I am going to give Drake a call if they aren't closed for Christmas vacation
this week and see how involved it would be to change the display
backlighting. Those Lumitex fiber optic backlights would be great in this
application.

Pete

"Telamon" wrote in message
...
In article
,
D Peter Maus wrote:

Pete KE9OA wrote:
Thanks for the info..............I did indeed adjust the contrast.
The display reminds me of an image as viewed by a person who has
cataracts (I have had those). I've got a TomTom 300 GPS unit, and
the display on my E1 appears the way my TomTom looks when using it
in the sun. Not completely washed out, but not as clear as the
display on my Palm Pilot Zire 31. Even so, because of the overall
performance, the display performance can be overlooked. Oh, what
the heck.........even at the original 500 dollar price, this is a
good radio! Where do you generally find a "portable" radio that
uses Murata CFR 9-element ceramic filters for all three I.F.
bandwidths? The manufacturer must have made a lifetime buy of these
filters, since Murata stopped selling them in mid 2002. Another
nice thing I noticed about this receiver was the use of
polypropylene and polyester caps in the audio section. Eton must
have had very high aspirations when they first put this thing on
the market. I hope that all of you who might be looking for one of
the E1s find a good sample. This receiver is very capable. Is it a
Drake, Icom, Palstar, Lowe, etc? No, but it is close enough in
performance for folks who can't afford one of those brands.


Thanks for the update. Nice to hear someone with some technical
history give an honest opinion of this radio.

Hmmm...I'll have to look into this one.

I saw this coming after a review of the specifications. The radio
looked very promising on paper. Then I had a few opportunities to play
with one in the store. That was enough to see this radio lived up to
the specifications.

The display is fairly large and I didn't have a problem reading it but
it did look a little weak on contrast. I chalked this up to the store
lighting and I did not know about the contrast control hiding behind the
back door tilt stand at the time.

I'd buy one if I needed another radio especially in the low price
ballpark of $225 bucks. This is a tremendous deal in my opinion. I know
you can never have enough radios but the office is cluttered with
equipment and I need to create space for new projects.

Maybe Pete can figure a way to backlight the display so there is more
contrast.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California