pawtraitp's Full Review: Grundig YB 400PE AM/FM/SW Radio
Grundig Yacht Boy 400. Growing up in England I used to listen to shortwave almost exclusively and for years yearned after one of the huge Grundig Yacht Boy multiband receivers. When I was older I had almost forgotten about shortwave until a flyer from Radio Shack introduced me to the diminutive YB400. For those not familiar with the brand Grundig receivers are legendary in Europe for their build quality and sensitivity.
Opening the box gave the radio, a power supply, carry case, portable antenna and ear buds. What instantly amazed me was the size of the radio, it was smaller than a hard back novel, and I started to wonder what may have been left out to get it that small. Unusually for a US radio as well as FM, AM (medium wave) and short wave, it also features a Long Wave (AM) band. Long wave is useful for listening to maritime broadcasts. Between the AM and short wave bands there is continual coverage from 0.5-30MHz – an excellent range as this covers the most common short wave bands from 11 through to 160 meter. FM is just FM, standard range, but being honest I didn’t buy this set for FM.
The set has two main modes of operation, direct tuning and band search auto tuning. With direct tune you simply key in the frequency of the station you want to tune to and hit enter. Band search allows you to select a short wave band, say 49 meter and then have the radio scan for active stations. You can store up to 40 favorite stations and the set can also be set to scan through those as well.
Sensitivity of the YB400 is excellent, I live in Up State NY and using only the supplied long wire antenna regularly listen to Radio Bejing, Radio Taiwan, Radio Hilversum (Netherlands), BBC World Radio and occasionally Radio Havana. Station stability is pretty good with very little drifting and stations are very intelligible. I have also received French, German, Italian and Spanish language broadcasts from Europe.
The YB400, being a true receiver, rather than just a radio also incorporates an SSB (Single Side Band) capability that gives you access to broadcasts from radio hams, maritime (shipping) and aircraft.
In terms of other functionality there is an alarm clock facility and a sleep timer, both of which work well. The night light for viewing frequencies and signal strength in the dark is a little low powered, but works best in absolute darkness. All the control are of a good size to be used by just about anyone (surprising for such a compact set). I do with the front panel buttons had some kind of back lighting though.
To answer the question I posed myself earlier though, they left nothing it, they just took one of those high quality radios and put it in a smaller box. It took 30 years to get my Grundig receiver and I love it.
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