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Recently obtained the G3; I took a chance to compare it to an E5. For me the E5 is the far better radio - mainly in AM sensitivity and sound. A pity that it's sold out. Now about the G3:
The good: FM RDS, Line In, continuous AM tuning (no muting) 1kHz by wheel, 5kHz by buttons, Bandwidth switch, Sync and SSB USB/LSB, DX/Local switch, Display excellently readable thanks good contrast and new reflecting background, Meterband displayed, S-Meter AM/FM, Clock always displayed, Clock w. Weekday and Timezone adj., 4 Timers 1-99min w. per-Weekday-activation and indiv. Volume, 8-character-labelling for 100 memory pages (7 memories each), copy-and-paste memories/pages, phone-like numeric keypad for immediate frequency entry, ATS, FM sound is ok~good, compact size, good battery life (? - still testing),
What I liked less: Volume much lower than E5's, especially AM; one weak SW station I barely heard at vol. 31 (max.), some weak SW/AM stations drown in the noticable steady noise while I clearly can hear them on the E5, Sync on a weak station sometimes locks beside the frequency and causes a loud beep, I could not read any SSB ham radio (telescopic antenna), some AM/SW stations sound squeezed like 64kbps mp3 (playing w. Sync, SSB, wide/narrow may make it better), some weak SW stations being interferred by neighbours become even weaker w. Sync activated - thus not possible to hear with or without Sync; once activating Sync I heared some speech overlayed (from a strong FM station?) making the SW reception worse; AM scan catches only the stations at almost full S-level,
no FM sound adjustment, FM 0,05MHz step only (not 0,025), FM signal fades even one step aside - you have to scroll _very_ slowly when manually searching FM (scan works good, but misses weak stations), I had images +/- 1MHz of two very strong FM stations (switch to Local helped to catch a weak station instead), weak signal = no stereo = no RDS (no Stereo/Mono switch), RDS has to be reactivated after FM scan or memory tuning (but does not reset to Station name display), Timezones are sorted by cryptic (to me) 3-Letter City abbreviations, selection only w. radio off; rarely sometimes the keypad fails: pressed AM, but '0' appears on display or pressed RDS, but frequency steps down, instruction contains incorrectnesses (SSB activation is by U/LSB button, not SYNC button e.g.), some because copied from E5 instruction(?), keys not lit from back; no 'check what's in this memory' while continue listening.
Conclude: For FM listening the RDS is a goodie at a new location to explore what's in the air. For chasing SW/AM radio while travelling the analogue-feeling scrolling through the bands is still good, but I'd always prefer the E5. My G3 will rather get used for unattended FM radio recording (if carefully positioning it, the antenna and the DX switch) with a level-activated recorder attached. I tested near the window in a city with lots of strong FM and other radio wave sources, I didn't use/test the Air band.
Rating:  [4 of 5 Stars!] |
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