| TUBESAREKING |
Rating:      |
2003-05-26 | |
| Great for the $! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This radio is a breath of fresh air. In an era where most every AM/FM/SW radio is digital, this Tecsun with the Grundig USA badge and colour is analogue, with a digital display. Sure it has a bit of tuning backlash [because it has a dial cord and springs]. Sure it has SW warbles on the MW band. But it is very sensitive, selective and is just plain fun! If you are new to SW - ask yourself - do I want to bandscan or do I want to key in frequencies from Passport, WRTH, the pages of PopComm etc. If bandscanning is your thing and you are on a budget - this one's for you! If keying in frequencies is your thing - get a Tecsun [Grundig Badge] YB400, or a nice Sangean or Sony.
If you are like me, and have other great radios - you'll appreciate the S350 for its sensitivity, good audio, long battery life, and the fact you can put it on a picnic table without it falling over - unlike most portables.
This is not a communications receiver. It is not a DX receiver - but you will catch DX on it when conditions are right. Its a fun, multipurpose portable that begs to be carried, used and enjoyed.
New baby keeping you out of your shack? This is a radio you can carry into the nursery while you are on baby duty and enjoy without having to wory about it keeling over - keep you Sony ICF SW-77 safe in its special drawer in your shack!
I probably will never use the AC adapter - its just too much fun on batteries.
It makes a pretty good office radio too - FM is pretty good on it.
If you get one through your local Radio Shack Canada store, you can return it within 30 days if its not the radio for you. First timers should keep this in mind, as a Grundig YB-400 might be more their cup of tea, depending on your listening habits, as noted earlier.
Its not a Drake R8B, its not a Kenwood R-1000, its not a Sony ICF 2010 or SW-77, its not a Tecsun-Drake [Grundig Badge]SAT 800. But for its price, its more fun than a barrell of monkeys!!! |
|
| HLH41 |
Rating:      |
2003-05-23 | |
| Find one better for $100.00 |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I think some of the reviewers up to now would like a Drake R8B for $100.00. Well I don't think so. Lets get real. Most professional reviews would
give this radio a 5 just on the price versus features. It works great for me in Arizona, so it gets a 5. Did I mention the plug in power cube. I also have a Palstar R30 and TT RX320 on the same 45' antenna. The S350 is no slouch at pulling in the SW or BC band. |
|
| K6RQR |
Rating:     |
2003-05-12 | |
| Good value |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I recently had an old Sangean portable give up the ghost and I decided to replace it with the Grundig S350 after reading these reviews and finding it for sale at a local HRO. For the money I think it is a good buy. I like the tuning knob (as opposed to having only keypad entry on many receivers), the fine sound and bass/treble controls, dual bandwidths, RF gain control, and the overall performance. Listening casually on AM the other night I heard KTNN in Shiprock, NM on 660 kHz. I'm in the Bay Area and previously heard that station on a sensitive HQ-140 so the AM reception is fine. The tuning can be a bit broad on AM shortwave so I select the narrower bandwidth to zero in on the station accurately and then go to the wide position for maximum fidelity if conditions permit. It seems senstive and selective enough for good program listening on shortwave. FM sounds very good and the receiver produces full quieting on one station that I have been having trouble listening to at work with another radio. The S350 is also light enough to carry everywhere and I like that it uses "D" batteries because they should last a long time. It also comes with an AC supply.
I only wish they could have incorporated SSB reception but at this price that is not realistic. I also wish that you could disengage the 90 minute auto shutoff feature.
My only real complaint is the 2-speed tuning control. It does tend to drift a bit and you have to get used to the feel of that when tuning but its not a big deal.
Overall, this is a real good buy. It also comes with an informative booklet which introduces you to listening. Recommended. |
|
| WA0URJ |
Rating:     |
2003-04-30 | |
| ANTENNA FOR S-350 |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I won both the Grundig S-350 and the BCL-2000.
Both great radio's. A great antenna for either
the BCL-2000 or the S-350 is the B&W ASW-60
SWL antenna. (www.b&wantennas.com)
A perfect antenna that will pull in the stations
and through use of RF gain control won't over load
the radio. |
|
| AE4TO |
Rating:     |
2003-04-24 | |
| Good radio for MW/AM DX |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Father I have sinned!
This is my second posting on this radio and I felt I did not make it clear that this radio is a very good radio for MW/AM DX Listening.
My location is in Miami Fl. and from this location I was able to listen to YVKL 550KC 50 KW in Caracas Venezuela, thats is more than 1000 miles away, Radio Pirata 1050 KC Cancun Mexico, WLAC 1510 in Nashville Ten. and many other far away stations. The radio compares favorably with the GE Super Radio III.
On top of this the radio is very sensitive, the overloading can be controled to a point with the RF control, has good ergonomics and it drift a little bit.
The analog tuning gets to you after a while if you tune a round on the short wave bands.
I like the radio. I only wish the designer had taken the radio to its full potential.
So if you like listening to MW/AM distant stations this radio is good for that. On top of that you get SW and FM. The Tecsun copy of this radio sells in China for close to $65. Is it worth the $100 in the USA? I think that if you compare it to the Crane radio $150 and the SRIII at $56 is right on the money for AM/MW listening. For AM/MW I will give the radio a 4 rating. For short wave listening I think you have better options.
Regards! Sergio
----------------------
Earlier 3-star review posted by AE4TO on 2003-04-20
Had this radio for acouple of weeks and returned.
The good points are:
Good sensitivity
Good selectivity
Good audio
Good ergonomics: Big display, display ligth can be left on.
Good size
Good SW listening program radio
Good MW/AM radio
Very sharp looking radio ( similar to the RF2200)
Very low noise floor
Bad points are:
Analog tuning with digital display
Radio drifts
Single conversion
Images
Overloading
No memories
No direct frequency entry
No SSB
I wanted to keep this radio because is a beautiful radio that looks like the old panasonic RF2200, but reason prevail.
The analog tuning turn me off since after a while you get tire of having to go from one end of the dial to the other end to find a station you want to tune in. The analog tuning sucks at this time and age in electronics.
I could live with the overloading since it can be controled to a point with the RF control.
I just hope that Grundig/Eton, will finish the design process and correct the weakness of this radio and make it sharp looking outside and use todays technology inside.
Is great to fall in love with a beautifull girl but are you going to be blind about her weaksness. I am not talking about that particular weakness.......but the technological one.
For $100 you can find better radios. That is if you want to look. Lets get our monies worth!
Al pan, pan y al vino: vino
A spanish saying: you call bread, bread and wine, wine. Let the truth prevail!
Regards! Sergio
|
|
| RADIOJAY |
Rating:     |
2003-04-21 | |
| Great Radio At price Point |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I don't recall a time when a new radio model introduction has caused
so much advanced publicity and excitement. I have been reading about
the Tecsun BCL-2000/Grundig S350 for a while now, and it is being
heralded by some as the "Next Superadio." Naturally, we all want to
know if it indeed does match the GE SRIII's basic performance or even
improve on it slightly. Others want to know how it compares to the
CCRadio Plus or the Sony 7600GR. Advance publicity and reports from
users of the Tecsun version which has already been available for a
while indicates that this new model has unusually high sensitivity,
possibly at the expense of some overload problems. At the price point
the S350 is conceded to have a few negative points, but the big
question is, does this radio give good enough performance to become a
new standard of comparison and become known unofficially as Superadio
IV?
My review sample is a Tecsun BCL-2000 shipped from China. Grundig has
made some modifications for the US version. They increased the am
band to cover the expanded band to 1700 KHz, whereas the Tecsun tops
out about 1650. The Tecsun contains a built-in AC Power Supply for
220 volts in addition to a DC input jack…Grundig has omitted the
direct AC input. It has been rumored that there may have been or may
be in the ner future some other changes, but early reports from
various owners suggest that overall operation of the two versions
seems to be the same. Time will tell if there are any changes that
directly affect performance.
Now that I've had my BCL-2000 for the better part of 2 months I've
finally had the chance to do some daytime and nighttime reception
comparisons between it and some other popular portable receivers. I
did side by side comparison tests on AM (MW), SW and FM comparing the
BCL-2000 (which I'll now refer to as the Grundig S350) against the
CCRadio Plus, a GE Superadio III, Sony 2010, SW77 and 7600GR,
Grundig YB400 and a Radio Shack DX-398/Sangean ATS/909. All tests
used built-in antennas and battery power.
My location is just outside Hartford, CT. about 15 miles away from
the major local transmitters so AM and FM overload weren't big
problems during the daytime. I will describe when overload was
present, although this was usually at night. I listened for
sensitivity with extremely weak (barely hearable) and medium strength
(listenable but with some noise) signals and I did several adjacent
station selectivity tests as well, and I checked at several points on
the dial so see how consistent the results were. Generally, on mw and
shortwave, the results were mostly consistent up and down the dial
with exceptions as noted. Here are the results…some of them surprised
me!
AM (Medium Wave tests)
Daytime Sensitivity. The CCRadio was, by a very slight margin, the
most sensitive on AM. Barely audible signals were always most clearly
audible on the CC. Often there was no difference, but when there was,
it was always in favor of the CC. In most cases, you would have to be
directly comparing the radios to realize the difference…they were
that close.
The 2010 was a very close second (this was a surprise). It usually
matched the CC, but sometimes the CC pulled in an extremely faint
signal that sounded weaker on the 2010. I tried two samples of the
2010 for this test.
Next came the Grundig S350 , the Sony SW77 and 7600GR (these two are
quite similar on am, not on sw but we'll get to that later), GE SRIII
and YB400. They were very close in intelligibility and signal to
noise ratio to one another, but the Grundig S350's ultimate volume
was lower on weaker stations…it just lost some volume which didn't
happen to the others. This would appear to be an AGC-related
phenomenon. One oddity was the GE SRIII…it was just slightly less
sensitive than the others at the low end of the dial. It was just as
good as the others above about 700 khz…it is possible this is an
alignment issue, although this particular SRIII was the best of
several I compared a year or two ago (I work at a radio station that
owns several GE's as AM Monitors for remote broadcasts because of
their good reception and great sound). Also of note, I did not find
the "hiss" problem I have read about on the YB400. In these mw tests
its overall signal to noise ratio on very weak and medium signals
seemed similar to the other models in this category.
The DX-398 brought up the rear on am sensitivity, although it seemed
a bit better above 1300KHz. There were several weak signals I could
find no trace of on it. Medium strength signals were rendered with
more obtrusive background rushing noise…the stations sounded weaker
and more lost in the noise. Many people tout this as a great dxing
radio, but most agree it needs the help of an external antenna. I
would say they are correct. I have tried two samples of this radio
and they seemed to perform similarly.
Daytime Selectivity: The S350 did well here. I was able to listen to
a distant station on 1350 without interference from a fairly strong
station on 1360 on all the radios except the GE SRIII…I could barely
tell the 1350 station was even there on the GE it was so covered up
by 1360. Even the Sony 2010's wide filter had no problem here.
Interestingly, switching the S350 from Wide to Narrow didn't affect
the amount of 1360 splatter I heard in the 1350 signal at all! I
could hear the bandwidth get narrower (more muffled) but the
sidebands of 1360 were unaffected.
Nighttime Am: Things changed somewhat at night. Now all the single
conversion radios suffered some images and splatter. The Sony 2010
slightly outperformed the CCRadio in making sense out of cluttered
places on the band. It was able to resolve some distant signals which
seemed more interference-ridden on the other radios. The Grundig S350
had noticeable overload, more than the CC or the SRIII, although I
could generally control it effectively with the RF Gain control and
the Low Pass Filter. The S350 overall performed well at night but
does require you experiment more with the LPF and the Gain to get the
best sound on any given station. The effects of overload ranged from
whistles or tone-type noises to that general kind of shimmering mess
you get when a radio is overloaded. The CC generally performed as
well as the S350 at night although it did so without less
intervention, and it still had better AGC action…weak signals didn't
lose volume on it like they did on the S350. The DX-398 was still
less sensitive, although it didn't detract as much from most of the
nighttime signals as it did in the daytime.
I also didn't get the feeling that the digital aspect of the digital
radios detracted from their performance in the least, either day or
night. In the end, though, I could hear most of the tough signals on
all the radios. The SRIII's slightly poorer selectivity hid some
stations completely, however, so in this regard the S350 outperformed
it by a wide margin.
Shortwave Tests: Here the S350 did very well indeed! Although there
were images and overload problems I had to control with the LPF and
the Gain Controls, I was usually able to get excellent reception of
tough sw signals. The S350 was extremely sensitive, almost as good as
the Sony 2010 (which is impressive and surprising again) and quite
similar to the SW77, and considerably more sensitive than the 7600GR,
YB400 or DX-398. I also didn't experience the loss of volume on
weaker signals as happened on am…the S350 really pulled in the weak
stuff very well. I was very impressed with the S350 on sw, and it
sounded much better than the two Sony's. The S350's two bandwidths
seemed to help a lot more on sw than they did on am. From a "Program
Listening" point of view the two bandwidths are well chosen. The Wide
filter allows very good sound on good signals, and the Narrow filter
cuts lots of interference when necessary and leaves enough frequency
response for enjoyable listening. I actually prefer this to the
Narrow filters on most sw portables which seem very muffled to me for
program listening.
On the negative side, tuning was sometimes finicky on the S350. At
some frequency ranges the numbers change so fast it is hard to get
them zeroed in…at other frequencies this is much easier. Also, the
S350 invites user intervention, as you must often try the LPF, adjust
the RF Gain and try the two bandwidths. I don't mind this trade-off
for the price of the S350. Some people are bound to like this and
others are bound to dislike it! As I said in my preliminary
observations, this is a "Hands On" radio!
FM Tests: The S350 performed decently on FM. I seem to get a few
images on most portable radios in this area which prevent tuning in
some distant signals which would otherwise be listenable. It's
interesting because, as I said earlier, I'm not that close to any FM
transmitters…all the big ones are in two locations about 15 and 20
miles away. Generally the S350, CCRadio and Sony 2010 and SW77 and YB
400 did similarly. They were very sensitive with reception limits
generally being determined by selectivity . Generally adjacent
channel was out of the question, alternate channel (two frequencies
away) was often a problem with second alternate becoming the closest
one could reasonably expect to achieve. This is excellent performance
for the S350's price point. The S350 also sounded very nice on FM.
The next group down contained the 7600GR, SRIII and DX-398, although
for different reasons. The 7600GR was disappointingly non-sensitive
on FM. (Another surprise for me, but I'm not primarily an FM listener
and I never tried it critically on FM before). My SRIII didn't acquit
itself very well on FM…it had a harder time separating stations on
the dial and often sounded less clean on certain stations. The DX-398
had no serious shortcomings on FM…just average sensitivity and
selectivity.
In the FM tests, I didn't make it clear that the poor selectivity I
discussed was when trying to receive a weak signal two or three
channels away from a much stronger local station. When signals were
closer to each other in strength it was possible to clearly receive
stations only one or two channels away on the dial. Sorry I wasn't
clearer about that the first time
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS:
In a nutshell I think the new S350 could indeed be considered a
Superadio IV. At its suggested selling price in the US of $100 it
offers a unique level of performance for a multiband portable along
with some trade-offs in general quality. Even ignoring sw, it
somewhat outperforms the SRIII on AM and FM reception and is very
close to the CCRadio Plus which generally sells for $160. It doesn't
match the very big sound of the GE but it sounds somewhat better than
the CC and much better than the Sony's. The Sony 7600GR was about as
sensitive on am but not as sensitive on sw or FM. It should also be
noted that the Sony's do offer synchronous detection which sometimes
improves reception dramatically.
The only other quibble is the tuning. It is a bit sloppy and
sometimes finicky to get right. It's the kind of thing you develop a
feel for and learn how to life with, and if it were purely an analog
radio you wouldn't even notice it as much. The tuning is no more
sloppy than on the GE…you can just see it better on the digital
display. It's a small trade-off in this product category…I still like
having the digital display!
I think it's also worth noting that at $100 the S350 offers overall
reception which is close to the very best in a portable, with sound
quality that is better than all the rest except the GE SRIII. That
alone qualifies it as the new, unofficial Superadio IV!
|
|
| MHUSS1 |
Rating:     |
2003-04-21 | |
| Great for AM DX'ing |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Grundig S350 Review.
As the owner of one of the last Tecsun Red Radios that came out, I am very satisfied with my ‘Grundig S350’. But be warned, you have to know what you are buying it for. If you are looking for a good Short-wave radio, look elsewhere. Unless you are just looking for a good Short-wave to listen to. If you are looking for a good BCB DX radio, you have come to the right place.
Most MW radios fall into three categories. First is the consumer radio. This is a standard design good only for picking up the local stations. Things like Clock Radios and portables. The designs are simple, cheap, and little more sensitive than an old crystal set. Some even have the added feature of letting you listen to several local radio stations all at once, even though they are 500 kHz apart! (remember, it is a FEATURE, not a BUG;)
The second category are better quality, and give you short-wave reception as well. These are invariably digital, and are priced above $150. Still made for ‘local’ reception, as they are invariably insensitive. Worse, the digital VFO’s add wideband noise to the receivers, making them even less sensitive.
In the seventies, or so the story goes, a GE Engineer who lived back in the Colorado mountains could not find an inexpensive radio that would pick up AM. So he designed one, and the result was the GE SuperRadio I. It was a standard analog tuning radio with no frills except for excellent sensitivity on the AM Band. Had FM, more to satisfy Marketing, so the FM reception was terrible. But it sold for a ridiculously low price for such a sensitive receiver. And quickly became the darling of MW DX’ers. GE kept up production through three different models, until the SRIII, making changes to keep the price down (such as replacing the six-gang variable capacitor with varicaps). Finally, last year it went out of production.
Luckily for the MW DX’ers, Tecsun marketed an upgraded replacement just in time. It has the sensitivity of the SRIII’s, and the added feature of a digital frequency display, where the SRIII had slide-rule tuning that was never accurate. They also improved the FM sensitivity some, too. And added Short-wave reception capability, important in their market, as China has a lot of remote country not normally covered by AM radio.
And here is where you need to know what you want when choosing the S350, rather than a higher priced short-wave radio. If you are looking for an AM/FM Radio for a location where stations normally don’t come in, such as in a building, out on camping trips, or at the cabin. Or you are looking for an inexpensive AM/DX radio, you have come to the right place. Most of it’s shortcomings resulted from it’s original market target. Yes, it is single conversion, thus is inherently sensitive to picking up images on Short-wave bands. But it was designed for casual listening, not dedicated Short-wave listeners. Besides, you get twice as many stations for the money that way! Yes, it has drift, mainly from using dial-cord tuning. But it is usually only apparent because it has a digital display, and it was necessary because six-gang tuning capacitors don’t grow on trees. If you open it up, you will note that it actually has two tuning capacitors, one for AM, and one for FM, connected by the dial cord. And if you tune past the station slightly, then back off a bit, you will take most of the tension out of the cord, and the radio does not noticeably drift. Yes, it has a PAL-type FM Antenna Connector, but that is standard in China. The RF control has no effect over three quarters of it’s range, but it is cheaper to buy all logarithmic pots of the same value, than to have different kinds. It does time out after ninety minutes of listening, but then it was designed to save batteries where AC power is rare. I have been listening to it for weeks now, and still have not replaced the batteries. Try that with digital radios.
The list of it’s quirks go on, but for AM listening on the reception fringe, you have to pay about four times as much to do noticeably better.
|
|
| RADIOHIGHFREQUENCY |
Rating:      |
2003-04-20 | |
| The Next Generation of SUPER RADIO for the New Millennium ! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The Grundig S350 started out as the Tecsun BCL-2000 'Broad Cast Listeners Radio for AM, FM, and International Shortwave Broadcast Listening. Basically a GE Superadio designed for BCL with the Shortwave Bands Added and Expanded Features. Therefore Knowing what the GS350 is and Judging the GS350 accordingly: IMHO, I would 'rate' the Grundig S350 as a Big 5.0 on eHam for what it is designed to do for the customer it is intended to satisfy. The Grundig S350 is a Volks-DX-Radio for the average Broad Cast Listener who would enjoy the GE Superadios and the CCRadios; with the Option to Listen to the Shortwave Bands.
Having both the GE Superadio III (Analog Varactor Tuning) and the CC*Radio+Plus (Digital PLL Tuning). The Grundig (Super Radio) S350 has Digital LCD Display and True Analog Variable Capacitor Tuning. All three radios are single conversion. The Grundig S350 has the right features that are a mix and a match between the the GE Superadio III and the CC*Radio+Plus. Plus the Grundig S350's Price Point of $100 is just about right for a radio tha fits a 'niche' between the GE Superadio III ($40) and the CC*Radio+Plus ($160).
WHAT - IT - IS !
* Standard Grundig S350 Features:
+ AM Band (Separate AM Tuner)
+ Hi-Sensitivity
+ FM Band & AFC (Separate FM Tuner)
+ Two Tuning Speeds: Normal & Fine
+ Quality Sound
+ 192mm/7.5" AM/MW Ferrite Rod Antenna
+ Wide & Narrow AM Band Width Filters
+ Digital Frequency Display
+ Clock & Alarm & Sleep Timer
+ External AM & FM Antenna Inputs
+ RF Gain Control
+ Styling: New Retro-Mil-Aero-Look
= = = AC & DC Operation
= = = Medium Price US$100
- NO Memories
# Extra Features:
Normal Broadcast SW Listening (AM Mode)
Low Pass Filter?
Comparable Radios Designed for BCLs:
* GE Superadio III
+ AM Band
+ Hi-Sensitivity
+ FM Band & AFC
+ Quality Sound
+ Two Speakers & Cross Over Network
+ Low Price ~US$60
+ Single Conversion
+ 200mm/8" AM/MW Ferrite Rod Antenna
+ Wide & Narrow AM Band Width Filters
+ External AM & FM Antenna Inputs
= = = AC & DC Operation
- One Tuning Speed
- Analog Dial / Varactor Tuning
- NO Memories
- NO Clock & Alarm & Sleep Timer
- NO RF Gain Control
- Styling: Old Analog Radio Look
# Extra Features: NONE
* CC*RadioPlus+
+ AM Band
+ Hi-Sensitivity
+ FM Band & AFC
+ Tuning Know & Up Down Buttons
+ Human Voice Sound Quality
+ Single Conversion
+ 200mm/8" AM/MW Ferrite Rod Antenna
+ Digital Frequency Display
+ Memories: AM=5 & FM=5 TV=5 WB=5
+ Clock & Alarm & Sleep Timer
= = = AC & DC Operation
+ External FM Antenna Input
- External AM Antenna Input
- One Tuning Speed
- Wide AM Band Width Filter (Only)
- NO RF Gain Control
- High Price US$160
- Styling: Common Modern Digital Look
# Extra Features:
TV Channels 2-13
WX Band
WHAT - IT - IS - NOT !
The Grundig S350 is NOT designed to be is a 'Shortwave Radio' with AM & FM Bands thrown in for those times when you are not listening to Shortwave Broadcasts or to the Ham's on SSB or CW.
* Sangean ATS-505P
* Grundig Yacht Boy 300PE
* Sony ICF-7600GR
* Grundig Yacht Boy 400PE
* Sangean ATS-909
THE BOTTOM LINE: The Grundig S350 "Fits-In-A-Niche" between the GE Superadio III and the CC*RadioPlus+ in Features and Price. It Is a Broadcast Listeners Radio: Nothing More and Nothing Less. The Grundig S350 may be what everyone was 'hoping' a GE-Superadio-IV was going to be. Grundig-USA may have got the jump on GE-Thomson CE (FR). Possibly the Next Generation of SUPER RADIO a "Volks-DX-Radio" for the Average BCL who enjoys DXing. BottomLine: Clearly the Grundig S350 is the "Best Value for the Money".
~ RHF
-o/m- "Grundig S350" eGroup at YAHOO ! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grundig-S-350/
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|
|
| 2112 |
Rating:     |
2003-04-19 | |
| great sound, low price, low tech |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I like this radio. I'd call it a low priced, unsophisticated Satellite 700 due to its similar size and nice full sound, but without the digital features and higher quality of the 700. Uses 4 D cells.
The analog tuning was nostalgic fun for a while. There was no chugging like on lower priced digitals. I had forgotten how analog drifts, however and all that tuning dial action is a bit of a pain. Shortwave reception is decent on the big stations. The analog tuning reminds me of years gone by SWL. Vol, Bass, Treble, RF controls are smooth and solid. Band selector switches feel a little flimsy, but OK. The two speed tuning dial is firm, but light (plastic). The construction overall is good.
I am protective of my Sat 700 and don't like to take it anywhere. This $99 S350 will be good outdoors and I won't worry too much about damage or loss. Very good sounding radio for the money.
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|
| VE3XDB |
Rating:    |
2003-03-20 | |
| Enjoyable radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I purchased this radio because of the audio quality. Over the years, I have had several shortwave radios at my bedside, used primarily for SW broadcast listening. Perhaps it's me, but some of the best radios technologically were the most difficult to listen to in terms of audio quality.
This radio "feels different" than most modern SW radios. With its RF gain control, two bandwidths, and filter, it feels more like a ham radio than a modern "tune it and leave it" radio. It also drifts a bit, making it feel like an "old" ham radio.
From my perspective, this is an interesting radio for $150 Cdn.
THE GOOD:
- nice looking radio;
- good selectivity and sensitivity;
- discrete treble and bass controls, RF gain control, wide/narrow bandwidth, and a low pass filter allows for very good audio control;
- audio is very good for a portable;
- tuning is easy, in spite of no presets, memories or pushbuttons;
- good ability to manage adjacent channel interference or overloading.
THE BAD:
- analog tuning is somewhat sloppy;
- single conversion receiver allows some imaging;
- no memories;
- some drift;
- undefeatable 90 minute timer.
MY VERDICT:
Interesting and quirky radio that I like, but not for everyone. If you're not a "knob twiddler", you might not like this radio. Recommended for people who want to listen to SW broadcast stations, on a set with good audio. |
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