A friend bought a S350 for $50 at Circuit City.
After testing the the FR-200 I decided to take a
listen to her S350.
It is a POS.
The S350 has a bad drift problem, getting worse
as you go to higher freqeuncies. It does sound
good, and has good sensitivity.
The FM connector is a PAL instead of the "F"
connector that is more often found on receivers
in the USA. The FM sensitivity is OK, but
nothing to get excited over. AM/MW/BCB reception
is really good, not a GE Super-tuner, but good enough.
The selctivity on AM/SW is very ho-hum. The WIDE
is very wide and the NARROW is still way to wide.
For a first time listener, at $50 this radio
can be considered OK, but it is nowhere near as
good as a Radio Shack DX-398 for example.
She will be taking it back early next week. I was
able to trade a used DX-398 from a friend for an
unused WinTV card. She compared the S350 to our
DX-398, we both have one, and she really liked the
better selectivity the DX-398 offers.
Perhaps this is just a bad sample, and most other S350s
are decent radios, but, passed on my 1 hour listening
test of this S350 I am going to have to give it a big bad
minus. In many ways is reminds me of a Panasonic RF-2200.
But aside from a good sound, it is lacking in too many
ways to be a radio for a serious user.
The FR-200 is a much bettter radio from a stability and
selectivity viewpoint. It is easier to tune the S350,
but given the speed with which it drifts, the FR-200
is relly easier to use. Harder to find a specific
frequency, but when you find it, it does tend to stay put.
This test was made with a very stable, HP723, regulated
power supply. I suspect it will be much worse on the supplied
wall wart power supply.
Terry

Terry - be glad you didn't look inside!! It's a drifty, birdie, image
ridden nightmare with terrible tuning backlash on SW. Decent on MW &
FM and that's about it!

Frank


wrote:
A friend bought a S350 for $50 at Circuit City.
After testing the the FR-200 I decided to take a
listen to her S350.
It is a POS.
The S350 has a bad drift problem, getting worse
as you go to higher freqeuncies. It does sound
good, and has good sensitivity.
The FM connector is a PAL instead of the "F"
connector that is more often found on receivers
in the USA. The FM sensitivity is OK, but
nothing to get excited over. AM/MW/BCB reception
is really good, not a GE Super-tuner, but good enough.
The selctivity on AM/SW is very ho-hum. The WIDE
is very wide and the NARROW is still way to wide.
For a first time listener, at $50 this radio
can be considered OK, but it is nowhere near as
good as a Radio Shack DX-398 for example.
She will be taking it back early next week. I was
able to trade a used DX-398 from a friend for an
unused WinTV card. She compared the S350 to our
DX-398, we both have one, and she really liked the
better selectivity the DX-398 offers.
Perhaps this is just a bad sample, and most other S350s
are decent radios, but, passed on my 1 hour listening
test of this S350 I am going to have to give it a big bad
minus. In many ways is reminds me of a Panasonic RF-2200.
But aside from a good sound, it is lacking in too many
ways to be a radio for a serious user.
The FR-200 is a much bettter radio from a stability and
selectivity viewpoint. It is easier to tune the S350,
but given the speed with which it drifts, the FR-200
is relly easier to use. Harder to find a specific
frequency, but when you find it, it does tend to stay put.
This test was made with a very stable, HP723, regulated
power supply. I suspect it will be much worse on the supplied
wall wart power supply.
Terry

Thanks for the warning
I wasn't about to risk "ruining" the radio.
She is only slightly into SWL. She was impressed
by my wife's DX398 and has been thinking about
getting "something".We are going to errect an antenna
in the afternoon.
While the DX-398 is nice, I still prefer my R2000.
Did you get my email?
Terry

"For a first time listener, at $50 this radio
can be considered OK, "

Well......dugh......

What are you bitching about....it is a cheap analogue radio with dials,
strings and variable capacitors tuning a high frequency oscillator. Why
people keep comparing this nice little cheapie to digital (more expensive)
radio's is beyond me.

The S350 is what it is.....leave it alone and enjoy the darned thing the way
it is....it's a wonderful cheap radio that performs well within its own
limitations.


wrote in message
oups.com...
A friend bought a S350 for $50 at Circuit City.
After testing the the FR-200 I decided to take a
listen to her S350.
It is a POS.
The S350 has a bad drift problem, getting worse
as you go to higher freqeuncies. It does sound
good, and has good sensitivity.
The FM connector is a PAL instead of the "F"
connector that is more often found on receivers
in the USA. The FM sensitivity is OK, but
nothing to get excited over. AM/MW/BCB reception
is really good, not a GE Super-tuner, but good enough.
The selctivity on AM/SW is very ho-hum. The WIDE
is very wide and the NARROW is still way to wide.
For a first time listener, at $50 this radio
can be considered OK, but it is nowhere near as
good as a Radio Shack DX-398 for example.
She will be taking it back early next week. I was
able to trade a used DX-398 from a friend for an
unused WinTV card. She compared the S350 to our
DX-398, we both have one, and she really liked the
better selectivity the DX-398 offers.
Perhaps this is just a bad sample, and most other S350s
are decent radios, but, passed on my 1 hour listening
test of this S350 I am going to have to give it a big bad
minus. In many ways is reminds me of a Panasonic RF-2200.
But aside from a good sound, it is lacking in too many
ways to be a radio for a serious user.
The FR-200 is a much bettter radio from a stability and
selectivity viewpoint. It is easier to tune the S350,
but given the speed with which it drifts, the FR-200
is relly easier to use. Harder to find a specific
frequency, but when you find it, it does tend to stay put.
This test was made with a very stable, HP723, regulated
power supply. I suspect it will be much worse on the supplied
wall wart power supply.
Terry

I didn't even have to turn one on to know it was a POS!

After testing the the FR-200 I decided to take a
listen to her S350.
It is a POS.

R2000SW,
..
Think of the Grundig S350 / Tecsun BCL-2000 as a Analog {Digital}
'replacement' for a GE Superadio III that is good for AM/MW and
FM Radio Broadcact Program Listening; and also offers some casual
Shortwave Program Listening features.
..
Grundig S350 "Super Radio" Tecsun BCL-2000 eGroup on YAHOO !
GRUNDIG S350 = http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grundig-S350/
..
yilgr ~ RHF
..
..

after I modded one, I thought it was quite nice and worth the price I paid
for it used.

I changed the pathetic wide filter to a quality NTK filter. great
performance and for some reason no drift after that.

my only complaint was the tuning speed is way too fast for me.

I would have bought one for $50, modded it for fun and sold it to some lucky
devil !





"tianli" wrote in message
...
I didn't even have to turn one on to know it was a POS!

After testing the the FR-200 I decided to take a
listen to her S350.
It is a POS.