Shortwave Radio Reviews | The SWLing Post

The Grundig G6 makes for an excellent travel companion

Last week, I traveled to New York City by air and used trains, taxis and buses en route to Philadelphia. All the while, I carted along my luggage–and it’s a good thing I like to travel light.

Indeed, I almost never check in luggage, no doubt a remnant of my days as an expatriate, when I was required to travel throughout Europe at a moment’s notice. But I love traveling with only one bag. It’s incredibly liberating. I revel in the challenge of fitting everything I need into one Eagle Creek convertible backpack/suitcase.

This latest trip was no exception, and I planned to do a little shortwave and medium wave DX along the way. So which radio did I reach for? Oddly enough, none of those I listed from my travel radio suggestions, my usual stand-bys. This time, I chose my Grundig G6.

Keypad for direct entry and as with most Grundig radios, the G6has a logical, simple key combination for entering frequencies.

I have had a mini Grundig G6 review out for a couple years now in which I praise it highly. I am surprised to find that many other reviewers only give it a lukewarm rating. I believe a lot of this stems from the fact that the radio’s aircraft band (117-137 MHz) is not terribly sensitive or selective. Since purchasing the G6, I’ve only used the aircraft band once–during review. I leave aircraft and VHF/UHF listening to a proper scanner, preferably one with triple-conversion circuitry.

Yet I find that the Grundig G6 performs quite well on the shortwave and medium wave bands. Last week, while in NYC and Philadelphia, I was surrounded by big signals and didn’t hear many instances of overloading or imaging. Sure, larger portables (like the Grundig G3, Tecsun PL-660, Sony ICF-SW7600GR, Sangean ATS-909X) will outperform the G6 on SW and MW, but none of those radios can comfortably fit in my pocket. In fact, the G6 is so small that it can get lost in my suitcase–oh, there it is, tucked among my socks. The portables mentioned above, though reasonably sized, will need some dedicated space.

The placement and orientation of the tuning knob on the G6 is genius. My favorite ultra-portable radio for band-scanning

There’s another plus about the G6. It feels good in your hand. I have big, clumsy fingers, yet I still manage to punch in the frequency correctly every time. Having the (smooth) tuning knob in the upper left corner of the radio where it’s accessible both on the side, and (more importantly) on the face, was a stroke of ergonomic genius by this little radio’s designer. I wish more manufacturers would do this. It’s so easy and comfortable to band scan using your thumb on the face of the tuning wheel, which is great when you’re sitting around a campfire or listening to FM on a bumpy bus ride.

Don’t get me wrong: if I were going on a DX vacation where I needed top-notch filtering, sync-detection and SSB, I would not pick the G6. For the odd business trip, though, it’s the perfect little radio.

The G6 even has an external antenna connection.

Pros:

Small, affordable and full-featured
Shortwave and medium wave reception are comparable to others in price class
Two bandwidth choices
Direct keypad entry of frequencies
Fluid and well-placed tuning knob
No chuffing/muting during band scans
Includes SSB (see con)
Great audio for a tiny speaker
Excellent ergonomics (especially for such a small package)
Aircraft Band (see con)

Cons:

SSB reception is mediocre–fine tuning is difficult
Volume button increments a little too steep (between 8-12) with headphones
Keypad not backlit
Some image problems on aircraft band

The Grundig G6 has been on the market a long time, in a consumer electronics life span. I would not wait to purchase one. Occasionally, RadioShack (in the US and Canada) will close out their stock of shortwave radios and the G6 can be found at bargain prices. Universal Radio currently has a promotion where if you buy a Grundig Satellit 750 for $299.95, you will receive a free Grundig G6. You get both a large portable/tabletop radio and a pocket-sized one in the same deal. That’s great value!

Want specifications and other reviews of the Grundig G6? Check out our G6 entry in the Shortwave Radio Index.

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The Kchibo KK-9803 portable shortwave radio

Admittedly, my expectations were quite low when I ordered the re-engineered Kchibo KK-9803 for a mere $14.90 from a seller on eBay. It is, without a doubt, the least expensive portable shortwave receiver I’ve ever purchased new. Now I know why.

Indeed, I found it hard to believe that this was actually a DSP radio, and even asked the seller to confirm this in advance of purchase. Part of my doubt arose from the fact that the Kchibo KK-9803 has been on the market for a few years as a no-frills analog radio. At some point this year, Kchibo “enhanced” this model with a DSP chip, to be much like the recently reviewed Degen DE321.

I purchased the Kchibo KK-9803 on a whim. Could this cheap radio offer enhanced performance with its new DSP-enhanced engineering? The short answer: No.

You pay for what you get

I was completely underwhelmed by the Kchibo KK9803. While the idea of affordable DSP performance is a good one, the implementation of the DSP chip in this unit is, unfortunately, poor.

My primary criticism is that the shortwave band segments are much too close to one another on the dial–hence, when tuning, the digital tuning steps (perhaps 5 kHz?) are too narrowly-spaced to offer any sort of tuning accuracy. Barely moving the tuning wheel, one may pass over even a strong station undetectably. The only hint of the station’s existence may be a quick blip or audio buzz.

I must confess that the experience of band-scanning (tuning) this radio offers is the worst I’ve ever known. One basically cannot tune and “hear” station presence like one would on practically any other radio product. While comparing this radio to the Degen DE321 and Tecsun PL-380 (two other DSP portables I had on hand), I had difficulty locating even benchmark stations like China Radio International, Voice of Greece, RCI, and others; in fact, I couldn’t even tune in Voice of Greece on 9420 kHz because that part of the 31M band is chopped off of the KK-9803’s dial. Tuning across the band produces a very strange choppy sound, mostly void of the typical sounds you hear as you tune past stations while band-scanning on most other radios.

I did manage to tune in a few stations with considerable effort. How one finds a strong station at all is by locating the spots on the band where sound is dead, and then meticulously fine-tuning around these areas. I use the phrase “fine-tuning” quite loosely, as there is no actual fine-tuning wheel–by this, I mean making the slightest possible movements of the tuning wheel and just hoping for the best. This demands great fine-motor skills–but even greater patience.

Perhaps more annoying, once you actually manage to lock in a station, within the next five seconds the DSP chipset increases the volume in three overly-dramatic steps–from soft, to medium, to OUCH. Tuning this radio requires not only patience, but if using good earphones, instant readiness to adjust the volume for fear of its increasing to the point of discomfort.

Clearly, finding positive points about this radio was a challenge:

Pros:

Inexpensive (see con)
Plastic body is fairly durable
FM performance acceptable (see cons)

The KK-9803's band selection slider switch is loose and sloppy.

Cons:

Cheap (see pro)
Shortwave performance is dismal and DSP-lock unreliable
Shortwave bands are chopped up into too-small segments–active portions of the 41M and 31M bands, for example, are altogether missing
None of the shortwave bands include a WWV frequency
Tuning, via the tuning wheel, is very difficult even in FM; frequency steps are too narrowly packed, and thus difficult to access
FM stations are all-or-nothing: weak stations are barely audible, strong stations have overly-dramatic (and uncomfortable) stepped volume increases to accompany station-lock
AM band slider switch feels quite flimsy, selection ability is loose and sloppy
Radio defaults to FM when you turn it on

Verdict

One more positive: The back stand feels pretty durable--it's even designed to be shock-absorbing. Too bad the radio doesn't perform as well as its back stand.

If you really want a DSP radio with an analog face, spend an extra $6 and purchase the Degen DE321, or wait for the Tecsun R-2010 to be released. The only benefit I see to the Kchibo KK-9803 is its FM performance, which is acceptable. But if it’s only FM you’re looking for, my advice is to purchase a better-quality, comparably-priced radio like the Sony SRF-59 which, though without shortwave bands, has incredible AM (mediumwave) performance as well.

The Kchibo KK-9803 is a radio that should have remained in the all-analog realm; I imagine its performance in that form was more reliable and tuning much easier. Adding the DSP chip to this radio was an unfortunate upgrade–really, a downgrade, in my opinion. In conclusion: do yourself a favor and use the $14.90 to buy rechargeable batteries or anything else besides the Kchibo KK-9803.

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