ETON G5 AM/FM/Shortwave Portable Radio with SSB (Single Side Band)
by Eton
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List Price: Our Price: $89.00 You Save: $111.00 (56%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of ETON G5 AM/FM/Shortwave Portable Radio with SSB (Single Side Band)
Customer Review: finr product for the money..
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had this radio for about a week now..
the instruction booklet is a little skimpy and setup can be confusing, however this is a fine radio.
FM selectivity is good, and quality through earphones is excellent, on SW the SSB feature is necessary to listen to HAM radio..its just a shame its not synchronous sideband detection..you must fine tune to select USB or LSB...Other than that the sensitivity is good, my only conclusion is that its not as good as my Satellit 800, but its also 1/20 the size and < 1/2 price.
There is a nifty "time zone" feature that allows the traveller to easily select which time zone he is in..the glaring omission however is that while GMT can be set (=UTC or world time and the basis for SW radio) all time zones are simply linked directly to GMT..or put it another way, there is zero capability to deal with any summer time...you need to muck about faking a time zone for BST, EDT or whatever.. this is a silly error.
The feel of the slightly rubberized surface is excellent, as is the display lighting and three methods of tune .. a rotary know (thankfully), seek, and direct frequency input.
If you are looking for a decent portable radio with SW, packed with the necessary features for enjoyable listening and without unnecessary frills, i cannot think of a better buy.
Customer Review: Excellent, but compare with a Kaito 1103
Summary: 5 Stars
I have decided to raise my previous rating to 5 stars. I bought this radio first and still think it is an all-round great radio in its price class, lacking only synchronous sideband (which the Sony 7600GR has and supposedly does very well for roughly the same price when new). The G5 has no major problems and certainly has one of the best-designed user interfaces I have seen on a shortwave radio.
Later I bought a Degen DE1103 (basically the same as a Kaito KA1103). The Degen exhibits some of the worst user interface decisions ever made, but it seems to have fewer internally-generated bogus shortwave signals than the G5. I noticed weird spread-spectrum hash 10-20KHz wide in multiple places in the 160M band on the G5, and to my surprise that does not occur in the DE1103 even though these radios supposedly have closely-related designs. Other people recommend an external antenna on the G5, which might overpower the internal signals enough that they don't matter, but I have not tried that. Most complex radios have birdies of some kind at some point on the dial, so in retrospect I should not call this a significant indictment of the G5.
It seems to me that if you can stand the user interface AND there is a significant cost difference, the Degen/Kaito is the better buy. Otherwise, go with the G5.
Customer Review: Great radio
Summary: 5 Stars
Its a great little radio. Normal alkaline batteries (AA) don't last very long. Have a similar radio from radio shack that uses 2 C batteries and that better battery life. However this radio can use rechargable batteries and plugging in the AC adapter recharges them. Havent tried that feature yet.
You can save tons of preset stations but its a little cumbersome changing the station. You have hit a button that points the radio to the presets then F key (f1-F9) and then press key for up and down to change to a preset location and then hit that f key again. The radio shack radio ya just had to push the numbers 0-9 and it changed.
The clear plastic over the LED display arrived with a scratch and scratches very easily - kind of annoying from a cosmetic point of view.
I expected more from this manufacturer and wish it used c batteries. The sound quality is good and documentation is good. Overall I am pleased - nice to have a small radio that takes up little space.
Customer Review: A very nice radio
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my first shortwave radio. I'm very pleased with it. Have had it about a month and use it daily for about an hour. Original set of Duracell alkaline batteries are still good. Good reception on all the local AM and FM stations. I am 20 to 40 miles away from the transmitters. I pick up many shortwave stations from inside my home using just the telescopic antenna. Routinely listen to Radio Romania, Radio Havana, China Radio Intl. Have also received broadcasts from Vietnam, Egypt and Africa. Get a lot a spanish speaking stations but I do not speak the language. I have no other shortwave experience but I would not hesitate to purchhase this radio again or to recommend it. I use it exclusively with headphones so I can't comment on the speakers. Clock and time zone were easily set. The page memory system is very easy to use once you try it a couple of times.Customer Review: Saved me from disaster in the desert
Summary: 5 Stars
I was living in the middle of the Navajo Nation, Arizona and needed a good portable FM radio so I could listen to KNAU Flagstaff. I went to The Shack in Gallup and purchased the Buz Aldrin G6 and sped home and unfortunately the reception was so poor I couldn't get FM in my place. After emailing Eton a customer service person suggested taking it back and getting the G5 which I did. BINGO! It worked like a charm with crystal clear FM reception where the G6 had NONE. He indicated the internal FM antenna in the G5 was more sophisticated with much longer range. Who would have thunk!
This is a peach of a product. I also have the larger G350 which I forgot to bring. The sound from the G5 is as good as from the G350 in a much smaller design.
Buy this if you want damn good FM reception in a compact package.