Customer Reviews

ETON Globe Traveler G3 AM/FM/Shortwave Radio with Aircraft Band, Single-Side Band, Radio Data System and Synchronous Detector

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had high hopes for this radio, hoping that I could replace my much-used and beat up Eton E5. Sadly, this will not be the case. While the G3 adds some features such as the Aircraft band, LSB/USB switch, RDS and Sync detector (which sorta works), several important traits/features of the E5 are not carried over to the new model.

1. FM sensitivity is not as good. Several FM stations in Eugene Oregon (about 110 miles away) that are easy catches for the E5 can still be heard with the G3 but not as clearly, and with much more effort to get the antenna "just right".

2. MW (AM) sensitivity is not as good...side by side comparison on several weak AM stations that yield decent reception with the E5 are heard with more noise and hiss on the G3.

3. Ditto for LW... several aircraft beacons are heard, but with more hiss on the G3.

4. The "wide/narrow" switch does not also function as "voice/music" tone control on FM, as it does on the E5.

5. The push-buttons are NOT illuminated on the G3.

6. Tuning steps increased from 25 kHz to 50Khz on FM... not what is needed to pull in a weak DX station that is first adjacent to a strong local!

The good points:

1. The RDS functions well.

2. SSB stations are MUCH easier to tune with the G3 than the E5.

3. The Aircraft band works well, this will be great for airshows.

4. Under some conditions (stations that are not too weak) the sync detector does provide improvement. I find that I must tune 1 kHz LOW to get it to work, so there could be some alignment issues with my particular radio. The feature does not work as well as it does on my Sony ICF-SW7600GR and is not even close to the performance of my Sony ICF 2010!

5. The G3 is less likely to "overload" in strong signal areas than the E5... perhaps the sensitivity was reduced on purpose to provide better reception for city dwellers, at the expense of reducing DX capabilities.

So, I will keep my beat up old Eton E5, and use both... sad!

Update: 5/19/10 I have read several reviews/comments that seem to indicate that the sensitivity and Sync detector problems on early production units have been fixed. This model might be worth a second chance.

I am a collector of radios, I have over 200 in my collection starting in the 1920's to today. Lets deal with complaint number one, the sync is bad, poor would be a better description. This discription will also apply to almost any radio under $1000.00. The SYNC on this radio performs as well as the Sony 7600GR which is not very good either. I personally have found this feature to be of dubious value.

Now to the good stuff:

The SSB feature on this radio is the best I have seen on any small portable radio. You can select either USB or LSB and it also allows fine tuning via a tuning knob. A great inprovement over the G6. The aircraft band works very well from my location ( about 10 miles from DFW airport). FM stations come in very well up and down the dial. The local AM stations come in great, even in my office building.To be fair I live and work in Dallas,Tx and there are many AM and FM stations close by.

The shortwave performance seems very good as well, on a par with My favorite portable radios the Sony 7600GR,ICF-SW100E, Grundig Yachtboy 400, DEGEN 1102 and ATS 909. The radio itself is quite small, smaller than the 7600GR. It feels like it is well made, only time will tell for sure about that. It also has RDS capability. I have not found any stations to test that feature on yet. The radio also has a line in/out connection, this is a bit unusual for a small radio.

The internal memory store is easy to use. I really like this while using the aircraft band.

All of my testing has so far been using only the built in whip antenna.

Purchased the G3 from Amazon and returned the next day. On the FM band the radio was unstable: it produced an internally generated rapidly knocking/ticking sound audible in the pauses of the program audio. The sensitivity in the AM/MW band was essentially nonexistent. The synchro failed to firmly lock even on rather strong signals - looked totally useless. The display is crisp and well illuminated, although the largest part of it is allocated to textual information - RDS info on FM, USB/LSB/synchro etc. By comparison the clock lettering is tiny. The keypad is not illuminated. On the positive side: the SW performance is fine, on par with the venerable Degen/Kaito 1103, the SSB is better due to the USB/LSB selection with stable fine tuning. The same feature allows to suppress adjacent interference on some broadcast signals by engaging SSB and zero beating the carrier. The sound is OK. The line-in feature is useful.

I ordered the Grundig G3 because it's the same radio as one I already own (the Eton E5) with a few new features. I got the Eton E5 as soon as they came out in early 2006, and it has been my main receiver for shortwave listening and mediumwave dxing (searching for distant stations). Synchronous detection was the new feature I cared about the most. For testing, I used alkaline batteries, the telescopic whip antenna for FM and VHF, the internal ferrite bar for AM (mediumwave), and two different wire antennas for SW.

Pros:

* In my experience, the G3 provides equivalent sensitivity for shortwave as my E5, and mediumwave sensitivity is slightly improved.
* The G3 has a brighter backlight that more completely illuminates the LCD screen and looks great.
* Memory pages can contain eight-character names; an improvement over the four-character names supported by the E5.
* Audio from the speaker seems to produce more treble than the E5, which helps somewhat with clarity.
* RDS works for 15 FM stations in my area.

Cons:

* Synchronous detection provided some benefit for mediumwave signals suffering from adjacent channel interference, but has provided no benefit for any of the shortwave broadcasts I tested with. In fact, activating synchronous detection on weak-to-medium strength shortwave broadcasts caused the radio to mute, emit a loud whining sound, and perform this cycle repeatedly. Sync detection on the G3 is a significantly worse implementation than can be found on the Sony ICF SW7600GR, which costs about the same as G3.
* I found the VHF aircraft band to be useless because line-of-sight reception only allows me to hear planes, not ground-based crews at the international airport 10 miles away. I'd rather use websites that stream air traffic control channels so I can hear the whole conversation.
* My radio has a strong burnt rubber smell that has persisted for weeks. The smell gets on my hands as well when I handle the radio.
* The G3 is noticeably slower to respond to frequency changes than the E5 when entering a frequency via the keypad.
* Sometimes when I press the "3" on the numeric keypad, the radio interprets it as a "4".
* Watching a song title and artist scroll by while using RDS is kind of painful due to the fact that only eight characters can be displayed at a time. I'd rather go to a radio station's website to find out what's playing.

Conclusion:
Since synchronous detection does not help with shortwave reception and clarity, this radio is not an upgrade from the Eton E5 which I already own. I decided to return this product.

I haven't bought a shortwave radio since the my Icom R71A back in 1986 and the Sony ICF-35 whenever it came out, but I've handled many since then. I too am disappointed with the poor performance of the synchronous detector circuit, since that's why I have been waiting for release of this radio. I do like the velvetized plastic case. I love that unlike the Sony ICF-SW7600GR, it comes with an AC adapter and can internally charge 4 NiMH AA batteries (batteries purchased seperately). I find the sound quality is far superior to the Sony 7600 and the sensitivity is on par or better than the Sony. Another fault is the owner's manual states "The F1-7 buttons have dual functions when turned on and off, noted on the diagram under the G3's rear tilt flap." This did not exist on my radio. I called Etoncorp about this and they said it was a misprint carried over from the Grundig G5 radio - I don't understand why this is not on the G3 because they are very similar radios. Altogether though, this is a very good radio for the price and size. It's too bad Etoncorp apparently blew the synchronous detector feature, but if you really consider this a "gotta have" feature, plan on spending upwards of $400 on a larger radio.

Most reviews you find online talk about how good this or that radio is when you use an external antenna. Every radio benefits from a good antenna, so I won't tell you how it works with an external antenna (works great) but I will review the performance of the radio by itself.

Let's start with shortwave reception, the main reason I wanted this radio. SW is quite good for a radio of this size; there is still some white noise with distant stations but it isn't horrible. The stations drift a little less than my previous model.

SSB Reception: quite impressive for something of this size. I pick up hams from all over the US and sometimes even Europe, all with the built in antenna.

FM Reception: it's ok, no the greatest but decent. I am not into FM so I don't much care, that's why I'm not marking it down. FM signal seems to fade a little bit now and then but, again, not horrible.

AM: quite good, DXing is pretty easy.

Aircraft band: It's nice to have it but not something I care much about. I live about 10 miles away from an airport and the radio picks up the tower and ground control easily. Fun to listen to now and then, but you might be better off with an actual scanner if you want something primarily for that.

Quality construction is nice, the built in speaker is nice too (though I mostly use headphones) and, all in all, the radio is well made.

now, as far as antennas go: yes, they will make this radio perform beautifully, but I thought I'd let you know about the radio itself, the antenna is your choice and your problem. There are many ready made antennae here on amazon and other sites, you can also build some that will save you some money.

I just received this radio yesterday and consider it similar to the Sangean ATS-909x except a fraction the cost. Only slightly smaller and lighter, but very similar.

INTERNAL BATTERY CHARGER
Concerning a previous review of the internal battery charger, batteries are only charged on demand for a certain time period according to the capacity of the batteries. A previous review left the impression the user must set "a time" to charge. Instead, you simply press a button and select the capacity and the radio starts charging. Granted, I think the Sangean 909x charges constantly and this is a small short coming when compared to price. So far, a 24hr charge on 2300mah has lasted 12-24 hours. Brain, the previous review I'm commenting on, posted a follow-up stating:

---snip---
On the note of battery charging, the radio is only capable of using about 1/2 of
the batteries' capacity. Initiating a charge based on the time calculation
specified in the owner's manual could result in reduced battery life, as the
device's internal Ni-MH charger doesn't shut off automatically based on the voltage
drop heuristic used by current automatic chargers. In the case of Ni-MH, especially
in a device like this that requires a more constant, higher voltage from the
batteries, "quick" charging is better than slow charging because it allows
automatic shutoff based on full-charge voltage drop. If it were the case that the
Grundig G3 completely discharged the batteries during use, then the slow charge
would in fact be the preferable option. It is surprising that the radio doesn't...
---snip---

He might be very well correct here, but again, $100 compared to $300 for a shortwave radio in my (US) opinion, is still a minor issue. But, if you're a European where shortwave is more common, maybe spending $300 on the Sangean 909x might very well be worth the extra money?

EDITED 2011.08.05: Rechargeable NiMH Battery life seems pretty good, somewhere between one and two day almost consistent listening. Alkaline batteries always seems to last longer for me for anything that uses batteries. I prefer to use an external battery charger, however, the internal charger might be of use if I'm traveling and forget to bring a battery charger along.


BUTTONS AND FEATURES
The buttons are a little confusing. MEMO means Memory (MEM), PAGE button is commonly an ENTER button, FUNCTION buttons (F1, F2, ...) are memory buttons. The volume keys are small for commonly used buttons and placed towards the center of the keyboard versus some place easily accessible like the tuning buttons. But after scanning the manual for half a day or so and practicing some of the buttons, all the previous mentioned button issues become minor as ones memory remembers each buttons function after an hour or so. In brief, the keys aren't so differently labeled compared to a glance at the Sangean 909x and I'm sure the manufacturer could make a pink version of the G3 with Functions keys labled "Memory #1, Memory #2, ..." etc.

EDIT 2011.08.05: I'm noticing some of the frequently used button labels ever so slightly wearing.

The biggest issue I'm noticing now, when entering labels for the Memory Locations, you cannot apparently modify/correct them, but have to enter each character again as the device clears the label on edit and there is no backspace key.

EDIT 2011.08.05: I keep accidentally erasing my memory stations by pressing and holding the function buttons by accident or just accidentally erasing them. Although a dumb dialog like "Are you sure you want to erase?" would help, it would also take more time to program the unit due to the dialog... and this is really just a discrepancy with the user's mind!


RECEPTION
As far as reception, I'm in Fairbanks, Alaska and am receiving all of my common AM/FM radio stations with little difference to other receivers as the transmitters are all within 5-10 miles of my location. Maybe a little louder/clearer and using a lot less electricity then my larger receivers. Matter of fact, I rarely need to use the whip antenna for the common FM stations, unlike other portables! For shortwave, AU broadcasts for a good 4-6 hours at night while JA only broadcasts 10-30 minutes a night. And, yes, I can still hear news faster then they're heard via the Internet by 2-6 hours!

EDIT 2011.08.05: I took a recent camping trip to Anchorage near the northern coast of the Pacific Ocean and easily had good S9 signals for Voice of Russia and other broadcasts using a very simple 10-20' long wire antenna made from 20(?) AWG stranded copper speaker wire with a soldered 1/8" mono jack. I then run one end from the top of the open truck window to a tree or under a rock on the ground. For home in Fairbanks, where we are behind the Denali (McKinley) Mountain range and receiving signals bouncing bouncing off the ionosphere causing fading rather then likely picking up ground signals in Anchorage, I get bouncing S5-S9 with the whip antenna indoors. I recently put up a simple ~80' long wire antenna on the exterior, 10-20' in height with a simple choke balun and now get solid S9 signals for Radio Australia, NHK Japan, and Voice of Russia. With this long wire antenna, I need to turn off DX and sometimes even use the narrow signal switch to prevent other signals from interfering. Many more weaker broadcasts throughout the Pacific Rim can be auto-tuned and also heard. I'm finding out I can't get Europe broadcasts (just across the northern pole) due to the aura. I've only used this receiver so far during Summer, day time with 2-4 hours of dusk at night time. I'll check back in later to document my experience with Winter, 18 hours of darkness and when I can see there's little aura activity.


CLOCK
GMT versus Local timezone, this receiver only provides one clock with no daylight time savings mode. Since almost all stations publish their schedules using GMT, and I'm on DTS, I need to convert to GMT by first calculating -8 hours, plus -1 hours for the additional DTS hour. Nor can I simply modify the timezone from Local to GMT while on DTS. This is a small issue to work around if you infrequently listen to shortwave. So I just program the receiver to use GMT time, and later I just might put two clocks on the wall.


WHY SHORTWAVE STILL?
The great thing about Shortwave stations, unlike other transmission methods, no commercials except for Government propaganda -- ie. NK. I'm guessing this is partly due to the time and effort it takes to write a page in HTML. Verbally just stating something, whether live or recorded, seems still just easier for now.

The AM Sync takes 5 minutes to lock, the SW sensitivity is inferior to the G5, the sound quality is inferior to the G5, and the volume is half what the G5 has. Having selectable USB/LSB is nice, but Eton really dropped the ball on this Chinese port. The G5/E5 is much better.

I would recommend this for late night owls that wish for some bed side company during the quiet time before bedtime. The unit is light and portable and easy to operate, with a shut off timer that is one my favorite features. Living out in the isolated region of southeast New Mexico this radio provides me with a good opportunity to receive radio stations from a wide area. The price is an excellent value for the features and benefits included in the radio. Go for it!

Have only had the G3 a little over a month and am still learning its features as I am used to listening to shortwave with a couple of old Hallicrafter recievers. Everything is working fine though I do need a better antenna to improve reception.