Adventures with a Stock Grundig G8 from Radio Shack

Thanks, Hugo, for forwarding this to me:

Gary DeBock is doing up a 7.5 inch ferrite rod modified Grundig G8 for me, something I'll be seeing in a month or so. This will likely kick off a new round of receiver "shoot-out" sessions at Menotomy Rocks Park, Granite Pier, and/or other local sites to be determined later.

But in the meantime I was anxious to get a stock unit (as much for FM as anything else).

Last weekend I picked one up at a local Radio Shack.

Here are a few comments:

The supplied documentation is very sparse compared to the PDF manual for the equivalent Tecsun PL-300WT which is on the Ultralight Yahoogroups website. Without that I wouldn't have been able to do a couple of very important things.

The beeping when you access controls, turn the unit on or off, etc. could wake the dead and HEADPHONE USE DOESN'T DISABLE IT. You certainly wouldn't want this with someone else sleeping in the room, for instance. Frankly I don't know why you would EVER want this. Luckily, disabling the beeps is covered by the ONLINE manual.

The online manual also assisted me in getting 1 kHz AM frequency steps. As mentioned earlier, the instruction sheet in the box is pretty flamin' useless for things many of us want to do.

The appearance of actual dBu and dB signal-to-noise numbers is intriguing though, even on steady groundwave local AM and FM signals, these values seem to jump around a fair amount. I'll have to see how these agree with V-Soft predicted signal levels as well as what I note on my Perseus and SDR-IQ.

The thermometer was giving a reading of 79 degrees F when it was 75. I'm not sure how useful that's going to be.

I'm not seeing the automatic tuning / memory set-up as particularly useful as it would seem that only strong signals would be stored, as on a digital TV scan. DXers, of course, are interested in WEAK signals.

To the IMPORTANT STUFF - DXing with the thing:

AGC action is very choppy with minor changes of strength on weaker signals causing major audio output changes. This is most evident during fading but is even noticeable on modulation when the carrier level is apparently near some threshold. You get a "pumpy" rendering of AM station audio in such cases. Sorta bogus.

Selectivity, as noted by others, is quite good when you are talking about adjacent 10 kHz multiple AM stations in the Americas and, presumably, 9 kHz channel stations elsewhere. But when the separation gets much less than 5 kHz (as on Morocco - 612 received adjacent to CHNC/WGIR - 610), the DSP filtering scheme is not as good as the tight Murata filter installed in a C. Crane SWP or in an Eton E100. It definitely cannot compare with the sharp edges of DSP filtering in the Perseus or SDR-IQ.

When you offtune a bit on a conventional receiver, you sometimes get better treble. But if I listen to a local like WBZ - 1030 and 'QSY' to 1031, the audio actually gets muddier rather than crisper. Weird. Even offtuning slightly on the Perseus brightens the audio before you tune far enough to make the signal "fall off the cliff". On the G8, even going out to 1033 kHz still renders WBZ audio not much different from the muddy audio when on 1031. You'd think it would progress from slightly trebly to annoyingly scratchy and then to gonzo as you moved further from center frequency.

AM sensitivity is OK for the size of the portable but is "nothing to write home about". It can barely pull out stations such as WDDZ - 550 (RI) - approximately 44 dBu, something that's easy on a Kaito '1103 for instance. I think this radio and the stock E100 are similar in sensitivity. The smaller Sangean DT400W is about as good and the even smaller Sony SRF39-FP may actually be better. This baby definitely needs the transplant of a larger ferrite rod if you aren't planning to couple it to an external loop, longwire, etc.

Shortwave only really works with the whip scoped to minimum ! If I extend it, my strongest AM locals (WRKO - 680: 115 dBu, WEEI - 850: 84.5 dBu, WWZN - 1510: 83.1 dBu) come out in various places as well as appearing as cross-modulation (along with 60 Hz AC hum) on shortwave stations' audio. Again "sorta bogus". I didn't even try longwave. By all reports, it's execrable.

FM is a high point though I'm still finding it a challenge to get wanted WATD - 95.9 Marshfield (they have a great oldies show) between WZID - 95.7 NH and WSRS - 96.1 Worcester. I can get WATD, though not at steady entertainment quality, with the antenna in a specific position. I think that stronger 95.7 and 96.1 running IBOC have messed up WATD reception here to a greater extent in the last few years. I should either get a beam or listen to the webstream I guess. I do think the G8 is competitive with many component stereo receivers / tuners, so that's definitely a good thing. I should take this puppy hilltopping at Robbins Farm Park, about 8 miles south of here, to see how much groundwave FM I can pull from Cape Cod, the Maine Coast, etc. Of course if E-skip breaks out then it gets even more interesting.

So it's a mixed review for the Grundig G8 but, at least for some, a reasonable amount of performance and DX fun for a $50 (US) price tag.

Mark Connelly, WA1ION - Billerica, MA, USA

Thanks, Hugo, for forwarding this to me:

Gary DeBock is doing up a 7.5 inch ferrite rod modified Grundig G8 for me, something I'll be seeing in a month or so. This will likely kick off a new round of receiver "shoot-out" sessions at Menotomy Rocks Park, Granite Pier, and/or other local sites to be determined later.

But in the meantime I was anxious to get a stock unit (as much for FM as anything else).

Last weekend I picked one up at a local Radio Shack.

Here are a few comments:

The supplied documentation is very sparse compared to the PDF manual for the equivalent Tecsun PL-300WT which is on the Ultralight Yahoogroups website. Without that I wouldn't have been able to do a couple of very important things.

The beeping when you access controls, turn the unit on or off, etc. could wake the dead and HEADPHONE USE DOESN'T DISABLE IT. You certainly wouldn't want this with someone else sleeping in the room, for instance. Frankly I don't know why you would EVER want this. Luckily, disabling the beeps is covered by the ONLINE manual.

The online manual also assisted me in getting 1 kHz AM frequency steps. As mentioned earlier, the instruction sheet in the box is pretty flamin' useless for things many of us want to do.

The appearance of actual dBu and dB signal-to-noise numbers is intriguing though, even on steady groundwave local AM and FM signals, these values seem to jump around a fair amount. I'll have to see how these agree with V-Soft predicted signal levels as well as what I note on my Perseus and SDR-IQ.

The thermometer was giving a reading of 79 degrees F when it was 75. I'm not sure how useful that's going to be.

I'm not seeing the automatic tuning / memory set-up as particularly useful as it would seem that only strong signals would be stored, as on a digital TV scan. DXers, of course, are interested in WEAK signals.

To the IMPORTANT STUFF - DXing with the thing:

AGC action is very choppy with minor changes of strength on weaker signals causing major audio output changes. This is most evident during fading but is even noticeable on modulation when the carrier level is apparently near some threshold. You get a "pumpy" rendering of AM station audio in such cases. Sorta bogus.

Selectivity, as noted by others, is quite good when you are talking about adjacent 10 kHz multiple AM stations in the Americas and, presumably, 9 kHz channel stations elsewhere. But when the separation gets much less than 5 kHz (as on Morocco - 612 received adjacent to CHNC/WGIR - 610), the DSP filtering scheme is not as good as the tight Murata filter installed in a C. Crane SWP or in an Eton E100. It definitely cannot compare with the sharp edges of DSP filtering in the Perseus or SDR-IQ.

When you offtune a bit on a conventional receiver, you sometimes get better treble. But if I listen to a local like WBZ - 1030 and 'QSY' to 1031, the audio actually gets muddier rather than crisper. Weird. Even offtuning slightly on the Perseus brightens the audio before you tune far enough to make the signal "fall off the cliff". On the G8, even going out to 1033 kHz still renders WBZ audio not much different from the muddy audio when on 1031. You'd think it would progress from slightly trebly to annoyingly scratchy and then to gonzo as you moved further from center frequency.

AM sensitivity is OK for the size of the portable but is "nothing to write home about". It can barely pull out stations such as WDDZ - 550 (RI) - approximately 44 dBu, something that's easy on a Kaito '1103 for instance. I think this radio and the stock E100 are similar in sensitivity. The smaller Sangean DT400W is about as good and the even smaller Sony SRF39-FP may actually be better. This baby definitely needs the transplant of a larger ferrite rod if you aren't planning to couple it to an external loop, longwire, etc.

Shortwave only really works with the whip scoped to minimum ! If I extend it, my strongest AM locals (WRKO - 680: 115 dBu, WEEI - 850: 84.5 dBu, WWZN - 1510: 83.1 dBu) come out in various places as well as appearing as cross-modulation (along with 60 Hz AC hum) on shortwave stations' audio. Again "sorta bogus". I didn't even try longwave. By all reports, it's execrable.

FM is a high point though I'm still finding it a challenge to get wanted WATD - 95.9 Marshfield (they have a great oldies show) between WZID - 95.7 NH and WSRS - 96.1 Worcester. I can get WATD, though not at steady entertainment quality, with the antenna in a specific position. I think that stronger 95.7 and 96.1 running IBOC have messed up WATD reception here to a greater extent in the last few years. I should either get a beam or listen to the webstream I guess. I do think the G8 is competitive with many component stereo receivers / tuners, so that's definitely a good thing. I should take this puppy hilltopping at Robbins Farm Park, about 8 miles south of here, to see how much groundwave FM I can pull from Cape Cod, the Maine Coast, etc. Of course if E-skip breaks out then it gets even more interesting.

So it's a mixed review for the Grundig G8 but, at least for some, a reasonable amount of performance and DX fun for a $50 (US) price tag.

Mark Connelly, WA1ION - Billerica, MA, USA

Comments

[Ante]

Jeff, I've been trying to find the link to the above mentioned manual for TECSUN PL 300 WT, but with no result. Could you provide a link to it? Thanks a lot!

[Mike W]

Hey Jeff, I can't recall if you have mentioned the CCR-2 review over at radiointel :

http://www.radiointel.com/review-ccrane_ccr2.htm

Lots of interesting pictures, including a pair that clear up whether the MW antenna is really improved (it is).

[Gary]

Regarding the G8/PL300 manual, it's available as a Word document at the Yahoo ultralightdx group:

Files
4 Radios, Reviews, Manuals
Radio Manuals
G8 Operation Manual

[Jeffrey McMahon]

Mike, thanks. I'll create a link.

[stetsi]

If there's one thing I can't stand it's F#$%n' button beeps.
Worse than f#$%n' push button microwaves (RIP the much-loved one-action minute dial)

[Scooby214]

Stetsi,

I also miss the dial action microwave ovens. I guess that is the same part of me that likes the dial action radios (analog sets).

Thankfully, the G8's beeps can be disabled. Otherwise, the radio would've gone back the day I bought it!

Brian

[cam]

ha, my Vornado blender has a radio dial on it. with stations marked 'liquify', 'puree', 'pulverize', and so on

[sandiego]

to get WATD slightly south of you, i can extend a whip 4.97' give or take an inch or two and pull it out of the noise (half wavelength)

is this whip even 5 feet long?

[Mike W]

It's got a thermometer in it? And I thought putting clocks in radios was stupid. Does it take your oral temperature or your...ahhh, forget it.

[Jack K]

Why do we have to go searching for the ONLINE manual? To disable the beeps, press down on the "Light/Snooze" switch for a few seconds and the beeping will stop. Takes forever to find that ONLINE manual; perhaps someone can link it here.

[Gary]

The G8 manual is available at Eton's web site:

http://www.etoncorp.com/product_card/?p_ProductDbId=916173

Of course, the manual doesn't seem to include the method to disable the beeps that you posted.

[Jack K.]

Finally, the expanded G8 Manual:
http://www.kratoville.com/jackjr/docs/PL-300WT_Manual.pdf