Grundig S350. please help

[apocalypse]

Sorry if this isn't quite the correct forum under which to poste this.

I purchased the Grundig S350 shortwave radio from one of your stores about a week ago. A few days ago, the buttons (power, time, alarm, etc.) would not trigger the action. That is, I could not turn the radio on. I reset the radio. I was then able to turn it on. Nevertheless, this has occurred again. Now, however, resesting the microchip has no affect. I believe that I've bought a faulty product, or is there something I'm missing?

 

[DaveIN]

Did you try using a DC adapter? Maybe the battery spring is not keeping the batteries firmly in the holder.

What store did you get it from?

 

[elk2370bruce]

I didn't know Radio Reference had stores. Maybe Radio Shack?

 

[nanZor]

I just rescued one from a friend's garage with the same problem. In exchange for a pizza, it came home with me. Win-win!

The problem was that the battery-switch in the battery compartment was set for AA instead of D-cells. (This 350DL model you can use either type in the battery compartment). I exercised it back and forth a few times, and so far so good! Hopefully this might be a solution for you. QC isn't what it used to be.

All the other reviews on the web seem about right. I like it, even though it has an image 910 khz below the real frequency, wobbly tuning shaft, and loose bandswitch knobs.

The volume, bass, treble, and rf-gain knobs are firm and smooth. The bandswitch knobs just fell out! It appears that they are just missing spacers inside the knobs for a nice tight pressure fit. I don't know if it came from the factory like this, or if he just lost them somehow. At least the pot shafts seem tight.

I took the tuning knob apart and see why it is wobbly. It is just a weighted flywheel with some soft plastic teeth for gear reduction. The whole assembly is just a pressure fit over the encoder shaft. At least the encoder shaft itself seems solid. Ok, I'll just take it easy on the tuning. If you ever have to take yours out, just grab it by the large wheel and pull straight out.

The whip is ok for general SWL, especially if you throw about 10 feet of wire on the ground hooked up to the black antenna jack.

For my outdoor antenna, I'm not using open-wire or twinlead for the transmission line, so I connected a tv-type 300-75 ohm balun backwards into it, and used an F-BNC adapter for my coax. Just cut off the lugs of the transformer and tinned the leads and stuck those into the 350's antenna jack. Radio Shack # 15-1140. There is some loss under 10 mhz with this, but the outdoor antenna more than makes up for this casual connection.

For SSB/CW, I just ordered a Ten-Tec universal bfo kit to play around. Can't wait for that to arrive:

http://radio.tentec.com/kits/accessoryfun/1050

 

[nanZor]

Update:

I discovered a secret fine-tune option using the bandswitch. On my unit, even after the radio has "locked" the tuning, you can shift it up or down about 1-2 khz on the SW1 position by just slightly moving the bandswitch detent to either the left or right mechanical "bump" before actually changing bands.

The problem gets a bit worse on SW2, and you can shift it about 2-3 khz by just barely moving the bandswitch to either the left or right hand side of the bump. On SW3, this gets even worse and shifts about 3-5 khz.

I'm not going to lose sleep over it, and try to turn it into a positive little trick. Might be just enough to retune without having to go through the unlock/tune/lock routine.

I took it apart today as well. To try and reduce the bandswitch fine-tune, ahem, feature, I pulled the faceplate and tightened down the 4 screws that fit over the bandswitches themselves. They were a bit loose, so a careful tightening reduced the offset, and feels a little bit better - although my knobs have no spacer inserts so the knobs are still loose.

On the display board, I saw a Tecsun BCL-3000 V3 manufactured in 2005.

What might help the original ops problem is that the reset button might be stuck. Perhaps if one takes the radio apart and makes sure that the reset button isn't stuck down, this might help. Also seen was either the small clock/cpu battery or capacitor (I'm not sure which) right to the left of the reset button. Perhaps this has gone bad.

I also understand all the wobbliness. Not a precision bearing to be found. Just plastic sockets and slides. Although the tuning shaft which the string wraps around is metal - but the housing for the shaft is just molded plastic.

I guess that's to be expected in a $100 or less radio. Look at it this way - you get a LOT more plastic than the cheapest $100 Radio Shack scanner.

I look at it this way - if this thing lasts me 10 years, that's about $10 a year for some SWL fun before the battery, electrolytics, or something else dies.

 

[nanZor]

Backlash tip:

Like others, my S350DL exhibits a bit of dial backlash, especially if you are using the fine-tuning knob with just the edge of your fingertip.

For me, the cure was to grasp the fine-tuning knob with at least two fingers, and then let your fingertips apply a slight amount of pressure on the main-tuning knob as you rotate it. This seems to relieve some of the bound-up tension. When I release, the knob doesn't drift. At least this helps cut down on the mechanical drift side of things.