Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Brent Levit, who notes a new Eton receiver in the latest Universal Radio print catalog: the Eton Elite Satellit.
Click to enlarge.
Raise your hand if you see the similarities between the Elite Satellit and the famous Eton E1 (photo below)?
The Eton E1-XM
Brent also notes:
“Universal Radio has a $399.00 price tag. It also states in the catalog that it would be available late summer 2019.”
Brent, thank you for the tip and thanks for snapping that photo.
UPDATE: Brent just shared the following photo of the product page.
Click to enlarge:
Okay…just TAKE MY MONEY!
Of course, I’ll find out everything else I can about the Elite Satellit and report back. I’ll also review this receiver as soon as I can snag one!
To follow Eton Elite Satellit updates, bookmark this tag.
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Shortwave is certainly no longer at its zenith but it is far from being completely out of international listening. The internet can go down and leave everyone without international radio in given areas. Governments do stop internet from going into places such as the Ukraine and North Korea. Emergency frequencies could propagate regionally during the conditions of an emergency when cells phones and internet are non-operative. There are over 200 DRM shortwave broadcasters now in use. This should be a niche market for shortwave enthusiasts. Let us hope that Eton and other manufacturers are taking steps to make a radio to serve this select group of radio listeners. The Satellite series goes back to Grundig and Drake. They are legendary performers. This radio is a great buy for $400. Less expensive DRM receivers with software controls are needed to help this market expand.
Will likely never be released. Only referenced on Universal Radio site…not even mentioned on Eton’s website or any other retailer. 11/2021
Eton is still advertising this radio, it is prominently featured in a full color two page ad in ARRL QST this month (February 2022). I still have some hope we may be able to buy it someday.
I noticed that the QST ad doesn’t mention anything about HD FM radio like the original 2019 Universal Radio ad showed. I hope it still has it as well as the noise-blanking switch that the E1 had.
Yes, after 3 years of no information, Eton has spoken up (vaguely) about this model.
I’ll stick with some version of “believe it when I see it”, but if it does come out, I’ll be happy to be proven worng. (I won’t be buying one, though. I really don’t see the point, what with the long-dying HF bands. I’ll stick with my S-8800).
A source I have inside Amazon told me they plan to market this radio at $100 less since the demand is high and high demand means high sales to offset the deep discount. Let’s hope this is real!
Universal Radio just updated the status on their site yesterday. Looks like they are no longer accepting pre-orders and the now projected release date is sometime in 2021.
Does anyone have an update on delivery. I have one back ordered with a delivery date of June 2020, via Universal Radio.
May I ask why there is no built in ferrite antenna?
If it were released 20 years ago I would have bought it. But now what use will it be for? Listening to CRI?
I agree with you. It’s a pity how numerous long standing broadcasters have left shortwave. We are left with mainly Chinese broadcasters.
There are some eastern european broadcasters that produce great programs. Bulgaria and Prague are two of them. Well worth a listen!
I’m listening to Radio Educacion from Mexico City right now…great musical programming. Yes, many of the big broadcasters are gone but there’s still plenty to listen to. All you need is a good receiver and a REALLY good antenna!!
No, all you need is the internet….
For what is worth:
I put down an order with Universal ($349.95 plus $9.95 shipping). I won’t get charged until it ships, so no loss if it does not materialize. I received the invoice, and it says that expected delivery date is 4th quarter, with a date of delivery of 11/15/2019.
Will it happen? Who knows.
But I like the fact that this radio has RDS built in. The old E1 (which I still have) did not have it. HD radio? Meh, but it does sound better. If the shortwave is the same as he old E1, it would still be the best portable out there. I wonder if the external antenna connector is still the goofy Pal one.
Marco
An SD card slot would be nice for recording and playback.
Eton are you listening?
From https://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/0222.html:
“Additionally there is a switchable antenna jack (PAL male) for an external antenna. ”
I dunno what that is, never heard of it. But your fears are true!
I really do thank the two writers for bringing the new Eton Elite to to my attention and it shure sparked a lot of interest on this site:Thanks Guy Atkins and Brent Levit,that’s a good looking out to you both.I have had an E-1 XM for about 8-9 years and found it to be a true performer,sticky or not.I used a 43′ dipole with traps “the Eavesdropper from Antenna Supermarket,now gone and a 100′ #12 random wire with a inline Zap Trapper and a heavy duty antenna selector switch.Wow ! did I pull in countries,some I never heard of.The XM was outstanding and I recorded a lot.The memory functions are extensive.I compared my Icom R-75 to the E-1 and on the same antenna and same frequency,I honestly could not hear much of a difference.I put my money down for the new version,the original was $ 500 or so.HD and Air coverage are certainly a plus.I can’t wait to compare the old and new,I have High Hopes.ENJOY !
Someone please tell Eton not to use that rubberized plastic again.
I had a Grundig portable radio before.. don’t remember if I still have it or not. All that I do remember is putting that thing in a ziploc bag because it got so damned sticky! If Etón continues to use that “stuff” forget it, I won’t want it- won’t care how “good” it is!
I had a radio that used the “rubberized coating”. Living in Hawaii, it did not take long before it turned into a mess. I used “goof-off” while wearing a pair of safety gloves to rub it all off.
Check it out on Universal Radio website
https://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/0222.html
I wonder if there will be more original Eton E1 analog circuitry in the Elite Satellit than we’d expect in this DSP SiLab-chipped era? A careful reading of the Elite’s description hints at this possibility:
– Exact same three I.F. bandwidths as on the E1 (7.0, 4.0, 2.5 kHz). If this is a DSP radio, why only these three bandwidths? More choices are possible through DSP, including a 500 Hz CW filter. Of course, I’m presuming that SiLabs is the DSP chip supplier. There are others, but SiLabs dominates the consumer receiver market.
– Selectable sideband synchronous AM detector, as found in the E1. I’m not aware of any SiLabs chips that can provide *selectable* sidebands on sync AM.
– I.F. passband shift control. Again, this is not a feature in any consumer DSP radio I know of. I may be wrong, but to my knowledge both passband shift and selectable sideband SAM mode are features that would need to be built into the DSP chip itself. All these points taken together is why I think the Elite Satellit may be more analog–and a refresh of the original’s E1 circuitry–than we’d suspect. One possibility is that Tecsun could be the first manufacturer to use a brand new, not yet released model of a SiLabs chip with extended features.
Anyway, it’s fun to speculate about this upcoming model. Radio hobbyists have had very few new, serious receivers to drool over for quite some time!
Let’s face it… The Eton Elite satellit is the old analog Eton E1 with XM capability removed and HD radio added.
I had the old E1 and loved it at the time… features like passband tuning, multiple bandwidths, selectable synchronous sideband, etc. all worked well, but in reality I almost never meaningfully used them.
Newer DSP radios now have multiple bandwidths… even on cheaper radios.
I never used XM (now SiriusXM) on the old Eton E1, and will probably never use HD on the new Eton Elite Satellit. HD radio is a dead horse… let’s stop trying to beat it into life.
When one considers the longstanding decline in the numbers of international shortwave broadcasters, one might conclude the time for the Eton Elite Satellit has passed… but I still want one!
I agree that based on the bandwidths it appears that the Elite Satellit is a remake of the analog E1, but are ceramic IF filters (i.e. Murata) still available? I think those were the brand of filters used in the Drake SW8 of which the E1 seemed to be a variant.
I did a little digging – muRata stopped production of the CF* series of ceramic filters 3/2018:
https://www.murata.com/en-us/products/filter/cerafil/eol
and this photo from Universal Radio shows what looks like at least one muRata filter in a boneyard E1: https://www.universal-radio.com/used/P114lrg.jpg
So, did Eton buy up a bunch of ceramic filters or find a non-SiLabs DSP chip?
IMHO, the E1 is the best portable I’ve ever used.
Alan
N4LUS
It would be nice if they added DAB+ For those of us living in places that use that instead of HD radio.
As of 6/13/19 this is not what I am seeing on the Universal website. I’m wondering if this is a hoax at this point.
No, it’s not a hoax. The radio is still in development and I don’t think Universal will put it on their site for a while. I believe Universal had to add it to the catalog because they only print those once per year and didn’t want a new flagship portable to be miss out.
I bet we might not see it on the website until August or so.
Cheers,
Thomas
Looks like new radios get a lot of attention in comments! 🙂 A reissue of a radio that was great in its time is probably not the worst idea if it really gets the promised refinements. I’m pretty sure I want one of those! 🙂
I hope the odd PAL antenna jack gets replaced by BNC (or less desirable for stability, SMA) so I don’t have to think about yet another set of pigtails/adapters and that they manage to conserve what people perceived as clear signs of the alleged Drake pedigree on the E1.
Re the whip used on AM, if you live in a noisy house you’d probably prefer “no loopstick” over one that can’t be turned off, spoiling all fun with outside antennas.
I don’t trust Eton to actually deliver anything with advanced features like passband tuning or synchronous detection. They seem to specialize in re-packaging the same DSP radio into different form factors. I’ll believe it when I see it.
I know I might be in the minority but I hope Eton decides to keeps the XM option. I rarely use the XM option when I’m out and about due to battery drain but there are times when XM comes in handy around the house.
Well, I hope Eton addressed some of the shortcomings of all DSP radios such as the Eton Grundig Edition.
I bet there will be a dsp receiver under the hood…
If there is, there better be a 500Hz filter for CW.
Great comments Dan! I also checked and production will happen even though delayed a bit as of now. Spoke with Josh at Universal (Fred was tending the cats LOL) and tried to see if they would start a pre order list…he will check with Fred. Also seems to lack the Sat. module that most of the E1’s had. Time will tell.
Nobody makes the “SAT” antenna any longer … I’m pretty sure Audiovox made the E1 SAT antenna’s … almost everybody has gone to streaming SiriusXM satellite radio so there’s no market any longer for a portable radio like this to have the SAT capability and for a manufacturer to make the antenna module.
Now this looks like a hoax: I cannot find any info on Universal Radio site, nor on Eton site.
I almost suspected so at first to, but I can assure you it’s not. I’ve confirmed that it’s being developed and produced.
Glad to read that! as I got hooked on this radio ad first glance and hoped it’s real.
Well, sadly, not only Universal Radio will not ship to Israel, but also the answer I got to my questions was very short and impolite for me.
It’s like kindness is geographic related…
I hope they are not going to be the only dealers for this radio.
Sorry if Universal Radio won’t like what I just wrote, but I did deserved a proper answer, even if I’m from Israel.
I’m sorry to hear that, Moshe. My experience with Universal has always been so positive. I’m sorry their reply was curt. I understand they’ve gotten an overwhelming number of emails about this radio since yesterday’s post, so perhaps that played into it. It’s true, though–they don’t ship internationally, but I’m willing to bet there will be a distributor in Europe and/or Canada because Eton has such strong ties there. I will investigate this for you.
Cheers,
Thomas
I am waiting for a full review to decide if I’ll bite the bullet or not…
Would this be the first radio with both shortwave and (FM only) HD?
This is very very exciting, I can hardly wait.
A clear, easily readable display with bright back lighting like the Sangean ATS-909X would be nice, too! Contrast on the E1 is too low in my opinion, even with the control located under the battery cover.
That’s my number one complaint with the E1, because of the display Tech used it’s difficult to use in sunlight.
Hello all. I have a modified late model Sony 2010 and definitely want a Eton – Elite Satelilt. Looks like a radio I have wanted for a few years and will now be be offered to the radio community.
And one other thing the E1 and its cousin lacked – a carrying handle. A laptop carrying case will handle this radio, if memory serves, but the handle would be a nice touch. I have my doubts that Drake is still involved with this, but I guess we’ll see…
I still have my E-1 XM and made my own carry handle with 1/4″ 3 strand nylon rope and a long piece of velcro on each side of the radio.I cut it narrow enough to not interfere with any of the jacks or switches and connections on the sides.Since it was velcro,it was removable.The plastic stand for that big boy is a worthwhile investment from Universal.As seen in the promo photos the radio case that it will come with appears to have a carry strap.ENJOY,I bit the bullet
I forgot to add that I doubled up the 1/4″ line to make it more comfortable
I had the E-1 when I was an SWL and it was a great receiver, the best I ever owned. As an amateur radio operator, I’ve got too many transceivers/receivers in my shack at this time to take advantage of this but, if the Elite Satellit is anything like the E-1, SWLs should jump at the opportunity to acquire one.
Hopefully this is not an old April fools joke. I guess the “Elite” moniker means it is legit. Might be an interesting replacement for my quickly aging Sony ICF-2010. I wonder what “digitally synthesized” means? We’ll see….
April 1st was two and a half months ago.
If it’s anywhere near as good as the E1 was/is, this radio is going to be a “must buy” for any serious SWLer. The E1 is simply magnificent and it along with the ICF-2010 are the two best shortwave radios I have ever had the privilege of owning. That being said, $400 is a lot of money considering the variety of surprisingly capable shortwave radios available these days in the $100 range. Then there are SDRs. It’s a competitive market and I believe Eton will have a tough time selling them in large numbers at that price.
Not if one wants a real Sync in AM mode that is SIDEBAND selectable and actually works well and not sound grungy like the current Satellit model and also works on the wide bandwidth and works on the MW band, too. Cannot find this kind of feature in a non-SDR currently. I did not buy the current Satellite because of the crummy sounding Sync implementation. User reviews with audio clips will be crucial for my decision.
It seems to support IBOC (HD Radio) – but apparently on FM only. If it’s as prone to overloading as the E1, it’s not worth the money in my opinion.
I HATE IBOC on AM/mediumwave, digital sidebands way too wide and destroys DXing possibilities. They need to scrap it on AM and implement a narrow-band digital standard and dedicate a portion of the AM band to full power digital. Just my 2cents.
I have an E1 in front of me on my desk right now. This is literally the E1, right down to the on-screen user interface.
If this is legitimate, I sure hope they have included DRM capability and gotten rid of the rubber coating!
The following from Fred Osterman at Universal:
“Same form-factor as the E1, but correcting the problems of the E1 such as unstable support frame for the large LCD, tendency for the cabinet to get “sticky” over time and issues with charging batteries (on early production). Eton has assured me that these concerns will be addressed and resolved.
And further enhancements are planned, including reception of HD radio, included case, etc. “
Very good if it’s not sticky. Almost essential. Also very good if it has a CW filter, which it should if the other filter widths are dsp; but if it has ceramic filters, that would be a nice touch. It doesn’t look like it has an internal ferrite for MW, just as the E1 didn’t; that wouldn’t be a deal breaker, but I wonder why.
Yes, according to the Universal Radio catalog page AM is through the telescoping antenna. Quite a shame to say the least! I wonder why they’d omit the internal ferrite antenna considering Eton “fixed/mitigated” all of the issues of the E1 …
Maybe they thought an external antenna works better? If I am not using my pocket sized Sangean, I always use the C.Crane twin ferrite for any other radio, works well without having to rotate the radio. That’s just me though…