Eton Elite Executive AM/FM/Aircraft Band/SSB/Shortwave Radio

It's a great little radio. It's very small and would be really easy to take anywhere, to a game farm for a little entertaimnet when screens aren't an appealing thought. On a picnic, on a road trip or some other kind of small adventure. It has a great tuner, it has great features which help make it much easier to use, for instance it can scan for channels which makes it easier to find air band frequencies which are in use rather than having to scan manually, arrive at a frequency which is in use but not in use at the moment that you scan so there's nothing to hear and no way for an uninitiated listener to know that they are on the right channel so to speak. It has every feature one could want from aradio and then some. It has a sleep mode so if you're listening and you fall asleep the radio will turn itself off after a pre-determined amount of time (The one sleeping in this case is you, not the radio). A radio like this, which has a reciever that can tune into almost any frequency used for radio by people is a little window on a world that exists but is otherwise invisible. One can listen to CB or Ham radio and there are still people who broadcast tiny radio stations which exist only for a few hours a week. Hearing the converrsations between airline pilots is interesting too. There are things that happen way up above our heads, interactions between people up there, that we would otherwise be unaware of, and they're interesting. It's a great toy and an interesting and fun thing to have. It has a squelch feature, so that even when the radion signal is weak or subject to inteference the little radio can make it more audible and clearer to hear. It is genuinely a wonderful device, if you want to hear what humans, even ones who are quite far away, are putting into the world using radio waves, this thing is definitely on your side. It's unquestionable a tool you want to use for that purpose. It does chuff when it's tuned but it makes up for that by having an autotune feature (seek). The flaw? It's not that it's not a high fidelity device and that the speaker isn't a powerful speaker, which is something that's possible today but wasn't possible when this device was originally designed (Also it's quite charming and a little nostalgic that the speaker isn't the same thing that one might get in a bass boosted sound bar). The flaw is to do with the way batteries are dealt with by the little radio. It can charge batteries but very slowly, putting a couple of L-Ion rechargables in it would seem to be a good idea. But it seems that the radio chews through them even if it's plugged into the wall outlet. I've had to take the batteries out and put them into a charger a few times when I unplugged it from the wall and found that the batteries were dead. It isn't all that light on batteries and will flatten a set in two days or so from fully charged (Better batteries might last a little longer, the ones I've chosen are eveready which while reputable, well better batteries do exist), but if the charge circuiit isn't isolated and the charger doesn't keep up with the rate of consumption then the batteried will slowly run down even if the device is plugged into grid power. If you do get one and do take it on n adventure which will see you away from home for more than a few hours I'd say take a few extra batteries along so that you don't take the radio out to let it play music in the backgrouond and find that the batteries are dead.

A few first impressions after two days of ownership: My very first impression was that aside from it's metal speaker grill and leather cover, this radio feels a bit plasticy (but considering its price point is still very acceptable and solid). It was great fun for me to work my way through the manual to learn what all the buttons did. The display is well thought out and can be read with or without the backlight. The device as a whole is never really off. When it is "off" it continues to function as a clock and even show the battery strength and respond to button presses. It has a lock feature to prevent accidental button presses. The station memories are broken into very manageable seven station chunks called "pages". The pages can be alpha numerically named. The FM reception is excellent and it can automatically find all the local stations and put assign them to quick dial memory position. It picks up the RDS data for the FM stations that broadcast it which is very nice. The AM broadcast band reception works excellent and I enjoy picking up DX stations in the evening with great success. Even during the day the reception works very well for stations that are normally difficult to hear on other radios. I love the look of the case (...and the fact that it even comes with a case ..two thumbs up!), but... I have fought with its functionality. It gets in the way since it it does not function well as a stand and has no speaker holes. Headphones cure the speaker hole issue (which works very well) but it would be nice if the case had better stand functionality. The antenna movement is very smooth and has two swivel points. The swivels allow it to extend vertically out from either the top or the left side of the radio as it is laying on its back. I have used the aux input feature of this radio on some of my QRP ham radio equipment that only has headphone jacks and it is a great and useful feature (A.R.S. AA7JC). The short wave bands work as expected for a radio in this price range and the SSB modes work perfectly. LSB and USB are selectable and fairly easy to use. I really like the filter bandwidth feature that is available on all AM and SSB modes (really works well). The battery life has been good in as much that the indicator still shows full battery strength after two days of playing. I was pleasantly surprised that the wall wart that came with my radio appears to be a classic analog type (with an actual transformer) which is rare these days. In the wall wart world, this is a sign of quality. Analog power supplies are better for radios since they don't generate digital noise when tuning the shortwave bands. One really cool thing about this radio is it's excellent display. It was carefully engineered to show the most possible information without draining your battery in the process. Some sort of memory management software accessible via bluetooth would be a great design addition for this radio (if Eaton is listening) but overall this radio delivers an excellent deal at its current price point. Yes, I would buy it again. edited addition: The radio really works well.. especially when taken outdoors away from electrical noise inside the house. One BIG thing I ran into was a dyslexic error in the owner's manual. Eton reversed the instructions on how to copy/paste a single memory location with the instructions on how to copy/paste an entire memory page. I included pictures of: 1-owners manual goof-up regarding copy/paste 2-the way the antenna is able to telescope from the side of the radio via it's dual swivel 3-The way that you can see the display even with it's back light totally off (under good lighting conditions)

This is a quality radio, as it should be for the price. It's solid, 17 ounces with batteries, and has a good heft. I wish the operational buttons on the front were a little larger for my fingers and aging eyesight. So far, battery life seems to be OK, with the backlight set to off. The manual could be better with more detailed explanations. It appears to have been written for use by those with more short wave experience than I have. There is one error that a previous reviewer noted on page 14; item 4 should be included in item 3 before pressing the PAGE/TIME button. The auto tune feature could be better on the short wave channels. It will tend to by-pass stations I think it should stop on. For me, manual tuning is more effective on the short wave stations. The external speaker isn't the greatest, but I do like the sound quality with quality earphones. The RDS feature is marginal, giving very little info about the particular program playing for an RDS station. If you use the RDS feature to set the radio's time, that time will change with each RDS station you tune in. I haven't had much success with the Single Side Band frequencies; probably need an external antenna for that. Reception seems to be very good, indicating a quality whip antenna, Overall, this is a quality, feature rich radio, intended for those with short wave knowledge and experience. I would recommend reading the manual thoroughly.

An exceptionally good radio but if you don’t like button procedures, it might not be for you. It’s a bit complex and the manual isn't much help. That aside, reception & selectivity on all bands is outstanding, audio quality is good. I’ve picked up AM-MW & SW stations I never received on similar radios. The RDS display is informative and easy to read when the backlight is on. The backlight stays on for several seconds after adjusting any control. You can make it stay on (and even adjust brightness) but you need to switch it off manually afterwards. To turn the radio on you need to press the power button twice - once to wake the radio and once again to turn it on. The sleep timer is easy to use but the 4 alarms are tricky. They come in handy if you like to hear a radio program every weekday. I like the page memory feature as you can name pages with 8 alphabet characters and store 7 favorite frequencies on each page. I’ve got pages for FM Faves, FM Alt, SW Day, SW, Night, Local Air, etc.. It takes (4) AA batteries and I get maybe 25-ish hours using 2800m NIMh rechargeables. It also runs on its included AC adapter without batteries in place. Comparisons: Air band picks up slightly better than my little Sihuadon R-108 - maybe due to antenna length. I also had an XHdata D-808 that crackled loudly while tuning bands through headphones but the Eton doesn’t do that. Like similar radios, the sync feature is hit or miss - it sometimes helps and works best in narrow bandwidths. Band filters are 6,4,3,2.5 & 2K in AM and go down to 500H in SSB which works quite well. Audio is not as big/deep as Tecsun’s PL-880 but still nice. I’d recommend it over the D-808 - it’s a touch bigger, has a much better display and better audio. I’ve amassed a small collection of radios in the last year (thanks to Todderbert 😄 on YouTube). This one has become my favorite and I enjoy using it every day. I bought mine, “used like new” on Amazon for roughly half MSRP. Highly recommended for radio geeks.

I'm a novice with these advanced radios. But I thought it was a good idea to have a couple around just in case there was every a major internet/communications outage. I have an old Grundig World Radio which is easily 20 years old and still works well but I wanted to see how much they've improved given how much technology has advanced since then. So I bought this Eton Elite Exec and a C. Crane CC3, each for different reasons. The C. Crane gets weather bands and provides much better sound for FM listening due to a larger case and speaker and is really more of a home radio. The Eton was advertised as receiving Ham and Aircraft frequencies but also as a superior AM radio and its very portable. Even comes with a carrying case. There's reviews on YouTube where the reviewer is picking up AM radio stations from hundreds of miles away very clearly. Well unfortunately that has not been my experience. I live in NE PA about 75 miles north of NYC and this radio struggles to pick up NYC AM radio. One or two stations come in but not as clearly as I expected. I've tried different rooms, upstairs, outside and really no difference. Today I put the Eton next to my C. Crane and tuned them both to the one NYC station the Eton does OK with (770 AM) and there was really no difference in the reception. One of the main reasons I bought this radio was so I could pick up NYC AM radio so really no distinct value there. Same with the HAM radio function. I have yet to pick up anything clearly on any of the meters/frequencies. I was just about to return this radio when I tried the Aviation frequency feature. And to my surprise, it is outstanding. I'm receiving very clear reception for all the major airline communications with Newark and the NYC Airports. Yesterday I was picking up Military comms for Dover AFB in DE which is 200 Miles away. This is really interesting and fun to listen to . So I'm going to keep it and just ordered an external antenna and we'll see if the AM reception improves. The Eton Elite Exec also has a lot of features and options and unfortunately the user guide falls very, very short when it comes to explaining how most of them work. When I was playing around trying to see if I could improve my AM reception, I came across options that are not at all mentioned in the user guide, didn't come up in a Google Search, so I have no idea what they mean. I even watched a few YouTube reviews and they weren't mentioned either. Maybe over time I'll figure it all out. The sound is OK. I really think this radio was designed for voice and AM reception. When listening to FM, it has a transistor pocket radio kind of sound quality. I haven't tried the headphone feature yet but I'm sure that will be much better. So all in all at least for me, this radio really doesn't receive AM radio better than the other radios I own. I'm really liking the Aviation frequency and the fact that it's highly portable and I can take it hiking and camping so I'll definitely keep it.

Bought this for hurricane season. Works very nicely. Great value

Overall.... Love this radio. It receives almost all SW, long wave, AM/FM that we require. It does benefit from a better antenna than the internal one from time to time; often just a matter of extending the metal antenna [read the manual]. We use it in a back bathroom on rechargeable batteries -- just change them every month or so. It's cool to be able to catch news at 2 a.m. or set it to local stations at our whim. But VERY frustrated with owner's manual, which seems to have been written by extraterrestrials: complex steps needed to just adjust TIME: After almost 3 years and dozens of step-by-step progressions, I've STILL been unable it to set proper time. So annoying, when my 40-YO GE radio, my microwave, kitchen stove, fridge, and coffee pot.... ALL of those devices remember current time unless they become unplugged! The Eton Elite neither records nor remembers. After writing the above complaint about difficulty synching time, I re-read manual and meticulously followed instructions. What I learned: (1) Some FM and most or all AM stations do NOT provide RDS signal essential to allowing the radio to synch time; (2) as long as it is connected to power (AC or battery) the radio will remember time and date, and synch to RDS if it is available on stations you listen to; however, anytime the battery power fails and it is not connected to AC, the radio will re-set and you will have to either manually reset time/date or set it up for RDS.

PROS and CONS: The power adapter looked cheap and had a noticeable high-pitched noise. It was loud enough that I heard it in the adjacent room through the wall at night. I had to buy another adapter off Amazon. The adapter is supposed to recharge batteries, but it does not happen. Or, batteries are drained faster than recharged. If I keep the adapter plugged in for days, then unplug it and listen to the radio batteries are usually drained in ~20 minutes. If the unplugged radio is off but the time display is on, the batteries are drained in 2-3 days from full. So I need to keep the radio plugged in at all times. For this price I expected the radio to listen to the time channel signal and auto-adjust the time but it was not the case. I had to set the time manually. The deal breaker for me is time display. I want this item to double as a night clock, but the time function just doesn't work. If I keep clicking buttons on the radio, time resets to some random value about every 10-15 minutes. I re-enter the correct time, but after 15 min it is reset again. There must be some firmware bugs related to it. Time may get much behind. For example, I set the correct time at 12:00, but by 12:20 I saw it 3 minutes behind. When you select the time zone, the entries are sorted alphabetically - not by the time zone. They are also airport codes for some reason. So, what you see is ANC (-9) then BEG (+8) and so on. I had to scroll through the entire list to find familiar airport codes. Controls are difficult to use at best. Read other reviews; what they say is all true. Manual is needed at all times. There are at least three different buttons that work as Enter. Usually it is a page/time button. If I enter FM channel frequency by keypad, it is the FM button, but if I enter AM/SW channel frequency, it is the AM button. Auto-scanner sensitivity is very low even if the squelch is turned off; it is practically unusable. I had to find all AM/AIR/SW stations manually. For FM auto-scanner works, however, it stores found stations in memory in this order: page 99 entries 1 to 7 first, then page 98 entries 1 to 7, then page 97 entries 1 to 7, and so on. There is no button to go to the next/previous station on the list. Sound quality is ok; with quality headphones, it is good. Whenever the AC cord is plugged in, there is significant static added to AM channels. I had to unplug AC and use quality headphones to hear AM clearly. SYNC mode makes AM significantly worse. DX/LO has no effect on AM.