I really like the G5. Most important to me was that it was very stable on ssb / cw. The sensitivity and selectivity are decent - although it is just a portable. The little VFO knob was very welcome as I'm used to desktop receivers, and generally found it more enjoyable than a radio without it, like the 7600gr I also had at one time. Also, very smooth tuning, that is not much "chopping" when using ssb. I had an old Sony portable from years ago that had a similar vfo knob, but the chopping when tuning drove me crazy. Also decent battery life and the size / quality is about perfect for vacations.
For the money, I was impressed. It is also a great tool for noise-hunting around the house, or if you use attic-antennas, you can take it with you up there and get a real sense of what you'll hear on your desktop. Reduces the trips up and down the ladder for sure as you experiment with different attic-antenna configurations. I used it a lot to align my small wire loops so that noise sources fell into their nulls, since the nulls were pretty sharp. It would have taken all day to do that if I had to run up and down the ladder.
The built-in whip is the limiting factor like any other portable. However, when attached to medium-sized hf antennas, the front end seemed to hold up well, although I wouldn't attach it to an insanely huge antenna.
I'm interested in the newer models arriving, but my G5 isn't going anwhere soon.
Is the Grundig G5 any good?
Linear Mode
