Eton E5 AM/FM Shortwave Radio

by Eton

Product Details

• Item Weight: 12.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000EINRA8
• Item model number: NE5GM
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #65,288 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 8, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Amazon.com Review It's not often that great radio performance comes in a small package, but the E5 from Etón is a remarkable exception. With powerful tuning capabilities, including AM, FM, shortwave, and yes, even single sideband (SSB) the E5 packs a lot into its diminutive case. It's the perfect radio for the shortwave/SSB enthusiast who wants good performance and great portability. If you can't already tell, we came away impressed with this little guy's near perfect balance of both.

Simple to operate and carry, the E5 is great for tuning in the world wherever the notion strikes you. View larger.

On the right, a line out jack, tuning, and narrow/wide bandwidth selection. View larger.

Design and Controls
Weighing in at just 12.2 ounces, the E5's sleek, modern cabinet measures 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches (W x H x D). It's not pocket-size, but it will slide into a briefcase or purse with ease. Thankfully, the same rubberized coating that graces the exterior of the E1XM has been applied to the E5, giving it a stout and rugged feel. Most of the action can be found on the front of the unit, where you'll find a direct frequency entry keypad, as well as buttons for auto-scanning, up/down station selection, band selection, memory control, SSB mode, and volume.

A row of function keys below the radio's LCD screen are contextual, meaning they control different things depending on which mode the radio is in. When in shortwave mode, they are used to select the meterband. When the radio is off, they control timer, battery charging, AM tuning step size, and other funtions. Yet another row of buttons controls memory functions.

Sound like a lot of buttons for such a small device? It is, and that's the only real complaint we had about the E5. A lot of controls and features are somewhat crammed into a small space. It's a bit daunting at first, but once you master the controls you'll likely have no problem.

On the left side of the E5 you'll find a 3.5mm connector for an external FM or shortwave antenna. Etón generously includes an antenna that can be plugged in here to enhance signal reception -- although there is a telescoping antenna on the top of the unit. In addition to a power port and stereo headphone jack for FM listening, the side of the radio also sports an antenna gain switch that lets you choose between DX and local modes, allowing you to tone down excessively strong AM or shortwave stations if need be.

A crisp, clear display and a keypad for direct frequency entry. View larger.

A single dial on the right side of the unit controls tuning, while also doubling as a jog dial for browsing through stored memories, as well as adjusting the time and volume. The knob has a nice smooth action, making manual tuning a breeze. Just below it, you'll find a wide/narrow bandwidth selector that helps tune in music or news shortwave signals. There's also a fine tuning knob -- great for really homing in on those SSB broadcasts.

In addition to AC power, the the E10 can run off of four Ni-MH AA cells, which are not supplied. These can be recharged when you plug the unit in. Of course, you can also use non-rechargeable AA cells in a pinch.

LCD Display
When viewed level with your eyes, the E5's backlit display is crisp and clear, with a clean layout that makes it easy to control the radio's tuning, clock, and timer functions. When viewed from an angle, the display is severely washed out, though. A separate space on the upper portion of the screen is provided for the clock display so you can view the time and tune the radio at the same time -- a nice touch.

Selecting shortwave meter bands is a breeze with this display, as you just push the meter band button (or the function keys below the display) until the meter you want is displayed on the screen. A signal strength meter is provided, as is a narrow/wide bandwidth indicator. The radio's memories are easy to browse and recall on the display, as well.

Tuning Options
Tuning the with E5 is straightforward and simple. As mentioned, the radio tunes AM, FM, shortwave, and SSB signals, and you can choose from auto-scan, manual up/down, tuning knob or direct keypad entry modes. If you're new to shortwave, auto-scan will quickly become your friend. With it, we quickly made a lot of discoveries, and heard stations from all over the world -- although our limited language skills made it difficult to always know exactly to whom or what we were listening! We also tried some SSB tuning, which is designed to capture ham radio and two-way radio communications. SSB is notoriously difficult to tune, but with a little time and effort -- including standing outside for a good while -- we were able to pick up some faint signals.

The E5's impressive memory system also deserves mention. With it, you can set up a huge catalog of stored frequencies -- 700 of them to be exact. Once stored, recalling all these memories is pretty easy, thanks to a fairly straightforward on-screen interface that stores and organizes the programmed memories. You can also scan through your memories to rapidly find the stored frequencies that are currently broadcasting.

Pros

• Solid construction, good sound quality
• Small enough to take anywhere
• Advanced tuning options

Cons

• Small size makes controls a bit cramped
• Small LCD viewing angle

What's in the Box
E5 radio, AC adapter, wire antenna, stereo earphones, carrying pouch, carrying strap, and owner's manual.

Product Description

The E5 is the world’s leading portable, multi-band and Single Side Band (SSB) enabled radio. The E5 unites erformance and mobility into one compact unit, bringing the power of local and world-band radio into the alm of your hand. The ultimate in portable technology, the E5 is the latest edition to the Etón Elite range, demonstrating how form and function can work in harmony.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

97 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for a small radio!, May 8, 2006

By 

J. Pawlowski (Allentown, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eton E5 AM/FM Shortwave Radio (Electronics)

I'm an electronics engineer, an active AM, SW, HF, VHF, & UHF listener/explorer, with antennas on my roof in the middle of a downtown city in the N.E. USA that serve me well. I also write tech & gadget reviews on my own sites & servers, & do make money on them. I will not post the URLs so you won't think I'm a spammer. Reviews here, & at other sites is what convinced me to buy this radio so I'll contribute a review here as well as at my own sites. I do not work for Kaito or Eton or anyone else. My electronic service & tech shop, & sites are owned by me. I work for myself. I sell electronic services (not radio service, radio is one of my hobbies), & write articles, but do not sell products or radios. I'm sure I'm not the best, but I'm good enough.

- FM - This is the primary reason I bought this radio. I was considering the Kaito 1103 with it's goofy useless LCD analog display, & strange annoying quirks, until I found out the E5 was the improved version. I wanted a multiband portable that wasn't too bulky that could also get decent FM where in the congested city, one suffers from too many strong FM stations overwhelming others on even good FM receivers, & would also pick up more FM in rural areas far from civilization when I'm camping & hiking a lot. I may live in the city, but get away from it all regularly. I thought it would be nice if it performed at least above average on the other bands.

There is an FM antenna MYTH about the "longer the better". This is simply not true for FM, VHF, or UHF. On portables using the built-in antenna they usually perform best at 5/8, 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8 wave. Longer may actual just pick up more interference (especially near other strong stations), or weaken the signal you want going into the radio. You'll find most portables will perform best on FM with the antenna extended no more than 6"-14" vertical. Cheap or poorly made radios may actually perform better with the antenna down all the way when near a city. If you must move your antenna diagonal or horizontal, to weaken an interfering, stronger, or an adjacent station, you may improve reception by extending it no more than 18"-20" & moving it around. If you're in a building that's blocking out a lot of signals, or have other buildings, hills, mountains, blocking them, or far away from any station, you may extend the antenna more to get a piece of the signal, but your antenna will be out of tune. You may find moving the radio a little or up higher may work better than making the antenna too long. You need longer antennas for lower frequencies, & shorter ones for higher frequencies.

The E5 exceeded my FM expectations pulling far away or weak stations clearly in the city & rural areas better than any FM receiver I ever owned... even beating my high-end audiophile home FM tuners or receivers with large dipole or quality amplified antennas attached... with just it's built-in antenna! It has made my home theater FM receiver obsolete as I just run the radio's "line out" to the inputs now. It also offers plenty of easy to use memory for all the extra stations I could pick up.

If you don't mind a slight distortion or hiss (but listenable) you'll even find many FM stations you didn't know existed. The wide/narrow switch is a nice hiss filter for FM. Switch to Mono also to clean up really weak FM stations. I can't wait 'till summer evenings when we get lots of temperature inversions to boost FM signals far beyond the horizon, or pick up FM meteor bounce.

- AM - Although it appears to be more sensitive than my modified Older & newer GE "Super Radios", DX-394, DX-390, or DX-380... in the city, or around most appliances, other electronics, dimmers, mercury or sodium vapor lights, fluorescent lights, & computers, the E5 also picks up more interference from them making the radio seem to be less sensitive to those other radios. So if you're near these things that generate a lot of RF noise or static, the other radios I mentioned performed better on AM & reject the noise more. Under those conditions my old DX-390 actually even outperformed the legendary "SuperRadio". If you move around the house, go to the back or front of the house, garage, upstairs, go to a rural area or anywhere else there's less electrical & electronic background noise, it beats the other radios hands down. External AM loop or amplified AM antennas only seemed to increase the noise in the city. Also leaving my rooftop SW/HF antenna plugged into the unit, or leaving the built in antenna extended while on AM only increased background noise. So leave the antenna down for down for AM. I didn't try any external antennas for AM in rural areas, but didn't need to, because it performed so well.

- SW/HF/SSB - This radio, by far, using it's built-in antenna, outperformed any other SW portable in the city & in rural areas using their built-in antennas, even on SSB. Again though, in the city, my rooftop SW antenna plugged into it seemed to boost the noise as well as signal, except on just a few signals. I found for most listening it performed better in the city with it's built in antenna extended all the way. I suspect this radio, along with my Grudig Mini 300 have an amplified SW antenna. Only my DX-394 significantly reduced the city's electrical & electronic noise to make my rooftop antenna very useful. But I live in an electronically very noisy area.

In the country, I used no real, true SW antenna. I just clipped several yards of ordinary wire, to it's built-it antenna, & tossed the other end up a tree limb. It performed exceedingly well... better than any portable in it's class & price range. The Local/DX switch works well, & as expected.

I did not observe any dead, silent, or strong spots every 100khz like another review mentioned... perhaps there's some factory inconsistencies in the first models out, or others were nearby similar appliances or computers generating harmonics in this area.

- SOUND - This radio's sound quality sounds better for music or talk than any radio it's size, & for the size of the speaker. Of course, you won't be able to blast it like a giant radio or boom box, but it does well. If you do play it loud, especially with music that has lots of bass, those 4 tiny AA batteries will not last very long. Volume & bass sucks up a lot more power. I'm a bit disappointed & surprised that the Wide/Narrow, Music/Talk switch doesn't roll off the bass a little on the narrow setting. That's a common feature of most radios in this class. On the Narrow setting, less bass would sound better even with music, & less muddy because there's much less treble on that setting anyway. Less bass on Narrow would also suck up less of your precious battery power... an advantage when in a rural area, off the grid, or during a blackout. Perhaps after the warranty runs out, I'll find a way to squeeze a tiny bass cut switch in it. I did not notice anything unusual with the volume control or abnormal jump between numbers, but if I did, it most certainly would not be a good reason to return a great radio for an inferior one or give this cool radio only 2 stars. Perhaps the other reviewer was just having a bad day or time of the month.

- BATTERIES - It seems to use up the batteries faster than many other radio this size & class. Perhaps all the extra electronics & features need more power. I know the extra bass definitely needs more power, but it sure sounds nice... except on the Narrow/Talk setting. As I said above, we don't need that extra bass on narrow, & strong bass on Narrow only detracts from the feature. The tiny low powered blue LEDs do not draw much power at all, so not using the light won't noticeably extend your battery life much. Besides, the dial & button lighting looks real cool, & are very handy in the dark. With all the features, goodies, quality, & reception this small radio has, I am not surprised at all that only 4 tiny AA batteries last 4 hours (playing loud) to 8 or 9 hours (playing softly or with headphones) if played continuously.

I used only 2000mha rechargeables to test the playing time. 2500mha ones should give you about 20% more playing time, & 2600-2700mha AAs are now commonly on the market. I used 2000mha ones for the test because one can get them incredibly cheap in bulk. Your best alkalines usually won't last any longer than 2500mha recheargables. The most expensive alkalines will only last 10-15% longer than the cheapest ones. You will actually save money by buying more cheap alkalines, than the fewer expensive ones you can afford. Lithiums should last the longest... but at a very premium price. The radio's battery life, like all battery operated equipment will last many hours more if they're not used continuously till they're drained. Giving them a break for a few hours to half the day, regenerates the batteries (all types)a bit, & greatly extends battery life.

There's a power quirk with this radio. Rechargeables are usually only 1.2 volts each or a total of 4.8 volts for 4 of them, where ordinary batteries are 1.5 volts or a total of 6 volts for 4 of them. Because the radio draws a bit of power, that 4.8 or 6 volts drops 20-25% as soon as you turn the radio on. I find if even 1 out of 4 of the cells start to get weak, even though not quite discharged, the radio will go shut down. When the running voltage dips below about 3.2-3.4 volts the radio peters out even though there's a bit of battery power left.

Other 4xAA radios will run down to 2.5-3.0 volts before cutting out, although with less volume or loss of sensitivity, or some distortion. So the higher minimum voltage may be another reason for the shorter battery life of the radio... there's still some power left in the batteries. Beware you should discharge your rechargeables fully once in a while for them to hold a good, full, long-lasting... Read more ›

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Radio...Accessories Stink, April 2, 2006

By 

jr_Tech (Portland OR. area) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eton E5 AM/FM Shortwave Radio (Electronics)

This radio is very similar in performance to the cheaper Kaito 1103. Performance is OUTSTANDING, and several annoying attributes of the 1103 (such as the volume control ergonomics) have been designed out. (see my review of the Kaito 1103)
FM performance is so HOT that I can hear several stations from Eugene OR (about 110 miles away) with the antenna of the E5 folded completely down! AM selectivity and sensitivity are EXCELLENT, providing nightime reception of WOAI (1200 khz) in San Antonio TX, from my location near Portland OR. This is a difficult task for all but the very best receivers, due to nearby occupation of an adjacent frequency (1190 khz) by a 50,000 watt "blowtorch", KEX . Shortwave performance is very good for a small portable, SSB and code reception (used by many Hams) is provided, and fairly easy to tune with a fine tuning thumbwheel knob on the side of the radio.

The E5 manual is very well written, and without a doubt the E5 is easier to operate than the 1103. The E5 has an incredible number of memory presets (700) !

I would give this radio 5 stars except for the accessories... The nice (vinyl?) carrying case, which should be an improvement over the cheaper cloth bag provided by Kaito for the 1103 SMELLS really bad! (something like creosote or sheep dip). This may "air out" in time, but is annoying. Batteries are NOT included with the E5.

Consider buying a "Passport to World Band Radio" along with this set... this book is almost like having a "TV guide" for shortwave! The website for this publication (passband.com) has a very good review of the E5 under "Receiver News: updates to the edition 2006" .

Update 4/28: After a month, the carrying case now smells ok. I have operated the radio on the AC adaptor and verified that it generates "noise" on AM and SW as stated in the Passport review. (use for charging batteries only or return it to Eton for improved version). A very comprehensive review of the E5 can now be found on radiointel.com.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sleek compact radio- Good tuner and sound , needs SYNC, November 28, 2006

By 

Vince the Radio Man "Vince the radio man" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eton E5 AM/FM Shortwave Radio (Electronics)

Hi folks , its Vince the radioman . I have a large collection of radios and I love to do compares . I am a hobbiest with a vast array of antennas and filters and I test all radios with and without the assistance from my additional equipment .
This is a very nice , sleek , compact fully functional radio with complete coverage 150khz to 29999khz. It has a very sensative tuning section which is great for DXing . The selectivity and sensativity is top notch , however , as mentioned by other reviewers it also seems to be more sensative to noise . There is no filters or SYNC feature . The SONY SW7600 which is the same price is truly a better radio, period!It has SYNC and up front filters that eliminate noise and the SYNC feature is crucial for true DXing .My Grundig YB 400 is also good but I have had better results , especially on AM with the E5 and especially when I hook the E 5 up to my antenna/filter system .
The SSB is top notch ! Very good results without an addional antenna , clear and distinct.
Curiously I wonder why this model has been claimed by ...Eton , Grundig , Degan and Kaito ...it appears that there is "one " manufacturer in the far east and companies scranmble to bid on putting there name on their products!!? Non the less the E5 and the G5( Grundig version , BTW the AC adaptor on the G5 does not hum)appears to be an improved Kaito 1103, nice job !
The Eton e1 , e10 and e100 are all of the same design , the E5 is not of this design . The E10 has an IF filter and an antenna trim . The E5 does not but certainly needs it .The durable feel and solid construction is also missing on the E5 unlike the E1,10 and 100 which are solid galvanized rubber , the E5 is plastic.
Its has a very good sound both from the built in speaker and the headphones.It has a nice backlight set up ( lights automatically when you touch the tuning dial) and robust memory.
Its a solid 4 star radio ...very good! However , the SONY SW7600 is a much better buy for the money .