Grundig YB400PE AM/FM Shortwave Radio

Good FM clock radio, very bad SW receiver
DO NOT BUY. My father bought a new YB400 for me for a graduation present in 1995. I have never been able to pick up any SW station. I am in Colorado now, 100km away from the high power time stations, and I can't pick them up. Just hear buzzing noises. Nothing on LW either. AM (MW) reception is poor but it does get some stations. This was really expensive to turn out to be an FM clock radio. The FM reception is good, the clock works fine, the light is nice. Equivelent to a nice $20 radio for 8 times the price.

Great Portable With Excellant Reception!
This is one of the best portable radios out there.It has great shortwave reception! The F.M. and A.M. both have great sensitivity and selectivity; the ability to pull in weak stations next to strong ones. The only reason I don't give this radio 5 stars is because of the telescoping antenna. I've been through 5 radios because the antenna becomes lose and breaks after a long period of use. Other than that this would be a perfect radio.

Worst Grundig product i have owned
I purchased the YB400PE and could not wait for it to arrive,When it did arrive i eagerly unpacked it and fitted the batteries. I quickly read the instruction,s and turned it on,The first thing i noticed was the aerial was loose and floppy and the small slide switches on the side felt loose as if they were going to fall to bit,s. When i moved the DX/Local switch it crackled badly and still crackled when i left it alone. I tried the SW bands and the reception was pathetic and buzzing all the time, On MW i could hardly hear my favorit station (magic 1152) so i switched on my old valve radio to see what the reception was like, It was perfect. The only good reception was the FM band. The LCD screen was very faint and could only be seen by looking at it straight on which was very annoying. I took the radio to bed and fitted the wire antenna to it thinking that i would pull the SW station,s great but it was still buzzing and useless. I parcelled it up the next day and sent it back to the supplier after emailing them for permission to return it. I have now ordered a Kaito 1103 after reading the excellent report,s on it. No wonder we don,t see many Grundig product,s in the shop,s now. Very dissapointing. keithcolwell@tiscali.co.uk

A Lot of Bang-for-the-Buck
I've been collecting radios for a couple of years now, and own over 75 (at last count). They range from old tube-type AM table radios to early transistors to the latest and greatest. Let me tell you what I think about the Grundig YB400-PE:

Strong points:

1) Solid-feeling quality. It doesn't feel cheap when you pick it up.
2) Good sensitivity across all bands.
3) Nice, full sound from the internal speaker.
4) Accessory package includes a good quality soft case, AC adaptor, bud-type earphones, and 23' compact SW antenna
5) The ability to switch tuning increments to help fine tune in a hard-to-tune station.

Not-so-strong points:

1) Only 40 presets. I don't need 200, but it would be nice to be able to separate them into "folders" for AM, FM, SW.
2) Battery life is acceptable, but definitely not exceptional. I usually plug in the AC adaptor because of this.
3) I wish it had a rotary tuning and tone (bass/treble) knobs. Why? I just like them.
4) The backlight is very weak -- a poor choice of LED's

I know a lot of people find SSB reception to be important, but I rarely use it. As often as not, I like to just tune around the SW bands at night and see what I can find. Sure is interesting to hear the viewpoint that other parts of the world have about the US.

I'm a radio fan, not a radio geek. I just like to play around with radios that are easy and fun to use and sound good. If you're like me, I'll bet you'll like this radio. If you're a geek, you may have more bones to pick with it, but on that I really cannot comment.

Great Electronics Value - some bad packaging design
I have had this radio for 3 years. It has worked well and has good sound quality as well as very decent shortwave performance for the price.

Pros: Great value for price and I recommend the purchase if you want a good shortwave radio with stereo FM capability. The cons which follow would not prevent me from making this purchase again.

Cons: The packaging is (injection molding plastic fit/finish and design) is poor and much like a product that costs $20. It has not failed but just leaves a bad taste compared with Japanese competition. What is worse is the legend for the features that one would use in low light conditions such as alarm is medium blue against black, small letters. They can't be read easily in normal light, much less normal household lighting. The logic is typically German...like my 2 VWs...they seem to do things in a way that is different from anyone else and thus it is not intuitive without reading the manual...again, if it is a seldom used feature. Also, a tone control instead of a switch would have been nice as well a ability to charge batteries while plugged in.