Grundig Mini 100 PE AM/FM/SW Radio

Pros: Very good shortwave reception, small, simple, long battery life, great value
Cons: Weak AM (medium wave) reception

You can spend a lot of money on a very small shortwave radio. If you want to do that, check out the Sony ICF-SW100 or ICF-SW07. Those excellent radios will cost you $350 to $500, and they do offer a whole host of features and "toys." They're also...

Pros: Great battery life and useful portability in a shortwave radio
Cons: The tiny speaker sucks

This is a review of the Grundig mini 100 PE shortwave radio. It can be purchased at a very low cost of about 20 to 40 dollars online. The radio is very tiny less than the size of a pack of cigarettes. It looks like Grundig makes another more expensive ...

Pros: Inexpensive, very small, audio better than other similar sized radios
Cons: hard to tune, drifty, suffers from most known shortwave problems

It's hard to bash this little radio because it is so cute and inexpensive. And what can you really expect for under $40CAD? Still, I can't help but wonder if shoppers wouldn't be better served with something twice the money, twice the size and a lot more ...

Pros: Very small, light, inexpensive, good use of bandspread, good sound with headphones
Cons: Wish it had the 16 Meter band (21.5 MHz). Tunes "backwards" (confusing).

Once I spent $ 360 on a fancy name-brand pocket shortwave radio, only to be disappointed by the mechanical ruggedness of the unit. It broke, and I threw it away because fixing an 8 year old radio didn't seem to make any sense.

Yet, I still...

Pros: good SW, excellent FM Stereo, batteries seem to last forever
Cons: cheap and scratchy volume potentiometer, AM really weak

I had one of these: The potentiometer for the volume control died after 50 hours of use. Autopsy revealed an "el-cheapo" component. FM stereo was superb (ear buds), sound, sensitivity, station separation. Just amazing, I assume the radio uses the ...

Pros: Fits well in hand, rubberized finish
Decent speaker.
Fairly sensitivity for size.
Excellent battery life.
Cons: MW is average and will occasionally suffer from "birdies."
Pouch is flimsey.
No dial light.
protruding antenna
some drifting

I initially stayed away from this radio because of the antenna "protrusion," figuring it wouldn't fit easily into my pocket.  Well, it comes with a pouch with a belt loop.I've had a number of Grundig Mini100s and while I like the ...

Pros: Excellent reception, especially with homemade antenna attached, handy size, pretty good sound.
Cons: Too many bands to listen to, not enough hours in a day.

Works like a charm, I am in East Texas and can hear the world. Clear reception, good sound. Speaker rattles some at higher volumes but is expected from such a small unit. Unbelievable stereo F.M. sound with headphones. I am amazed. Truly outperforms my 1939 model Truetone cabinet radio.

Pros: Twice as good as any other internal-speaker pocket radio I have ever seen.
Cons: None whatsoever.

I saw where one reviewer complained about a "poorly engineered AM band and useless internal speaker." I couldn't disagree more. I am about to buy a 2nd Mini 100 PE, precisely because I love the way it precisely tunes AM stations, and projects an incredibly robust sound through its compact speaker. Also, battery life far surpasses anything I'd ever seen before, and I've tried a great many pocket radios, going all the way back to the very first Sony "transistor" radio.