i recently bought a mini 300 radio. i previously was using a mini 100 at
work but it didnt last long. the 100 was fragile and not suited for any
but the most delicate use. i would NEVER consider buying another 100
under any circumstances. the 300 seems to be of higher quality. first,
the plastic is designed better. the case is very nice, with great fit
and finish. the surface is dense and shiny, almost like it was polished.
there are no mold marks or swirls or flashing marks anywhere! the
display is large and simple. all buttons and switches are captured by
the case so that nothing can pop off and be lost. the painted lettering
seems to be epoxy or similar paint. it is thick to the extent that the
lettering is slightly raised by the thickness of the paint. all
lettering including the miniscule band and frequency information is
crisp and hard and very well printed. the case feels good with rounded
corners and smooth seams. it feels sturdy with no flexing or the tick
and pop of cheap thin plastic. now on to its performance... the buttons
are stiff and at first dont seem to work but this is not as it seems.
all buttons require a firm solid push to respond and so are not easily
actuated while holding and fiddling or jangling in your pocket. the
exceptions to this are the volume and tuning dials. tuning is very fast
and delicate. fine tuning takes small slow movements of the thumb wheel
that approach the limits of my ability. (but then consider that i am an
old and arthritic construction worker with carpal tunnel syndrome and
numbness of the extremities!) the entire band is covered by three
strokes of the wheel. tuning is VERY fast! sensitivity is very good all
things considered. it seems like this radio hears off its whip as well
as my sangean ats 505 and ats 606 radios, and MUCH better than my ats818
is off its own whip. selectivity is another matter. this filter is as
wide as the big blue sky! the slot is about three tuning steps wide on
sw! holy crap!! well, its not as bad as it sounds. the wide filters are
a bonus because of the drift! holy crap! (did i already say that?) this
thing drifts like a sailboat! a channel is like a message in a bottle!
at first i was put off by the wide selectivity and the gruesome drift
but after using this radio for a while it really is not too bad. the
wide selectivity compensates for the frequency drift to an extent and
allows for the best audio response possible. all things considered i
think its a good compromise. the drift settles down in a while and the
digital display makes it easy to touch up the tuning. after all it is a
cheap analog radio. the sound is fair for a two inch speaker, and its
loud! so loud in fact that its easy to distort and overload the audio.
the headphone jack is loud too. it really needs attenuation. on the
other hand the high power output available at the headphone jack allows
the use of an outboard stereo speaker. a mono plug does not work at the
phone jack, stereo only. am reception is good for a miniature radio,
better than many. one odd thing is that the fm/sw whip seems to be
active on am also! under certain conditions, like in the car for
instance when am reception is difficult just extend the whip and am
improves noticeably and seems omnidirectional! very odd. fm is pretty
bad. it needs a local/dx switch or attenuation. fm front end overloads
badly in town. out in the country it is much better. battery life is
great! the cheap Chinese generic batteries included are still going
strong after three weeks. all in all i am very happy with this radio
despite its shortcomings. its a very fun radio to play with. it has easy
bandscanning and all that charm that analog sw radios have, yet looks
and tunes like a cheap 60's am 6 transistor radio. it comes in several
outrageous colors (i bought yellow) or the traditional basic black for
the more conservative among us. the price was kind of salty by my
standards ($40) and ordinarily i NEVER pay full price for a sw, but
still i am satisfied with this purchase. this radio is handy to carry,
is good looking and fun to use. seems like a good buy. if it hold up on
the job remains to be seen.