First impressions - Grundig YB-550
 

The Grundig YB-550 is indeed the Eton 550. It is made in China. The
YB-550 is about 2/3 the size of the YB500. The YB-550 has 200 station
memories and uses 3 AA batteries. I have not tried the memories, I
usually do not use them. The goto memory function works very well. I
tried all the frequencies listed in Monitoring Times for 8 pm central
time that broadcast to North America and I had no trouble picking them
up from the Dallas,Texas area on the wip antenna. As you would expect,
the radio feels pretty cheaply made. The radio also comes with a fine
tuning knob that allows tuning in 1 khz increments. I did not find
this feature of great use. It covers all the major sw bands. The sound
is very good on AM/FM/SW. It has a jack for an external antenna. It
also comes with an S meter. I am not sure how accurate it is. Most of
the signals appeared to be either 1 or 2 or 5 in strength. The radio
also has a sleep timer and an alarm which I have not tried. It has
switches for local/dx , lock/unlock and music/news. I will try it side
by side with some of my other radios and try to report a comparison
later.

I have ordered the Tecsun PL-230, which is supposed to be the
equivalent to the YB-550. Will come in next week. You can find them on
eBay cheaper than the 550, but they are shipped from China, so it
takes longer to get.

This radio seemed like the perfect travel radio: 4x6 size, full SW
coverage...

I hope the reception lives up to your first impressions. I'll post
mine after in arrives.

Rambler

Paul,

The Grundig Yacht Boy (YB) 550 PE is being sold in the North American
market. In EURO-Land it is being sold as the "ETON" Yacht Boy (YB)
550. In China it is made by Tecsun GEM and sold as the Tecsun PL-230
which is a repackaging of the Tecsun PL-200.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grundi...os/message/120
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grundi...os/message/102
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grundi...os/message/115
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grundi...0/message/1213
[ETON] http://www.etoncorp.com/worldwide/yb550.asp


Of the four 'morphs' of what is basically the same radio the Tecsun
PL-200 which uses "AA" Batteries vice "AAA" Batteries in the
PL-230/YB-550 is potentially the better radio.
http://www.radiointel.com/review-tecsunpl200.htm


~ RHF
..
..
= = = Paul
= = = wrote in message . ..
The Grundig YB-550 is indeed the Eton 550. It is made in China. The
YB-550 is about 2/3 the size of the YB500. The YB-550 has 200 station
memories and uses 3 AA batteries. I have not tried the memories, I
usually do not use them. The goto memory function works very well. I
tried all the frequencies listed in Monitoring Times for 8 pm central
time that broadcast to North America and I had no trouble picking them
up from the Dallas,Texas area on the wip antenna. As you would expect,
the radio feels pretty cheaply made. The radio also comes with a fine
tuning knob that allows tuning in 1 khz increments. I did not find
this feature of great use. It covers all the major sw bands. The sound
is very good on AM/FM/SW. It has a jack for an external antenna. It
also comes with an S meter. I am not sure how accurate it is. Most of
the signals appeared to be either 1 or 2 or 5 in strength. The radio
also has a sleep timer and an alarm which I have not tried. It has
switches for local/dx , lock/unlock and music/news. I will try it side
by side with some of my other radios and try to report a comparison
later.

RHF,

MY mistake earlier when I mentioned that the PL-230/YB-550PE uses 3
AAA batteries.. Bad typo! It uses 3 AA batteries.

The PL-200 uses 2 AA batteries as you mentioned though.

Ulis