Manufactured by Grundig, Fürth.

After the Grundig Satellit 208 was launched in 1967 as the first world band receiver from Grundig using the double cconversion technology. The turret tuner of the Satellit 2000, which was introduced in 1973, was now arranged horizontally, in contrast to the predecessors Satellit 210 and 1000. The Grundig Satellit 2100 was introduced in 1976 and underwent changes mainly in the AF range & design.

• Black professional look: Decorative frames and knobs black
• Black: front-facing trims and knobs silver coloured

• Principle: Double conversion, IF 2 MHz, 460 kHz / FM 10.7 MHz
• Operation modes: A1 with BFO (optional), AM (A3), FM (F3)
• Frequency range: VHF, LW, MW, KW1 (1.6-3.5), KW2 (3.3-5.2), K3-10 with switchable band spread from 49 / 41 / 31 / 25 / 19 / 16 / 13 & 11 m - broadcasting band
• Frequency dial: analogue dial
• Frequency memory: none
• Signal strength indicator: S-meter
• Signal processing
• Features: antenna trimmer, FM-AFC
• Sensitivity: AM (A3) approx. 2 μV / Selectivity: kHz 2.4 / 5.3 kHz (-6 dB)

• Mains operation: 110-127, 220-240 V
• Batteries: 6 x 1.5 V (UM-1)

• 460 x 270 x 120 mm, weight 6.9 kg

• SSB adaptor 2000, external BFO, connected via connecting cable

This heavyweight (6.3 kg) and bulky (46 x 27 x 12 cm) portable receiver was a very popular and widespread world band receiver, especially in Germany in the mid-seventies. It can be powered from 6 UM-1 batteries, from 110/220 V mains voltage or from 9 - 16 V DC via an adapter cable.

Three horizontally arranged frequency dials occupy the right half of the front panel, with the corresponding tuning knobs at the right. The dial for LW, MW and the two tropical band ranges of 1.6 - 5.2 MHz are located at the top, in the middle is the dial window of the turret tuner, the 9 shortwave ranges are selected with a massive knob on the right face of the radio, a small switch in the centre bar selects between the general coverage range (e.g. 12.5 - 16.5 MHz) and the corresponding spread broadcast band (e.g. 15.0 - 15.6 MHz). With activated band spread and a reasonably linear frequency response within a band, the dial accuracy is about 10 kHz. The dial accuracy is mediocre. In order to re-tune a frequency on which a particular station is active, a linear calibration dial with subdivisions from 0 - 100 is helpful. However, for each frequency, the value of the calibration dial must be written down in a notebook. At the bottom, you find the FM dial and the corresponding tuning knob, the AFC can be switched off with a slide switch in the centre bar.

Large push-buttons on the top face of the set, under the massive carrying handle, switch the set on and serve as range selectors; two push-buttons also switch between the built-in ferrite or telescopic antenna and an external antenna. With a direction finding frame antenna, the Grundig Satellit 2100 even offered a limited capability of direction finding in the maritime communications range, but the signal maximum must be read off the small S-meter above the tuning knob, which has only a 1 - 5 marks. In spite of the existence of an antenna trimmer, the set cannot cope with long wire antennas, it tends to overload and intermodulation.

The RF signal processing is limited to a switchable IF ceramic filter; despite the wide filter skirts, the separation of two stations in the 5 kHz grid succeeds quite well with the narrow filter. Single sideband reception is only possible with the external SSB adaptor known from the earlier radios in the Satellit series.

The left half of the front panel is taken up by the speaker grill and the volume and tone controls, which are designed as rotary controls. The large loudspeaker with additional switchable tweeter is supplied with 7 watts of music power from the generously dimensioned audio amplifier.

The Grundig Satellit 2100 was a state-of-the-art (analogue) world band receiver for the traveller who had no problems with lack of space; it saw most frequent use as domestic radio for receiving the international shortwave services from Europe and the most powerful overseas stations. Due to the limited possibilities of signal processing and especially the inaccurate frequency display, the Satellite 2100 cannot meer today's expectations of a DXer, it delivers unsatisfactory performance in the tropical bands and, with the BFO addition and insufficient stability, is a poor performer in the amateur radio bands, and cannot be ueed for satisfactory reception of SSB or even RTTY/FAX signals. But despite the licence for limited maritime communications operation, Grundig probably never had the ambition to pack a real communications receiver into the case of a portable set.

In my opinion, the weak point of the Grundig Satellit 2100 are the band switch contacts. The slider controls sensitive to dust of the predecessor model were replaced by the more reliable rotary potentiometers. The high-frequency contacts of the turret tuner are gold-plated and less susceptible to corrosion, but it took extensive cleaning of these contacts and especially those of the bandwidth switch and the push-button unit to bring my Satellit 2100 back to full life.

Double conversion, analogue technology with bandspread on the shortwave broadcast bands.

The set is equipped with semiconductors.

• Grundig Satellite 2100 on the website of www.radiomuseum.org