New "Field Radio" and "Satellit" from Eton

 

 

 

 

 

Blake has apprised us of this new Eton Field Radio retailing for $149. Also the Satellit is retailing for $229.

 

 

Comments

[Ken K. in NJ]

No indication as to the size of these radios, but the prices seem a little steep compared to what else is out there, unless these turn out to be super performers or something.

According to the links, the Field Radio takes D batteries but the Satellite takes AA's, unless that's an error.

[Ken K. in NJ]

Sorry, I missed a tab/link on the descriptions. The Field Radio is huge, over 12 inches wide. The Satellite is much smaller, about 6 1/2 inches wide. So I guess the battery situation makes sense.

The prices still seem steep though.

[Angelo]

The field radio looks like the C Crane EP----big, rectangular, black. I like the look and I guess if it's a great performer, sounds good----with the shortwave band----it might be worth around $100.00 or even a little more. But I agree Ken that the asking price is currently too high.

[Tom Welch]

I hope these radios are exceptional performers.

[4nradio]

The appearance of the Field radio has more of a Satellit "vibe" in my opinion. The traditional looking tuning knob and other rotary controls seem more Satellit-like than the actual Satellit rendering with its profusion of pushbuttons (except the thin tuning knob on the side).

The bottom line is of course performance of the new models, but the Satellit name has a proud heritage of industrial design that I'd hate to see distorted and watered down.

It's happened before in the auto industry, for instance. Who else remembers when Dodge slapped the Challenger moniker on a forgettable Mitsubishi import from 1976-1983? www.msapporo.com/Dodge/DChallen.htm

[4nradio]

Upon reading the datasheets for these two models, there are some strange specs and features that don't make sense.

The shortwave coverage of both models is listed as "17.11 - 30 MHz". Hopefully this is a typo! Medium wave (AM) coverage is shown as ending at 1710 kHz, so I'm hoping that shortwave picks up where medium wave ends, and is actually 1.711 MHz - 30 MHz. Otherwise, SWLs can put this radio away when the sun goes down :^)

Interestingly, the Satellit has Synchronous AM detection with selectable sidebands. That's great, but Eton's included this puzzler of a feature: "Single Sideband (SSB) with +/- 1 kHz tuning". Good luck getting intelligible SSB demodulation or ECSS tuning an AM signal with that! Even the 30 year old Sony ICF-2010 has 10 times better (0.1 kHz) tuning resolution! I'm hoping this is just another typo error.

Finally, if the Satellit includes serious features like synchronous detection with selectable sidebands, and SSB, why couldn't Eton have included wide & narrow filter bandwidths like the less expensive Field model?

[4nradio]

I've answered my own question-- the new Satellit model indeed has wide and narrow bandwidths, but it's mentioned nowhere in the text. If you look closely at one of the illustrations on the Eton Satellit pages, you'll notice two buttons labeled "WIDE" and "NARR".

Mentioning the dual bandwidths for the Field radio but leaving it out of the list for the more upscale Satellit model is either sloppy marketing or hurrying information out the door by Eton.

[RadioFlynn]

Street prices for Eton's radios are routinely about 20% less than MSRP on Amazon. That would put the "field radio" at about $120, and could be worth it if it is a good performer. Nice looking radios, so a good start, anyway.

[RadioFlynn]

More nonsense from Eton's description of the field radio: "the Etón Field receives most every radio wavelength"! My guess is that they mean AM/SW/FM broadcast radio, but the descriptions where obviously not edited for accuracy by someone who knows both radio and English.

[Gary]

Hopefully they have better QC out of the gate than some of their past efforts, like the Grundig G3.

@4nradio: I suspect the +/- 1kHz indicates the fine tuning range on SSB, not the fine tuning step.

[bill]

It wouldn't be too surprising if these were the Grundig G3 and S350/bcl3000/whatever replacements. Nor would it be too surprising if the main differences between these and their respective earlier models were only cosmetic. Wait and see, of course.

[The Professor]

I suspect that these offerings will be a mixed bag, but I'll be curious to read the reviews.

But man, the bullet point blurbs on the pages on the Eton pages presenting these radios seem to be written by someone who has only a rudimentary understanding of radios, or the English language.

I mean, it's nice to know the Satellit is "retro chic" and "way more sensitive so it can pick up weaker signals," but I gotta wonder. And what's with this continued use of the term "field radio" anyway? Does that mean it's bug proof or something?

But whatever it means it must be important. The word "field" actually appears three times in just the first sentence of their description of the thing.

[4nradio]

@Gary-- a +/- 1 kHz tuning range for SSB makes a LOT more sense than a tuning step! I should have thought of that :^)

Yet another nonsensical statement from Eton's page: "The Satellit’s Sync Detector improves the radios sound quality by lowering distortion and fading. And it’s way more sensitive so it can pick up weaker signals."

Does "way more sensitive" refer to the sync, or the radio overall? I've never heard of receivers with a "more sensitive" sync-AM mode compared to others. The feature only benefits selectivity and audio quality to my knowledge. As most readers of Herculodge know, higher sensitivity alone doesn't guarantee pickup of weaker signals.. other factors like circuit noise are involved.

We could keep nitpicking Eton's copy, but nothing more will be gained. Once the radio gets in the hands of reviewers and radio enthusiasts a clearer picture of the Field radio and Satellit's performance will emerge.

[Shawn]

That satelitt looks just like a G3 and is exactly the same size too but they are charging $229 for it????? I bet you it's the same as a G3 inside too. If so, stay far, far, far, far away.

[Blake Ralitff]

More pictures of these radios here:

http://swling.com/blog/