Grundig G6 Aviator Buzz Aldrin Edition AM/FM, Aircraft band and Shortwave Radio, Black

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.1 x 4.9 x 3 inches ; 7.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0018QQDII
• Item model number: G6
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,103 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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  Electronics > Portable Audio & Video > Radios > Shortwave

• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 1, 2008

Product Description

Manufacturer's Description (May 28, 2008)

This is a version of the G6 that is endorsed by Dr. Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut, as a celebration of America's 50 years of space exploration. With the Grundig G6 Aviator at your side, you’ll always have great listening options. Tune in to AM, FM, aircraft band or shortwave frequencies easily with direct keypad entry. Use the multiple tuning features to quickly scan or browse stations. This portable radio only weighs about 7 ounces, so you can always have your favorite stations at hand. The international clock and wake-up alarms keep you on schedule, wherever your travels take you.

The large keypad and display make tuning quick and easy

Long-Range, Portable Flexibility.
The Grundig G6 Aviator brings you coverage of all medium-wave and shortwave frequencies, as well as FM bands. Specifically, it covers three frequency ranges. The 520kHz to 30MHz frequency range grants access to the entire AM band and shortwave broadcasts with single-sideband tuning. This far-reaching frequency range puts you in touch with news and entertainment from across the world, and also allows reception of ham radio operators, maritime and shortwave aeronautical stations.

The 88MHz to 108MHz band covers traditional FM radio, and the G6 Aviator passes its stereo signal through to the convenient headphone jack. Additionally, this radio also receives the 117MHz to 137MHz National Civilian Aeronautical Band, letting you monitor multiple aircraft communication frequencies.

Handy Features For Easy Use.
The Grundig G6 Aviator tames its powerful tuning flexibility with a robust on-board memory system. It can store up to 700 stations with 4-character station naming. The Auto Tuning feature takes the hassle out of tuning in to multiple frequencies by automatically scanning and storing stations for FM, AM and shortwave signals. Multiple scan tuning types make it easy to listen to new signals. The STOP tuning system stops on the next available frequency, while the D5 tuning system gives you a 5-second taste of each station before moving to the next. The G6 Aviator's front panel is also equipped for manual and direct tuning, allowing you to punch in the exact frequency you want. The digital signal meter dynamically shows signal strength, and is a valuable companion when adjusting an optional external antenna or manually tuning to distant stations.

Weighing in at only 7 ounces, the Grundig G6 Aviator is light enough to take anywhere. An included AC adapter provides power when at home or the office, and 2 AA batteries let you take this radio with you wherever you go. The key lock feature keeps you tuned in by preventing accidental button presses. Additionally, the easy-to-read backlit LCD screen also displays an international clock with three programmable alarms, keeping you on schedule no matter where your travels take you.

What's in the Box?
The Grundig G6 Aviator comes with an AC adaptor, earbuds for private listening and a protective carrying pouch.

Product Description

With the Aviator at your side, you�ll always have great listening options. Tune in to AM, FM, aircraft band or Shortwave frequencies easily with direct keypad entry. Or, use the STOP tuning feature to browse stations and stop on the next available frequency. You can also use D5 tuning to get a taste of what�s playing�stop on the next available frequency for five seconds at a time. Use the international clock and wake-up alarms to keep you on schedule, wherever your travels take you.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grundig Buzz Aldrin Edition G6, July 9, 2008

By	Chris Compton "Broadcast Engineer,Avid Radio ... (Los Angeles County,USA) - See all my reviews

When the G6 arrived I must say I was a little shocked as I was expecting a larger package, but as the old expression goes "Size Makes no Difference",and that applies to the G6!
The build quality was extremely good, the rubberized coating and the "just right" weight make for a very good, solid feel.
After a brief scan of the operating manual I placed 2 AA Alkaline batteries in the G6 (you can also use NI-MH batteries and charge them in the G6) but I was very excited and did not want to wait one minute longer, I wanted to play now!
I powered the G6 up and selected the MW AM Broadcast Band, my favorite
for chasing weak, distant signals. I then thought to myself, I need a "Standard" in which to compare the G6. Being an avid radio collector I selected a Tough Act to Follow" radio from my collection for the AM MW Blue Ribbon. I chose my Panasonic RF2900.
Both radios had brand new alkaline batteries installed, as I did not want to deal with AC power line noise, induced into the units by operating from the AC Mains.
It was in middle of the day so I selected a station on 1360 KHz, KWDJ, 1000 watts day, in Ridgecrest, CA, about 100 miles from my location in Lancaster, Ca. At that distance the measured signal strength of KWDJ was less than 100 Micro volts/Meter (Measured on Potomac FIM 22 AM field strength meter)
I placed both radios on the same table ,and rotated the units so their loopsticks were optimized for reception from the direction of Ridgecrest, Ca.
Also note, that in Lancaster, there is a 1000-watt AM station on 1380 KHZ
Its transmitter, less than 3 miles from my location, and in the same heading as
Ridgecrest!
As I tuned the RF2900 to 1360 I heard Dr. Laura, pretty clear along with a fair amount of background noise.
I listened for about 2 minutes to make sure that the signal was steady, which it was.
Now it was "ShowTime" I powered the G6 up, and using the Jog Wheel, I tuned the G6 to 1360...and with the volume set about halfway....I heard Dr. Laura, with about the same amount of noise as the RF2900!
Needless to say, I was impressed.
OK I said, lets take a listen to the low side of the band.
How about a lowly 100 watt AM station XSURF on 540 KHZ in Mexico, over 100 miles away.
I rotated the radios toward Mexico, tuned the RF2900 to 540 ,and there in the noise was XSURF on 540.
I should call the G6, the "Little Engine that Could" because when I tuned it to 540 KHZ, there was XSURF with just slightly more noise than the RF2900, WOW!
The G6 had no trouble in pulling in most all of the Los Angeles radio AM signals which ranged from 75 to 100 miles away with only one 50,000 Watt signal.
Ok, I was convinced that the G6 had great performance on MW AM, but how about FM?
I went back to my radio collection looking for a portable radio to make the comparison, a unit with better than average FM reception, my Eton E5.
On FM a good test would be pulling in KGZO, 90.9 in Shafter, CA
Operating with only 1.9 KW of power, over 100 miles away.
This is a good test of sensitivity and selectivity as my location in Lancaster, Ca, is within the 1MV contour of Superpower 110,000 Watt KPFK at 90.7.
In the past the Eton E5 had no problem in pulling in the KGZO signal in full stereo, with only a slight intrusion from KPFK.
The Eton E5 repeated this task as expected.
After tuning the G6 to 90.9 and with a little playing with the rod antenna, there was KGZO in stereo with just a slightly more amount of intrusion by KPFK, but still listenable!
The G6 had no trouble in pulling in signals from all the Los Angeles FM signals from Mount Wilson, the location of 99% of Los Angeles FM Signals.
On more thing.... do not let the small speaker size fool you, this little baby can fill a small room with pretty good volume.
On Shortwave the G6 is comparable in selectivity and sensitivity to several of my Shortwave rigs including my Eton E5, my Sony 6500 ,and my Sangean 909. The BFO makes copy of SSB a breeze as well.
On VHF I can hear signals from Aircraft and from LAX and Lancaster's Fox Airfield.
On a scale of 1 through 10 the Buzz Aldrin Edition Grundig G6 gets a
BIG 10!

Chris Compton
Professional Broadcast Engineer, and Avid Radio Collector for over 35 Years
Lancaster, CA

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent SSB lw/am/fm/sw super-portable (pocket-sized) receiver, April 3, 2009

By	Ann E. Revelle (Los Alamos, New Mexico) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This Buzz Aldrin edition of the G6 aviator radio is indeed an excellent new product. Identical in all aspects (except for some printing on the front of the unit) to the standard G6 aviator radio, it seems very well made and should last a long time if treated with care. The radio is both extremely small (almost the same size as the Kaito KA11!) and readily transportable yet the reception is still excellent on all available bands. It is certainly not as fine a radio as the Kaito KA1103 by any means, but for its size and weight it is quite exceptional, plus it has the aircraft band frequencies (see below for further details and limitations, etc.).

I like being able to change the news/music switch in order to slightly improve AM and SW signal audio fidelity (on my unit it is certainly NOT a deep bass boost switch however with little tonal changes being evident as the switch changes its position). Unfortunately this is also NOT a narrow/wide bandwidth filter switch which is not available on this radio at all. Using the SSB (single sideband) BFO (beat frequency oscillator) tuner is also very easy and straight forward with a key press on the front of the radio and in fine increments using the tuning dial as well. Unlike some other radios, SSB tuning is also available on the G6 on the AM band as well as on SW which is a very useful feature. The separate ability to step tune in very small increments with the jog dial setting is also excellent in my opinion once a signal of interest has been located. The unit also has an attached 20 inch telescopic antenna as well as an external antenna jack which is especially nice for receiving the weaker FM/SW/Aircraft band stations as well as an earphone jack for private listening (including FM stereo). LW and MW (AM) stations are tuned using the internal ferrite antenna coil.

I rather like the digital volume controls as well. The steps between each setting are sufficiently small that quite precise control of the volume levels can be attained, especially when using earphones which is my most common mode of operating this radio given the smallness of its speaker (but still adequate).

In addition, the Grundig manual for the G6 although too brief and lacking in some important technical details is just fine to read with no English translation problems as with the Degen (Kaito) radio manuals for the KA1102/KA1103. Degen now makes the G3, G4, G5 and G6 for Grundig (whose designs originated from the Degen engineering brainpower from some 6 years ago now). These radios are now advertised as designed in California (by the Eton Corporation) and made in China, but to be fair Grundig has capitalized on a proven Degen/Kaito design and greatly improved on the ergonomics for using these fine radios.

The availability of the complete LW spectrum (formally from 153-279 KHz), but continuous on this radio from 150 KHz all the way to the start of the AM (MW) band at 520 KHz and of the Aircraft bands (117-137 MHz) and of the complete SW spectrum (1.711 to 29.999 MHz) on this unit is also true of the G5 as well (with the exception of the aircraft band that is available on the new G3 which should be available in th3e middle of April this year). The Eton Corporation will soon start to advertise the availability of the complete LW band features on these new Grundig branded radios since it was originally and inadvertently overlooked by the marketers. (If you still have any doubts read the back of the radio in zoom mode on this website). The Sony ICF-SW7600GR also has the full spectrum of LW/AM(MW) and SW bands too and has advertised it all along, but that radio also lacks the aircraft band that is available on the new G6 Aviator radio. Especially for international travelers, the 10 KHz AM tuning step for N. America can also be changed to the 9 KHz step that is standard in Europe and Asia too.

One negative item is that the airband can not be automatically scanned like all of the other available bands on this radio. Another very negative item (see also below for those of you who live in heavily urban areas with lots of simultaneous interfering signals possible), is that there is no RF gain switch (DX/normal/local, etc.) on this radio at all either. Considering just how sensitive the front end of this radio is to weak signals, this is a very surprising error of omission in my humble opinion and one that should be rectified by Grundig (PUN intended!).

The G6 even has alarms and time zone capabilities and 700 memories that can be labeled along with with multiple and very useful ways I might add to tune and store information in this very versatile, dual conversion PLL (phase locked loop) synthesized, diminutive "micro-receiver style" radio. These memories are arranged for all of the 100 pages with 7 memories to a page. Each of these 100 pages can be labeled alphanumerically in groupings to boot. The presets can also be chosen on each page randomly regardless of the band. In addition, numerous pre-stored time zones (~30) from all around the globe can also be easily chosen while traveling in order to make changing your local time setting with respect to UTC world time very convenient.

On another website there is a discussion of some occasional small microprocessor problems when loading two adjacent presets on a single page. The radio apparently can lock up, but it is easy to unlock and simply reload the page once again with no further preset storage problems.

There is even an on-screen clock as well as the day of the week and a battery level indicator, a hold switch for locking all of the buttons as well as a separate lock switch chosen through the jog dial for the tuned frequency. There is also a very nice on screen and very detailed signal strength meter and a nice orange back-light system. The radio can also charge batteries inside the radio (sounds like the KA1102/KA1103 proven technology once again- eh?) and it even comes with a one year warranty, a slip case as well as a AC/DC adapter charger. It runs on 2 AA batteries normally while in its portable state. It even has a nice carrying strap permanently attached to the radio as well which is a nice touch given its very small size.

UPDATE: May 27, 2008:

I am in Alabama on travel and I too have now experienced very significant bleeding of apparently high power am stations directly on to the aircraft band at several frequencies. As a heads up, this just goes to show that to adequately test any radio it should be done at several locations. However, I have experienced none of this am frequency bleeding at my home location in the high mountains of New Mexico for example. This suggests that the dual conversion available at two IF (intermerdiate frequencies) in this radio are not adequate in some locations to adequately block unwanted noise from the aircraft bands.

June 18, 2008 UPDATE:

Yes, as I had previously indicated above, the G6 Aviator is a PLL (Phase locked loop) dual conversion receiver with a digital display and 700 presetable memories (Information recently confirmed by Walter Hess, Technical Support Manager, Etón Corporation, 1015 Corporation Way. Palo Alto, CA 94303 USA)

Finally, I look forward very much to having the fun of using this radio for the high quality sounds of music, news and just general LW/AM(MW) broadcast band, shortwave and aircraft band listening from all over the globe for a very long time.

September 8, 2008: UPDATE

For those of you who really really like this radio (and there is a lot to like), in order to compensate for its extremely good sensitivity (except perhaps in the am band), a trick that I learned about by reading other web reviews is to actually shorten the whip antenna length significantly when bleeding and other interference occurs. This allows the arriving radio signals to not overload the system and be received with very significant improvement. Ironically, usually we are always interested in lengthening the radio antenna (especially outdoors if it is not too noisy at the radio frequencies of interest). I hope that this may help you to continue to enjoy your new Grundig radio! Out in the open countryside this bleeding is NOT a problem at all, so only the big city radio listeners (or travelers to big cities) need to be beware of this potential problem for the G6.

April 3, 2009: UPDATE

Amazon currently has a great sale on the Buzz Aldrin G6 aviator radio for about $90 including shipping or about $102 including shipping with the Kaito passive wire, reel antenna (AN-03L) that makes this an even greater bargain item!

April 11, 2009: UPDATE

One very nice feature of the 24 hour clock system is that it is fully adjustable for traveling including a GMT (Zulu or UTC) setting. With the radio off you simply press and hold the #8 key until a long list of coded city names appears. Next, you simply choose the time zone code closest to the one that you are currently within using the tuning knob and wait 8 seconds and you are all set (it is then automatically stored until you change it again). If you desire to know the Universal (UTC) time separately, you simply choose the "GMT" choice briefly to find the time in Greenwich, England and then repeat the above procedure and go right back to your current timezone location. (Unfortunately there is no provision in the G6 for entering the date or activating daylight savings time so at certain times of the year your indicated GMT time could be up to 1 hour off unless you live in Arizona, etc.) As you continue to travel this process is easily repeated as often as may be needed.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grundig Radio G6 Aviator an all-purpose radio in a small package, July 25, 2008

By	Edward A. Kohnstamm "EdK" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Though I found the instructions reasonably clear the actual operation of the radio can seem somewhat complex, a problem familiarity will remedy. Also, due to its compact size I found its speaker to be a bit small but capable of excellent sound reproduction non-the-less. Other than those small difficulties I have found the radio itself to be everything I had wanted in this portable a package including AM,FM,SW and aircraft bands along with 99 available programmable station settings and 3 programmable alarms for travel or shared wake-up times. I am more than pleased with my purchase and appreciate the quality of construction and attention to detail.