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| Reviews Summary for Grundig G6 Aviator |
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Reviews: 23
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Average rating: 4.0/5
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MSRP: $$100
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Description: portable general coverage and airband
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TERRYW
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Rating: 2/5
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Jan 8, 2009 16:41
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TINY radio has powerful SW and a few quirks
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This time, Eton brings us a radio little bigger than an audio cassette case. Yes, it's THAT small. Does the performance match?
The tiny size has a huge appeal in itself. This portable is so small, you could lose it on the table. What's next, radio you need an electron scanning microscope to see?
The speaker sound is nothing to write home about, unless you're writing home to complain. The sound isn't exactly tinny, but it is narrow and tends to fatigue your ears after a while. That isn't good. It certainly lacks the crisp and often stunning fidelity of its big brother the G5. Adequate for its tiny size, I guess, but little more, and certainly NOT room-filling. Improved through a good pair of headphones, but still less than stunning.
The G6 only has one filter width. Looks to be about 5 kHz. That's actually very good for SW and prevents the adjacent interference and squealing Het problems which the G5 has. That's probably also why the sound on the G6 is so narrow. Fine for AM, though your FM experience will be a bit lackluster.
The FM reception is pretty good, though inferior to the G5. The MW reception is pretty good too, and better than I expected from such a tiny ferrite bar. What about the SW reception?
The SW reception is no less than stunning. The G6 is as hot as the G5 in that department, and perhaps hotter. Impressive engineering feat with such a tiny whip. And the G6 is less prone to MW and FM intrusions on SW than is the G5. The G5 suffers from a lot of them - the G6 barely any. The G6 is also better with fading distortion than the G5. Eton and company got this part of the radio pretty exactly correct.
FM intrusions are all over the Air band, however. I had to collapse the tiny whip to escape them, and even then couldn't evade all of them. That's not very good. Not at all.
The signal meter is just about useless. It reads S9 for any station you can hear. Very rare to see any poundage less than that. So that is actually useless, I guess. Somebody dropped the ball there.
And yes, this tiny little radio has SSB. It isn't selectable LSB/USB, same as the G5, but unlike the G5, it isn't fine tuned with an overly coarse analog dial, but instead digitally in 10 Hz steps. That's excellent, so why wasn't this feature included on the G5? The superior SSB tuning is featured on the inferior radio on the price and class tree? Why? What are you thinking, Eton? ARE you thinking, even? However, the filter is a bit wide for the HAM bands, and you'll still find yourself twiddling blind to find which frequency an operator is really on. And when you finally get him zero-beat (something nearly impossible to do on the G5,) the wideness of the G6's filter ensures you'll hear Donald Duck from the adjacent channels. So put the narrow filter on the radio with the crap SSB tuning? Why, Eton?
The features don't stop here. There are also 700 memories, arranged exactly like on the G5, and an autoscan including an ATS mode. The memories are, well, surprising in that there are so many on this little thing of a radio. The autoscan is pretty useless, unfortunately. It's very happy to zip past dozens of those S9 stations its reading and stop on none of them. AND, the autoscan doesn't function at all in the Air band, the one place you need it most! You can't have it all, I guess. But when could you in a radio?
The ergonomics are a little better than on the G5. The buttons are even more cramped on the G6 (but you'd rather expect that.) The tuning knob (yes there is one) is face mounted, which looked like it should be great, but its flush with the front of the radio, and trying to use your thumb where a dimple should be (but isn't) means you bump against the Jog button on every full turn. Not painful, as with the G5's tuning knob, but annoying and improperly designed. An aftermarket dimple would help. Or you could make one. The Jog button lets you change the tuning speed between fast and slow, which is another nice option missing on the G5. Do you have two development teams trying to screw each other over, Eton? They're screwing US over, so tell them to get with the plan! Or IS that the plan?
And there's an external antenna jack. That's useless too. The G6 has no attenuator (bad) and unless you have one for your external antenna, don't even think about using on the G6 as all you'll get is buzz (no pun intended, seeing as this radio is named Buzz Aldrin... More radios should have people's names, don't you think?) So, another fumbled feature here.
All in all, an impressive radio. Excellent SW reception, acceptable FM and MW performance, more bells and whistles than you would ever expect on a radio this size, and some of them actually work properly. Bring it to work for show and tell, for it truly has some Wow Factor.
Pros:
TINY size (and I mean tiny!)
Excellent SW performance
SSB with 10 Hz fine tuning
filter width good for AM
700 memories
Cons:
Mediocre speaker sound
filter width too narrow for FM, too wide for SSB
useless strength meter
useless external antenna jack
useless Air band
useless autoscan
no autoscan for Air band
no DX/Local attenuator
tiny buttons
awkward dual-function of buttons
tuning knob has no dimple and you hit another button while tuning
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KQ4KK
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Rating: 4/5
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Dec 22, 2008 17:53
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OK for the Price
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I got the G6 Aviator, Buzz Aldrin edition for about $100. The thank you card from Buzz is great.
I think how well these work vary from one production run to the next. Mine has more than a few birdies. AM band is not great. FM is OK. The aviation band, that this supposed to be about, is not worth much, unless you live next to an airport. SSB, I have not much luck with. But, hey, its only $100 radio. RS has it on sale for $79.95, which is a good deal.
It does not come close to my SONY 2010 or SW100 portables. However, these cost over $350+ when I bought them years ago. The G6 does remind me of my Radio Shack DX-150A... that radio cost a little over $100 when new, in the 1970's. And they both seem to receive about the same. Tho, the G6 will fit in my pocket when I go for a walk.
Buy a G6? Sure, for the price. It will not replace your ICOM 7800.
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ROBWIN12000
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 22, 2008 13:37
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fantastic SSB-HAMS
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have owned a lot of shortwave recievers . Like the sony 7600GR , Grundig 400PE , Kaito 1103 , Kaito 1102 , non ssb radio Kaito 1101 , Realistic DX-160 table unit , And a lot more . But for SSB this reciever is by far the best . It is a real Pleasure to use this unit , for SSB it seems like a much more expensive radio than it costs . I got mine on sale for $79.00 at Radioshack . Like I said in the other review this radio is a real deal .
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ROBWIN12000
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 21, 2008 16:26
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Great Radio
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Checked out the Grundig G-6 radio and am glad I have . Sensitivity on the AM band is just O.K for its size , what you would expect from a radio this small . Selectivity is good on the AM band . Sensitivity and Selectivity on Shortwave is good for its size and with only one bandwidth . BFO for the ham stations is very good , this is done by pressing the SSB button and tuning in the station . FM also is very good station can be heard that other radios do not hear because of overlapping close stations . The Aircraft band is only good if you are at or near an airport other than that FM station image's are all over the band . LW not much is heard here except beacons . For the price I paid , this is a very good radio and a great buy .
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KE8WO
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Rating: 3/5
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Sep 7, 2008 16:36
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Lots of Features, Short on Perfomance
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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The Grundig G6 has a very nice feature set and is a very convenient size. The display is very informative and the radio is fairly easy to use, especially given all that it does. However, one buys a multiband radio like this to actually listen to it. Its performance overall is not in keeping with the $100 price point. Much better performing radio's are available at or below this price point.
I do feel the G6's display, features and tuning options, etc. are the best in its price class however.
My sample had significant overloading on the lower shortwave bands from local AM broadcast stations. Shortwave performance was ohterwise ok, but the unit was not as sensitive as other radios in this price range. Adding even a sort external wire antenna of 15 feet only made the overloading worse. A major plus was it's SSB tuning performance ... far and away the best of the radios I've compared it to. AM BCB performance was ok but not as senitive as a Kaito 1102 or Degen 1103. FM performance was quite good. However the inter-station hiss was objectionable. As mentioned elsewhere, the AIR band is full of local FM broadcast stations bleeding through making it pretty much useless at my location.
So, this unit is pocket sized, is fun to use and has a ton of features but its overall performance will make it less pleasant to use ... especially if you happen to have other radios in this general price range to compare it to.
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4Z5NU
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 25, 2008 09:44
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Great after mod
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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The pros:
01)Size is small and compact(smaller then DE1103)
02)Avia band*
03)SSB
04)Good speaker sound
05)Large memory area- 700 (100pages x7)
06)External antenna input
07)3 alarms timers
08)Ergonomics are good
09)The orange LED backlighting is very handy
10)Build quality and feel are good
The cons:
1)Little bit expensive
2)Settings are not so friendly- keep the manual
*- Here is a mod for reception performance improvement in avia band (russian):
http://www.radioscanner.ru/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=4&topic=32050&page=17
73!
http://www.qrz.com/4z5nu
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K2ORS
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Rating: 3/5
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Jul 30, 2008 13:11
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OK - But Not Great!
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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The pros:
1) ssb/cw capability
2) small size
Cons:
1) OVERLOADS Easily! I get channel 2 video on 75 meters!
2) Aircraft band totally useless - all I get is images from the FM BC band
3) Longwave band useless - very poor sensitivity! Lots of overload from AM BC stations.
Not bad for the money, but if you can live without ssb get the Eton E100 - cheaper and much less prone to overload.
73 Warren K2ORS
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WA4YQL
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 27, 2008 14:37
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EXCELLENT FOR THE MONEY
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I'LL TELL YOU I WAS SHOCKED WHEN I OPENED THE SHIPPING CARTON AND FOUND THIS TINY RADIO. I ALREADY HAVE AN ETON E5 AND THOUGHT IT WOULD BE THE SAME SIZE. WELL AFTER GETTING IT FIRED UP , THIS RADIO IS GREAT FOR AIRCRAFT IT'S A KNOCK OUT. I GO BACK AND COMPARE SSB AND MIL UTILITIES BETWEEN THEM AND THE E5/G5 IS STILL A BIT BETTER, BUT YOU KNOW FOR 99.99 WITH FREE SHIPPING FORM DISCOVERYSTORE.COM , I GOT THE LIMITED EDITION BUZZ ALDRIN MODEL COMMEMORATING 50 YEARS IN SPACE. THIS RADIO IS A WINNER, AND IT FITS IN MY FRONT PANTS POCKET COMFORTABLY.
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LRDHEAT
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 6, 2008 19:46
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thumbs up
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Fast tuning using the tuning wheel on SW is 5 Khz steps, slow is 1 Hhz steps...on SSB, fast is 1 KHz steps, slow is a small increment of a 1 KHz step (decimal is not displayed; continued tuning eventually jumps displayed frequency to next KHz). In SSB moide, signal strength always reads as full strength; signal strength works well when not in SSB. Size is almost identical to E100. Be aware that the buttons, and some display notations are quite small. Selectivity is very good...Voice of Korea on 11710 (the G6 displays too low...center tuned, it will read 11711 in this case) was heard well inbetween a strong religious station on 11715, and another strong station on 11705 this morning. My E5 did not seperate the stations on narrow noticeably better (E5 is muddier in it's narrow setting audio while the G6's audio is much brighter). The news/music switch does not appear to be a narrow/wide switch as stations were audible on an identical swath of the dial in both settings. The set is sensitive, despite it's significantly smaller antenna than the E5. Aeronautical Volmet stations from New York, Trenton, and, last night, from Shannon, Ireland were readable similarly on both sets (I am in Laredo,TX). Sensitivity does seem to drop off above 23 MHz; the citizen band at around 27 MHz was noticeably weaker than the E100 & E5, yet WWV on 20 MHz was similar on these sets. The AGC on the G6 serves up a less steady volume then on the E5 on weak stations. The memories are easy to set, and label (one needs to read the manual, however). They remember whether or not a station is SSB. The memory will not retain the fraction of a KHz that may have been involved in center tuning a SSB station neccesitating a slight retuning upon calling up such a station from memory. Each page of memories can be labeled with 4 letter labels as on the E5. On mw, the set is not as sensitive as a SANGEAN DT200VX or SONY SRF-59; it is, however, very selective (more so than the SANGEAN or SONY) making it useful at night for mw dx. Unwanted tones appear on a few scattered mw frequencies. ..on mine, they were most noticeable on 740 KHz...the unwanted tones were resricted to 10 KHz spans...750 and 730, for example were fine. Backlight is nice. Buttons do not light up. One can have light come on with any button press, or use of tuning wheel, or have it remain off except when the light button is purposely pressed (I like having thatchoice). Airband is full of unwanted stations at my crowded am/fm market location (did not attempt to see if the qrm was from mw or fm images or mixing products)...it would be a matter of luck as to whether these interfered with your tower frequency... ATIS weather obs and notices to airmen came in great with no inteference. No attenuation switch, but I have not encountered overloading; on the E10 and E100, the attenuation available was occasionally insufficient to deal with the overloading!
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NR3G
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Rating: 4/5
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May 12, 2008 15:29
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Good radio for the price
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I'm quite amazed that such a small radio has such good sensitivity and audio performance. It definately will be a good travel radio as it's quite compact.
I have, however, discovered one small problem having to do with the memory function. On occasion when I retrieve a memory number, an adjacent number also blinks and the receiver locks up. When this happens both the memory number that I selected along with the adjacent memory both blink together and you can't select either memory, although other memories can be selected. I find that the only way to fix the problems is to shut the radio off, clear that page of memories and then reincert the memories again. Fortunately each page only accepts seven frequencies.
This is the ONLY problem that I've encountered with the radio so far and I've had it for almost a week.
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