Grundig Satellit 800 Shortwave AM FM Radio Receiver DX or PROGRAM LISTENING UNIT

Description

This sale is for a classic Grundig Satellit 800 shortwave radio receiver.  Please observe the pictures at the top of this listing for specific cosmetic detail and use the magnifier which enables you to see the receiver as if it were sitting in front of you.
We have sold over 200 of these Satellit 800's here on Ebay and it is a pleasure to offer this highly regarded radio receiver which appeals to such groups as emergency preppers, casual shortwave listeners, or DXers.
We have thoroughly tested the receiver and found it to perform excellently with no issues when running it through its paces.  Our testing covers a variety of the primary and secondary functions.
Not all of the 800's offered here on Ebay are in proper working condition.  About 65% of the used 800's that come into our hands require some sort of service work to restore proper operation.  You will want to be careful if you purchase one of these Satellit 800s elsewhere as several of the recent ones that have come into our hands have had serious issues such as a bad encoder, bad volume control, or a defective PLL board.
Most commonly, the sync detector is not working properly or fails to even work.
Please note that these Satellit 800's are often known to have a low battery indicator even with strong batteries.  We did not notice this problem with this particular Satellit 800, but should this ever occur, this issue does not affect performance and is merely visual on the display.  If you operate the radio on AC, you will never see this indicator and you may not experience this issue on this radio, but we wanted to mention it since it appears regularly on these 800's as they age and as the components fall out of tolerance.
The Satellit 800 comes with the following items:
a proper low noise AC adapter (if you do not need the 120 VAC adapter, we can refund )
copy of the user manual
a copy of the 48 page service manual
a copy of the 5 page sales brochure
a copy of the 2 page ad from Popular Communications 2002
a copy of the 2 page ad from Passport to World Band Radio 2003
a copy of an ad found in WRTH 2003
a copy of catalog page Universal Radio 2003
a copy of advertisement found inside Universal Radio catalog 2004
famous Passport Whitepaper review
review found in QST - October 2000 (amateur radio magazine)
review found in Medium Wave Circle
review found in RadioIntel by Adam Smith (initial impressions)
review found in RadioIntel by Jay Allen (general review)
Passport to World Band Radio review 2001
Passport to World Band Radio review 2002 (revised)
Passport to World Band Radio review 2006
There are about 2 lbs of printed documents offered for free in this sale.  In addition, we are including a CD with contains a copy of many extra advertisements, mods, the user manual, reviews, and other materials are found on this CD (contains over 420MB of documents).  The CD is not for sale and is supplied free of charge to the new owner.
Here is some specific information regarding the 800 if you are not familiar with its capabilities.
This radio is a multi-band radio that has AM, FM, shortwave, and air band across its frequency spread.  It was manufactured in the late 1990's and early 2000's before being discontinued and thus relegated to the ranks of desirable, but no longer available units.  The only way to purchase this outstanding receiver is via the avenues for used equipment like Ebay.
The Satellit 800 utilized two outstanding manufacturers of world band equipment....Grundig and R.L. Drake.  Grundig carries a strong reputation with the European market due to it's reputation for top of the line radios and legendary sound.  R.L. Drake, on the other hand, gained a lasting reputation for well built amateur radios and consumer shortwave radios.  Both companies have struggled with competition from cheap imports the past decade so the collaborative effort seemed to be a natural marketing decision.  Drake was retreating from both the amateur and consumer world band markets, but had invested and begun to harvest sales from their world band R&D efforts and it made sense that this know-how would not go to waste.
One of Drake's better radios was the SW*8 manufactured in the 1990's for about 5 years.  This Satellit 800 took the technology utilized in the SW*8, but placed it in a larger cabinet with a bigger display, a bigger speaker, and easy to use controls.  The result is an improvement over the technology being offered in the SW*8 for a new generation of shortwave radio in the Satellit 800 and thus the continuation of high value technology.
What makes the 800 especially appealing is that it is a "portable" receiver that approaches desktop capabilities. This is uncommon for those DXers wanting great equipment, but also with a degree of portability.  The Yaseu FRG*7 built in the 1970's also offered an on board DC power supply, but was heavier than the microprocessor 800 and does not offer digital readout.  Thus, if you want a receiver that will give you killer reception and portability, the 800 is the ticket.  This 800 can be transported to the cabin, the yacht, the RV or any number or places where AC current is not available. The 800 takes 6 D cells in the back compartment and the dial lamp can be turned off to extend the life of the batteries.  As you can see from the picture, the battery compartment is clean with no signs of rust or corrosion.  With operation using standard D cell batteries, emergency preppers will have ready access to information on the AM, FM, and shortwave bands....especially the amateur radio bands.
The 800 is capable of receiving transmissions from 500 KHz to 30,000 KHz and can be used in AM or lower or upper sideband.  This means that it can tune into AM radio, marine, amateur radio, and international shortwave broadcasts.  If that weren't enough, this receiver is also capable of picking up both the 88-108 MHz FM band and the 118-137 MHz air band.  This is unusual for a serious receiver to pick up all of these frequencies.  Typically, you will not find radios that receive both shortwave and FM signals equally well.  That makes the 800 especially attractive for you can listen to whatever band strikes your fancy at the moment.
For us, we don't believe that we have ever tuned in on the air band.  We live in a rural area and air traffic is sparse.  However, we really enjoy shortwave listening.  Here in the States, we have been raised on TV to a great extent and AM and FM to lesser extents.  The world of shortwave is a well kept secret and that is a shame.  On any given night, we generally tune into about a half dozen broadcasts from overseas that are in English and that give great news, commentary, drama, cooking lessons, travel info, interviews, language lessons, music, and much, much more.  The music alone can keep you entranced as we will frequently tune into Greece for music (9420 KHz when transmitting) and then re-tune to Cuba for some late night Latin music (6000 & 6165 KHz).  All of the programs are in English and thus you as the listener are offered the opportunity to hear music other than oldies or FM top 20 hits.  The best way to describe international broadcasts are PBS style programs with an international twist.
The 800 is loaded with features.  It has 70 memories to capture your favorite frequencies, a keypad for direct entry of frequencies, a back lit display light, headphone jack, tone control to shape the sound to your preference, a great sounding internal speaker a dual clock / timer for local and international time, convenient up / down step tuning, choice of 3 bandwidths to avoid side channel interference, and a scan feature to select stations from the memory.
If you live in an apartment or plan to use the receiver in an RV or boat, you can use the on board whip antenna.  The radio has the typical two part antenna which is really two antennas in one.  You extend only the lower part if you are going to listen to FM or the whole antenna for world band listening.  If you live in a place where you can erect an outside antenna, the reception of the 800 will knock your socks off.  The antenna does not have to be fancy as even a random wire about 30 or 40 feet long will make a huge difference. Thus you have 3 antenna options...a PL-259 connector for coax cable, terminals for plain wire, or the on board telescopic antenna
.
There is a wealth of info available on the Web concerning the Satellit 800.  Probably the best site for info is the eHam site since this offers reviews from other owners of this radio where over 65 reviewers have given it a combined rating of 4.1 out of 5:
https://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1699
(copy and paste the link in your web browser)
If you like to listen to amateur radio or you plan on using this Satellit 800 on a boat for marine frequencies, you will be delighted to know that the radio is sideband capable.  You can easily decode and tune stations operating in the spectrum of upper and lower sideband frequencies.  With the radios strength in reception, you will be able to receive communications for hundreds, if not thousands of miles.
Should you have any questions that we can answer, please feel free to email.  Those living in the USA may use the calculator for their shipping cost.  The shipping cost includes purchase of good packing materials, insurance, shipping, and delivery confirmation.  This is a fairly large shipping box and the shipping cost reflects the cost of shipping a larger item.
Buyers outside the USA may also use the shipping calculator for to cost to ship via Priority Mail or Priority Mail Express.  Express Mail is more expensive, but offers extra tracking and speed of delivery.  If you do not get a cost in using the calculator, then it is likely that the shipping box will be too large for international shipping via US postal service.  We can ship using an alternative method.  Please inquire, if interested.
We are happy to ship to you, but please keep in mind that you may need to be responsible for any customs, import or VAT fees and taxes as your country requires if Ebay doesn't collect this at the time of payment.  If you are not familiar with whether you will need to pay additional import costs, please contact your local customs and post offices prior to making a purchase.
If you do not require the 120 VAC wall adapter, we can refund to you and not ship it with the radio.  Please let us know if this is your choice so that we may either adjust the invoice or refund your money prior to packing.
Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to look at our Ebay items!