Eton 550 User Manual
FIELD RADIO 550
The AM/FM/Shortwave radio that’s outstanding in its eld
OWNER’S MANUAL
FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
MEET THE FIELD
Thank you for purchasing the Etón FIELD AM/FM/SW
Radio. We want you to thoroughly enjoy the use of this
product. To take advantage of its many excellent and
unique features, we urge you to carefully read the user’s
manual.
INSTALLING BATTERIES
The battery compartment is on the back of the radio.
Remove it by pressing the two tabs and pulling up. To
prevent battery acid leakage, follow these instructions.
Battery acid leakage is not covered by the radio’s
warranty. Install only fresh, new alkaline D cells, all of
the same brand and type. Never install or replace with
batteries of different brands and types. Never mix old
batteries with new ones. When not using the radio for
more than 30 days, remove the batteries.
BATTERY TYPE AND OPERATION
Use 4 D size alkaline batteries. Install them with
correct polarity using the diagram inside the battery
compartment. Replace them if the battery strength
indicator in the display shows one bar or the sound
becomes distorted. The radio will turn off automatically if
the batteries become too weak.
BATTERY LEVEL INDICATOR
The battery level indicator is in the upper left corner of the
display. When batteries are full,
will be displayed in the
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
LCD; if ashes, it indicates that batteries are low and
the radio will soon turn off automatically.
USING AC POWER
Plug AC adapter into the socket on the right side of the
radio. Use only the AC adapter supplied. When the AC
adapter is plugged in, the
will show in the upper left
corner of the display. If you lose the AC adapter that came
with the radio, use one with 6 Volt DC output, negative
polarity, 500 milliampere and a plug with 5.5 millimeter
outer diameter, 2.1 millimeter inner diameter.
POWER FAILURE BACKUP FEATURE
If batteries are in the unit and it is powered via its AC
adapter, it will automatically switch to battery use if there
is an AC power failure.
TURNING THE FIELD ON AND OFF
Turn on the radio by pressing the red POWER & SLEEP
button on the front top right corner of the radio. When
the unit is on, press the POWER & SLEEP again to turn the
radio off.
TUNING
There are several ways to tune the radio to a desired
station:
• Rotate the tuning knob to select the frequency
• Short press the UP or DOWN button to step by step
change the frequency higher or lower
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
• Long press the UP or DOWN button to seek the next
station up or down in frequency
• Press the PRESET button to tune to the next preset
station
Short press the Q.TUNE button to increment quickly up
the frequency range. The Q.TUNE button steps up in
frequency by 1000kHz in FM mode and SW modes and
100kHz in MW (AM) mode. Long press the Q.TUNE button
to continuously increment by the steps noted above.
TUNING IN FM STATIONS
The FM frequency range is from 87.5 to 108 MHz.
Fully extend the telescopic antenna and turn on the radio.
Place the top BANDWIDTH control onto the MONO or
STEREO position. Stereo is needed only when you’re using
headphones and STEREO appears to the bottom left of
the frequency in the display. FM mono has better signal
and noise ratio as well as anti-multiplex interference.
RDS/INFO:
The FIELD Radio supports RDS Data Streaming while
tuning in the FM band. A short press of the RDS button
will enable the display of RDS information as PS/PTY/RT/
DATA in cycle. The
left corner of the display in RDS mode.
icon will be displayed in the lower
PS: station name , when no station information, just
display “NO PS”;
PTY: program category, no program, just display “ NO PTY”
RT: Radio text, no text, just display “NO RT”
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
DATA: Clock/Date/program call information, if no
information, just display “NO DATA”. If the information is
available, the display format is:
Station call Weekly Month-Day-Year Hour:Minute
Weekly format:
“MON”, “TUE”, “WED” “THU”, “FRI” “SAT”, “SUN”,
For example, the LCD will roll to display as WGSS, TUE 0325-2014 02:15,
TUNING INTO MW (AM) STATIONS
Place the top BANDWIDTH switch into the W or N position
(wide or narrow). Place bottom BANDWIDTH switch into
the MW position.
Place SW RF GAIN switch into the 5 position, higher if
necessary.
Tune in the station with the TUNING knob or by pressing
the UP/DOWN button or by pressing and holding the UP/
DOWN button for one second to engage auto tuning.
Use WIDE if no interference is present. Use NARROW
if interference is present.
CHANGING THE TUNING STEPS (9kHz or 10kHz)
MW, or medium wave stations, known as AM stations in
North America, range from 520 to 1710 KHz in North
America and from 522 to 1620 KHz in other parts of the
world. In North America they tune in 10 KHz steps and in
other parts of the world they may tune in 9 KHz steps.
The radio is set up for 10 KHz tuning by default, but to
change the steps to 9 KHz, With the radio off, long press
the PRESET button to select.
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
Long press to switch 9K or 10K, the LCD displays 9K or
10K.
USING THE SW RF GAIN KNOB
When listening to SW broadcast stations, this control knob
should be dialed to or near position 5. If you are listening
to a weak station, increase the gain, when listening to
extremely strong stations, decrease the gain. For listening
to Shortwave stations, place this control to maximum gain
and decrease the gain as necessary.
CHANGING THE TUNING SPEED USING THE TIMER
A / TUNING STEP BUTTON
With the radio on, short press TIMER A / TUNING STEP
button, the LCD will display:
For“SLOW” mode, rotate tuning knob to increase or
decrease frequency for FM at 10kHz, MW at 1kHz, SW at
1kHz;
For “FAST” mode,rotate tuning knob to increase or
decrease frequency for FM at 100kHz, MW at 9kHz or
10kHz, SW at 5kHz;
For “STOP” mode, the rotating tuning knob is disabled.
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
ANTENNA DX/LOCAL SWITCH
If the station you’re listening to is so strong that it
sounds distorted, turn this switch to the LOCAL position.
Otherwise, leave it on DX, which stands for maximum
distance.
TUNING IN SW (shortwave) STATIONS
Turn on radio.
Place the upper BANDWIDTH switch in the W or N
position. Place the lower switch into SW1, SW2 or SW3.
Initially set the SW RF Gain dial to the max position for
the highest sensitivity. This will aid in picking up even
the weakest of signals. However, if the signal of desired
station is strong, the maximum gain setting will cause
signal to be overloaded and distorted, in this case rotate
RF Gain knob counterclockwise to reduce the gain until the
distortion is eliminated.
The SW RF gain can be adjusted to increase or decrease
sensitivity as necessary to minimize interference.
SW appears in frequency range of 1711 to 29999 KHz.
Tune in the station with the TUNING knob or by pressing
the UP/DOWN button or by pressing and holding the UP/
DOWN button for one second to engage auto tuning.
TUNING TO SW FREQUENCY RANGES (BANDS)
Tune to these frequency ranges for best results. The radio
can also tune between these ranges.
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
Meter Band (m) Frequency Best Time of Day
90m 3,200-3,400 kHz
75m 3,900-4,000 kHz
60m 4,750-5,050 kHz night
49m 5,800-6,200 kHz night
41m 7,100-7,500 kHz night
31m 9,500-10,000 kHz night
25m 11,650-12,200 kHz
19m 15,100-15,800 kHz day
16m 17,550-17,900 kHz day
15m 18,900-19,020 kHz
13m 21,450-21,850 kHz day
11m 25,600-26,100 kHz day
OPTIMIZING SHORTWAVE RECEPTION
Shortwave enables listening to broadcasts over vast
distances including other countries and continents. The
following information will help you get the best results.
During the day, frequencies above 13 MHz are usually
best.
At night, frequencies below 13 MHz are usually best.
Around sunset and sunrise, the entire shortwave range
may be good.
Getting very close to a window and holding the radio
improves shortwave reception.
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
To learn about shortwave we recommend the publication
below, published yearly and available from major
booksellers. Additionally, the Internet is a great resource
for learning about shortwave. Type ‘shortwave reception’
into your favorite search engine.
WORLD RADIO TV HANDBOOK
Published in the USA by Watson-Guptill
Publications, 770 Broadway, 7th Floor, New York, NY
10003-9595. www.watsonguptill.com
STORING STATIONS TO PRESET LOCATIONS
With the radio on, press ALARM button to preset stations
in to memory.
When listening to radio, rotate the tuning knob or press
the UP/DOWN arrow or Q.TUN buttons to select your
desired station. Press ALARM button, “
ash in the display. Press UP/DOWN arrow buttons to
select memory address (1~10) ”
”, press the ALARM
button again to store station to selected address and exit
memory status. The user can repeat this procedure to
store other favorites, then press PRESET button to recall
memorized stations.
” icon will
Note: The radio can store a total 50 memories, 10 presets for each band.
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
RETRIEVING STATIONS FROM PRESETS
With the radio on, press the PRESET button continuously
to retrieve the stations that have been stored. Notice
that the frequency in the display changes and the ‘Preset’
number shows on the right side of the display.
A station cannot be erased from memory. Simply store
another station over it.
SETTING THE CLOCK
The FIELD’s clock works in either the 12 hour or 24 hour
mode. To change the clock from one mode to another,
turn the radio off, press and hold the UP button for 1
second.
To set the clock:
1. Turn radio off.
2. Press and hold the T.SET button until the hour starts
ashing.
3. Turn the tuning knob in either direction or press the UP
button to set the hour.
4. Quick press the DOWN button and the minutes will
begin to ash, turn the tuning knob to set the minutes
5. Quick press the T.SET button to nalize the entry.
Note: If the above steps are not completed quickly enough the time set
mode will exit. If it exits, if this occurs, simply start over.
SETTING, ACTIVATING AND DEACTIVATING THE
ALARM CLOCK
With the radio off, both buttons have the TIMER A/TIMER
B function meaning that they can set two different
alarms.
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
Display Timer A/Timer B
Short press TIMER A or TIMER B button, “
“
” icon will ash indicating which timer’s time
” or
is currently being displayed.
SETTING TIMER A / TIMER B values
Long press TIMER A or TIMER B until the timer is ashing.
Press ▲ button to change hour, then rotate tuning knob
to adjust hour;
Press ▼ button to change hour, then rotate tuning knob
to adjust hour;
Finally press TIMER A or TIMER B to conrm timer
adjustment.
Select Alarm by Radio or Buzzer
While in TIMER A or TIMER B, adjust mode press the
to select between buzzer and radio alarm.
: indicates buzzer alarm
: indicates radio alarm
If neither the
or icons are displayed the ALARM is
off.
Buzzer or Radio Alarm (via TIMER) function
When buzzer timer alarm is activated, the buzzer signal
will last 2 minutes, the
icon will ash;
When the radio timer alarm is activated, the radio will play
for 60 minutes, the
icon will ash;
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
Pressing any button other than the power button will
activate the Snooze function. The
or icons will
continue to ash but the buzzer or radio will be off during
the Snooze time. After 5 minutes, the buzzer or radio
will come on again. The Snooze function can be enabled
4 times, after the 4th time the press of any button will
disable the Timer alarm.
To immediately disable the Timer alarm, press the Power
button.
SETTING AND DEACTIVATING THE SLEEP TIMER
Press the red POWER & SLEEP button on the front top
right corner of the radio. When the radio turns on you will
briey see the word “ON” on the display, Press the POWER
& SLEEP button agiain to activate the sleep timer, the
icon will appear in the upper left of the display and a
number will appear in the center of the display, this is the
sleep time. The radio will play for this amount of minutes
and then shut off. It can be deactivated by repeatedly
pressing the power button until ‘on’ appears in the bottom
of the display; with each press you will see the numbers
going down from 90 to 60 to 45 to 30 to 15 to 10 to 5 to
1 minute and then to ‘on’. When ‘on’ appears, stop pressing
the button. The sleep timer is now deactivated.
<Alternatively you can mix and match the text below for
the sleep timer description>
Press Power & sleep button, the LCD will display “60”
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
“ ”icon, which indicates the unit will turn off
automatically after 60 seconds.
If you want to change sleep timer, press Power & Sleep
button continuously when the “60” and “
” icon is
displayed, the digit will be changed to your desired time.
The “ON” icon indicates the power is on .
With the radio on, press Power & Sleep button to turn off
radio and display clock status.
When the “ON” icon is displayed, the radio will remain on
until it is manually turned off again.
SETTING DEFAULT BACKLIGHT BRIGHTNESS
With the radio off, press the Q.TUNE button, the display
backlight will toggle between LOW, MEDIUM and HIGH
backlight brightness. The last setting selected will be
activated when the radio is playing.
Note: The backlight will go to sleep after 10 seconds while the radio is
playing. To keep the backlight always-on slide the BACKLIGHT switch on the
side of the radio to the “ON” setting.
USING THE LOCK BUTTON
To lock all of the keys and buttons press and hold the
LOCK button
symbol of a key appears in the top, middle of the display.
Press the same button for 2 seconds to unlock it.
(front top of the radio) until you see a
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
ENABLING AND DISABLING BUTTON FEEDBACK
With the Radio off, Press and hold the ALARM button, the
text BUZZER ON will be displayed. In this mode, a button
press feedback beep will be played each time, the user
presses a button. Release the ALARM button and press
and hold again to turn the buzzer off, BUZZER OFF will be
displayed on the screen. At this time the user feedback
beeps will be disabled.
AUDIO VOLUME AND TONE CONTROLS
Volume Control
Turn up the volume by turning the volume knob (lower left
corner knob of radio) clockwise (right), down by turning the
knob counterclockwise (left).
Adjust Audio Tone
Rotate Bass/Treble knob to get desired Bass or Treble
audio quality
USING THE EARPHONE JACK
The earphone jack can be used with stereo headphones
using an 1/8 inch (3.5 millimeter) plug. FM sound is in
stereo if the signal is sent in stereo and the ST position
is selected with the BANDWIDTH switch. The internal
speaker will be muted when a device is connected to the
Earphone jack.
USING THE LINE IN/OUT SOCKETS
These sockets are on the right side of the FIELD, an 1/8
inch stereo type (3.5 mm). An external audio device (such
as an MP3 player) can be played by connecting an AUX
line from the device into the Line-In socket. When a device
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
is connected to the Line-in socket the word “AUX” will be
displayed on the screen.
The Line-Out socket can be used to feed audio from the
FIELD to amplied external speakers. The internal speaker
will still be functional when a device is connected to the
Line-Out socket.
EXTERNAL ANTENNAS
ANT. SELECTOR SWITCH: EXT or INT
Use this switch to enable the use of FM or SW internal or
external antennas.
MW EXT. ANT. – This is a 500 ohm impedance socket, for
use with long wire antennas.
FM/SW EXT. ANT.socket – Located on the back of the radio
is primarily for antennas designed to be fed with 50 or 75
ohm coaxial cable, such as dipoles or comparable antennas.
It can also be used for long wire antennas. Use F plugs for
feeding this socket.
USING THE GRUNDIG AN200 ANTENNA FOR
IMPROVED AM(MW) PERFORMANCE (NOT
INCLUDED)
The AN200 AM broadcast band (MW) loop antenna or any
similar model does not need to be plugged in, simply set it
next to the radio and tune it to the same frequency that
the radio is tuned to. Swivel the radio and the antenna
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
to achieve maximum performance. This antenna can be
purchased by contacting Eton or one of our distributors.
Call us for details.
TO RESET THE FIELD
If the radio malfunctions or doesn’t work properly, insert a
paper clip into the hole on the front lower right side. Make
sure the paper clip is inserted until the display reappears.
NEED HELP? CONTACT US.
Etón Corporation
1015 Corporation Way, Palo Alto, CA 94303, USA 1-800872-2228 (U.S.)
1-800-637-1648 (Canada)
650-903-3866 (worldwide)
M-F, 8:00AM-4:30PM, Pacic Standard Time
www.etoncorp.com.
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
WARNING
• Do not expose this appliance to rain or moisture.
• Do not submerge or expose for extended period to water.
• Protect from high humidity and rain.
• Only operate within specied temperature range (0 °C to
40 °C).
• Unplug immediately if liquid has been spilled or any
object has fallen into the apparatus.
• Clean only with a dry cloth. Do not use detergents or
chemical solvents as this might damage the nish.
• Unplug and disconnect external antennas during
lightning storms.
• Do not remove cover [or back].
• Refer servicing to qualied service personnel.
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FIELD OWNER’S MANUAL
ENVIRONMENT
Disposal
According to the European Directive 2002/96/EC all
electrical and electronic products must be collected
separately by a local collection system.
Please act according to your local rules and do not dispose
of your old products with your normal household waste.
Please dispose of all types of batteries per your
Government, State or Local rules and/or regulations. If you
are unsure, please call the appropriate local authority to
nd out how to dispose of them safely and help protect
the environment.
WARRANTY REGISTRATION
To ensure full warranty coverage or product updates,
registration of your product should be completed as soon
as possible after purchase or receipt.
Please go to
http://www.etoncorp.com/productregistration to
register your product.
LIMITED WARRANTY
Retain your proof of purchase or the receipt. Limited
Warranty information can be viewed at www.etoncorp.
com in the Support section.
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