Followup on my Eton Elite Satellit. Using a PAR end fed 40-20-10 amateur wire antenna this receiver works very well with no bleed through from the 50KW of WLW at 10 miles distance. Receives signals as well as my other portables including a Sony 2010. Battery life is poor, less than 49 hours with four new D cells while powered on for six hours of listening. Clock doesn't keep accurate time. While the mute during tuning isn't a large issue with me I would be happier if that were eliminated, especially in SSB mode. Squelch on airband works fine. Internal speaker sounds very well to my ears, haven't tried yet with an external speaker. So far, I'm happy with my $350 purchase.
Eton Elite Satellit (a.k.a. Eton E1) selling at Universal Radio
- Thread starter ka3jjz
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Would you please clarify this statement?
Are you saying:
A) You got eight six-hour listening periods from a fresh set of batteries.
-OR-
B) You got a total of six hours of listening time over the course of just four consecutive days before the batteries died.
AM Sync at this point is a non-starter. In AM mode filter bandwidth is 6khz. In AM Sync max bandwidth is 4khz.
Audio is reduced and limited to only one sideband, either upper or lower. AM sync needs work in this radio but AM is fine. AM Sync is not useful in this radio.
Audio is reduced and limited to only one sideband, either upper or lower. AM sync needs work in this radio but AM is fine. AM Sync is not useful in this radio.
Wouldn't help. 6 hours on, 42 hours off, speaker audio is not the battery drainer here. Internal clock and other powered circuitry are sucking the batteries down. However, I will install fresh batteries and try again. OBTW, they were Ray-O-Vac so quality might be an issue.
Ouch!
Now that I think about it, my Elite Executive quickly drained a set of lithium AAs just sitting in standby.
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I had the original. Lasted 6 months and things died one by one, dumped it on greedbay for $100 because I was so frustrated.The new one, forget for that price and the guy that invented soft muting needs a chopper ride over the Atlantic. 🤬 So no way. I haven't gotten a new toy for awhile and got the 909X2. Nice radio but abysmal AM unless I got a dud. Tecsun loop a definite necessity .
That's odd, because the original 909 (I have the DX-398) is great on AM even without an external loop. I guess they must have made some adjustments to the circuitry.... I know they threw in DSP with the 909X, but I"m still not certain where it fits into the signal chain.
From universal radio's website that the OP referenced-
10/03/22
Our initial allocation of radios arrived 08/17/22. Our Q/C testing detected a problem with the radio. No units were shipped at that time. We now have available radios with the latest 1.0.5 firmware update, that addresses some, if not all, issues. We are now individually contacting customers with the latest information on the radio prior to shipping. This model is not currently available for export.
So their QC control found issues before sending units to customers that got past Eton at the factory? Got to love these manufacturers and their alf hassed radios that they charge $700 for without proper quality control and testing. Probably costed them $8 to build overseas 🙄
Our initial allocation of radios arrived 08/17/22. Our Q/C testing detected a problem with the radio. No units were shipped at that time. We now have available radios with the latest 1.0.5 firmware update, that addresses some, if not all, issues. We are now individually contacting customers with the latest information on the radio prior to shipping. This model is not currently available for export.
So their QC control found issues before sending units to customers that got past Eton at the factory? Got to love these manufacturers and their alf hassed radios that they charge $700 for without proper quality control and testing. Probably costed them $8 to build overseas 🙄
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Further checking, don't know what I did but 909x2 is fine on AM.
Also, I don't trust Eton any more. The Sangean is really nice, especially the build quality.
Could have been a bad MW DX night. There have been a few of those these past couple of months.
I purchased a shortwave radio mostly for nostalgia reasons. I found the old saying, "You can't go home again' is true. That purchase was a severe disappointment, not because of the radio, but the reduced level of quality programming.
I recently bought a new old stock FR series Red Cross emergency radio made by Eton. NEVER AGAIN for me, as that tacky finish is terrible and gets worse over time. Then there is the LCD screen and longevity of those working as the electrical connections begin to fail. Some have had luck with the hair dryer fix, but I am out on Eton at this point. As another pointed out Tecsun will probably have something similar that actually works and has a normal plastic case instead soon enough for me.
Tune around 49, 41 & 31 meters early in the mornings, between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. or so PST. Asia is usually active to the PNW -- that is, if propagation is decent. You won't understand the languages unless you know Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Dari, Viet, or Bahasa Indonesian, but the music is cool, and it's fun to hear stations like Radio Burma (Radio Myanmar) or India broadcasting to Afghanistan. There still is a lot to hear, but you have to adjust your sights to foreign language targets, something a lot of SWLs did back in decades past anyway.
I'll do that! I have a contractor coming over tomorrow, and I don't have to work so I'll hit the rack early and get up early so I can see what I get. Thanks.
^^^^^ A decent SW broadcast list will be handy, if you have issue IDing the languages. A combinations of EiBi / Short-wave.info works well for me.
I can ID Chinese (can't understand it, but can ID the language reasonably well), and usually ID Korean and Japanese (although fast Korean often throws me off), can ID Viet and related languages (can't understand any of it, of course), and I can ID Russian, and sometimes one of the languages on the Indian Subcontinent. Malay is a toss up, as is Tagalog. Some of the other languages from more Central parts of Asia (Tibet, Afghanistan, etc.) are difficult for me to ID. For stations broadcasting in those languages, I have to rely on the lists and whatever knowledge of prop characteristics I have (which station might be more apt to make it over the Pacific).
But if you can figure out the language, and use a list, you'll often be surprised at what you heard. Also, some stations are jammed. So there's that wrinkle added to the mix. Earlier this a.m. I heard either China's CNR-11 or CNR-6 on 6010 khz playing a lot of soft ballads. It was too weak to really ID the language, but one of those two broadcasters had to have been what I heard (Brazil definitely wouldn't make it here at that hour). It was cool hearing it fading in and out over the ionosphere.
So although we here in the PNW have a few SW liabilities (high in latitude compared to the rest of the lower 48 states; away from Africa, Middle East, EU, South America, etc., where most SW seems to be happening during the evening), in the mornings we get a pretty good window to Asia.
I can ID Chinese (can't understand it, but can ID the language reasonably well), and usually ID Korean and Japanese (although fast Korean often throws me off), can ID Viet and related languages (can't understand any of it, of course), and I can ID Russian, and sometimes one of the languages on the Indian Subcontinent. Malay is a toss up, as is Tagalog. Some of the other languages from more Central parts of Asia (Tibet, Afghanistan, etc.) are difficult for me to ID. For stations broadcasting in those languages, I have to rely on the lists and whatever knowledge of prop characteristics I have (which station might be more apt to make it over the Pacific).
But if you can figure out the language, and use a list, you'll often be surprised at what you heard. Also, some stations are jammed. So there's that wrinkle added to the mix. Earlier this a.m. I heard either China's CNR-11 or CNR-6 on 6010 khz playing a lot of soft ballads. It was too weak to really ID the language, but one of those two broadcasters had to have been what I heard (Brazil definitely wouldn't make it here at that hour). It was cool hearing it fading in and out over the ionosphere.
So although we here in the PNW have a few SW liabilities (high in latitude compared to the rest of the lower 48 states; away from Africa, Middle East, EU, South America, etc., where most SW seems to be happening during the evening), in the mornings we get a pretty good window to Asia.
I was very interested in this radio until I saw the initial reviews. I'll probably stick with Tecsuns and other older shortwave radios. The Tecsuns have really impressed me so far.
Probably a great choice. I think Eton were hoping people would choose this radio because of the E1 success, including me. As I have maintained on the Facebook group, it’s an OK radio, not outstanding and still has issues, AM sync doesn’t work among the issues.
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
Not to beat a crappy radio to death but if you're late to the discussion, this article from the SWLing.com blog sums up the issues well. It's pretty in depth....
Mike
Paolo’s review of the Eton Elite Satellit
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paolo Viappiani, who shares the following guest post: ETON Elite Satellit: an expensive flop by Paolo Viappiani, Italy Introduction After various and some…
swling.com
Mike
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