Eton Mini Compact AM/FM/Shortwave Radio, Black

Before I start, let me begin by saying that no radio is perfect. This is because 1. no single receiver can be good at EVERYTHING and 2 different people like different things. Also, let's consider the price: 38 dollars. Don't expect it to perform like a $100 plus communications grade receiver.Now, that having been said, for what this is, it is a very good radio. The speaker is decent, the size is about that of an old iPod (about the same thickness too), and considering how big it is, it catches a lot. Midwave mode I haven't had much of a chance to play around with yet, but considering the size of it, I can't imagine the ferrite bar in it is very big so, I'm not expecting much. I'll post more on this at another time. I got this primarily for shortwave reception and for FM when I'm at work or just on vacation. On in both settings, it works well. There is a gap between SW1 and SW2 settings (SW1=5.9-10MHz and SW2=11.65-18MHz), but I don't know of any shortwave stations that broadcast on this that aren't SSB and since this radio doesn't have an SSB mode, I'm not even going to sweat it. On the day I got this, I hooked it up via a clip to a Sangean ANT-20 Reel and pitted it against my Sangean ATS 909x on a Sony AN-LP1 Active loop antenna. The Sangean won out, but again, 100 dollar plus receiver.I tested it on several stations on shortwave both within the US (13845 KHz WCCR and WBCQ 7490KHz) and a few far outside the US (TRT 9830 KHz, Radio Cairo 9965 KHz) and one just outside the US but that comes in pretty clear usually (RHC 6000 KHz). On the reel, it caught everything and the only trouble it had was with Radio Cairo which came in with no interference, but the speech was garbled (think of the adults in a charlie brown cartoon). Considering though that I need an active loop antenna to get this station to come through clearly on the 909, I am not going to sweat this issue. FM it got all but one local station I tried (which is also the one broadcasting from farthest away), but again, small receiver with small antenna. So conclusion is if you are going to listen to regular shortwave stations, this will be OK for most. That said, if you are looking for lower powered stations like Radio Tirana out of Albania or pirate stations around the 40 meter band, this is not the unit to use. Now, all this positive stuff being said, I have a few complaints about this radio:1. when you remove the batteries, the clock resets immediately.2. the back light goes out quickly and you cannot read the display without it. Maybe this isn't an issue if you get the AC adapter?3. battery cover is not connected to the radio so there is a chance you can loose it.4. The gap between shortwave modes mentioned above5. No preset memory on any bands6. No battery meter. The manual says "If the sound becomes low or distorted, replace with new batteries". considering that I've seen other radios of this size and price that had at least a little LED to give you an idea of battery life, this is a letdown.7. The bag that it comes with while of good quality, does not have a belt loop for carrying it on your person. Easy to fix, but just thought I'd mention it.So in short, if you are just looking for a digital display/tuning radio that fits in your pocket for travel or emergencies, this is a pretty good deal. If you are trying to DX or pick up pirate stations, this is probably not what you are looking for. I'd certainly buy it again knowing what I know now, but others who want more out of a travel sized and are willing to pay a little more and can accept something bigger than an iPod, consider a Tecsun PL-380. Hope this helps.

I recently bought this to replace my C Crane Pocket Radio that I gave to my son when he bought his house. Among my many radios this was his favourite and was well suited to his active lifestyle and interest in baseball and other sports. The Eton Mini has filled in for it pretty well and this is impressive because it costs about half as much as the CC Pocket. The Mini doesn't quite match it on distant AM or FM reception but it does receive AM dx at night quite well. To give an indication of its capabilities, I live about 30 miles southeast of Columbus Ohio and regularly listen to AM 740 Toronto Canada,1120 KMOX St Louis Mo. 1020 KDKA Pittsburgh and others at night. My favourite radio station,700 WLW Cinncinnati Ohio comes in clearly at ALL hours day or night. Thats 125 miles from my location. With it's rod antenna extended it pulls in all the FM stations I'm accustomed to listening to. Audio quality on FM is nothing to brag about when using the internal speaker but is as good as one could reasonably expect given the radios small size. When listening through good quality ear buds or headphones I'd have to rate it as VERY good. Short wave reception is adequate, pulling in the stronger stations quite well such as Havana,Cuba. Haven't really had a chance to give it an extensive workout but so far in my limited testing , it's seems to be quite utile. It's no Drake R-8 but it should satisfy the casual s.w. listener. Construction is better than average, should hold up quite well with responsible usage. It's a very good looking radio,I like the look of Etons present offerings. I also have an Eton Traveller 111 Grundig Edition which looks very similar to the Mini. It's stellar performannce on the MW or AM band had much to do with my purchase of this radio. The Mini is somewhat spartan when it comes to extra features. It lacks signal and battery strength indiators on it's LCD display and has no memory input for oft listened to stations. This isn't a deal breaker for me but the lack of any memory may be of importance to some and thought I should mention it. Something else that I should also mention is this radio displays a rather unusual quirk when tuning in distant or low powered stations on the AM band. When first tuned to a weak station the volume level will be rather low. However, if you give it 15 or 30 seconds the volume will rise to more acceptable level. Apparently this is the nature of these units as several other reviewers have also pointed this out. Untill I read of this and experienced it myself I was dissapointed in it's performance and was considering returning it. I'm glad that I did'nt, this radio is a keeper, I reccomend it and I don't really miss my CC Pocket radio at all.