Eton Elite Executive Portable Radio - How Well Does it Perform? 

After a while I don't even notice the chuffing noise on my Eton Executive. Thanks for the great review, I completely agree.

Just received my Elite Executive lately and I too was a bit perplexed when wanting to tune in SSB via the bottom button. I was outside on a clear night with no interference but I received nothing except noise. Got back in the house to browse RU-vid to try and figure out why. Am I glad I came across your channel...now I receive SSB loud and clear! This radio is superb and so are your vids mate. Thanks a lot mate!

Thank you for this review. So many RU-vidrs 'review' a product merely by regurgitating marketing info instead of actually testing the products. I can read marketing info myself. Again, thank you.

You earned my subscription. You actually know how to test radios objectively! A rarity on RU-vid.

Great review and great comparison. Thank you for putting this together. I think it has convinced me to purchase one (after watching several reviews on this, and other portable radios). Well done!

Just bought this radio. Haven't used it but it had all the features I wanted. Thank you for showing the basics of this radio. I'm subscribed..

This is the best radio review and comparison I've seen yet on You Tube. Good job! You've convinced me to buy the Elite Executive, it should be here in four days. Thanks for the great review.

Hi, Thank you for this video. I recently purchased the previous Elite version of this radio.By all accounts, this is much the same as the Executive except for the color of its case. I have been dxing for many years and I think that it is a good radio on SW and FM. As for MW performance, I have had no issues. Mine is very sensitive. I am able to hear relatively low powered MW stations from England and Ireland, up here in Scotland. LW broadcast sensitivity is only fair but acceptable. In many ways this radio is similar to the XHDATA D808. 73 and GDX

I just purchased one over the Tecsun PL-880 or the PL-680. The Eton is a fantastic radio. Thanks for the great content.

Absolutely excellent review. I can tell by your presentation skills and manner in which you review things you have exactly the personality of someone I would be friends with. Well done sir.

I just ordered mine directly from Eton will arrive Wednesday! Thank you you helped convince me that I did a good upgrade from my old Sony 111 that I have owned since 2004. I always wanted to listen to SSB and my local airports here in kansas. As a former CB SSB radio user it’s nice to get back into doing this again.

Hello - Mike Here.......Just getting into emergency/Communications radio. With what's going on out there in society, I think its a good idea to be able to at least listen in to others out there reporting, and to be able to get information, if things go south. I like the review you gave here, because your a Ham guy, and you know what your talking about, especially when discussing SSB. I may have some questions for you, if that's ok. There is another Ham radio operator that is on the John Moore show I catch Mon-Fri on Republic Broadcasting, Its online....He is a guest once a week, Tom Berryhill I believe, maybe you know him. I am in Michigan near Lake Huron/St Clair River. Sarnia is right across the way. Have a blessed week!!

Nice direct comparison! Good job on this!

Great Review- new sub. - I think the Speaker frequency response on the Eton has considerable factor in it's agreeableness to our ear. I think I will get one.

Thank you for the great review. Was on the fence with this unit, but I love aircraft listening along with everything else, and for the price on Amazon this seems like the radio for me.

Just bought one. Really impressive.

Thank you for the time you put into this!

Excellent! The video's host has a clue. My Eton is joyful to operate and listen to. Compared with my venerable Yeasu Ft-950, the little Eton rocks. Topic not covered was the radio's ability to manage rechargeable batteries. Sweet rig!

Thank you for the comparison. Just getting into this.

As a fellow ham operator, I say a very good review. I'm considering getting one. 73 de N5NUK.

Great review on the radio, thanks

In the late 1980's my husband picked up Atlantic 252 . This was on a summer evening in Antigonish Nova Scotia. This was his only experience with a European Long Wave Radio Station. Cheers.

Excellent review...thanks!

Great review, very helpful thanks!!

I got my Eton Elite Executive for $80 US on a special deal at Woot (an Amazon company) in August of 2022. It costs $180 US at Amazon now in May 2023. I wouldn't have bought it at today's price. My experience with the radio is quite similar to yours, but I wouldn't travel with it -- it's too heavy, it's too expensive to replace, and you either have to take along the battery charger (and whatever power adapters you need), or buy AA batteries. For travel I'd take the smaller and lighter Tecsun PL-330 that I can charge with a USB cable. One correction: the Eton takes 4 AA batteries, not 3. One odd limitation of the Eton is that auto tune storage (ATS) only works on FM. Your segment on RDS was informative. No FM station in my area (central Virginia in the US) has an FM station with RDS time data.

Very professional review, I like it and as per your recommendation I also prefer to purchase this radio.....

Good review. I appreciate your Ham perspective. You might spring for a Belka someday. No DSP soft mute (chuffing) & the AGC is very good and it is very stable. SSB is superb. I bought mine directly from Belka. It's my best small portable.

Great review. I had this radio. The antenna gave me trouble.

Thanks for such an in-depth video :)

The Eaton sounds better for voice. I'm impressed. Thanks!

Very nice review thanks! Looks like it may perform similar to the xdata radio, at least externally this is the impression I get.

I enjoyed watching this video, learned a lot about the Eton that I just ordered. Very similar to the Grundig Globe Traveler G3 that I have that somehow lost its AM and shortwave capabilities. Also surprised that the airband works will on the Eton, while the G3 only worked if you were physically at the airport.

Nice review. Easy delivery.

Thanks a lot for the review! Sounds like a very good purchase!

Nice review 👍

So watching your video I just discovered something new. I'm new to this I just got my radio( Eton elite executive) I wish you could do a video on all the buttons n holes!

I just picked this Eton up. Waiting for my sangean 909x2 to get back with its v73 update so I can compare these two receivers

Enjoyed your thoughts on the Radio it really sounds good. I just purchased a ETON Elite Satellite now I have it hooked up to my outdoor antenna and it sounds fairly good. The noise floor is a bit high but it seems all the other problems have been worked through by the software update and the display fix to cut down on noise. I reserved the radio over 2&1/2 years ago so I got a really great price for it otherwise I may have stuck with my Tecsun 990 which is also a great radio for being a small radio. Anyway new sub! 73, de K9HDT

It's a very nice and efficient receiver, but I wish it had at least the Ham UHF bands, with some digital modes. I'd certainly buy one, even if it was more expensive.

Thanks for the review! 73

Great review thank you! I have ordered this radio from Amazon, looking forward to enjoy it. Regarding the loose antenna... Is there a screw there that might be getting loose by chance? Thanks, 73.

I thought the same thing about that antenna but there is a fix you have to open it up and get right to it it’s self-explanatory but yes there’s a screw that you tighten up on the inside mine is good as new it’s been like that for over a year now right now

Great video. It was between this model and the the Skywave SSB. I always liked the leather case on my Grundig. I went with the Skywave for the small size, ease of use, includes external wire antenna and features. Downside was the price.

There was a small handheld scanner that received from 100 khz to 1 GHz and it did ssb and AM/WAM/WFM/FM/NFM/SNFM I don't remember if it was an ICOM or something else It might have been a China company and they don't sell it in America It was INCREDIBLE The reception was the best I have ever seen I wish I could have bought it

Solid! Top KEK!

Radio Topics I have the Eton Elite Executive with ssb air band mw lw fm shortwave receiver now I no how to used ssb now thanks for show me how to used ssb and not snak ssb on your utube video keep making new videos

Considering this radio here in the Philippines. More research to see what kind of channels/reception I should expect here.

If you really want to be amazed, try a Belka DX. It costs less than the Elite Executive, but surpasses the Eton's performance on HF by a wide margin.

Love this radio. Only thing I didn't like is the DSP tuning circuitry because you have to go slowly with the tuning knob. If you know the frequency, however, or you are very patient, it really is a very good radio! Very, Very good on batteries as well!

Eton sent me this radio as a replacement for the E10 that had the sticky surface issue. I was surprised at the excellent customer service. In fact Eton swapped the first generation Elite Executive for the improved version. Who would do this!

Enjoyed very much this video, I have this radio but must admit have not experimented much with bands outside of FM broadcast. As far as adding an external antenna I would be interested in knowing what type of input jack the radio requires. Thanks for any help.

Would you purchase the etom or the tecsun 500x great review

Great detailed review! What would you recommend for a great prep emergency radio that can pick up police, weather etc? Thanks

How does this compare to newer options like the XH-DATA 808? or D109?

Thx for the informative video. I'm considering this radio, can you tell me what sort of setup is recommended for an external antenna? Is that a DIY item or is there one you would buy for this radio? thx

I think the telescopic short whip has thousands of Ohms (high Z) and probably a bad mismatch to the 50 Ohm antenna port on the 7700, and might have some loss unless you use a transformer. Granted the loss isn't much for RX, but I wonder if it affects this side by side comparison.

I bought this Eton. Very good receiver on all bands. The much less expensive Tecsun PL-330 has more stable audio on SSB compared to the Eton when both are connected to a 100 ft long wire antenna. Perhaps there are controls in the Eton to reduce or change the audio gain attack that causes clipping/distortion at the beginning of words similar to the Tecsun PL-880 on SSB? The audio remains stable on the 330 even though it has no DX/Local antenna control. I have to test the receivers more. The 330 can be set to use external AM antennas which is incredibly useful to bring AM signals into my camper and get super daytime reception with a direct connection to large homemade loops. The Eton has excellent AM broadcast band reception and is my best aircraft band radio. Of course FM is top notch too.

This is the second video I am watching about this radio. Does it have a weather band ?

Try loosening the screw at the antenna base first, then tighten. I've done this several times over the years and the antenna became very tight.

I'm in the market for a small radio to sit on my desk, primarily to just listen to AM/FM, but that can also be thrown in the car as a travel, or emergency receiver. Good audio quality (though that conflicts with small size, I know), Shortwave and SSB capability, AA batteries... This and the Tecsun PL-660 seem to be the two front runners. Any thoughts on which one is has the best sound quality from their small speakers?

It's a nice little radio! I find that mine draws heavily on the batteries, though. (NiMh) And of course, I'm still learning all the multifunction buttons. LOL Keeps me off the street, I guess. Had to subscribe, so I can follow up if you have any updates on it! 73 de Karl, VE3GUN (FN04)

I have been using the Sony ICF -38... for AM DX....I got California and Oregon 740 San Francisco and St Helen on 1500... very good from my area in the Pacific....The problem with the Eton it is chugging... they should go back to Analog....I have a Jensen that is bad on AM... very hard to DX with it

I love my EEE, but a few things I don't like about it. 1. When searching or manually tuning the backlight goes from what you set (as example lowest brightness setting) to the brightest setting which causes the radio to suck the batteries empty faster. Also if you have the brightness set to a level it doesn't shut off the backlight when you "turn off" the radio, you have to manually turn the backlight off 2. The location of the antenna, and how the antenna is set up. 3. External antenna can't be used for AM. 4. Scanning in FM broadcast band will overwrite the memory.

Let's not forget, they haven't come a long way on the finger print options either...lol Question; this radio is digital and the 750 is Analog, or am I mistaken? Thank you

I have this radio awesome dx machine well pleased 😀

I have a Tecsun PL-660. There isn`t any muting/chuffing while tuning. I can very quickly tune and find stations on the shortwave or AM broadcast band. My Eton Elite Traveler is almost useless on shortwave because of muting while tuning. I bought it because it was the only DSP radio I knew of at the time that didn`t have soft mute on AM. That`s the only real advantage of the radio and I didn`t know there were others without muting in that price range. It sounds absolutely horrible with headphones and will kill your ears with deafening pops and beeps if you hit the wrong button or change bands. I have better radios now and need to sell it or give it away. I could have bought a Sangean PR-D4W but was ignorant about that amazing radio at the time.

Why would you support or buy any radio that mutes between stations and has AGC problems because it uses a chip?

Hi I have a question since I want to purchase either Sony sw77 or tecsun 990x or this Eton Grundig Satellite, which turns out to be the best in term of price and performance? Thanks

Can anyone recommend an external antenna for this radio

Just a further observation on this radio...not worthy of another video. I noticed the VHF aircraft band sensitivity dropped noticeably. The battery indicator showed "full" but dipped down to 2 bars briefly. I decided to fully charge the batteries anyway, et voila!, the sensitivity returned. Bottom line - don't trust the battery indicator on this radio.

Thank you for your excellent review. I just received my Elite, and the first thing I noticed was that the Auto Scan skips the 20 Meter band entirely - e.g. scans up to 13.8 MHz then jumps to 15.1 MHz and continues from there. I haven't checked yet for other band skips on Auto Tune. Is this 'normal' for the Elite, or do I have a defective item? Thanks, I'm subscribing.

*Thanks for the review. I've bought one because of reviews like this.* Great AM reception, but I guess I was hoping for more: It's not so great with SW in Toronto. That's not Eton's fault; the battery charging is weird, and I don't understand if it's broken or if I don't understand something; to turn it on it confuses me with pressing once or twice, or even "thrice!", then it doesn't land on the _page_ I was on previously; and the obviously-useless leather case; oh and (perhaps not finally) the double-armed antenna is weird, though... honestly I think it's actually useful; got more, ummm: programming onto a Fn key is too easy - all you need is to hold a wee bit of time; the FM tuning going backwards is messed weird and there should probably be some kind of locking system so secure your settings/stations, instead of its pretty useless function now (I mean that existing key-icon lock thing); scanning should be able to scan through your own presets, even a set of _pages_ ; the digital info should be there for radio stations, not sure why it's not; USB! _Come on, Eton, what's up?_ ; Recording would be nice too. But then... sometimes a line between simple and complex needs to be made. I don't know if some of these features I mentioned are things that exist and I don't know how to apply them, or if I'm dreaming up the best radio, like we all do. Sorry. I complain too much about everything. Did failure mode analysis in avionics and it stuck. All I can do is find fault and I don't mean to chop up a fine radio. The line input helps when alone in a quiet room and you wanna plug your guitar through an effects pedal. So that's a feature I thought useless, but instead it's useful. Had it for about a month now.

O rádio é PLL ou DSP ?

hello from VU land :)

Good afternoon. Would you let me know if this radio receives FM HD subchannels? I will appreciate any information you can provide concerning this radio.

I have the Eton Elite Executive I am not happy with my Eton Elite Executive it does not work on ssb fine tuning does not I am going to get tensun 909x

How to store the frequency using the page memmory for short wave m wave and fm

Which loop antenna do recommend for this radio? There are several choices and I'm not sure which to get.

I have a ETON ELITE 750, can you tell me what type antenna connector I need to plug into the receiver so I can use the EXT ANTENNA. Now I have the long copper wire antenna going into the other EXT ANTENNA with the red clip on the radio, like to use plug in for better signals. THANK YOU, appreciate any information you may have.

Good comparison. I have to admit, I just don't like the few choices we have anymore. The digital tuning on these new radios, including the Tecsun PL880 is pretty horrible. I want the advantage of the older analogs but the size of the newer, smaller radios. To few choices I'm afraid.

Can you turn off permanently the display backlight on this unit ?

I bought this Eton Elite Executive, from Amazon, USA, sometime in November 2021. It has been working fine, till a few days back, when I found there was NO sound. The dial lights up, channels and time are stored, and all keys functioning, but there is no sound. I did a factory reset, by long pressing 1, and quick pressed the reset button, still no result. All stored channels and time zone…are erased, still not even a scratch of sound. Please help and guide me on trouble shooting, I hope there's nothing very serious, Thanks,

I've read conflicting opinions regarding the Eton Elite Executive's external antenna port. Does it require a stereo or mono 3.5mm miniplug?

Why do so many of these radios still have muting while tuning when we know it can be disabled? Surely the manufacturers know that most shortwave listeners hate it when radios do this.

Hello do you use indoor antenna any types thank you

hi,i'm andrea.z . is possible step 1 khz or 5 khz into air band am vhf? beacouse now is the new step frequenzy 8,33khz for air band. thank's.

A mudança de faixa das frequências salvas é via botão redondo da lateral ?

On Long Wave Northern China and Russia are on 280-289khz...in my area in the Pacific and on. medium wave Australia and New Zealand and Korea and Japan are on though out the Band

A travel radio that comes with a 110v power adapter. They should have included a travel power adapter 100-240v

how much better is Eton Elite Execute than Sony icf sw7600g ?

wow, excellent review, 73! XE2DHA

How does it compare to c cranes version

I unpacked my Eton Elite Executive and wasn't impressed at all. I live within 10 miles of an urban area and scanned the AM band, only four stations came through and three of those were too weak to listen to comfortably. Dx switch had no discernible effect. Probably the worst AM receiver I've ever used. I wonder what I'm doing wrong?

Hello. Does this radio have Bluetooth?

Mine uses 4 AA batteries.

Radio is nice. I like the knob tuning. Cons: 1.NIMH .. really?, they are obsolete 2. It should have 5V USB power in 3. Should have solar

My two biggest performance complaints about this radio: 1) If you get near the transmitter of any medium wave station, even a 100 milliwatt Part 15, the sensitivity in that station's area of the band decreases remarkably. Nearby stations don't have enough loudness even with the volume control turned all the way up. You don't get this problem with any of the Sangean portables. 2) Even though the audio quality of AM mode in the 6 kHz bandwidth is remarkable (like a small version of a GE/RCA Superadio), the audio quality of SSB is as muddy as most post-2002 AM radios. The SSB bandwidth is a poor choice. (Standard AM shortwave sounds much better even using the 4 khz bandwidth).

Have you been keeping up with the latest Eton drama with the Eton Satellit HD? I'm so, so happy NOT to be an early adopter on that product. My Tecsun PL-368 is a better performer at a 10th of the price than the new Eton receiver. That's really not a great look for Eton. Shame given how utterly fantastic a performer the Eton Elite Executive is.

I laid my hands on one through ebay: I live in The Netherlands: we have Long Wave stations all around us. It receices them very weak, especially compared to the former eton radio’s. It might be that the ferrite bar is too small for this wavelength and probably external antenna may improve this. But here it comes! Although I find it remarkably sensitive and selective on fm I encounter a really bad problem on the frequency range 89-90 mhz (and around 65 mhz and 73 mhz but there are bo broadcasters in that range): it is caused by the internal led display light! It causes electromagnetic static signals hence heavy disturbancses on for instance a station on 89,5 mhz. It can be overcome when dimming the display light. I did notice a comparable issue on my xhdata! But not as bad as in this radio. It should never happen! Led lights ruining fm reception is hoewever nothing new to me. Unfortunately. I cannot understand how the technicians could let this occur in such a beautiful radio! Or am I a coincidence?

A 24 minute infomercial !