| KA4DQJ |
Rating:     |
2017-06-08 | |
| It works! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
It's tiny, and it works. It's difficult to fine tune stations because of the coarse tuning knob, but you don't get bandspread at this price. No, it ain't as sensitive as the full-size, high-end receivers, but neither did I expect it to.
If you need a multi-band receiver that you can carry in a shirt pocket because it's no larger than a deck of cards, and doesn't cost much more than pocket change, this will serve the purpose. It's not for serious shortwave listeners of course. In any case we are witnessing the decline of the shortwave era caused by satellite and internet communications. Most big and historic SW broadcasters such as the BBC no longer broadcast, and others follow suit daily. |
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| NO2A |
Rating:     |
2012-03-07 | |
| Good value |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I`ve had mine several years now. It was a gift. Sensitivity seems best on the lower bands,plus fm/am. I can hear hams on 40m cw,30m,including WWV on 10 and 15mhz. It will receive 17m,though not as well. I like the built in speaker,it provides plenty of audio,no need to use headphones unless you want fm stereo. 25m had good reception also. Difficult to fine tune but all in all I like it. Great radio for listening in a motel. Great battery life too. Good build quality,leather case included. Remember,no bfo. Fm reception was excellent. |
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| LIGHTFOOT44 |
Rating:    |
2010-03-12 | |
| Nothing but average |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
just got the Grundig Mini World PE, and am somewhat disappointed in its performance. Although it functions quite well on FM and AM, the shortwave seems rather anemic, and the volume must be turned up 3/4 to pick up even the more powerful stations. When you hold it in your hand it picks up the weaker SW stations, but as soon as you set it on a table, they disappear. I was hoping that this miniature shortwave would be better than the 300pe, but it really isn't.
I found the earphone jack to be somewhat finicky, because you have to rotate the 3.5mm male connector on the earbuds every once in awhile to get the signal back.
Its small size would make it good for traveling, but I don't know that you would be able to hear many SW stations, so if that is what you're into, then it might be better to take a step up to a more powerful SW portable, like a Traveller II or Traveller III. I'm even thinking that the 300pe might be a better choice at this point. It seems to me that this mini world 100pe is not up to the usual standards that one would expect from a Grundig product, especially in the shortwave department. It is nothing more than average on every level. |
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| N0SOY |
Rating:    |
2009-12-14 | |
| good for size and price |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have 2 of these radios. I like them because of the size and price. I have many SW radio. I like to listen to short wave and I saw this radio and thought it was cheap enough to give it a try.
They are ok on SW It is not a high grade reciever. I would not use it for overseas traveling but for keeping in my brief case it is nice. Strong stations come in well but it lacks the sensitivity for the weak ones. It is basically a transistor radio with short wave. Quality control is spotty. One has no fm (I never used it so I did not notice that it was not working) I could not figure out how to open the radio so I could not try to fix it. But Sw and Mw works fine.
They are nice little radios. Since i like analog they are a nice addition.
you get what you pay for. |
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| AB2T |
Rating:    |
2009-05-17 | |
| Wow this thing drifts! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
You get what you pay for with the Grundig. It's very portable, frugal with the batteries, and fairly sturdy. It's just that it's not really "digital", but analogue tuned. So don't expect to be right on frequency at any time. Usually the radio gets within 1.5 kHz, which is fine for casual listening. Sometimes it really wanders away and needs a bit of tuning touch up.
The SW section will pick up anything that's S9+ on a tabletop with a decent antenna. I was able to get All India Radio once pretty strong when propagation was just right, so it can pull in some interesting stuff once in a while. Most of the time I use the radio just to listen to strong MW outlets.
I see that you can get cheaper Chinese radios on eBay -- I suspect the performance is about the same so maybe it's good to shop around. |
|
| N3NXD |
Rating:      |
2009-04-10 | |
| Truly a Classic |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I had this given to me for Christmas 2000, by my wife. I used this daily, averaging probably 4 hrs.daily. Excellent reception. First to go was the dial tuner string. Then the on-off, volume wore out to loud all the time. Fell off dresser countless times. Bounced back for more. I probably put 20 yrs. of average use into 8. Stingy on batteries. Average 2 per yr. |
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| KB2NAT |
Rating:     |
2008-10-13 | |
| Very good for the price |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| This is a neat little radio that (as mentioned) is as practical as it is pocket-sized. In my unit ($4 at a garage sale, new) the FM is very good, SW fairly good and the AM is mediocre in sensitivity-noticeably less than a 6-transistor 60's portable. For many, that may not be a big issue. The rest is without complaint and is worth the normal street price. I do find that I use mine frequently because it is so easy to carry, although it is more and more supplanted by the very impressive Kaito 1102. You will not be angry with yourself for buying one...you will find a use for it. |
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| K1WJ |
Rating:      |
2008-10-13 | |
| Real Good for $20 |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Purchased from HRO about 2 months ago. Paid $19.99. Small tuning dial is a little odd to fine tune but works ok. Receives signals fairly well for a pocket SW radio. Little speaker works fairly well also.
I really like the radio, nice price, seems well built. 73 K1WJ |
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| TOBYDOG |
Rating:   |
2007-05-05 | |
| Small size, small performance |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I own 12 shortwave radios and, after reading reviews on EHam, decided to do side-by-side comparisons of all the models, ranging from the tiny Mini World 100 PE to a couple of massive Zenith TransOceanics. I tested in the back yard, well away from the computers and power lines. I checked sensitivity on MW and 25m SW by noting the number of "listenable" stations at mid-afternoon.
Top performers on MW were the Grundig G5 and Kaito KA 1103 with 45 "listenable" stations each followed closely by the Zenith TO 7000Y with 43. Dead last -- with a dismal 6 stations received -- was the 100 PE. The similarly sized Eton E-100 pulled in 26 stations on MW.
On 25m SW the KA 1103, G5, Zenith TO, Eton E 10 and E 100 all pulled in 20 or more stations. The 100 PE managed only 10, last among the 12 radios.
No doubt its small whip and small built-in MW antennas accounted for the poor sensitivity of the 100 PE. But even when connected to a long wire antenna, the 100 PE didn't come close to the performance of the E 100 on its built-in whip.
Granted, the 100 PE, in its day, was considerably less expensive than the E 100 is today. But the E 100, for its size, gets the job done where the 100 PE falls far short. |
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| N3HAM |
Rating:      |
2006-02-13 | |
| It doesn't get any smaller, does it? |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I didn't think this little radio was going to amount to very much, but when Radio Shack had it on sale for twenty dollars I couldn't resist. For casual listening, walking round radio security blanket, it works. No ssb? who cares. It's surprising how well it does off the small whip. Can't wait to take it to the beach. |
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