Thanks to the January sales, and my aim to get more involved in HF radio, I purchased a portable receiver this month; the Eton E5.

This is a small radio, measuring around the same size as a paperback book. Despite this however it includes full coverage of the Long Wave, Medium Wave and Short Wave bands (that's full coverage as in 150KHz - 29999KHz without gaps) receiving both AM and SSB transmissions, as well as the FM broadcast band (87.5MHz - 108MHz). This makes it great for travel, allowing one to keep up with events at home through Short Wave broadcasts whilst listening to local news and music on FM.

Powered by only 4 AA batteries, the unit is easily kept powered. It also comes with a small power adaptor, although battery power seems more than adequate having run it for nearly one week without any sign of power drain. The radio features a charging circuit allowing rechargeable batteries to be replenished should this be required.

Tuning is a breeze thanks to the tuning knob on the right side of the unit. Frequencies can also be entered directly using the keypad, shortwave bands can be selected through the Meterband button and the most common broadcast short wave bands are available on the 7 function buttons just below the screen. Direct key entry makes this easy to use for amateur radio reception since only a few button presses are required to select the frequency band wanted. SSB reception is selected by a push of another key which selects between AM and SSB.

Although SSB is provided, there is no button to choose between upper and lower sidebands (USB/LSB), so it is simply a case of fine tuning the frequency until voices become legible or tone becomes a pleasant pitch. A fine tuning control is provided to make this as easy as possible, although there is no visual indication of any effect as the on-screen frequency display is only good to 1KHz.

A sign that this is primarly designed for travel, is the built in clock featuring world time adjustment and alarm. The time is constantly displayed except when changing volume when a number indicating loudness is displayed instead. The addition of a permanent clock is a nice feature for logging, and I will personally be leaving this set to UTC/GMT.

As far as the build of the unit is concerned, it feels solid and like it good take being thrown about a fair bit. The radio does come with a thin carry pouch which will certainly protect it from scratches and bumps, but probably not anything too severe. A carry strap is provided pre-attached to the radio. It's not clear how strong this is, but it should help to prevent accidental drops.

The weakest part of the build will be the aerial. It's a long telescopic aerial and when fully extended does feel a bit weak and wobbly at the top. It could easily be bent or snapped without due care being taken over it.

Overall, I like my new radio. Being portable, it will be a take anywhere device that has opened the door to HF radio for me. Using only the telescopic aerial, I have managed to receive amateur radio transmissions from England, France, Spain, Italy, Serbia and the Ukraine quite easily. There could be further destinations, but I can't yet decode all the morse code transmissions I have heard. Performance will no doubt be even better with an external antenna.

At £61.99 (at the time of purchase) from Maplin, this was a bargain, but even at the usual price of £89.99 this still seems to be a good value receiver.