Satellit 2000

The Satellit 2000 was a high-end 1970s radio with shortwave reception capability and manufactured by the Grundig Corporation. It was one of the most advanced double-heterodyne radio designs available to the domestic market due to its ability to receive single sideband broadcasts (SSB), which are used by the Navy and military organisations. However, there was a slight catch to this feature in that you required an optional SSB module that plugged into a multi-pin socket at the back of the radio. Due to its ability to receive SSB, the electronic design has to have additional circuitry that reintroduces the carrier to the sideband, which makes the electronic design exceptionally complicated. Whilst the circuit construction uses printed circuit boards in a modular design architecture, the boards are oriented in different planes, and connected by wires, which can make access difficult. However, on the positive side, all the wires would have been hand soldered by manual labour, and something like this is hard to find today.

Due to the double heterodyne design, repairing this radio is not simple because it has dual oscillator and intermediate frequency (IF) stages. A typical advantage of this type of design is that the first oscillator, mixer, and IF stages are responsible for extreme image rejection, whilst the second set of oscillator, mixer and IF stages are responsible for extreme adjacent channel rejection. This then enables the use of very high-gain filter blocks to increase the sensitivity, which increases performance immensely.

Features

• Double superheterodyne
• 21-waveband reception: 18 × SW, MW, LW, and FM.
• Battery or Mains operation
• Built-in charging circuit
• Extreme image rejection on SW 3-10 bands
• High linearity and calibration on SW 3-10
• Antenna Trimmers for SW 3-10
• Ceramic filters for AM ensures high selectivity
• Bandwidth selection 2.5 kHz and 5.5 kHz with switchable filter
• 187 m to 10 m continuous reception
• Drum tuner with 8 band-spread
• Amateur bands 40 m and 15 m included
• Separate FM stages
• Switchable automatic frequency Control AFC
• 7 W audio output (when mains powered)
• Two Superphon loudspeakers bass and midrange, switchable tweeter
• Bass and treble controls
• Tuning meter and battery level indicator
• Twin extension telescopic antenna

eBay / Cost

Radios such as these are often for sale on eBay and the cost is usually well over a hundred pounds for one in good working order and condition. However, the value can drop drastically for a broken one, as these radios were difficult and time consuming to repair. The Satellit models were high-end Grundig radios, which had unique electronic designs that set them apart from the rest of the manufacturers. It was an expensive product and not everyone was able to afford it, therefore the manufacturing numbers would have been moderate.

Shortwave Radio Bands

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