The Satellit 300 is a PLL synthesizer tuned portable radio receiver, launched onto the market in 1983. A single conversion set, lacking full coverage, dual conversion or SSB, this radio was likely to be considered unworthy of the Satellit name by many. However, for those who wanted it the 600 offered the full set of traditional Satellit facilities. The 300 was a toe in the water, a development exercise which had a place in the market. That place was with those who wanted more than a typical radio, but less than a communications receiver.
 

Reception.

On FM, this set is more sensitive than many, though not in the same league as the 500/700. The tuning meter is a gem however, well calibrated and consistent, it is also rock steady. Grundig appear to have got the damping just right on the meter, the needle moving quickly to the right spot, but not overshooting. It also seems to give a true indication of signal strength. In short, a better meter is hard to imagine. It may not be a proper “S” meter, but is that necessary on this class of radio?

On AM, again a good, though not ground breaking performance, but without the advantage of dual conversion, images often crop up, sometimes sounding little more than background noise, but inferior even to the dual conversion Yacht Boy 500 in terms of rejection. Bandwidth filtering is about the same as the Satellit 700’s wide setting. Again, the tuning meter excels.
 

Audio.

A widely acknowledged strong point of Grundig radios, this is excellent considering the size of the speaker, about 4 inches / 10 cm. diameter. Bass is not as strong maybe as on some older Grundig Satellit’s with bigger drive units, but better than the 700. Clarity is not as good as the 700 however. Which radio you’d prefer the sound of is a matter of taste maybe, but, as with the 700, few would find much to criticise. The facility to use the radio as an amplifier for tape recorders also exists.

If sound quality is important to you, bear in mind you cannot connect an external speaker, as the output socket has a buffer resistor to run headphones. If you never want to use headphones, the resistor should be fairly easy to remove, or you could fit a switch to by-pass the resistor, to allow the full output to pass, the socket being mounted on its own little circuit board. This assumes you don’t mind spoiling the originality of the radio. The socket is a stereo one, wired for mono as no stereo facility exists. Monitoring  through Sennheiser HD480’s on FM listening to a broadcast CD, the sound quality is very good, though inferior to the Satellit 700. Line-out is provided by a DIN socket, and though lower in level, surprised me, considering the speaker sound, and the era the set was made, by being as good as the Satellit 700.

AM quality is silky smooth. It would be nice to compare an early model 300 with the inferior filter set-up, to see what difference it made. Despite not having anything like the Sony ICF 2010/2001D’s facilities, the sound quality would surely have trampled all over that set.
 

Ergonomics.

Controls are well thought through, the keys fairly logically grouped, the sliders silky smooth and still crackle free despite the age of the set, quality components pay in the long run! The keys didn’t always respond first time when I first got the radio, by which time it was around 12 years old, but a little work to open the radio up, remove the keypad unit and clean the contacts with switch cleaner soon cured it completely. My major gripe is the fact that the numerical keys are set up as memory keys first, direct entry keys second. This means that you press one to call a memory but have to press “SET” first before starting a frequency entry, then have to press “FREQ” to enter it! I would have preferred to have them act as frequency entry keys unless I pressed “SET” and then a key followed by a “MEMORY” key to access a memory! The direct entry process is slowed down considerably by the existing arrangement, and quickly becomes tiresome! The 300's successor, the 400, addressed this shortcoming.

Dial and meter illumination is permanent when externally powered, switched when fed by batteries. Unfortunately, the switch also selects battery check, which means you can’t use the tuning meter facility in the dark when using batteries.

Auto search is available on FM, MW & LW, but on SW the scan buttons act as metre-band skip keys. Sensibly for a set with no BFO, it does not stop on amateur bands.

Given the lack of other tuning facilities on SW, the tuning knob is definitely a necessity. Fortunately, its a gem, smooth and easy to use. Indeed, for band scanning, it is slightly better than the Satellit 700 with a lighter, less notchy action. The set is equipped with Variable Rate Incremental Tuning, which later Satellits don’t have, largely because its not very much liked by many. Turning the tuning knob slowly uses the standard steps, 1kHz on AM, 25kHz on FM. Increase speed however, and the set will mute, and raise the stepping speed proportionately to how fast you dial. This is useful for shifting up the band quickly, but it is hard to control, overshooting often occurring.

The LCD display is small and not very comprehensive, the possibilities having not yet been realised by manufacturers. Thus it is capable of displaying only the waveband, using pre-formed letter combinations, a few functions like auto-time, kHz, Mhz, set, and so on, plus the frequency in the segment-character section. This occupies the same section that the clock uses when switched off, so the clock has to be called up manually when the radio is in use. The display on the Ocean Boy 340, a 90’s radio for a fraction of the price, is almost identical in facilities, but beats the Satellit 300 hands down in terms of contrast and viewing angle. This was a common problem with LCD’s in the early 80’s which were still in their infancy.

Also, the same criticism as I have levelled at the Satellit 700, regarding the rear stand/telescopic (whip) aerial arrangement, applies here. The aerial tilts and “locks” at 45 degrees, so it would have been nice if the stand had held the radio at 45 degrees too, thus holding the aerial vertical. Luckily the aerial is much lighter than the 700’s, so is less of a problem.

Overall, the above criticisms are based on hindsight. Bear in mind the fact that this set was leading-edge technology at the time, and you will realise that I’m not implying that this is not a good radio. Had I been writing this in 1983, This would have read very differently. Even today, all things considered, this is a nice set to use, and own.
 

Facilities.

In some ways this set is something of a paradox. Devoid of many facilities that similar sets possess today, it is, none-the-less, endowed with more tricks than the general public, as radio owners, are even aware exist.

One clock, one fixed-at-one-hour-switched-on timer, to the last tuned station only, fixed memory quantities per waveband, mechanical switching of power and wavebands. It all seems prehistoric now, but back in ’83, this was an impressive and innovative radio. The memory facilities are well thought out, with the emphasis on SW and FM, as most enthusiasts would want it. An aerial socket is provided, for all 4 wavebands on the 300a model, only for FM & SW on the earlier 300. Switching out of the internal aerials is automatic, using a small switch in the socket. Incidentally, it beats its big brother, the Satellit 600/650, by having facilities like station search and last station memory, so it's not totally primitive!

Memory & clock/timer backup is maintained by 3 AA cells, in addition to 6 C cells that run the radio, making this a slightly dearer set to run than some. No internal charger is fitted, but rechargeables can be used for the C cells. They are not recommended for the AA’s as you are likely to lose your memory! Care must also be taken when changing the AA’s! Fortunately, the batteries are all secure in their holders, unlike the famous Sony ICF2001D/2010 problem. You could probably bang the set against the wall without it loosening the batteries. Don’t try it with mine, though! The mains supply is handled internally, and is fused on the primary and secondary side of the transformer, fuses being accessed by a small removable plate on the bottom.
 

Sum-up.

A useful radio with better than average sound for the size in modern terms, good reception, distinctive in appearance, and a part of the “Satellit” dynasty, these are still giving sterling service to both original and second owners. The scarcity of these on the second hand market may reflect overall rarity, or a reluctance of existing owners to part with them!

Look at it in context, and appreciate it for what it is, a piece of Grundig history.

Grundig Radio Boy