Hi all 
I just jumped on an Etón E5 on the infamous Bay. It was yet another impulse buy, but I’d been made aware of the reputation. Including postage it was £43.00 (app $58 US), which I was happy to gamble; can’t wait for it to arrive! Does any member have experience of this little beastie? Up until now the radio I enjoy using most is one I bought last week, a Panasonic RF-B11, fully analogue of course but sound quality, sensitivity and selectivity are wonderful, and hiss suppression is impressive. Not quite ultralight of course but worth mentioning I thought. 

Drifter

Yes, I have one. Mine cost £50.
It is a bit quirky.
Mine is faulty. It continues to use power when the radio is switched off!
It works fine on the included power supply though, which doesn't cause too much interference.
You of course lose your settings when you switch it off.

Peter

Hi Peter
Does £50 mean you’re in the UK? Anyway, thanks for your reply. Mine doesn’t have the power supply, and I’m now hoping the battery drain is okay 🤔. I’ve just found a few videos on YouTube with one of them by an Englishman called Peter, that’s not you by any chance? How do you think it stacks up against current competition?
Drifter

Hello Drifter,
No, it means I'm from the UK and bought it there.
I do have some E5 videos.
The problem is I can't easily make comparisons with other radios, as I have to use a power supply with the E5, that does cause some problems to other radios.
It does lack a very narrow bandwidth, (just a narrow and wide switch for bandwidth), so it isn't as selective as my DSP portables.
The sensitivity is good, however, although the ergonomics are not good.

Peter

Hi again Peter
Thanks for the clarification! I also appreciate your take on this set, and as soon as I get mine I’ll update this thread. 

Drifter

Drifter, 

I have owned so many of these portables, but I remember the E5 well. I believe the one I had was a G5, and Grundig branded, but essentially the same radio.  Performance-wise you can expect it to be similar in performance to the Degen DE1103/Kaito KA1103.  I believe that they are very similar internally, but the E5/G5 ditched the odd slide-rule LCD setup.  You will enjoy it!

--Neil, W2NDG

The E5.G5 were among the best performing  portables in this size I've ever had, along with the original (not the current) Degen DE-1103. Very good AM for this size class of radio with a low noise floor. FM and SW very good also.. I wrote it up when it was a current model but my opinions on it have not changed.

Jay

https://radiojayallen.com/eton-e5g5/

I have an E5 which has been in hibernation for yonks since the telescopic antenna broke off.
Time to get it out and hope that the electrolytics are still healthy :-)

Is there a service manual - ie schematic etc online ???

Michael UK

Hi Michael
Is yours the original Etón or the later Grundig? From a couple of comments on this thread I’m getting very nervous 😟.
Drifter UK

Well that’s cheered me up a bit Jay, thanks for that!
Drifter

My E5 is an original etón E5 "Designed in California, assembled in China".

I can't find the original manual... Is there one online?

Michael UK

Thanks Michael
Yes, it still available and really nice quality, from here: http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/Eton%20E5.pdf
Unlike a lot of online manuals you don’t have to sign up for anything!
Drifter

Great! Many thanks for the link!

Michael

Okay, it arrived this morning; I’m happy! To be totally happy I wish that the screen cover hadn’t fallen off when I unwrapped it 😞. Anyway, all appears to be okay so far. For some reason I’m unable to set the day of the week following the online manual, but this is a minor concern at present. I’m slowly getting to know it and it has some very nice features for an old set. What I’ve fallen in love with though is the manual tuning, there’s continuous hiss until you find a station, not like my two Tecsuns which I find very disturbing with their da da da da da (it’s actually worse than that) as any owner understands. It has an impressive antenna which without measuring it appears to be about a yard long. An odd thing I found was that it doesn’t scan FM unless I’m doing something wrong? I really need to read the manual! The SSB appears to work fine, and the BFO certainly does, producing wonderful rising and falling pitch. It’s unusual in having a line out socket in addition to the more than useful antenna socket. I’m giving some thought to the pressing problem of re-gluing the screen, with my present thinking being to use a thinned down PVA. Any other suggestions welcome, but with the thinned down PVA  I could use a small paintbrush to carefully apply it, and it will hopefully dry clear and invisible. It would appear that these screens do get lost, as I noticed when I watched a Toddebert video on YouTube, where his is clearly missing. Apart from this the set seems to be very well made, I especially like the buttons, I don’t believe you’ll find better anywhere. One thing I’m not so keen on is the finish, it appears to have that non-slip coating on it, which although it makes it safer to hold I’d rather it wasn’t there.

I will update further soon. 

Additional: I continue to play with my new toy, still finding new stuff. Got my first SSB hit this morning, for anyone who might be interested I did a bit of recording on my iPhone. I was very happy with this catch! Any comments appreciated. 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2pqbnkfuv4lm1am/20220201-113648.wav?dl=0
Drifter