which is perfectly accurate.
I brought along a printout of the BBC schedule into SE Asia. When I had a free moment, I would plop down in the nearest chair or hammock and dial-up BBC. Easy and simple. Worked every single time. I was actually impressed with the performance and reliable reception. Even when the signal momentarily faded nearly into the atmospheric noise floor, this radio still delivered nice audio. One could actually just sit back and enjoy the programming.
Sound quality is good, the speaker is pretty big. There are a couple of adjustments (narrow and LPF) that actually did something helpful. Bass and Treble normally set to max.
I also tuned up and down the bands and stumbled across Radio Australia booming in with their Breakfast Club show. Another armchair copy.
The radio also provided a zillion interesting signals up and down the broadcast bands. It did not lack for basic sensitivity using just the whip, but the images were fairly obvious too.
For comparison and back-up, I had also brought along my very best $20 no-name pocket size SW radio; one of those with the analog tuning and digital frequency display. Wasn't even close; basically useless.
Back to the S350DL:
The tuning knob does wobble a bit as it goes around.
The automatic frequency lock feature worked reasonably well, but it would eventually unlock and suddenly be 5 kHz off. This was most often caused by bringing the cold (air conditioned) radio outside to the hot and humid air.
I had to reset it once (poke a tooth pick into the reset hole on the front to reset the CPU). This was likely cause by rough handling in the suitcase causing the D-cells to rattle open and closed.
Back light and (24-hour) clock are very nice. You can set the back light to just stay on. With D-cells for power, who cares.
It fits snugly into a legal carry-on bag (radio width to carry-on bag width). It runs on D-cells so they last for a long time.
In summary, the S350DL seems to be well worth Cdn$60 (but perhaps not $100). It kept me tuned into BBC while relaxing on a small tropical island and I didn't have to risk bringing along a more serious radio.
I'll give it a 4, but this is on the 'clown' radio scale. On an absolute scale it might be about a 2.
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KA2IBN
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 11, 2007 02:54
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S350DL
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I needed a portable radio and this one fits the bill. You can't rate this radio by comparing it to units costing more which are designed for chasing DX stations. This radio is fun to use and a challange which brings back the joys of when I began short wave and BCB listening. I wish I had this radio way back then. Well worth $100 and carried by Radio Shack.
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BOSWELL
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 10, 2007 16:53
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Good Audio Quality, Bad Drift
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This was my second shortwave radio and one of my largest, third to my two Trans-Oceanics, and it is a very good reciever. It has all desireable features (excluding SSB) and good sensitivity, but there are some flaws. First, the major flaw is the drift. This radio drifts up to 6 KHz is a five minute span. The second flaw is the bandwidth switch. Leave it on narrow, because the wide setting is extremely wide. It recieves stations well, but leaves somethign to be desired. I payed $100 for mine a few years ago and still think it was a bit pricey. I would say it's worth about $40-50, but not $100. Get a used one so you don't spend so much money. If you want bang for your buck, go for a Trans-Oceanic on eBay, I got my Royal 7000 for $80 and I'd say it's worth that and then some.
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MIKEWALSH
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Rating: 3/5
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Aug 15, 2007 18:05
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Well Worth $40
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Just picked up a S350DL refurb off eBay for forty bucks.
I was thinking Superadio III but wanted the S350DL's backlit digital display because I often listen in low light.
The S350DL overall is a "cheap and cheerful" portable with its own strengths and weaknesses.
In no particular order,
Weaknesses :
There is a serious overloading problem on FM, fortunately solvable by collapsing the whip antenna.
Images on SW.
There is often a loud, irritating hum on MW when not tuned to a listenable signal, apparently because the 350 is hypersensitive to manmade and background noise.
SW recepton is good enough for the boomers but don't expect much more. SW is a little weak off the whip antenna. If you want real DX'ing, this one's not for you.
Strengths :
Contrary to what some have reported, my tuning knob does not wobble. It gets from end-to-end quickly and is a pleasure to use. The course/fine tuning dials are well designed.
The blue electroluminescent backlight underlies the entire display, turns on momentarily whenever you use the tuner, and can be set to stay on till power-off if you prefer, even on batteries. Best backlight I've ever seen on a portable.
Excellent selectivity on FM. Gets many stations that my more expensive Grundig Satellits do not.
The whip antenna is well made and sturdy, and the joint stays stiff, no drooping.
Very good but not great audio, full rich sound with seperate bass and treble controls.
Two MW/SM filters to choose from.
The MW/SW gain control comes in handy on some signals.
Highly directional MW reception - you can peak and clean up a MW signal greatly by turning the radio.
Good but not great sensitivity on MW, a little less than on my CCRadio, for instance.
General points :
The build quality is on the cheap side, but good enough if you accept that this relatively inexpensive radio is unlikely to be a long-lived collector's item the way a real Grundig would be.
There are no memories, but this is of course an analog set, so that's not a flaw per se.
No SSB or sync detection, but again, this was not meant to be a top-shelf digital radio.
On FM the AFC setting doesn't seem to help at all, but that's no great loss to me.
A select-a-tenna helped somewhat on MW, as expected.
The plastic strap/handle combo is kind of cheap looking, but is comfortable and works well enough.
Bottom line - at the full current price of $100, you might be better served looking elsewhere, especially at the Kaito KA-2100, but if you pick up one of these quirky S350DL's on the cheap and accept a few limitations, it's a lot of good old-fashioned analog fun to tune around the bands with.
I hope that helps you decide.
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ALCUIN
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Rating: 1/5
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Jun 9, 2007 21:00
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Assume it's disposable
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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AA0NI and others provide excellent reviews of the performance of this radio. I loved the audio quality and SW sensitivity. Mine went dead just as the 1 year warranty expired - both on AC & batteries. A simple trace of the power circuit led to a dead-end at an IC. I happened to notice yesterday that of 6 units on ebay, 3 wouldn't turn on and were being sold for parts. Don't buy it unless you will be happy with planned obsolescence. I bought a used Sony 2010 to replace it.
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