The Eton Field BT
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Chris Freitas, who notes that’s he’s published a favorable review of the Eton Field BT on his blog: Chris Freitas on Radio
The Field BT shares the same basic chassis as the Tecsun S-8800 (check out the review published yesterday) and several other receivers including the Grundig S350DL, S450DLX, and the C.Crane CCRadio-SW.
Chris and I both agree that one benefit to this type of large portable is the excellent audio fidelity they can provide.
Not all large portables are created equally
The S350DL may look like a digital radio, but it’s actually analog inside and tuning is prone to drift.
Important clarification: The Field BT–just like the S-8800 and S450DLX–does not have the flaky analog tuning of the discontinued Grundig S350DL series.
Since I started publishing videos of the Tecsun S-8800 in action, I’ve received feedback indicating that many assume the S-8800 will drift off frequency like the 2008 era GS350DL.
It’s true that both radios share a common form factor, but that’s where the similarities end.
The S350DL is actually an analog single conversion receiver with a digital frequency display. The S350DL tuning knob has an inner ring for fine tuning and an outer ring for speedy tuning. The big disadvantage of the S350DL is that it drifts off frequency every time the wind blows. At least, that’s how it seems. It’s a little frustrating, and that’s why mine pretty much stays tuned to one station on my kitchen shelf. Even then, it manages to drift off frequency every few days.
The Eton Field BT, Eton Field, Grundig S450DLX, C. Crane CCRadio-SW and Tecsun S-8800, on the other hand, all have a pure digital tuning experience with no drift at all. Most of these are at least double conversion and the S-8800 is even triple conversion.
Chris, thanks again for sharing your review of the Field BT! It sounds like a major improvement over its predecessor, the S450DLX. I understand you’re also evaluating the excellent Grundig Traveller III–we look forward to that review when published!
I have one of these radios and I am still new to SWLing. I’d like to try an external antenna on this radio. What do you recommend? Should I get a coaxial? I have two old grinding reel wire antennas. One is labeled “AN-03,” the other has no specification. I saw an adapter on Amazon – “AEcreative 3.5mm External Antenna Plug to BNC Adapter for shortwave Radio Receiver Eton Grundig 750 Tecsun s2000 Uniden Scanner RG-316”
Would that work?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Having used the Eton Field BT, I don’t really miss SSB but it would be a nice feature to have at this time while trying to listen to the Hurricane Watch Net. My “fix” for that is adding their webstream to TuneIn Radio on my Google Pixel and use the Bluetooth mode.
As for multiple bandwidths, I would like that on the BT but I’ve found the Narrow and Wide bandwidths acceptable for listening.
Perhaps when the price is far less, I might convince myself to try it out and compare the two. Right now, the current price of the S-8800 is a bit too much to swallow, but I do like the remote control feature to offset the lack on digital keypad as well as selectable bandwidths and SSB.
This is definitely a cheaper alternative to the Tecsun S-8800 (street price of $115 vs. $268) … with RDS but without SSB & many more BW settings (just a generalization – there are more differences).
I’m hoping somebody eventually does a YouTube comparison between the two since these are in the same class of portable receiver.