I needed a radio with good AM reception for my office and this radio has worked great. The reception is better than I got with my Sony receiver and external loop antenna. Station presets would be nice, but the tuner is very easy to adjust.

I've only had mine a short while, but I'm happy with it. It's quite portable. It has good sound and one or two, but far from all, of the more modern features people have learned to expect in this type of radio. Its raw performance as a radio on AM, FM, and shortwave is about what I'd expect from a good portable-- and I'm a collector of sorts. I have now and have owned in the past some blasted good portables.

$100 for a radio may seem like a lot, if you're not familiar with shortwave. But for a radio that has respectable performance and is fairly easy to operate it's a good deal.

This radio is built in China and is also available in some places as the Tecsun BCL-2000, for less money. I understand this set has the incorrect power supply for North America, but as the power supply is an external "brick on a cord" thing it's easy to replace. I've also heard the Tecsun doesn't cover AM to 1700 KHz as the Grundig version does.

Chinese-built radio quality is more consistant than it used to be, but I've still heard reports of spotty performance; when you get one, you want to check it thoroughly and be sure it works properly.

You must understand that this is an old-technology radio with a new-tech overlay. The tuner is an old-fashioned analog type. The digital display comes from a frequency counter, part of a computer control chip that also gives you a clock and alarm.

This combination of old and new tech gives the S350 its strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses are:

1. Unlike sets with fully synthesized digital tuners, this radio is subject to frequency drift. Mine drifts badly when I first turn on the set, but settles down to minor or none after about ten minutes.

2. It lacks multiple timers, station memories, widgets, gadgets, bells and whistles.

On the other hand, its analog tuner is more pleasant to operate than a digital set. I think it provides better sound, although that might just be the larger cabinet and speaker. What it DOES provide is the ability to scan across a radio band to see what's there. Digitally synthisized receivers either make a chugging noise as you tune from one digital frequency to the next, or they mute for a fraction of a second to hide this chugging noise. This means you have to tune to the next frequency, wait for a second to see if there's anything there, tune to the next frequency, and so on. It's much less pleasant than the S350's analog system.

In short, if you know exactly what frequency you're going to, a digital portable with keyboard entry will work better for you. But if you want to tune around, this one will do better.

Granted the better synthesized radios get around this chugging problem, but we're talking my $600 desktop set here. And even that has a bit of synthesizer noise you can notice once in a while.

The analog tuner also means this radio is easy on batteries. Some synthesized sets are real battery monsters.

There are some things you have to watch out for.

This radio has an RF gain control at the lower right of the front panel. It's like a second volume control. It lets you damp down a signal if that signal is too powerful for your radio to handle, and is making it behave strangely. However, it's really easy to turn this down by accident. Then your radio won't be able to pick up any AM or shortwave signals to speak of. You won't know why. You'll figure the set is no good. Well, before you throw it out the window, tweak the RF gain and make sure it's turned full to the right.

Likewise, there's a filter switch on the right side of the radio at the top. If you have the filter kicked in it will weaken your AM and shortwave stations a bit. But if you're on top of a powerful FM station, this filter should theoretically help you prevent that station from overloading your radio and making it act strange.

Some reviews state that if you turn the radio on, it turns on for 90 minutes and then shuts down. They say there's no way to avoid this annoyance. I believe this was true on the early sets, but on mine, if you just tap the power switch the radio comes on for 90 minutes, then shuts off; if you hold the power button down for a second or two, the radio turns on and stays on until you turn it off. If you're planning to buy one of these, you might try turning it on and off both of these ways to make sure you've got a new one.

The dial light switch is similar. Tap it, the light comes on for a few seconds. Hold it down, and the light stays on until you turn it off. I suspect this would be hard on the batteries.

It's a decent set, with good performance and good sound for the money. Its technology is simple, but that makes it easy and pleasant to operate. If you can live without a keyboard and preset station memories, I think you'll like it.

I received the S350 as a Christmas present and I love it. I am new to shortwave and I am really impressed. The reception is excellent. Living in the Northeast, I have been able to receive stations from places like China, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands and even Cuba. There are so many interesting stations to listen to, I haven't had time to try them all.

The display is large and crisp. The ability to control bass/treble separately is a nice touch. One of my favorite aspects of this model is the look and feel. It's got that old school, WWII look (digital display aside) and it feels like it's very well made.

I'd definitely recommend this to anyone seeking a quality, portable shortwave.

First I will say that I am new to all this radio stuff. I am kind of a "Techno Geek" and I heard a report on NPR about the Shortwave Number Stations a few months back. My wife asked what I wanted for Christmas and I gave her a short list with a shortwave radio on the list. Well Christmas morning I opend up a new Grundig S350 from Radio Shack and boy am I happy. It's a recent build with the defeat for the 90 minute sleep timer. The radio is very easy to operate and the manual is very simple and informative. There is an RF Gain control that comes in very handy with AM and Shortwave reception and the narrow / wide switch also helps finding weak stations. The AM & FM reception are excellent. The radio pulls in distant AM stations clearly and the sound on FM with the mono speaker is very good that will fill a room and there are Stereo Line Out RCA Jacks to connect to your high powered stereo. The Shortwave reception is everything I wanted. The second Channel I tuned in was a Spanish Language Number Station. I have listened to all the big SW Stations (VOA, BBC, Radio Havana etc)and 100's of smaller ones. After 3 weeks of listening I now have the hang of shortwave listening. The tuner does "drift" just a little on Shortwave and AM but after about 15 or 20 minutes of operation it all but goes away. After 50+ hours of operation the battery indicator is still on full. The radio comes with an AC Adapter but I haven't even plugged it in yet and I may not ever use it. I don't have experience with other brands but if you want an excellent all around AM/FM radio with the added bonus of SW and an easy to use analog tuner with digital readout the Grundig S350 is well worth a look.

I'm not your typical radio-phile but I love this radio. The FM reception is stronger than any other radio I own. The sound is excellent and it looks beautiful. I have not much experience with the SW yet.