Appreciate all the time, effort, and sharing of your honest opinion in reviewing this radio. Many mixed opinions on this radio. I have read many reviews that both criticize and praise it for quite a few years now. It's been on the market for 14 years now (first released in 2008) and is still a strong seller.
I picked one of these up from an estate sale for $30 US dollars. I knew nothing about it when I bought it, but I figured I couldn't go wrong for $30. It's a great radio for commercial AM/FM radio stations in southern Ohio. (I live less than 10 miles from the 700 WLW tower) I had planned to hook up a long wire, but after this video review, I may just keep it as a dedicated AM radio for working in my shop. For a commercial FM listening radio, it worked great once I turned off stereo. I'm not sure why it even has a stereo option for a radio with a single speaker. I know people don't pay $400 to listen to AM/AM commercial stations, but for $30, I think it's a winner for my needs. Great review! I learned everything I wanted to know about this beast.
Very good review. I was considering buying one about a year ago, but the lack of published specs (filter bandwidths) quickly changed my mind. I figured it was consumer quality at best.
Hi Gilles. Thank you for your honest reviews. We all have different opinions on any particular radio. For example, some like the Hanrongda HRD-737 and others call it junk. I have the Retekess version (TR105) and think that it's an average performing but fun radio. Have a good night.
Your reviews help me buy great radios. My PL 660 is the best thing since sliced bread with the MLA 30+. I do enjoy playing with the 750. I thank you for your honest opinion and it will help me with future purchasing of radios. Thank you for your time and sharing with us.
New to Shortwave and bought this radio as a newbie and wish I would have watched this review before buying it I appreciate the honesty you provided about it as it’s spot on even as a newbie to the shortwave I noticed these and a few other flaws in the first few days of having the radio and honestly it should be a crime to sell this thing for $400 🤷♂️
Best radio I had was the Drake sw8.Very sensitive but kept noise from other stations way down.Would pick up pirates on weekends on 6995 in Mid Missouri very well.The display on this one looks very similar to the SW8.Tnx for video.
I hope Eton sees this review! Ouch ! noticed my 750 has the issues mentioned .That filter could be alot better .But the big sound! I listen to SW, ham, pirates , MW, and Air and still love mine (overall) ..- With a long ground ,longwire , or some coax ..since I added a mfj amplified antenna it's a beast imo. That said I got mine on sale open box last year for $349 plus tax and retail $499 IS too high imo. Honest review appreciated.
Thank you for this great confirmation. I had my eyes on this radio but heard other reviews against it. So it looks like I made the right decision going with the Tecsun H-501 X.
Thank for your honesty, I'm a total newbie to shortwave listening. I bought this radio for $400.00 I'm ok with it because, well I'm new to this and have to learn things and lesson learned 😌 I'll do more research next time , but you gonna love the look. 🤣😊 of this machine
Very good and helpful review Gilles. It is a beautiful radio, seems like it would be fun to operate, but the performance issues you describe would definitely be unacceptable to me. One thing I noticed right off is the lack of digits on the main display; seems odd in a modern portable not having at least the 100 Hz digit. Price point is definitely too high for something with poor strong signal handling and lack of appropriate filtering. It would be nice to pair that nice user interface (knobs and controls, layout, S-meter) with a very high quality radio, preferably with a waterfall display option of some sort. Seems like nobody is really knocking it out of the park with a really great new portable. (I see in other comments that this radio was released almost 20 years ago; given that, I suppose one has to adjust expectations; still price ought to be discounted for that).
I agree the wide BW setting is too wide for all but the strongest MW & SW signals, so I keep mine on narrow. One thing I noticed after I bought it, the wide setting had two peaks about 4 kHz above & below centre freq (whereas narrow was right on). I discovered the PL-660 has a similar problem which is a calibration issue. There is a procedure to calibrate the 660.. I tried it on my s2000 and it worked! The other issue I found was the int/ext antenna switch was loose. Both issues are just poor quality control, but as mine is now out of warranty I've got nothing to lose by fixing things myself. The radio is very sensitive and works well on a longwire in an RF quiet location. My QTH is a beehive of noise so I only use the longwire during a blackout. I use an amplified Wellbrook loop but this connected directly via coax will overload it. However, I found what works: I built a high-pass filter to cut out MW broadcast (anything below 2 MHz). Using HPF, plus attenuator, plus the RF gain knob set low will still pull out weak dx without overloading. The other advantage this radio has over most others is the external MW/LW socket which bypasses the ferrite rod. Just about every other radio I've used on longwave gets images from strong MW broadcast stations. Using a longwire via a low-pass filter to the ext socket I can pick up very weak distant NDB's. The verdict? For how it performs straight out of the box, other receivers can perform nearly as well for a fraction of the price, such as the PL-660 (I have both). But with a bit of experimentation with antennas and filters it's still a lot of fun.
Found your review refreshing. Have seen videos about this praising it and assumed I must have picked up a faulty one. The sound is awful. The detuning does work to an extent. Found using headphones or plugging into an external speaker the only way around it that kind of works. The telescopic antenna is very good which is just as well because on mine any kind of amplified antenna overloads it not only with other stations but a phenomenal amount to spurious noise.
It's still chugging along after 20 years. I know it hasn't aged well compared to the modern radios of today from Tecsun, but how would you grade it compared to the offerings of 2002?????
I really love your in depth reviews.This radio was introduced around 2008, and is a little long in the tooth. I think its a little unfair to bash on it at this point.I picked up my s2000 a few years back for 2 bills, and love it.I do also love my eton elite exec, and pl880.I do notice some of the wide band issues you speak of, but i am used to tuning around them.The price right now is very high for this unit.
Heck no if I would have seen this review in April I would have never purchased it, and put that 450$ to a better radio, these things are pushing 500$ now and new people to radio need to know before they drop that kind of funds, or at least know what they will get.
great reveiw Giles - just a quick quistion re my -pl-880. When I try to use a external antenna it will not wotk as a voltage of 2.6 v is output through the external ant socket ! - do I need to use a inline dc blocker (1uf capaciter) to allow me to use a external ant. - Thanks - Francis B.ham UK - hope alls well
Hello I have had this radio for 3yrs. The tecsun s 2000 and the wide filter is much to wide to really be of use. That's my opinion and I have 96 different receivers to compare to. So this man is correct in his assessment. Best regards. Ron z. The north American shortwave radio and toy robot museum. WA3090SWL.
Im an extra class ham and had a load of radios since 1991 and this rig is WELL worth the money. Made very well and works supper great. a 1 to 10 i give it a 10+
Thank you for your review. I was tempted to buy one but you've just saved me from making a mistake. Looks nice, but it has to work well too. Disappointed but relieved. Can you recommend an alternative receiver Gilles?
And here I thought my feelings toward a Collins 651 were misplaced but I swear it sounds like you were talking about the shortcomings of that HF rcvr that I used for 18 of my 20 years as a radioman. But I have the "Grundig" model and personally like it. I've learned to embrace it's shortcomings. I also have a Eton - Elite Executive that IMO was a total waist of money. Though I live in SE Michigan, not a great place for DX'ng, it's workable. 73's
Thank you for the fact-based, honest review. I live outside of Los Angeles and want to get a good SW receiver where i can listen to shortwave broadcasts around the world. What table top radio would you recommend? I've watched so many RU-vid videos and am confused
Gilles, I have my Eton 750 on my exterior loop antenna with another receiver. Do you think that taking it off the loop and putting it on the whip antenna would help the sensitivity issue?
'I'm gonna give it a pass - BARELY'. Nice. Yes, I have the Tecsun S-2000, and can confirm all of the flaws that you mention. I paid about $300 for mine. I was disappointed in the filtering as well.
Thank you for the video. I have the same radio and I loved it, but it stopped working after a few years. Actually, everything seems normal when I switch it on, but there's simply no sound. I can turn up the Volume button, nothing happens. Any idea by any chance?
I have an old Grundig Yachtboy 400 PE, haven't used it in a while, moved twice, so it's still packed away. With all the newer technical radios on the market, is the Yachtboy still good, or do I need to upgrade?
i was about to purchase as a newbie due to other reviews. I just got my first pl330 last week and still learning, also ordered a cheap ast 25plus from china ali express due in any day, for the price i figured i would have another table top toy. Can you recommend a desk top Giles. thanks brother.
For my use case, the wide filter hasn't been an issue so far. Nor has overloading. The ergonomics of this radio are excellent, as is the tone quality and LCD display. On the down side, I find the air band to sorely lack sensitivity; it's not even close to my scanner or Sony 2010. Lighted buttons would have been nice. Having squelch is a nice touch, as is the rotating AM antenna. I didn't pay anything close to $300 for mine, and I'm keeping it!
If you are patient with far away stations you will use the step for adjacent powerful frequencies, antenna attenuator depending on how powerful the station is and bandwidth on top of turning the rotating antenna. Use every resource at your fingertips
Good Day & Good Review. Looks Great, like good real SW radios of "the past". I've been listening to SW since about 1961. I do miss the old days of SW. I do have a 100 foot outside wire antenna. I would love to love this radio, but it is seriously over price IMO for what it is. However, you can still "live joyfully in the past" if you have the budget to afford one of the older great quality SW radios. Thanks & Best Regards
I’m really glad you said about the back of the radio we you could put the earplugs it’s a compartment for electrical and was an electrical thing I was wondering what that was I’m glad you did not send about that you do a great review on all the Radio‘s Apple Watch of you often and I listen to you on Sunday mornings
I have had one for a while, picked up an S-2000 model around $250. Although I enjoy it you're certainly right about the flaws. Most annoying things to me about it are the SSB BFO knob is WAY too sensitive and when using auto-scan it doesn't stay on a station long enough to determine much . . . unless you connect an external speaker. Weird delay on the internal speaker.
BTW, on my “Elite 750” I can instigate a SW ATS scan (even though it’s not documented) by holding down the SW button for about 5 seconds. The found stations are stored in memory bank “00” which expands to 100 memory locations for the SW scan. Does your S-2000 have this feature? I think it may have been added to the “Elite 750”. Another note of the scan: If the radio is in the “Wide” BW mode prior to initiating the scan, it automatically switches to the “Narrow” filter. That way the found frequencies are accurate.
@@lovetheblue6659 Yes, my S-2000 does do this scan by holding the sw button down! Thanks, as you say it was completely undocumented but definitely handy.
Nice looking. IF out is great for using SDR or DRM decoders & cleaning up audio & its 12 KHz for DRM using DREAM which also has AM & SSB & ESS. The 20 KHz filter is too wide & will allow splatter plus or minus 10 KHz.The reason for the filter bandwidth being so wide will be for wider better for IF out because a DRM station & low deff TV at 72 KBPS needs 20 KHz bandwidth, so thats maybe why its so wide... Im a ham & tapped ny Kenwood TS2000 12 KHz IF & use SDR & decode DRM & filters on wide is best & most of this SDR software controls the radios tuning, but not for this Eton model but IF sould work.
i think if you buy it knowing exactly what you're getting and you're not a total noob looking for that all star glorious radio that does all things wonderfully.. then its not so good points get drowned out a bit by its positives.. i'm an SDR guy with old retro 70s Grundig's and more modern radios like the PL330, i still bought this regardless.. and i must say i do like it (at what it does well.. plus it looks cool)
I have the Tecsun version of this. I don't really agree with this assessment . Of course it's not fair to compare it with mega expensive Japanese radios but it really does perform well . Having FM , AM and airband is a big plus . FM performance is excellent . AM broadcast too . Even on its internal antennas general performance is really good . I have non of the issues described with audio quality and having to detune on AM for a clear signal . I have had many receivers over my long life and this is up there with the best . Careful use of the controls for me eliminates and tendancies to overload . An extra setting for bandwidth might be helpful at times but nothing in life is perfect . Mine is the latest incarnation of this model so maybe some issues have been updated . All in all , for what it is it's a great all rounder . As a bonus it looks great too !
@@OfficialSWLchannelYes I accept that . I am not a purist so it does a good job for me . I respect your knowledge and will check out your other uploads . Good channel . It's good to get a detailed criticism of the various options available. Best wishes from the UK .
Question - I am old school I do not see anything on the market to get other than this. So if you have a better radio share it. My Radio shack DX200 replaced my oll Hllicrafters, but it now is on its last legs. I just ordered this because I only see junk out there.
What low budget and high budget shortwave radios do you recommend? I teach emergency preparedness and would like to steer my clients in the right direction. Thank you for the info!
Looking for a radio to do all these things and I was focused on this radio that was reviewed but now I'm back to square one looking to find the right one. Any input would be helpful. Thanks,
well let first thank you for your review on this particular radio i enjoy listening to you and your advised but still i must say that i really want to perchas one because of the zone where i live there not much of strong stations around here much more the stations that i pick up are merely from Colombia south America especially at nights in the day time i mostly listen to air band i was never lucky to pick up any of the ssb signals on my radio even when it has a bfo nub on it so this is one more reason i want to try this one
They say," you don't know what you don't know" I thought I was getting a radio that looked great and preformed exceptional. But truly I did not know about the radio hobby and what I was experiencing. As I watched this video I was hearing you describe everything I been experiencing. I just didn't know what was happening wasn't normal or if they were flaws or issues. Expensive first lesson for a new to radio hobby. I wish I could get some guidance, somehow, now I have l to start the radio search over again. Can I use this radio for any type of decoding or listening in on ham radio things? Not sure what DX ING is but sounds interesting. I would like to decode cw, and digital signals, basically create a listening post, like granny did with a scanner in the old days lol anyway thank you for the video and awareness!
Yes. However, I am (luckily) way out in the mid- Pacific.NOT stuck on the eastern seabord. For your location, I understand what you say. I like stations that seem interesting and do not compete for the same wavelength necessarily. Sitting outside on Kauai, I guess I get just too too relaxed. 😉 By the way, I too paid far less than you.😊
Hola!!! Tengo un tecsun pl680, pero pienso comprar un otra radio como complemento a la que tengo… me recomiendas el 330???, según veo sería una buena elección para dx de onda corta… oriéntame por favor… Gracias, saludos a todos y felicidades…🎛️
I am a newbie on the multi band world. I am certainly not a newbie in AV. And understand the concept of DX’ing. Any radio worth its salt should narrow and wide selection. Alternate channel rejection like on audio FM tuners I grew up with and so on. I was following your review. Get this is a Chinese flavor or the month. I have always used a scanner for Air traffic for years. I was hoping you could highlight what would be good alternatives for me if this tarted up non performer was/is not the one. I was a Sangean dealer for a few years a long time ago. I want a good receiver, and yes I would DX like you do! So what would be good candidates for narrow DX’ing since this Eton is not the one. Thanks.
It seems like selectivity isn't very great on it then, from what you're saying here about interference and RF filters, but that it has good sensitivity. Seems like a nice radio overall, but a shame it's lacking in that regard. Cheers.
I have been disappointed in my Grundig 750 since I bought it. The wide filter issue is the primary reason. Even on medium wave, stations sound bad if you tune to their frequency. You can improve things somewhat by detuning for the best audio, but that is truly a crazy thing to have to do. AM audio, on any band, is unpleasant and tiring. FM is OK. I bought a Panasonic RF-2200 new in about 1980. I know how a good portable shortwave radio should perform. This model falls so far short of that. Thanks for an honest review.
I think people want to love this radio because of what they may have spent on it, and because of how it looks. And they end up embellishing and overlooking its flaws.
I own one of these (Elite 750) and *love* it, but I certainly admit to not being a SWL professional. My previous radios were a Realistic DX-302 and a Tecsun PL-880. I acknowledge the Wide filter issue. I always keep the radio BW in “Narrow” mode and I don’t tune off frequency when listening to a station. I simply move the treble control to about 75%. For me the reception is adequate like that. When engaging a SW ATS scan on the radio, it’s interesting to note that the radio automatically switches to the “Narrow” filter if you had the “Wide” filter engaged prior to instigating the scan. The frequencies indicated for the found stations are therefore accurate. So it seems like the designers are aware of the Wide filter issue and I have no idea why it hasn’t been addressed in over 10 years of production. They have fixed most other issues related to the quality of the construction. The real highlight of the radio is SSB reception which can produce very natural sounding voice copy due to a combination of the BFO and the variable RF gain. This is the way I use to copy SSB on the old DX-302, and it’s very gratifying to have this available on a current in-production portable. All I can say is I’m very happy with the radio.
Worst radio I've ever owned. Way over priced. I also have the one that is branded Grundig not realizing it wasn't made by Grundig - I still regret not returning it to Amazon. That said people are welcome to their opinions.
Hi my dad died a couple of years ago, and he was tec mad. Ive got one of these from clearing his house , with box, but have absolutely no idea what this does ? Ive looked online at price and it says about £800 uk What is it ? Just a radio ?
It makes much more sense to unhesitatingly throw down 600 bucks for the new but untested Eton Satellit HD than it does paying several hundred dollars less for the tried and true 750 and it's single flaw of having one of it's two filters too wide. I'm struggling to understand this logic. Seven years ago I paid less than $250 for my Grundig 750 and still enjoy tuning around on it daily.
When I first came upon a description of this radio, I was suspicious. They seemed to make a big deal about the zillion memory channels, the clock, etc. That's all "fluff." What matters are selectivity, dynamic rage, sensitivity (not a big deal today, most current radios are good), and stability (ESPECIALLY important for RTTY, fairly important for SSB, not a big deal for AM).
Is it possible this radio is optimized for the built in telescopic antenna and NOT for a high power external add-on? Could that explain why it is so over sensitive as the radio is designed as a portable and aimed at the beginner that doesn't want or need extra wires draped all over their living room? The reviewers all seem to like the match up between the included antenna and the reception it provides. They only complain for the most part once they hook up to a high power antenna. I don't want an external antenna and have a window this radio sits alongside. No problems here. Just wondering.
My radio was out of the box new when I opened it up. It wasn't long after that it just quit working. No power at all. Plug or battery. Any idea how to get it working. Thanks
Did you used a third party power adapter? If yes, than you have roasted the internal power supply. - and + are switched in opposition to a standard power adapter.
