Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Grundig G6 Aviator

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Grundig G6 Aviator
Reviews: 44MSRP: $100
Description:
portable general coverage and airband
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00443.8
KB9NPH Rating: 2009-12-02
Neat litte unit! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Like the last person indicated RS had them on sale. Not sure about the close out! It does what you would expect of a little unit. I enjoy playing with this type of Radio, as I DO NOT expect desk top quality! It's a fun radio to carry around very good on AM or FM. SSB is okay, actually I got more worth than I expected. Air Band seems to have a lot of interference from a local AM station. For the sale price I most certainly got my monies worth.
SWL377 Rating: 2009-11-30
On sale now, $59 at the Shack. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Run to Radio Shack now as they are closing em out for $59, a real deal.

Pluses: small, synth, can do SSB (BFO style demod), lots of alpha tagged memories, good user interface, gets VHF AM aircraft band. LF (pretty deaf) and AM and FM broadcast bands, decent battery life from 2 AA cells, comes with AC wall wart PS too, not very selective, stable if you dont bump or move it fast. Great back lighting of LCD display. I listened to an SSB net on 80M for an hour without touching the fine tuning even once. Has rotary dial and numeric keypad tuning.

Minuses: microphonic (freq jiggles if you bump the radio), so-so audio, scan doesnt work on VHF AM. The microphonics can distort with a sort of acoustic feedback loop if you crank speaker volume up high while listening to SSB. S meter (LCD bargraph) isnt very useful, maxes out too soon. Has some birdies, but not a lot. Dynamic range is poor, could use an attenuator on nearby strong sigs

At $59 its worth every penny so go out and buy one. You just can't find a comparable rcvr for the price. Hurry, these will sell out fast once word gets around.

73,
Mark
K2MMM Rating: 2009-11-24
Little Radio That Could Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Had a coupon for $15 off so for $85 you can not beat this radio. I wanted a small radio for the nightstand so this is good. Has light and earbuds which is what I wanted.I have a Sony ICF2002 which is great but has no light and is 2x the size of this radio.Side by side hard to tell the difference on SW.Air is ok and AM/FM is good also. SSB takes some getting used to but I had everything figured out in 10 minutes. It's no 2010 or Ham receiver but is great for what it is...

73 de Mike
K2MMM
NB1R Rating: 2009-07-22
Amazing performance for a tiny package Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have owned this little bugger since June 2009, when I bought it on vacation to replace my YB400 which apparently had a traumatic flight in American Airline's cargo hold.

Anyway, I was stunned - STUNNED I SAY - by the tiny size. Yet, the fit and finish is very good and the unit has nice heft to it.

I was skeptical as to how well it would perform on the SW bands with the short whip that other mention. However, it is every bit as good at the YB400 was. I have no problem picking up any of the large broadcasters and can even pull in Australia indoors in MA on the whip. Pretty impressive.

I agree that the little speaker isn't so hot in the fidelity department and it does distort easily if you crank up the ole volume too much. However, with ear buds its amazing. (Between you and me - sometimes on the rare occasion when the XYL is snoring, I'll pop in the earbuds and drop back asleep listening to Steve Lavallee on BZ or Noory on RKO - - - but you didn't read that here.)

I have not had any problem with FM - - - I find the audio to be quite good in stereo with the buds or mono - the tone switch on the radio is fabulous.

One thing I LOVE is the memory page system - 100 pages of 7 memories each with a four character alpha for each page. I've programmed in the main frequencies for many of the major broadcasters onto each page and titled the page for the station... for instance "CUBA 6000, 6180" etc. Makes it easy to scan for favorite stations and programs w/o having to consult a program guide.

I haven't tried the air bands out yet, but I didn't really get it for that.

I have also yet to try the SSB feature - although I intend to - I may return to update my review when I do.

One small issue - the whip antenna popped out of its mount the other night - so odd... I pressed it back in, no worries.

Overall, when you consider the price and very nifty compact size its a fabulous radio. Sure, its not going to outperform a desktop rig with a rooftop wire, but if you need something on the go, it won't do you wrong.

73 de NB1R
W4MPT Rating: 2009-07-09
Worth it? Yeah, it is. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Originally purchased to tide me over until the G3 came out, I'm glad I got it. I use it primarily for shortwave. LW is deaf, but there isn't much there. I'm pleased with the MW reception. 1.7-1.999 uses the internal ferrite antenna, and consequently is deaf, so 160 meter listening is not there. Off the whip, many stations receivable throughout the rest of the 2-29.999 range. Will not switch to FM for the 10 meter FM window, but I've got a scanner for that. I would prefer the auto-search to scan continuously, instead of just the international broadcast bands. Also, the auto-search rarely works, stopping on only the strongest stations. Tuning wheel very jumpy initially, but it has settled down with use. On the fast setting, there is a tiny amount of 'play' in the wheel that will adjust the frequency by a few hz, but it takes a very steady hand. SSB is adequate. If you are in ssb mode, you can tune down into the MW BCB range, but it doesn't work very well for exalted carrier use. Using a reel-up antenna, reception is improved somewhat. Use of the Realistic Amplified Shortwave Antenna works great!
Now, the aircraft band. Yeah, there are images all over it. I've found some surprises, like the fundamental of one of the local police frequencies. The DTV switch has also helped. Direct entry of the freqencies will usually avoid images. My biggest gripe: the external antenna jack doesn't disconnect the internal ferrite bar for LW/MW/160M. Also the synthesizer picks up some noise in RF heavy locations. 700 memories is great, may never fill it. Recalling a memory is easy, but trying to recall another memory will sometimes result in the second memory being overwritten by the first, so keep a log. Overall, I'm pleased with this little radio.
N7JBH Rating: 2009-07-07
Tiny radio Time Owned: N.A.
Picked up one at Radio Shaft today for $90.00, almost returned it before finally figuring out how to tune it in smaller than 1KHZ increments. Audio distorts a little when volume is turned up.. Going to use it with my MFJ 40M QRP transmitter, with portable home made wire dipole. The whole setup with batteries will fit nicely in a small Crown Royal cloth pouch.
CATONI52 Rating: 2009-05-05
Great Little Radio Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Further to my review, what can be seen today with many radios, is variation between radios of the same make and model. Probably due to spotty quality control, and not enough time on the assembly lie to make fine adjustments. What I did when I bought my Grundig G6, (and I've done this with other radios), is to ask the salesman to bring out three new G6's all in their boxes and put new batteries in them and let me compare. Then, I purchase the best of the three. He even will let me take them outside, going with me of course, and help me compare them. I find that no two are alike in reception. One is always not quite as good as the other two. And sometimes a lot worse. And almost always, one is better then the others.
Sales people don't mind, as long as I am going to buy one. They just want to make a sale. The next customer through through the dooor will probably not ask to compare like I do.
Using this method, I've never bought a bad radio that slipped past quality control. I've done this with my Eton E5, E100, Katio KA1102, KA11 and Grundig G6. Compared three of each, and bought the best one of each.
I like the G6 Aviator. It fits nicely in my backpack with a few spare batteries, a small fold up wire antenna and TG34 active loop and spare rechargeables with a solar bettery charger.
N3NXD Rating: 2009-04-10
Too costly, no filtering. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought one 4-7-09. Played with it after review of instruction manual. The unit is hyper-receptive. In the home picked all electronic noise. Took unit outdoors 50 ft. from house before clear reception.
I'm old-school. Don't like tuning with buttons and straining to see display. Poor SSB, too broad. This unit would be good for occasional backpacker use.
It was returned so fast, there was a sonic boom. Got a Grundig 350DL, sweet.
W7PSK Rating: 2009-04-06
;Worthless Junk Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
SW is DEAF on the wihip. Haven't hooked up an external yet. But I hear nothing at all with the built in whip. Even on the 40 and 80m HAM BANDS locals should be heard and I hear ZILCH. AIR Band is close to useless with Birdies galore. Its overloaded by local stations.

This thing was a waste of Money
NG9D Rating: 2009-03-10
USB better than LSB Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
... as for the SSB reception, my particular unit receives USB better than LSB. For example, 20 meter ham sideband is great; 40m or 80m is frustrating. Frustrating in the sense that the USB is received noticably stronger than LSB, so much so that even fairly loud signals can't really be easily copied on LSB. Of course on CW this means I almost always listen on USB, tuning below the signal. Not even sure why I thought this was so important to report, except if you get one of these to copy SSB you might want to check that out (try copying CW and see if it is louder on USB than LSB - I put an example of this on you tube). Air traffic stations and aviation weather transmit on HF USB so it doesn't adversely affect reception of those signals... only 80 and 40m ham traffic. I hadn't mentioned 160m because the receiver really doesn't hear anything below 2.0MHz except AM BC, I think maybe that is where the circuit switches to the internal antenna and the sensitivity is attenuated so that AM BC doesn't overload it. But it does receive SW BC very well and has pleasant audio for SWL. 73 NG9D