Customer Reviews

Grundig YB550PE Shortwave radio 200 station presets

5 star:		(1)
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Grundig has also done it again! I needed a small AM/FM/SW radio for travel and have compared several portable receivers including the Kaito KA11, the Grundig G6 Aviator, the Sangean ATS-606AP, the Kaito KA1101, the Kaito KA1102, the Eaton E100/Grundig G100, etc. I am still not done with all my evaluations, but I definitely think that the Grundig YB-550PE is a great, reasonable small and inexpensive and yet a very excellent receiver! I am extremely impressed right out of the box how well it performs even for quite weak signals and with the antenna on SW not even extended very much.

PROS:

1) Comes with a fine, well made velcro-sealed case with a carrying handle, earbuds, a support stand that can be permanently attached to the radio and a very readable manual. It is a vertically oriented radio unlike most portables which are oriented to be used horizontally.
2) Excellent weak signal reception on ALL bands. It really performs very well!
3) It has a tone switch (Music/news) as well as a two position Local/DX switch (RF gain attenuator), external antenna jack, earphone jack, charger/adaptor jack, etc.
4) Lock switch and backlight (controlled by a nice switch at the top of the unit).
6) Numerous tuning methods available including a fine tuning scroll wheel, a great feature that is shared by the Eton E100 or the Grundig G100 (with an actual tuning knob instead that extends slightly outside the main body of the radio).
7) Very high quality and very readable display with numerous icons for battery life (while off) and signal strength meter (while on) and that works extremely well, Mono/stereo settings, sleep setting, clock displayed simultaneously with the station frequency, etc.
8) Long battery life using 3 AA batteries
9) 200 memory preset locations that are very easy to both set as well as scan
10) It has a nice and easy to use reset button located inside the battery compartment
11) It has an internal group of setting for storing key performance features such as 9/10 kHz steps for international travel, optimization of power for Alkaline or rechargeable batteries, 12/24 hour world clock time, system wide settings information, etc.
12) Very nice size speaker with good sound quality and little distortion
13) Very good quality and very easy to maneuver FM/SW antenna that is side mounted that also swivels very nicely and that also is very easy to quickly extend.

CONS: These are all very small and of no great significance whatsoever!

1) It doesn't recharge the batteries internally
2) It is quite thick in comparison to other portables (~ 1.375 inches) and is a little big for my own hand.
3) Band scanning is muted and it only stops at the strongest stations
4) The tone switch is not as effective as on some other portables
5) It doesn't come with an AC/DC adaptor charger unit, but one is available for purchase at least.