Eton E5 AM/FM Shortwave Radio Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm an electronics engineer, an active AM, SW, HF, VHF, & UHF listener/explorer, with antennas on my roof in the middle of a downtown city in the N.E. USA that serve me well. I also write tech & gadget reviews on my own sites & servers, & do make money on them. I will not post the URLs so you won't think I'm a spammer. Reviews here, & at other sites is what convinced me to buy this radio so I'll contribute a review here as well as at my own sites. I do not work for Kaito or Eton or anyone else. My electronic service & tech shop, & sites are owned by me. I work for myself. I sell electronic services (not radio service, radio is one of my hobbies), & write articles, but do not sell products or radios. I'm sure I'm not the best, but I'm good enough.
- FM - This is the primary reason I bought this radio. I was considering the Kaito 1103 with it's goofy useless LCD analog display, & strange annoying quirks, until I found out the E5 was the improved version. I wanted a multiband portable that wasn't too bulky that could also get decent FM where in the congested city, one suffers from too many strong FM stations overwhelming others on even good FM receivers, & would also pick up more FM in rural areas far from civilization when I'm camping & hiking a lot. I may live in the city, but get away from it all regularly. I thought it would be nice if it performed at least above average on the other bands.
There is an FM antenna MYTH about the "longer the better". This is simply not true for FM, VHF, or UHF. On portables using the built-in antenna they usually perform best at 5/8, 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8 wave. Longer may actual just pick up more interference (especially near other strong stations), or weaken the signal you want going into the radio. You'll find most portables will perform best on FM with the antenna extended no more than 6"-14" vertical. Cheap or poorly made radios may actually perform better with the antenna down all the way when near a city. If you must move your antenna diagonal or horizontal, to weaken an interfering, stronger, or an adjacent station, you may improve reception by extending it no more than 18"-20" & moving it around. If you're in a building that's blocking out a lot of signals, or have other buildings, hills, mountains, blocking them, or far away from any station, you may extend the antenna more to get a piece of the signal, but your antenna will be out of tune. You may find moving the radio a little or up higher may work better than making the antenna too long. You need longer antennas for lower frequencies, & shorter ones for higher frequencies.
The E5 exceeded my FM expectations pulling far away or weak stations clearly in the city & rural areas better than any FM receiver I ever owned... even beating my high-end audiophile home FM tuners or receivers with large dipole or quality amplified antennas attached... with just it's built-in antenna! It has made my home theater FM receiver obsolete as I just run the radio's "line out" to the inputs now. It also offers plenty of easy to use memory for all the extra stations I could pick up.
If you don't mind a slight distortion or hiss (but listenable) you'll even find many FM stations you didn't know existed. The wide/narrow switch is a nice hiss filter for FM. Switch to Mono also to clean up really weak FM stations. I can't wait 'till summer evenings when we get lots of temperature inversions to boost FM signals far beyond the horizon, or pick up FM meteor bounce.
- AM - Although it appears to be more sensitive than my modified Older & newer GE "Super Radios", DX-394, DX-390, or DX-380... in the city, or around most appliances, other electronics, dimmers, mercury or sodium vapor lights, fluorescent lights, & computers, the E5 also picks up more interference from them making the radio seem to be less sensitive to those other radios. So if you're near these things that generate a lot of RF noise or static, the other radios I mentioned performed better on AM & reject the noise more. Under those conditions my old DX-390 actually even outperformed the legendary "SuperRadio". If you move around the house, go to the back or front of the house, garage, upstairs, go to a rural area or anywhere else there's less electrical & electronic background noise, it beats the other radios hands down. External AM loop or amplified AM antennas only seemed to increase the noise in the city. Also leaving my rooftop SW/HF antenna plugged into the unit, or leaving the built in antenna extended while on AM only increased background noise. So leave the antenna down for down for AM. I didn't try any external antennas for AM in rural areas, but didn't need to, because it performed so well.
- SW/HF/SSB - This radio, by far, using it's built-in antenna, outperformed any other SW portable in the city & in rural areas using their built-in antennas, even on SSB. Again though, in the city, my rooftop SW antenna plugged into it seemed to boost the noise as well as signal, except on just a few signals. I found for most listening it performed better in the city with it's built in antenna extended all the way. I suspect this radio, along with my Grudig Mini 300 have an amplified SW antenna. Only my DX-394 significantly reduced the city's electrical & electronic noise to make my rooftop antenna very useful. But I live in an electronically very noisy area.
In the country, I used no real, true SW antenna. I just clipped several yards of ordinary wire, to it's built-it antenna, & tossed the other end up a tree limb. It performed exceedingly well... better than any portable in it's class & price range. The Local/DX switch works well, & as expected.
I did not observe any dead, silent, or strong spots every 100khz like another review mentioned... perhaps there's some factory inconsistencies in the first models out, or others were nearby similar appliances or computers generating harmonics in this area.
- SOUND - This radio's sound quality sounds better for music or talk than any radio it's size, & for the size of the speaker. Of course, you won't be able to blast it like a giant radio or boom box, but it does well. If you do play it loud, especially with music that has lots of bass, those 4 tiny AA batteries will not last very long. Volume & bass sucks up a lot more power. I'm a bit disappointed & surprised that the Wide/Narrow, Music/Talk switch doesn't roll off the bass a little on the narrow setting. That's a common feature of most radios in this class. On the Narrow setting, less bass would sound better even with music, & less muddy because there's much less treble on that setting anyway. Less bass on Narrow would also suck up less of your precious battery power... an advantage when in a rural area, off the grid, or during a blackout. Perhaps after the warranty runs out, I'll find a way to squeeze a tiny bass cut switch in it. I did not notice anything unusual with the volume control or abnormal jump between numbers, but if I did, it most certainly would not be a good reason to return a great radio for an inferior one or give this cool radio only 2 stars. Perhaps the other reviewer was just having a bad day or time of the month.
- BATTERIES - It seems to use up the batteries faster than many other radio this size & class. Perhaps all the extra electronics & features need more power. I know the extra bass definitely needs more power, but it sure sounds nice... except on the Narrow/Talk setting. As I said above, we don't need that extra bass on narrow, & strong bass on Narrow only detracts from the feature. The tiny low powered blue LEDs do not draw much power at all, so not using the light won't noticeably extend your battery life much. Besides, the dial & button lighting looks real cool, & are very handy in the dark. With all the features, goodies, quality, & reception this small radio has, I am not surprised at all that only 4 tiny AA batteries last 4 hours (playing loud) to 8 or 9 hours (playing softly or with headphones) if played continuously.
I used only 2000mha rechargeables to test the playing time. 2500mha ones should give you about 20% more playing time, & 2600-2700mha AAs are now commonly on the market. I used 2000mha ones for the test because one can get them incredibly cheap in bulk. Your best alkalines usually won't last any longer than 2500mha recheargables. The most expensive alkalines will only last 10-15% longer than the cheapest ones. You will actually save money by buying more cheap alkalines, than the fewer expensive ones you can afford. Lithiums should last the longest... but at a very premium price. The radio's battery life, like all battery operated equipment will last many hours more if they're not used continuously till they're drained. Giving them a break for a few hours to half the day, regenerates the batteries (all types)a bit, & greatly extends battery life.
There's a power quirk with this radio. Rechargeables are usually only 1.2 volts each or a total of 4.8 volts for 4 of them, where ordinary batteries are 1.5 volts or a total of 6 volts for 4 of them. Because the radio draws a bit of power, that 4.8 or 6 volts drops 20-25% as soon as you turn the radio on. I find if even 1 out of 4 of the cells start to get weak, even though not quite discharged, the radio will go shut down. When the running voltage dips below about 3.2-3.4 volts the radio peters out even though there's a bit of battery power left.
Other 4xAA radios will run down to 2.5-3.0 volts before cutting out, although with less volume or loss of sensitivity, or some distortion. So the higher minimum voltage may be another reason for the shorter battery life of the radio... there's still some power left in the batteries. Beware you should discharge your rechargeables fully once in a while for them to hold a good, full, long-lasting...Read more›

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The E5 is the world’s leading portable, multi-band and Single Side Band (SSB) enabled radio. The E5 unites erformance and mobility into one compact unit, bringing the power of local and world-band radio into the alm of your hand. The ultimate in portable technology, the E5 is the latest edition to the Etón Elite range, demonstrating how form and function can work in harmony.

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