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Reviews For: Grundig Yachtboy 400

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Grundig Yachtboy 400
Reviews: 67MSRP: 199
Description:
100 Khz - 30 Mhx portable receiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.grundig.com/produkte/highlights.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00673.9
AD6YO Rating: 2001-08-08
Poor quality. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought it new for $200, and frankly I don't believe it's worth $200-- pretty poor quality. It has sat on a desk for three years, and in that time, it's fallen apart.

Batteries no longer work, when I put them in, the display says there's no power. I have to leave it plugged in to the wall socket.

The AM band is shot. I cannot recieve anything on AM and it barely works on SW. After that happened, the whip antenna fell off and I cannot fix it.

The only thing the radio is good for is FM band. I really regret buying it, and I doubt I can sell it for anything.

After looking at these other reviews, maybe it was just my radio. They seemed to like it. Who knows. What I do know is if I ever buy a new SW reciever, it will not be a Grundig.
N1ZJQ Rating: 2001-05-12
Nice but a couple of irritations Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I agree with the other reviews but a few thing I don't like. The lack of a tuning knob drives me nuts. This radio eats batteries faster than any other portable I've owned. I find that I have to look at the instructions whenever I need to reset the radio. For example to set the tuning to 10 Khz instead of 9 for the am bc band.
KC8IMB Rating: 2001-04-28
I like it! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned this receiver for about two years and have enjoyed it's performance. Sensitivity is excellent for a receiver of it's class. Some things I would like added/changed are
1) An rf gain control. As earlier stated, the adding of an rf control would have been a wise choice. The DX/Local switch just doesn't cut it in some situations.
2) A better backlight. This is just a personal opinion. The built-in backlight may suit some folks just fine.
3) S-meter. When I first saw the ad, I was under the impression that each bar segment acted independently. Upon further inspection, there were five goups of several bars. Although not as acurate, it gets the job done.
Overall, this is an outstanding radio. FM/AM broadcast bands operate fantasticly and so does SW. Great receiver!---73's.
KB0HAE Rating: 2001-04-24
Great receiver in a small package Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a very good receiver for the money. The following are the results of about an hour or so of comparison side by side with my DX-390. Only the telescoping whip antennas were used, and both antennas are approximately the same length when extended. On AM and SSB shortwave, the YB400PE is both more sensitive and selective than the DX-390. Stations were weak, but clearly audible on the YB400PE that were burried in the noise level on the DX390.
Although the speaker in the YB400PE is smaller, I would say that the audio quality is equal to the DX-390 on AM, SSB and FM. On FM both receivers performed well, and delivered good stereo sound (using a stereo headset). Both of these receivers will provide many hours of listening pleasure, but the YB400PE has the edge in performance over the larger and heavier DX-390.
KA1RFD Rating: 2000-09-26
A really fine portable. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
A nice small SW receiver for up to 10 meters. Good SSB, sleek, good on batteries, convenient, good spotting radio, easy to pack and travel in luggage,good audio, all in all a fine radio to supplement to big rig. Used it at the cottage all summer with overall fine results.
W5XTC Rating: 2000-07-12
Best small portable Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
While I no longer own the 400, I've had one in the past. The thing to remember here is that a small portable cannot be held to the same standard as the larger, costlier rigs reviewed on this sight, or even large portables like the Sony ICF-2010 or Grundig's own Satellit series. But compared to other small "paperback" sized portables, the 400 is tops for audio quality, ergonomics, memory functions, SSB, backlit LCD, and just overall sleek, well thought-out design. If you want a small portable for travel or moving around the house and yard, the 400 is hard to beat. It's certainly better than the small Sangeans that seem to be more common now.
VE4AMN Rating: 2000-04-24
Excellent value Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The Grundig 400 is an excellent performer. After owning one for 4 years here are the postives: 1) very good sensitivity 2) reasonable selectivity although it is not a ham band rx on the lower end of 40 3) easy to use with sufficient memories 4) in the current sunspot cycle the built in whip does a good job 5) great audio 6) AM/FM stereo. The weaker points are 1) it can be tricky to tune SSB without some practice 2) an rf gain control would be nice as opposed to the dx/local switch.
This receiver has served as spotting receiver and would be very useful for field day. In short, very much recommended, especially now that factory refurbished units are on the market. With a decent antenna, this unit really sings and beats the RS 394, any Sangean, and most of the small handhelds.