Radio Boy

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Reception.

Since the new price of the YB360 was about two-thirds that of the 500, you’d be forgiven for expecting the 360 to be less sensitive. But you’d be wrong. There’s no doubt about it, on FM the 360 has the edge, on SW it’s more than an edge. Weak stations are stronger, and there’s less noise (internally generated synthesiser noise on the 500, I suspect) suppressing readability of the signal. Considering the similarity in size of the 2 radios, I suspect the 500 has more space devoted to its vast array of facilities (more later) and less to the actual RF/IF stages. Incidentally, both are dual conversion radios, so neither suffers from images. Neither have 2 bandwidths to choose from, nor external antenna sockets, Local/DX switches or any kind of gain control override. So on paper, they are equal. In the flesh, they aren’t!

Incidentally, coverage on the 360 is slightly more generous on LW, which goes down to 144 kHz, as opposed to the 500’s 150 kHz. The upper end is the same at 353 kHz. On the 500, MW covers 513-1611 kHz when set to 9 kHz spacing for non-US territories, but is 530-1710 kHz when set to 10kHz. (The SW coverage retracts to 1711-30000 when this option is selected). The 360 however covers 520-1710 kHz whichever option is selected, which is odd, as it suggests the radio was aimed at the US market with it’s extended AM band, but the radio was never sold there. (But as you'll see later, I believe I know why it has the coverage it has.) In fact, as far as I know, it was never sold here in the UK either, I got mine from Germany. Strangely, the instruction book comes in the usual 10 languages that Grundig Radio manuals usually cover.
 

Audio.

Figures often don’t give the full picture. In this case, they do! Speaker size: YB360: 2.5 inch, YB500: 3 inch. Output power YB360: 320mW on batteries or external 9v supply, YB500: 300mW on battery unboosted, 1 Watt boosted on battery or unboosted on external power, 2 Watts boosted on external power. Yes, the 500 is louder, richer, fuller sounding. In this department, no contest!
 

Ergonomics.

Despite some styling similarities between them, ergonomics are not that alike. The operating system is more user friendly on the 360, though as I was already used to the 500, initially, the 500 actually seemed more instinctive to me. For a newcomer to SW radios however, the 360 has less to remember, as there are fewer cases of buttons with 2 or 3 functions.

The 360’s display is smaller, and yet, while having less to tell you, is not as clear as the 500. Characters are too small and finely detailed, making viewing more difficult, and the display lamp is too dim and only works on one side, and is thus of little help. The 500’s lamp, while not the most successful, is certainly better than this. While the software in the 500 allows more sharing of display areas for different functions, the 360’s simpler operating system means that there are more areas required on the display, hence each having less space to itself. It is this that has made the display less clear, and it’s a shame. Also, the keys are less “positive” in their action on the 360 than the 500, making mis-keying more frequent.

On the plus side, the volume control on the 360, a large thumbwheel on the right hand side, is smooth and easy to adjust, much nicer and easier to use than the slider on the 500. The tone switch is more useful too, thanks to a better choice of treble cut level.
 

Facilities.

A clear win for the 500, with its RDS, line-out socket, cassette recorder remote control socket, 2 fully programmable timers, lighting options, boosted output, and single sideband facility. And that highlights a quirk in the 360. Although it has no SSB facility, it has the amateur bands programmed into it, ie/ you can key in the 40 metre band, hit Freq/m-band, and it will go to 7100 kHz, the start of that band. Yet without SSB, it can do nothing with the signals received there. Strange. A clue to a relationship to a model between the 360 & 500 perhaps? With SSB, but no RDS, for example. I believe so. See below.

The 360 has search, rather than scan, on the AM bands. This can be useful, the set stopping only where a signal exists. And fortunately, the  search “stop on this signal” parameter seems to have been set at a sensible level, as it makes rather a good job of it. Even on FM, it does the search better than even the Satellit 700. It also has fast manual tuning obtained by holding the up or down tuning button, which moves quickly through frequency ranges with the audio still active, so you can hear a station as you hit it and stop. Much better than most PLL radios.

A first glance at the LCD display suggests a superb signal strength meter has been fitted, with 20 segments, 4 more than even the Satellit’s 500 & 700. Sadly, all is not as it seems. The segments are wired in groups of 4, so actually it’s only a 5 segment meter. And not a particularly good one, as it gives full deflection on most signals. So not much of an improvement on the poor 3 segment meter found on the YB500.
 

The origin of the species!

Sum-up.

From the above, you might think I don’t like the YB360 much. But you’d be wrong. While it lacks the audio and the facilities of the YB500, it was also cheaper, and is a better receiver. For someone on a budget, or a beginner, or if this was going to be your only SW radio, and you could live with the slightly less generous audio, the 360 could be a better bet than the 500. If I had to choose however, I’d probably go for the 500. Even with it’s lower sensitivity, the extra facilities and audio, plus the better quality of construction (Even to the casual observer, the 500 looks better made and more successfully executed) just tip the scales in it’s favour. Make no mistake though, the 360 is a very good radio, which deserved a longer, more successful production run than it got. It always seemed the forgotten model, and is thus hard to get hold of, even secondhand.