Thanks for the well written report. I still own my YB400PE, it was my first
SW radio. Mostly use it for tracking down outside interference now, but it
still goes on trips ;-)
That little portable let me hear the sinking of the LEADER-L 200 miles N of
Bermuda, as the frantic Captain told nearby Canadian Destroyers that he was
holed and sinking fast. About 10 minutes later a 600' ship and all but two
of her crew had perished. Halifax Military Rescue Coordination Center and
several Canadian Warships hundreds of miles away were as loud and clear as
they could be. So I will never underestimate the power of those little
radios! Nice to know they continue to advance in quality, and there is still
competition.
Jack
"lsmyer" wrote
I found one of the YB400PEs still on clearance at $129.97 at a nearby
radio
Shack yesterday. I bought it, and then went to a nearby parking lot to
test
it against my Degen DE1103 and my SRIII. If it had held its own against
the
1103, then I was going to keep it.
Sorry Grundig. The YB400 did well, but the 1103 did better. Any station
that
the YB400 received, so did the 1103. But there were two stations on AM and
two on FM that the 1103 heard faintly but the YB400 did not. I had my
SRIII
there mainly as a reference. There was an AM transmitter a mile away, and
it
seemed to bother the SRIII much more than it did the other two. It even
prevented the SRIII from getting a couple of the stations that both of the
smaller radios heard.
I like a lot of the features of the YB400. It seemed to have a lower noise
floor than the 1103. And the Grundig's button layout and volume knob is
much
better than the layout of the 1103. I really liked the YB400. And I
strongly
considered keeping it anyway. But then I remembered how the radio's lack
of
a tuning knob was one of the reasons I sold an earlier version a few years
ago. Still, I can see why people have loved the YB400 so much over the
past
ten years. It's a very nice radio.
But maybe it's time to move on. I truly think Degen has raised the bar
with
its 1103. I now consider Degen and Tecsun to be superior to the former Big
3
(Sony, Grundig & Sangean). And the next radio I buy will probably be the
Degen 1105.
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