My Grundig G2, an AM-FM-SW radio I got in 2014, which has been my main SW radio since then. That's one reason I post a pic of the G2 so often -- I use this radio daily.
As I've probably said here a whole bunch of times, I am a fan of the Shortwave Radio spectrum. I tune into the SW bands every night and/or early morning. Why? Because there are some interesting stations and signals to hear there, and also because it's fun to hear signals from Southern Africa, Madagascar, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, NZ, Alaska, Central Mexico, the UK, Ascension Island, and other places across the globe.
Shortwave is a dying medium, that is true. But one could say the same thing for a LOT of different media in the internet age.
It doesn't make it any less fun to listen to SW, though.
For the last 9 years, since September, 2014, my main radio for tuning the Shortwave broadcast bands has been my trusty Grundig G2. It happened almost by accident.... I bought the radio because it was on sale at Fry's Electronics, for around $30 (I've seen G2's for sale for as high as $299 online recently -- that's how much some of them have increased in price since they were discontinued some time around 2017 or so).
As soon as I started using my G2, I noticed that it worked great off the whip antenna, and not only that, the G2 was easy to use, and it sounded great through headphones. FM also sounds rich, and the G2 is quite sensitive on FM, too. We don't get much, if any, FM Band E-Skip here in my section of WA state, but sometimes tropo enhances FM stations from Canada and northern WA. Lately I've been listening to a new local FM station on my G2 -- KPNW, on 98.9 FM, which plays a wide variety of alternative rock and some classic rock.
98.9 here in Seattle has been varied. In 2014 or 2015 they went rock, and became "Rock 98.9, KVRQ". They played a great selection of classic rock aimed at Gen X'ers, ranging from the mid to late 1980s metal (G'N'R and Motley Crue) to 2000's era alternative and Nu-Metal. I listened to Rock 98.9 every night, and even talked about it here on the blog.
Station ownership didn't seem to promote Rock 98.9 very well, and it flipped to country a year and a half later, and became "The Bull". That didn't fare well, so now the owners are trying an eclectic station that mixes old and new. So far, I like what I hear on KPNW. Either way, it sounds great on my G2.
THE G2 -- MY MAIN SHORTWAVE RADIO
The G2 makes it easy to tune through the SW broadcast bands, as you can toggle from band to band (through the 60m, 49m, 41m, 31m, 25m, 21m, 19m, 16m, and 13m bands). And because the G2 is set to tune in 5 kHz steps on SW, it's easy to tune across a band and see what's on. It has 55 memories on SW, which are already full -- most of the stations, like the Voice of Greece, are no longer on the air, but it's cool to have the frequencies loaded into memory anyway.
I was also able to record some of my catches, until I filled the onboard, 4 gig memory. I still have to get an SD card to insert into the bottom of it to continue recording SW and MW catches.
So the G2 has been my go-to radio on SW and FM. I sometimes use it on MW, with a loop. But I have other radios that I use more on MW. Even so, the G2 is a pretty handy little radio, and a battery charge lasts 1-2 months, depending on use.
I wrote an extensive article on the Grundig G2 here.:
Fast forwards to 2023, I still use the G2 daily.
In the upper right hand corner of the G2's display you can see the battery indicator, which -- in this case -- is 4 bars of battery. The battery indicator goes from 4 bars (full power) to zero bars (time to recharge). Being that my G2 has glitched when the battery hits one bar of battery, I think that if your battery is up in years, it's probably a good idea to recharge it when it hits one bar.
THREE PREVIOUS GLITCHES
Now, up until recently, there were three times that my G2 wigged.
First Glitch, Maybe in 2016?
The first time, when I turned on my G2, it was on the lowest channel in the US FM band (87.5 or 87.9 Mhz, I don't remember which) and when I switched to MW it was set to 9 kHz spacing (the default). Naturally, I hadn't tuned to that FM frequency or had the radio on 9 kHz spacing when I had used it the previous night, so the changes meant that something had gone awry.
On SW, the radio was stuck on one frequency, and it wouldn't apparently tune. Turning off the radio and turning it back on didn't fix the glitch. I re-set the radio by pulling the battery (a BL-5C, which looks like a large cell phone battery) and putting it back in. It fixed the problem. Luckily, I didn't lose any preset memories, nor did I lose any sound files.
Second Glitch, Probably 2016
The second time, the radio locked up when I was recording a station off SW. Pulling the battery was the only way to get it out of the locked-up condition.
Third Glitch, 2020 or 2021
Maybe two years ago, the G2 glitched again, and like the first time, it was when the battery was low (it had been at around one bar of battery for two weeks). This time, when I fired up the G2 one evening, the clock was off by about 12 hours. The SW band was set to a frequency I never have tuned to or listened to (6340 kHz). I re-set the radio (by opening the battery compartment, pulling the battery out, waiting about 15 seconds, and plugging the battery back in), and then I recharged the battery.
G2 Loses Its Memories Last Week, June 2023
This last time, just last weekend, was a real puzzler. The G2 had been on one bar of battery for maybe a week, and one night (just a week ago) when I fired up my radio it was set at 87.5 MHz (no station in this area is on 87.5 and I never tune there), and the MW was on 9 kHz spacing. My radio's user preference memories were gone, and my sound files were missing. On SW, the radio was set to 2300 kHz, the lowest it will tune.
Obviously, there was a power issue (due to the low battery?), and the radio was running on its default settings. And somehow, it was not seeing its temporary memory chip which has user settings, user pre-set memories, and soundfiles.
Pulling the battery and re-setting the radio that way didn't change anything. I tried again, waiting a little longer before re-installing the battery. It didn't fix the glitch, either.
For awhile I thought my G2 had mostly fried. The radio would still tune the FM, AM and SW bands, mind you -- on MW I'd have to change to 10 kHz spacing every time I switched on the radio -- but, even though it would still tune the bands, all the radio's memories were lost.
I was saddened by it, actually. A lot of the sound files were from stations that no longer exist -- Radio Disney on 1640 kHz, Voice of Greece, and a couple others. I had backed up all the sound files to my laptop computer, but still.... it felt bad losing all the sound files and user created pre-sets.
I thought about it for a while and figured that maybe the problem was the LOW BATTERY. My G2's BL-5C battery, after all, has been used since almost daily since 2014, and the date code on the battery itself is the year 2012.
So I recharged the battery, which took maybe five hours.
Then I switched on the G2.
Same issue. Nothing was fixed.
Crap, I thought to myself. My G2 has lost its little mind.
In the process, though, I noticed the RE-SET button -- a small pinhole located just beneath the battery, inside the battery compartment.
I found a piece of stiff, thin wire and pushed it into the hole, re-setting the radio. While I did this, I kept the radio OFF. The battery, however, being at full power, was still obviously powering the microprocessor -- which runs all the functions, including the ON/OFF button. So, the RE-SET will still work with the radio off.
I took a breath and turned on my G2.
Instantly, it was back to where it had been two days previous!!!
All my memories were back, the radio's sound files were back, and when I switched to SW it was tuned to the last frequency I'd listened to (I think it was 11780 kHz, Radio Nacional da Amazonia), and MW was on 1660 kHz and set to the North American standard channel spacing, 10 kHz.
My radio was back!
LESSON LEARNED: CHARGE THE BATTERY WHEN IT HITS ONE BAR
My takeaways from this experience is that when a lithium battery gets old, recharge it before the battery hits zero bars on your radio (my G2's battery meter has 4 bars, and it will work on zero bars for a while until you get a power failure warning and it cuts off).
Also, when your battery has a few years on it, buy a few backup batteries, which is probably a good idea anyway -- especially if you are in disaster prone areas like the NW US, which is earthquake country. I intend to get a couple spare BL-5C's and a small charger online.
Being that I average one to two months per charge, a couple extra batteries would be handy if I take my G2 camping, travelling, or during an extended emergency.
So, for all of you who have radios that use these rechargeable BL-5C's, and rechargeables that are up in years, when the batteries get old -- or if and when your radio glitches when the batteries showing one bar or less of power -- RECHARGE YOUR BATTERY when it hits one bar.
And remember the RE-SET BUTTON, if your radio has one. It might not be easy to notice at first. The Re-Set button on my G2 was hard to see. Someone who isn't well acquainted with SW and portable digital radios might not know where to look for one.
IN OTHER LIFE.... SUNSHINE
The weather here has been improving. Earlier today it was about 80-85 degrees F and sunny. I went for a three mile bike ride down the valley and back. My cat Squeakers is gaining weight and is always waiting by the door to her room, meowing whenever I approach, wanting me to watch her eat dry and canned cat food. I keep her separate from my other cats because she doesn't like to eat if other cats are around.
Work has slacked off a bit, giving me a bit more time to get things done around the house and yard. And there is a lot to do.
SO FAR, SOLAR CYCLE 25 IS MOSTLY A DUD
With that, I'll close this blog article, and hope all my readers are doing well and keep those radios humming. The sunspot cycle is looking more and more like a dud, but at least there is something to hear most nights and afternoons. MW really sucked for DX last night, although KFBK Sacramento came in strong with the Coast To Coast AM program. SW sucked big time earlier this afternoon, with the 19, 16, 15, and 13 Meter Shortwave bands all dead as a doornail. There were two US stations on the 21 Meter Band (Radio Marti and WWCR / University Network). Amazonia was alone on the 25 Meter Band.
The 27 MHz sideband channels were dead. The "Outband" (including the Latin American calling channel, 27455 kHz USB) was dead. The 15 Meter Ham band was dead, aside from some weak JT65 on 21065 kHz. The 24 Meter ham band was dead. The 20 Meter Ham band had a handful of extremely weak CW signals between 14020-14045 kHz. There were maybe 3-4 USB convos in the 20 M band sideband section, including a barely readable guy from Italy. But overall it was nothing like we have been told about the new Solar Cycle.
But, you learn to enjoy what you have. :-)
Until next time, my friends,
Peace.
C.C. June 26th, 2023.
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