The Yacht Boy P2000 (G2000A (Tan cover) & G2000B (Black cover - discontinued) in North America) is a PLL synthesizer, 4 band (counting the 2 SW ranges as 2 bands, there is no LW!) portable radio, launched onto the market in late 1997. It didn’t replace anything, being a completely new departure for the company. It wasn’t cheap for such a small set, but it is unusually styled, and a well specified radio for it’s compact size. It also has one other interesting thing in it's favour: It's the only Grundig item to be available in all territories (Europe/Australasia/North America) since introduction to the present day (April 2006). At 8 years and counting, it's got a long way to go to overtake the Sony ICF2010/2001D for production span, but someone in the company must love it! See the update below for more details.
Reception.
On FM, sensitivity is good for such a small radio, stations that the Satellit 700 gets quite well, but are absent on the YB500, are OK on the Porsche. In fact, it's so good, and so compact, that just pulling one element of the antenna out (which allows the leather cover to remain closed) and putting it in your pcket with headphones connected allows it to be used as a very good personal stereo, the strong FM stations never losing stereo or hissing unbearably.
On AM, again, more sensitive than the Yacht Boy 500, but with a caveat, see later. One night in early December 2001, for example, I listened to “Madly Off in All Directions” on RCI, 6175 kHz. It was often difficult to hear on the Satellit’s, as none of RCI’s frequencies for this programme were aimed at Europe, only America. The 2000 picked it up well, though maybe reception conditions were very good that night. One afternoon, 11990 kHz, Kuwait, was better on the 2000 than the YB500, and the fading was handled better too. However, there is the aforementioned caveat, which is that, in common with many small or cheap radios, reception tends to suffer when you put the radio down, and remove your hand, (though on rare occasions, it improves!) which the radio is using as an extra antenna. The YB500 does not suffer from this effect as much, and when both the 2000 and the 500 are sitting unheld, the reception seems much the same. Remarkably for such a small radio, synthesizer noise on the 2000 seems absent. One other point: like most small radios, including the YB500, the whip is not nearly long enough. Fitting a 36 inch antenna to a small radio is a problem! Generally, it would fall over! However, judicious tilting of the antenna (Ignore the advice the "keep the whip vertical for SW stations" given in the manual) or of course a length of wire clipped to the whip can help. You can buy the reel type antennas, but a length of any insulated wire, say 20 feet or so, will take up little space when traveling, and can work wonders. The other thing to remember is siting of the radio, near a window for example, or an inactive TV, can help. But if you are interested enough to be reading this, you probably know all this anyway!
Lacking dual conversion, images do crop up quite strongly. Whether it is a serious problem to you depends on what you are trying to receive. Given the gap in coverage from 7.4 to 9.4 MHz, it can be useful!
Overall, a much better performer for it’s size than you would expect. Then again, as I said before, it wasn't cheap (But see below).
A Local/DX switch is not included, but I find they are usually of little real use anyway. You can always retract the telescopic antenna on FM/SW.
Audio.
Grundig radios usually excel here, and this radio is no exception. Clearly, it’s not going to be Satellit 210 quality. Indeed, it’s not even YB500 quality, but it isn’t bad for the size of the radio The amplifier feeding the speaker appears to have been set up to avoid delivering frequencies that such a small drive unit could never handle. This avoids distortion and saves battery power. The sound is crisp, output is only 250mW, and compared with the YB500’s 300mW unboosted it seems less still, due to the smaller speaker, but it’s quite effective, and can be heard across the room reasonably well, if not quite “room filling audio”! Indeed, carefully placed, it can easily be heard around a reasonable sized house. Clarity certainly isn’t a problem, which can be the case on some SW radios.
It comes with a pair of Grundig labeled in-ear phones, which for me, never stay in properly. Plug in a pair of quality headphones, however, and the sound is excellent. Not quite in Satellit 700/Yacht Boy 500 levels, it lacks the bass extension, but very close. FM is delivered in stereo, thought there is a mono switch to override the decoder on weak signals. Stereo separation is not all it could be.
Ergonomics.
The case is durable and solid, and the mock Alloy finish looks like it’s going to last, (March 2006 and it's unmarked! However, it is not still "as new" see the update below.) it’s not just a coat of paint. Fit & finish is excellent, and the keys, volume slider and switches all feel like quality items.
The LCD display is good, with large, clear main characters and excellent contrast. Even the smaller function flags are easy to read. Illumination, activated by a push button on the front, stays on only while held, but is excellent, the display being easy to read when lit by this lamp only (unlike the YB500!), and is a modern green colour. The lighting cannot be run continually while externally powered.
The time displays when the radio is switched off, but has to be called up when in use, as the same part of the display is used for frequency display. An alarm flag displays when that function is set. A battery low indicator exists. 3 AA batteries run the radio. The radio will retain memory and clock settings for 10 minutes when changing the batteries. After that, the memories and clock settings will be lost. This is explained in the instruction book.
Battery life seemed excellent, well over the usual 20 hours that PLL radios running on AA cells usually give, so I logged a set of cells (May 2006) to get an idea of battery life expectancy. It turned out that a set lasted for 36 hours! (This was based on using Panasonic "Xtreme Power" AA's (for no other reason than they were the cheapest known brand AA's regularly available - at Argos, 32 for £8, when I boughtt them, though Argos now do Philips alkalines even cheaper) and usage of 4 to 5 hours a day on FM at fairly high volume levels (Above half) through the speaker. There was also about an hour of mixed AM/FM usage on headphones, but I haven't counted that. Note that AM usage will probably result in slightly shorter battery life, as AM draws more current. So, whatever your opinion of this model, it is certainly economical to run for an AA powered radio. Note that C cell and D cell powered radios will always be cheaper to run, as they have higher capacity, for little extra cost. EG/ AA cells cost about £0.25 to £0.50 each, and have a capacity of around 3Ah, (3 Amp hours, or to put it another way, will supply 3 amps for an hour, or an amp for 3 hours, in theory). C cells have a capaity of about 8 Ah, and cost about £0.50 to £1 each, D cells cost the same as C cells, and have about 16 Ah.
The front panel controls are attractively styled, the buttons don’t click, but there is a positive feel about them, so you instinctively know that the input has been accepted.
The volume control is located on the top of the radio, as is the wave change switch, and both have a pleasant, smooth action, suggesting expense has not been spared on components. Sadly, both controls are covered when the leather cover is fitted, which doesn’t seem too well thought out. Cut-outs in the cover would have been a good idea.
Fortunately, the sockets, being on the side, are exposed when the cover is fitted. Sockets are limited to headphones and 4.5V DC-in. Strangely, the DC-in polarity is the reverse of the Yacht Boy 500 and Satellit 500/700.
The leather cover doubles as a rear stand, but the tilt angle is so low, the radio is nearly on it’s back anyway. When using the stand, the telescopic (whip) aerial cannot be vertical, because the knuckle is too low down relative to the top of the radio, so the top gets in the way. Fortunately, the aerial is held by a friction joint, not the detent type, so it stays put in the best position it can be placed in. It isn’t a heavy aerial anyway. The leather cover tends to be a bit resistant to folding into the tilt position when new, and the magnetic catches fail to hold it, but "work" it a bit (ie/ fold it too far a few times) and it will eventually stay locked in position as intended. (However, this has been addressed on newer models, see below) Replacement leather covers are listed at the US parent company's website on the parts list under "support"
Facilities.
For the price, the memory facility is a little sparse, with only 5 programmable slots for each of the 4 wavebands. Last station memory exists, but once you use a pre-set, you cannot recall the last manually tuned station, as no button exists to call it. You have to retune, if you can remember what it was! Tuning options are up/down keys which also activate auto-search on all wavebands if held for about half a second.
Direct frequency entry is also provided, a godsend as no tuning knob exists. Frequency entry is not unlike the Sat 300, you have to press the “freq” key before inputting numbers, then press “freq” again to confirm. Like the YB500, there is no decimal point key, but in this case the frequencies that can be entered are more restricted. Given the coarse steps used on the AM wavebands, the software is quite clever at interpreting direct frequency entries. For example, when on SW1, enter 607 or 6070, and the radio will move to 6070kHz. Enter 6075, it will move to 6075kHz. Enter 608 or 6080, it will move to 6080kHz. However, enter any value from 6071 to 6074, or 6076 to 6079, and it moves to 6075kHz, assuming the last digit entered to be a 5, the only valid entry for the last digit. On MW, it will tune to the nearest correct frequency above/below that entered.
SW coverage is 2.3 to 7.4 MHz, and 9.4-26.1 MHz, so most of SW is covered, except the 7.4-9.4 MHz chunk, where there isn’t a lot of broadcast output, (remember, no SSB exists, so no need for utility band coverage!). I presume the SW band above 26.1 MHz has been omitted to allow sale in Italy without modification. SW tuning steps are 5kHz, which is coarse, but generally adequate for a broadcast-only receiver. There’s no bandwidth option, and no other fine tuning facility, so adj. channel interference is something you have to live with, if there is any. This is the one area where it really suffers compared with the YB500, with it's 1kHz steps and a fine tuning control, which allows adjacent channels to be avoided quite well. MW steps are switchable between 9 & 10 kHz, making it usable worldwide. There is also a switch to select broadcast metre-band coverage of SW only, or full coverage of the receivable bands. While there is no SSB unit fitted, I see no logical reason to restrict coverage to the metre-bands, except perhaps for SW beginners. Even then, the switch only restricts coverage to the same coverage as hitting the "meter" (American, or Metre in Europe, band) button on the front, rendering the switch in the battery box really pointless. My advice: Select full coverage, if you want to stick to the restricted band coverage, use the "meter" button. The choice is there if you want to restrict it, though.
Timer facilities are good for the price, a fixed 10 to 90 minute sleep timer is joined by a single, fixed 60 minute switch-on timer. Timer setting is a little fiddly, with no direct entry facility. Instead, it involves scrolling through the hours and minutes using the up/down keys, a little surprising given the direct entry keys being present on the radio. The timer cannot be used to change stations while you are listening to one station, it has no control over the frequency received, it merely turns the radio on at whatever the last station received on the currently switched waveband was. The timer can be used to activate the buzzer while you are listening to the radio, useful as a reminder if you have something like an appointment coming up.
A function lock switch
is fitted on the front, to stop accidental mistuning, and to lock the set
off while in transit.
Interestingly, the serial numbers for the December 2001 set is in the 71000 range, and the April 2006 set is in the 169000 range, suggesting that sales and/or production have gone up, assuming there are no "missing" serial number segmants. Based on an introduction date of Dec 1997, the first 4 years has about 17500 units a year, while the second 4 years has about 22500 units a year, so it's still selling well, which suggests it will be around for a while to come.
Some things worth noting as a result of getting a second, later model:
Not much has changed over the years on this model, but there are one or two things of note:
1/ The leather cover has changed! See the photo below. The new radio and cover are on the left, with the inside of the cover shown, the old radio on the right. As you can see, the inside of the cover is lighter, but what might not be entirely clear is that the inside is now like Suede. The cover was always made up of 2 layers of leather sewn together, but now appears to be one layer of leather on the outside, one layer of suede on the inside. This makes the cover fold over backwards to be used as a tilt stand more easily, and so it locks into place better. The magnetic catches don't seem any stronger, but the case does stay put better, addressing one area of criticism from the initial review in Passport to World Band Radio.
2/ Performance seems
unchanged.
3/ The type plate has
one small amendment, see below:
On the old one, The "CE" is bigger, and the symbol above it (PC?) is absent. This of course is the European typeplate, I assume the American one is different anyway.
4/ The finish of my original one has changed! I'd never have noticed if it wasn't for having a new one beside it, but, while the finish has not been marked, it has lost it's "lustre", the shine that really made it look like metal has gone, you can just about make it out in the photo above. Now, the change is not patchy (which would suggest wear in places regullrly touched) nor is it restricted to areas uncovered by the leather (suggesting fade, perhaps due to sunlight) though in any case, this radio has not been exposed to too much light, often spending months in a cupboard) so I guess it is just a case of the finish losing some factory-applied shine enhancing substance. I won't be using the new one, so will keep it in the polythene bag it came in, and see how it fares.
Sum-up.
At about £80-£85
in the UK, generally more in the US, this was not a cheap radio when introduced.
now though, at £40, it's a bargain.
For that price, reception
is excellent, and all the basic facilities needed are present. The fact
that it looks so distinctive is a strong advantage.
But one of the most interesting
things is the address on the back of the instruction book! Usually it’s
Furth. But on this one, it’s: Grundig audio internacional, 4701 Braga,
Portugal. The radio is made in P.R. China, but Portugal must still have
some involvement in the radio division, even if it’s only writing the instruction
books!
Overall then, while I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone as their only World Receiver, due to the low volume/sound quality, and coarse tuning steps, as a travel companion, it’s very good. The YB500 is ideal for a 2 week vacation, the 2000 is better still as a weekend trip radio, or briefcase/glove box radio.
Plus the appearance!
Grundig Radio Boy