Grundig Satellit 750 desktop portable

[rosborn]

SW will be all but useless if the 750 is indoors and next to a computer. You'll likely get a ton of RFI. You'll have to set up an external outdoor antenna.

Get this PAR antenna and buy some RG-8x coax and a $3 BNC adapter. Orient the antenna away from the house (and any metal structures) if possible.

PS. For camping purposes, the stock whip antenna should be fine. Of course, you'll obtain even better reception with the PAR antenna strung up in a tree, etc.

PAR antenna: Par Electronics EF-SWL End Fed Dipole SWL Antenna. Par EF-SWL.
Coax: Coaxial Cable, Coax Cable Preassembled --> #0497 (or whatever length you need)
Adapter: BNC Adapters --> #2122


-Nick

Nick,

Thank you for the advice. My main interest at the moment is the AM capabilities of the 750. I enjoy listening to talk radio. I realize there probably more affordable radios out there but I like the 750 and I like the "ability" to tune in to SW. I understand about the various accessories and will, no doubt, purchase them but I am interested in the quality of the 750. Can you speak to that?

Thanks,

Rob

 

[SCPD]

I understand about the various accessories and will, no doubt, purchase them but I am interested in the quality of the 750. Can you speak to that?

No, not from direct experience. I've used the Grundig 800 and it is a tank compared to the 750. The 750 is the newer version of the 800.

From what I've seen/heard, it is a decent radio. Like anything that has to go through a QA process, I think if you get a good one, you should be fine.

Kind of pricey for just a desktop radio though. There are cheaper, more portable radios to buy... I hope you realize this is NOT a small radio.

Read reviews here: Grundig Satellit 750 Product Reviews

Watch videos here: satellit 750 - YouTube

 

[nanZor]

1. The 930 watt 640 kHz radio station tower that overloads that signal is less than a mile away.

Wow - didn't realize so much time has passed...
That is a very big problem that you couldn't cure with attenuation alone. The highly directional nature of the AM loopstick antenna puts it into a very big null - about 60db or so. That combined with your internal attenuation helps this very extreme case.

2. Cheaper radios or even car radios don't experience this type of overload distortion (at least not that I notice) even when I drive within a few blocks of that AM transmitter. What is the best explanation?

Strangely enough, the basic building-block AM/FM Toshiba IC inside could be contained in many of those radios - however the surrounding circuitry may be designed differently. Hard to say.

3. This mod has been out for some time now with good results by all who implemented it, true? Why do you think with all the radio expertise of Grundig or Eton or whoever is responsible for the circuit design plus the precision of the computerized design process has this $0.50 improvement not been included either originally or subsequently with later updates?

I can't speak for Grundig. My only guess is that despite the proliferation of external antenna jacks, the majority of the consumers are just going to use the pull-out whip. In this case, perhaps running everything at full-tilt gain, and then having the consumer ride the RF gain to their liking is part of the design goal. Many SWL'ers and broadcast listeners can deal with this since what they are listening to are more or less constant-state signals. However, for SSB amateur/utility use, we run across varying signal strengths, especially so when monitoring nets, (or monitoring airband), and constantly fiddling with rf-gain can be tiresome and eventually non productive when frustration sets in.

4. What are the performance downsides of this mod? What else is being affected (aside from the warranty)?

The only performance downside is that users that rely solely on the internal whip will find signals *appear* weaker due to the Grundig now emulating more common communications receivers that function poorly with only 4 feet of wire for an antenna. However, what you gain with the mod is much more "dynamic range", more suitable to those who listen to signals or networks with many varying signal strengths and especially those who actually use the external antenna jacks for quality antennas.

 

[ndn]

hi, I'm up in Ontario Canada - I recently inherited a grundig Satellit 750 radio. Its a bit of a story as to how, but suffice it to say a family friend passed and he was an enthusiast of all sorts of radios. To be frank, up until a few years ago, I rather thought him to be eccentric until I really took the time to talk with him about his hobbies. Astronomy stuck, not so much the radio stuff.

This brings me to why I'm here on your forum - After he passed, I suppose they felt I should receive some of the things we enjoyed together. Although we occasionally talked about his interest in radios, we didnt really 'do' any radio related things beyond his sharing some of his discoveries (in a strange fashion).
My point is - I received this radio mentioned above. No power cord, and no idea what to do with it.

I thought about it for a while, called the family, and they insisted I keep it. said it was in a box earmarked for me from him. He was impish at times.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to ... directions? some idea of how to get started with this hobby he had? Google brought me here, and google will inform me a little more - but it seems as though you guys are all pretty familiar with this specific breed.

tips? brand new suggestions? keep it simple for me, please, and help me kinda.. .connect with him on this level, I suppose.
thanks for your time folks.

 

[nanZor]

You can find the manual in English for it here:
Satellit 750 | Eton

It will run just fine from batteries, and many prefer to run it this way to cut down on possible noise issues.

I think the best way to discovery is to take it slow and not get overloaded with too much info too soon. Just try and tune in local am / fm broadcasters, and then with a little familiarity of the radio operations, move into shortwave monitoring, and even airband monitoring if that is interesting to you.

Not only can you monitor international shortwave broadcasts, but also amateur radio operators, and various other utility stations usually in SSB or CW (code) operations. A lot of information including exact frequencies are right here on RR to help guide you beyond just dial-twiddling expeditions.

 

[ka3jjz]

hi, I'm up in Ontario Canada - I recently inherited a grundig Satellit 750 radio. Its a bit of a story as to how, but suffice it to say a family friend passed and he was an enthusiast of all sorts of radios. To be frank, up until a few years ago, I rather thought him to be eccentric until I really took the time to talk with him about his hobbies. Astronomy stuck, not so much the radio stuff.

This brings me to why I'm here on your forum - After he passed, I suppose they felt I should receive some of the things we enjoyed together. Although we occasionally talked about his interest in radios, we didnt really 'do' any radio related things beyond his sharing some of his discoveries (in a strange fashion).
My point is - I received this radio mentioned above. No power cord, and no idea what to do with it.

I thought about it for a while, called the family, and they insisted I keep it. said it was in a box earmarked for me from him. He was impish at times.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to ... directions? some idea of how to get started with this hobby he had? Google brought me here, and google will inform me a little more - but it seems as though you guys are all pretty familiar with this specific breed.

tips? brand new suggestions? keep it simple for me, please, and help me kinda.. .connect with him on this level, I suppose.
thanks for your time folks.

If you're up in the Ontario area, you'd find a great source of information at the Ontario DX Association website

Ontario DX Association

Mike

 

[MillerAirport1]

Help for you-Grundig 750 Satellit

I would first go to You Tube, and view Official SWL Channel, he is based in Montreal and gives good pointers on listening to Shortwave at certain times, and also does an analisis a frequency at a time, I would buy the klingenfuss 2013 shortwave frequency guide, sign up for Grundig 750 Satellit Group on yahoo. I am awaiting
the arrival of my radio this Tuesday,I have done extensive research on Google. Any questions about this new venture perhaps we can start this journey together.-Pete

 

[ka3jjz]

I could be wrong, but I don't believe Herr Klingenfuss offers regular free updates to his publications. By contrast, the long known World Radio TV Handbook does.

As an aside it's well known - and not often discussed, due to its sensitive nature - that Mr. Klingenfuss has a very anti-American agenda. You won't find very complete information on American sponsored stations in his publications.

By contrast there are a few websites that are updated (some, like the NASWA Master list, are updated quite frequently - every couple of weeks at a minimum) fairly regularly. Schedules can and do change - some only occasionally, some so often that it's difficult to keep up with all the changes. So that we don't go too far OT, we have a sub set of forums for HF/MW and LW listening at the link below...

HF / MW / LW Monitoring - The RadioReference.com Forums

See you there....Mike

 

[jtcase]

I know this is an older thread, but my comment pertains to the review of the Grundig Satellit 750, so I will put it here.

I recently received my 750, and am overall pretty happy with the radio. The date of manufacture is 10/2013. I also had a wiggle in the tuning knob, and I found that the nut holding the encoder shaft was loose. I tightened up the nut, but there is still a little play in the knob. I decided to do an $8.00 upgrade on the tuning knob by replacing it with the ball bearing 800 knob.

I discovered that the Grundig Satellit 800 tuning knob is a direct fit, drop in replacement for the 750 knob. The major differences are in the finish of the knobs, and the way the fit to the radio. The 800 tuning knob comes with a brass bushing which screws over the encoder shaft assembly. The tuning knob is then pressed down on the bushing until the encoder shaft mates with the "D" shaped key in the 800 knob. The tuning knob has a ball bearing seal which rides against the brass bushing for a really smooth tuning action. Also, all the stress on the tuning knob is transferred to the bushing instead of the encoder shaft.

The 800 tuning knob is only $8.00 on Ebay. Here is a link: Grundig Satellit 800 Main Tuning Knob and Bushing | eBay

 

[JustLou]

I know this is an older thread, but my comment pertains to the review of the Grundig Satellit 750, so I will put it here.

I recently received my 750, and am overall pretty happy with the radio. The date of manufacture is 10/2013. I also had a wiggle in the tuning knob, and I found that the nut holding the encoder shaft was loose. I tightened up the nut, but there is still a little play in the knob. I decided to do an $8.00 upgrade on the tuning knob by replacing it with the ball bearing 800 knob.

I discovered that the Grundig Satellit 800 tuning knob is a direct fit, drop in replacement for the 750 knob. The major differences are in the finish of the knobs, and the way the fit to the radio. The 800 tuning knob comes with a brass bushing which screws over the encoder shaft assembly. The tuning knob is then pressed down on the bushing until the encoder shaft mates with the "D" shaped key in the 800 knob. The tuning knob has a ball bearing seal which rides against the brass bushing for a really smooth tuning action. Also, all the stress on the tuning knob is transferred to the bushing instead of the encoder shaft.

The 800 tuning knob is only $8.00 on Ebay. Here is a link: Grundig Satellit 800 Main Tuning Knob and Bushing | eBay

Is that $8 eBay knob metal? It looks like plastic.

 

[jtcase]

Grundig Satellit 800 Metal Tuning Knob

It is indeed a metal knob. I has an internal ball bearing assembly that the brass bushing rides on. It is very smooth. You can read about it in reviews of the Grundig Satellit 800.

 

[JustLou]

It is indeed a metal knob. I has an internal ball bearing assembly that the brass bushing rides on. It is very smooth. You can read about it in reviews of the Grundig Satellit 800.

OK. Thanks.

 

[N8OAY]

This thread has changed my mind about buying a Grundig 750 since it appears that there have been improvements since the radiojayallen.com review was written. I live in northern Alabama and my main listening interests are SSB Hurricane net, USCG and other emergency nets. I did not see any comments about the SSB sound quality. Is the 750 worth the extra cost over the Tecsun PL-660 or other similar priced radios for mostly SSB and maybe a little bit of air band use?

Has anyone used the 750 with active antennas such as the Kaito or MFJ antennas that Universal stocks? I live in an apartment and am limited to indoor or small antennas that I can place outside on my ground-floor patio. I am wondering about overload with an active antenna.

This is going to replace a Yacht Boy 400 that is dying of old age (it never was much good on SSB).

 

[nanZor]

The quality of SSB is quite good - and easily managed by typically leaving the BFO in the 12 oclock position for usb, and 1 oclock position for lower, and then tuning around with only very fine tuning needed for the bfo afterwards. (or was that backwards - I don't have any 750's anymore)

My biggest issue was strong-signal handling, which rf-gain and attenuation provided a temporary solution, but I found an internal overload condition beyond this which was frustrating. That said, many seem to find casual operations ok, especially if all they use is the built-in whip.

On airband, you will be sitting on one frequency with no ability to scan (obviously), and while audio fidelity is fantastic here, once again you may end up having to constantly twiddle the rf-gain and attenuation on nearby aircraft. That kind of involvement for airband is only fun for a few minutes. Also note that the squelch is an audio-based squelch, and as such is not as snappy and precise as an rf-based one. This means that it opens somewhat slowly, while the audio agc catches up.

Still, this unit is definitely a BIG improvement over the yacht-boy 400.

 

[jtcase]

AM Distortion

The strong signal handling problem was dealt with in the Yahoo Groups Grundig Satellit 750 Group. It is fairly easy to do. It involves installing a resistor and capacitor to one of the pins on a thru-hole type IC. Very simple and effective, it reduces the IF gain by a small margin.

 

[majoco]

Excessive IF gain should be handled adequately by the AGC system. Cross-modulation is produced in the RF amplifier (or mixer if there is no RF amp) and there is less AGC authority there so subsequently the distortion is harder to remove. The better communications receiver RF stages have good bandpass filters before any amplification takes place. A resistive attenuator in the antenna circuit will help - some receivers have a switch marked 'Attenuator' but it is actually a gain reducer so does not achieve the desired result.

 

[nanZor]

The strong signal handling problem was dealt with in the Yahoo Groups Grundig Satellit 750 Group. It is fairly easy to do. It involves installing a resistor and capacitor to one of the pins on a thru-hole type IC. Very simple and effective, it reduces the IF gain by a small margin.

It can also be seen here in msg #29:
http://forums.radioreference.com/sc...ellit-750-desktop-portable-2.html#post1769819

I can certainy vouch for this mod. Beyond that, the agc could use a little tweaking if you are up for it, but at this point if one doesn't find it good enough, it's time for a higher-quality receiver. Note the polarity of the electrolytic cap with the negative lead soldered to the neighboring can/shield.

One of the stages in that Toshiba chip isn't controlled by any external user control, and using heavy rf-attenuation prior to it in previous stages just masks the issue.

 

[UpwardlyGlobile]

Hi. New to the forum. Just ordered the satellit 750. Anything anyone thinks I should know?


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[SCPD]

Hi. New to the forum. Just ordered the satellit 750. Anything anyone thinks I should know?


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I have one in the shack I use as a back up. Great radio for the price and easy to program. Perfect for someone new to SWL. Just remember its no R75. You get what you pay for. Enjoy!

 

[UpwardlyGlobile]

Tks. Looking forward to 750ing.


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