Thanks Andre for another “most excellent “ “Radio Report”…👍😀! You’re my way of finding out about life in the southern African area. 73! Have a great day!
My pleasure Matt, I think this is such a great initiative, really looking forward to your first broadcast. I am too far away to hear you in South Africa, but I will listen on a web SDR in northern Europe!
Yeah I think we all hope you can eventually get away from that Algerian monster 🥴 after all, 1kW can't disturb stations that are no longer on air, can it? 😂 Good luck Matt!
Hey André, interesting and informative as usual. It seems to me that there is very little hope to catch this new LW radio from here in France, being on the same frequency as Radio Algérie that is one of the few LW radios I can catch at night from here. Much more powerful as well. Too bad Xhdata didn't think of sending you a D-220 for free. Or did they? 😉 I'll pass myself. As you point out, a single SW band is all but usable. BTW as you know today was a no-radio day with the severe solar storm hitting us harder than forecast.
Hi Alain, thanks for your comment! No review radio from XHDATA this time, unfortunately. Maybe they feel I am giving too much attention to the Qodosen on my channel and not to their radios 😂 But it's cheap enough, so I just bought one, I like the nostalgia factor. Conditions were quite poor today indeed, but now at night things seem good here. I just caught BPM from China on 5000 kHz, a new catch for me.
I am very impressed with my D220. It is surprisingly very receptive. Move the tuning wheel very slowly and you will be very impressed. Also, thank you for recommending the Tecsun 680. I think I may have purchased the last one in the US. I am VERY happy with it.
Hi Chris, thanks for your comment! I am looking forward to trying out the D-220, looks like an interesting little radio! Glad to hear you got a PL-680. I am waiting for mine to arrive, it is coming from China by post and will take a while...
I'm glad to hear that shortwave radio is still around, medium wave and long wave as well. I have been getting the parts to upgrade my Sony ICF-J40 to SSB (BFO). Hopefully I'll get it done this Autumn/Winter. It's already as good as a General Electric "Super Radio." The General Electric uses 6 D cells (batteries, 9 volts), the Sony needs only two D cells (3 volts). Obviously the Sony is more economical and much easier to carry.
Hi Henry, sounds like a very interesting upgrade on your Sony! There are, indeed, still some SW, MW and (very few) LW stations around. Enough to still have a lot of fun when DXing.
Another very interesting program, thanks! For the D-220, the most important question is, what color did you order? 😁 Even more than with the D-219, I think that part of the fun is, when you tune around and find a station, all you can do is listen to it! No running to the computer to look up the precise frequency and time so you can make a positive ID, then off to the next station. Just listen and enjoy! (Of course, some you can just ID by ear: REE is the only strong Spanish language station on 16 meters; RHC and Radio Marti in Spanish have an unmistakable sound and vocal rhythm; RRI and RNZ in English are easy to ID by their accents; Ifrikya FM has such unique music; etc. 😎)
Thank you William! I bought the dark green one. I have a Tecsun R-909 in that same green colour, and I really like the colour. It feels a bit like a safari radio, something to take out into the African bush :-) Very true about IDs when listening on an analogue-display radio, it reminds me of my teenage years when I only had a very simple analogue radio for DXing. The only way to ID stations was to listen for station announcements, or to recognise stations from their specific sound and accents.
@@swlistening And using interval signals to ID a station and get them tuned in before the start of a broadcast! The green is not as dark as it appears in some of the pictures. It really is gorgeous!
Thanks for your comment! I very rarely hear Radio New Zealand Pacific here 😀 I have actually only heard it once, a very hard catch for me. But I suppose you do hear many of the Chinese signals?
@swlistening RNZ has been very strong here the last few mornings on 9700. So strong I received them on my R-1000 on a 15-inch piece of wire (outside wire was disconnected). Previous day on my D-286 on the whip inside the house.
Thank you Andre for another episode of your radio news, and congratulations on bringing it to Spotify! 🚀 And good luck to Matt with his longwave station project. As I said in another reply here, I hope he manages to get his frequency changed, because otherwise it would be a very difficult catch almost anywhere in Europe. I do remember seeing a "Turku" laber near 252 kHz on some of those old portable and tabletop radios' dials, but obviously, I was never able to hear it as I was born in 1993 😂 But times have changed, the band is 75% empty (well, that's not a scientifically-proven number, but I suppose it comes close XD), hardly anybody's capable of running their own LW station, and even if they are, I don't think they'd be able to use more than that 1kW. However, from my side, I can say I'll be trying to catch him here in Poland. Finland and Algeria are in opposite directions to each other, so no loop or wire would do the trick, except terminated (KAZ, Flag, or Beverage). Yes, we did see a G4 geomagnetic storm, and I did get some Aurora on FM & 2m. I streamed some FM DX as it looked like on my side at th-cam.com/users/live-hztP0vkdJs -- was fun and confusing when the huge latencies of radio streams made it very hard to identify an otherwise obvious VRT Klara, Belgian classical music station, on 89.9 MHz 😂 Even now, as I'm listening to a KiwiSDR in N Finland, in Pallas, I'm getting a lot of flutter on KBS World Radio Arabic on 6090 kHz, even though it's coming from Al-Dhabayya, UAE! D-220? I'll pass on.
Hi Arnie! Why pass the D-220 😂 I know, it's probably very basic and not for DXing, but I really like to nostalgic pocket-radio look. And some people seem to really like this one, apparently it is quite sensitive when you tune slowly. Like my little Clooblut RD218, I bought it on a whim and never thought I would enjoy it as much as I do. The size is just perfect to take along on my daily dog walks, and it is amazingly sensitive with its tiny whip antenna. The perfect walking companion. Sometimes I find these little unexpected gems that just seem to fill a gap somewhere. That geomagnetic storm we had yesterday was quite something. I told you previously that I really want to get into FM DXing, when you talk about your experiences it sounds fascinating. I'll try to drag myself away from SW and MW and do some FM DXing as well. Some terrific catches during your live stream, from countries that are quite far away from Poland. I really wonder what I would hear when I try FM DXing under the right conditions here... Maybe as far away as Angola, Congo? Or is that too far?
@@swlistening you know... I don't feel like sold on those 15 MHz of short waves crammed in a a few centimetres worth of radio dial 😆 if I were to purchase a small radio in this form factor, I'd rather choose one with a display, like a Tecsun PL-368. Analog dials? OK, but either bigger, split to separate bands, or both. But even then, I'd like to have SSB too 😜 I feel like this is a must as I'm getting bored by poorer & poorer choice of stations & bands getting more & more empty. On the contrary, ham bands are still lively :) As for what you can pick up on FM, it depends on the type of propagation. There are a few and some only appear seasonally, while others can make you stir at an SDR waterfall for hours 😅 I think Tropo and Aircraft Scatter will be the most common in your location. Pick a strong station some 200km, 300km, 400km away, preferably one that broadcasts in horizontal polarisation, tune to it, orient the antenna towards it, and wait. Eventually you should hear that station fade in, waving up & down at the same time, with that waving getting slower & slower, to the point it gets really slow, and will get faster again, until the station fades away completely. Works best on a warm day, then in the evening, night and morning, until around 9am, Tropo may bring this and a lot more stations in, with more steady and possibly stronger signals. Especially along the coast. Look at Mediterranean Tropo, what can be done in that area. @Param Dxer in Malta is one guy who DXes big time using a TEF6686 radio and just its telescoping whip, or a car radio. And some lucky DXers in UK & Ireland are sometimes able to catch Spain via Tropo, at distances up to 2000km! And there's Peter who currently DXes from Zambia, also with a TEF6686 and an SDR. But I think he has an external Yagi too. He catches a lot of Meteor Scatter from all over the place. These are brief pings which can last anywhere from an eye's blink up to a minute - and you may struggle to get an RDS decode off a station received this way! It's really best to try it with an SDR and an external antenna. At the moment we have Perseids active here in Northern Hemisphere, which had just peaked yesterday, and while I don't think they're visible in South Africa, I'm sure you have other meteor showers available over the course of the year. Because, obviously, you'll be able to detect more meteors - and radio reflections off their traces - during meteor showers than on any random day 😉 There's also Sporadic-E of course, but let's leave it aside for now as you're still 2-3 months away from your Sp-E season 🙂🙂 but again, you have options, and the best thing you can do is simply turn on the radio, tune around, and see what happens 🎁
@@ArnieDXer Hey Arnie, you are quite right of course about the D-220 and all those shortwave frequencies packed into a the centimetres of the radio dial 😀 I suppose most of us who will buy it, do it for the nostalgia trip rather than the DXing. I'm still quite interested to see what this little radio can do. Thank you so much for the detailed explanation of how to do FM DXing. I will try. I actually copied your comment and saved it in a document, so that I can refer back to it. I know Peter's channel, I watch his videos sometimes. Some years ago he was in Botswana also. I think he is British, but he seems to travel, perhaps for work, to Africa quite often.
@@swlistening exactly, Peter was in Botswana too. Actually, now I recall that somewhere in a comment he said there's no Sporadic-E in Botswana o.O and I say what?! could it be so? Well... you are there over in South Africa to check 😜
13:00 If I were to buy a D-220, it would become the kitchen FM radio to replace the old Tecsun R-909. I would however be interested to see you compare its sound quality vs the D-219. I like the D-219 because it has a separate ON/OFF switch, independent from the volume control. In my experience, it's easy to forget whether I've turned the radio completely off and not just turned down the volume level. Furthermore, there's nothing like having the HF band divided into seven independent world bands! 📻7⃣🌏 Congrats Andre on buying the D-220! 😎📻 I haven't spent money on radio related items this year (it's all been flashlights, lol) and I think I'll go ahead and order the R-9700DX before it goes out of production!
I will certainly compare mine to the D-219 and some of the other small radios I have. It will be interesting to see the sound quality, and also the reception quality, in comparison with some of the others. Let me know what you think of the R9700DX if you do buy it!
@@swlistening I also wonder how the D-220 compares mine to the D-219. I guess tuning SW wil be much better with the the D-219. As a kid I had a D-220 shaped Sony radio, only AM & FM, I wish I kept it.
@@swlistening The D-220 obviously has a different case than the D-219 but I don't know if XHDATA fitted the D-219 with the same speaker. I do know that the D-368 has a richer sound compared to the D-219. Higher wattage speakers and having better acoustic baffles for the speaker generally translates to a better bass response. As for the DSP chip inside the D-220, there are no markings on the surface. An authentic Skyworks Si 4825-A10 will have its model printed on the chip. Todderbert bought two D-220s and he opened up his orange unit. The absence of the DSP's markings could mean that XHDATA used a cheaper Chinese designed DSP. When you buy DSP chips in bulk (1000 units or more) that cost savings translate to bigger profits. 😊 I missed out on the 8.8 sale on my usual e-commerce platform, Andre. That R-9700DX was priced at MYR 173 (plus shipping) for just 48 hours and it's gone back to its normal selling price. I'll wait for the next 9.9 sale and if I can get this radio at that price, I'll order one immediately! 📻👏🏼 So far I've been lucky enough to buy the Tecsun and XHDATA radios at their lowest prices. In 2021, I got the PL-660 for well below MYR400, and the seller raised the price ever since. In any case, the PL-660 is no longer in stock, which confirms your news about Tecsun discontinuing this and the also PL-680.
@@StratmanII I will certainly compare the D-219 and D-220 speakers. I have a feeling they are different, some people have commented here and elsewhere that the sound is quite good on the D-220. I am like you, I do try to look out for specials when I buy radios, especially the more expensive ones. Saves me some money on import duties also when I can get a radio at a lower price. My Pl-680 from anon-co was $101, a really good price. It wasn't on special, but most other sites seem to offer the PL-680 at quite a bit more, up to $150. I see the PL-680 is out of stock on anon-co now. They still seem to have the PL-660, but probably not for long. You were one of the people who tipped me off about the discontinuation! That's why I contacted anon-co to find out what was going on 😀
Thanks for another great episode! I've also noticed some VOA transmissions from other sites have also been missing. The English broadcast on 15580 from Botswana has been missing for quite some time.
My pleasure. Thanks for the information about Botswana. English on 4930 is still there, although transmission times have been reduced by about an hour.
1530-2030 UTC, ex-1400-2200. And in the mornings, 05-07 ex 03-07 UTC. BTW I've just noticed they have 5940 @ 17-18 UTC Mon-Fri / 1630-1800 UTC Sat/Sun from... Lampertheim 😮
@@ArnieDXer Hey Arnie, I think Botswana might only come on at 1600 now, I haven't heard it before 1600 lately, but I will check again. And then sign-off at 2030 indeed, not 2300 like before. I will check 5940 also, thanks for the times!
@@swlistening Yes, I:m very curious of this transmission! Guess it's aimed at East Africa, but the frequency might be too low for that at this time of year 😕 but it may be serving Middle East very well, SE Europe... maybe all of Europe in fact? 😅
updating MW (AM) band in Malaysia. I am surprise to receive a few CRI station at 12PM UTC (8PM Malaysia) on my Tecsun PL-330 at outdoor. I do try to dxing more details frequency next round...
That's interesting. Are you located along the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia? I live in Petaling Jaya and can't get anything on MW except for a faint Voice of America broadcast to Myanmar. The station is located in southern Thailand.
@@StratmanII Hello, I live at Setapak, KL. maybe I am higher location at outdoor garden at 8PM (12PM UTC). I using Tecsun PL-330. May I know what radio you are using? I will try to get more frequency details in next round.
@@ahheng6402 I have several Tecsun and XHDATA radios, including the PL-330. Mine is the earlier version with the micro USB charging port. Currently I'm using an ATS-25 AMP DSP receiver with a 100-foot external wire antenna with a mini balun. If you're fascinated with hi tech SW radios, check out the ATS-25 receivers on Lazada. My home is surrounded by tall two storey bungalows, with many buildings in the horizon across the Federal Highway. It's not an ideal location for medium wave DX'ing and I can barely get through SW listening. If you live in a condo unit that can oversee the Kuala Lumpur skyline, there's a good chance for you to receive long distance HF radio signals, as long as your antenna can see the outside sky. 🙂
Such a shame they gave him 252khz. If he will be able to increase power to reach the area, algeria would probably still overpower him in central europe :/
I think for people in northern Europe it will be fine, and perhaps even in northern parts of Canada or the US. Apparently Algeria is not heard in Finland on LW. But, yes, in central and southern Europe, Algeria will certainly dominate.
@@swlistening It will be interesting to see if I can hear him here in Northern England - I'm not sure 1KW is going to be enough going by the signal RTE gave me on that frequency. I guess he won't have a huge antenna to beam that 1KW either. That said I am so glad he is having a go at this, and I will be listening out for him.
Thanks so much for the RSS feed Andre I'm now listening on the Apple podcast app on my iPhone, love it. 73 de Endaf
My pleasure Endaf, glad it works!
Thanks for the updates Andre. Always appreciated
My pleasure!
The new Long wave station sounds exciting... hope we can receive it in the uk during the evening hours etc...
It's very exciting indeed. Hopefully you will be lucky to hear it in the UK!
Just found your channel. Kind greetings from the west coast of Australia!
Hi there and greetings from Johannesburg! Welcome to the channel.
Thanks Andre for another “most excellent “ “Radio Report”…👍😀! You’re my way of finding out about life in the southern African area.
73! Have a great day!
My pleasure!
Hello Andre, Thanks for the updates
My pleasure Dan!
Looking forward to this week's SWL News Report 😁
Hang in there Cristian, it's coming :-)
@@swlistening it doesn't matter if they're late, what matters is that you keep making them. We really appreciate it! Just wanted you to know that
@@cristimarcov Thanks 😀
hi thanks for the news video
My pleasure André!
Thanks so much! Really hoping for a clear channel as the interest has been Europe wide and North America.
My pleasure Matt, I think this is such a great initiative, really looking forward to your first broadcast. I am too far away to hear you in South Africa, but I will listen on a web SDR in northern Europe!
Yeah I think we all hope you can eventually get away from that Algerian monster 🥴 after all, 1kW can't disturb stations that are no longer on air, can it? 😂 Good luck Matt!
@@ArnieDXer I’m after 300kW but sadly that costs serious money.
Hey André, interesting and informative as usual. It seems to me that there is very little hope to catch this new LW radio from here in France, being on the same frequency as Radio Algérie that is one of the few LW radios I can catch at night from here. Much more powerful as well.
Too bad Xhdata didn't think of sending you a D-220 for free. Or did they? 😉
I'll pass myself. As you point out, a single SW band is all but usable.
BTW as you know today was a no-radio day with the severe solar storm hitting us harder than forecast.
Hi Alain, thanks for your comment! No review radio from XHDATA this time, unfortunately. Maybe they feel I am giving too much attention to the Qodosen on my channel and not to their radios 😂 But it's cheap enough, so I just bought one, I like the nostalgia factor.
Conditions were quite poor today indeed, but now at night things seem good here. I just caught BPM from China on 5000 kHz, a new catch for me.
I am very impressed with my D220. It is surprisingly very receptive. Move the tuning wheel very slowly and you will be very impressed.
Also, thank you for recommending the Tecsun 680. I think I may have purchased the last one in the US. I am VERY happy with it.
Hi Chris, thanks for your comment! I am looking forward to trying out the D-220, looks like an interesting little radio! Glad to hear you got a PL-680. I am waiting for mine to arrive, it is coming from China by post and will take a while...
Hello from Finland : )
Hi there! Good to hear from Finland 😀
@@swlistening thanks ^^
I'm glad to hear that shortwave radio is still around, medium wave and long wave as well. I have been getting the parts to upgrade my Sony ICF-J40 to SSB (BFO). Hopefully I'll get it done this Autumn/Winter. It's already as good as a General Electric "Super Radio." The General Electric uses 6 D cells (batteries, 9 volts), the Sony needs only two D cells (3 volts). Obviously the Sony is more economical and much easier to carry.
Hi Henry, sounds like a very interesting upgrade on your Sony! There are, indeed, still some SW, MW and (very few) LW stations around. Enough to still have a lot of fun when DXing.
@@swlistening I hear a lot of activity on 75 meters, 40 and 20 meters using the ICF-J40, but without a BFO it's unintelligible.
@@swlistening New York City is a VERY electrically noisy place.
@@Henry-d9dI can imagine that!
Another very interesting program, thanks! For the D-220, the most important question is, what color did you order? 😁 Even more than with the D-219, I think that part of the fun is, when you tune around and find a station, all you can do is listen to it! No running to the computer to look up the precise frequency and time so you can make a positive ID, then off to the next station. Just listen and enjoy! (Of course, some you can just ID by ear: REE is the only strong Spanish language station on 16 meters; RHC and Radio Marti in Spanish have an unmistakable sound and vocal rhythm; RRI and RNZ in English are easy to ID by their accents; Ifrikya FM has such unique music; etc. 😎)
Thank you William! I bought the dark green one. I have a Tecsun R-909 in that same green colour, and I really like the colour. It feels a bit like a safari radio, something to take out into the African bush :-)
Very true about IDs when listening on an analogue-display radio, it reminds me of my teenage years when I only had a very simple analogue radio for DXing. The only way to ID stations was to listen for station announcements, or to recognise stations from their specific sound and accents.
I was thinking the same thing when using mine. It's like the 70s and 80s again having to listen for a radio ID. That was part of the fun.
@@swlistening And using interval signals to ID a station and get them tuned in before the start of a broadcast!
The green is not as dark as it appears in some of the pictures. It really is gorgeous!
@@01cthompson Indeed!
@@WilliamParmley Hi William, do you have the green one?
Thanks for the updates, i live in NZ so its very rare i hear most of the stations you mention but i do check.
Thanks for your comment! I very rarely hear Radio New Zealand Pacific here 😀 I have actually only heard it once, a very hard catch for me. But I suppose you do hear many of the Chinese signals?
@@swlistening yes i do, plus pacifika islands, better grab a juice and put your Tutu on. 😃
@swlistening RNZ has been very strong here the last few mornings on 9700. So strong I received them on my R-1000 on a 15-inch piece of wire (outside wire was disconnected). Previous day on my D-286 on the whip inside the house.
@@multilecful 😀
@@WilliamParmley I'll give it a try also.
Thank you Andre for another episode of your radio news, and congratulations on bringing it to Spotify! 🚀 And good luck to Matt with his longwave station project. As I said in another reply here, I hope he manages to get his frequency changed, because otherwise it would be a very difficult catch almost anywhere in Europe. I do remember seeing a "Turku" laber near 252 kHz on some of those old portable and tabletop radios' dials, but obviously, I was never able to hear it as I was born in 1993 😂 But times have changed, the band is 75% empty (well, that's not a scientifically-proven number, but I suppose it comes close XD), hardly anybody's capable of running their own LW station, and even if they are, I don't think they'd be able to use more than that 1kW. However, from my side, I can say I'll be trying to catch him here in Poland. Finland and Algeria are in opposite directions to each other, so no loop or wire would do the trick, except terminated (KAZ, Flag, or Beverage).
Yes, we did see a G4 geomagnetic storm, and I did get some Aurora on FM & 2m. I streamed some FM DX as it looked like on my side at th-cam.com/users/live-hztP0vkdJs -- was fun and confusing when the huge latencies of radio streams made it very hard to identify an otherwise obvious VRT Klara, Belgian classical music station, on 89.9 MHz 😂 Even now, as I'm listening to a KiwiSDR in N Finland, in Pallas, I'm getting a lot of flutter on KBS World Radio Arabic on 6090 kHz, even though it's coming from Al-Dhabayya, UAE!
D-220? I'll pass on.
Hi Arnie! Why pass the D-220 😂 I know, it's probably very basic and not for DXing, but I really like to nostalgic pocket-radio look. And some people seem to really like this one, apparently it is quite sensitive when you tune slowly. Like my little Clooblut RD218, I bought it on a whim and never thought I would enjoy it as much as I do. The size is just perfect to take along on my daily dog walks, and it is amazingly sensitive with its tiny whip antenna. The perfect walking companion. Sometimes I find these little unexpected gems that just seem to fill a gap somewhere.
That geomagnetic storm we had yesterday was quite something. I told you previously that I really want to get into FM DXing, when you talk about your experiences it sounds fascinating. I'll try to drag myself away from SW and MW and do some FM DXing as well. Some terrific catches during your live stream, from countries that are quite far away from Poland. I really wonder what I would hear when I try FM DXing under the right conditions here... Maybe as far away as Angola, Congo? Or is that too far?
@@swlistening you know... I don't feel like sold on those 15 MHz of short waves crammed in a a few centimetres worth of radio dial 😆 if I were to purchase a small radio in this form factor, I'd rather choose one with a display, like a Tecsun PL-368. Analog dials? OK, but either bigger, split to separate bands, or both. But even then, I'd like to have SSB too 😜 I feel like this is a must as I'm getting bored by poorer & poorer choice of stations & bands getting more & more empty. On the contrary, ham bands are still lively :)
As for what you can pick up on FM, it depends on the type of propagation. There are a few and some only appear seasonally, while others can make you stir at an SDR waterfall for hours 😅 I think Tropo and Aircraft Scatter will be the most common in your location. Pick a strong station some 200km, 300km, 400km away, preferably one that broadcasts in horizontal polarisation, tune to it, orient the antenna towards it, and wait. Eventually you should hear that station fade in, waving up & down at the same time, with that waving getting slower & slower, to the point it gets really slow, and will get faster again, until the station fades away completely. Works best on a warm day, then in the evening, night and morning, until around 9am, Tropo may bring this and a lot more stations in, with more steady and possibly stronger signals. Especially along the coast. Look at Mediterranean Tropo, what can be done in that area. @Param Dxer in Malta is one guy who DXes big time using a TEF6686 radio and just its telescoping whip, or a car radio. And some lucky DXers in UK & Ireland are sometimes able to catch Spain via Tropo, at distances up to 2000km!
And there's Peter who currently DXes from Zambia, also with a TEF6686 and an SDR. But I think he has an external Yagi too. He catches a lot of Meteor Scatter from all over the place. These are brief pings which can last anywhere from an eye's blink up to a minute - and you may struggle to get an RDS decode off a station received this way! It's really best to try it with an SDR and an external antenna. At the moment we have Perseids active here in Northern Hemisphere, which had just peaked yesterday, and while I don't think they're visible in South Africa, I'm sure you have other meteor showers available over the course of the year. Because, obviously, you'll be able to detect more meteors - and radio reflections off their traces - during meteor showers than on any random day 😉
There's also Sporadic-E of course, but let's leave it aside for now as you're still 2-3 months away from your Sp-E season 🙂🙂 but again, you have options, and the best thing you can do is simply turn on the radio, tune around, and see what happens 🎁
@@ArnieDXer Hey Arnie, you are quite right of course about the D-220 and all those shortwave frequencies packed into a the centimetres of the radio dial 😀 I suppose most of us who will buy it, do it for the nostalgia trip rather than the DXing. I'm still quite interested to see what this little radio can do.
Thank you so much for the detailed explanation of how to do FM DXing. I will try. I actually copied your comment and saved it in a document, so that I can refer back to it. I know Peter's channel, I watch his videos sometimes. Some years ago he was in Botswana also. I think he is British, but he seems to travel, perhaps for work, to Africa quite often.
@@swlistening exactly, Peter was in Botswana too. Actually, now I recall that somewhere in a comment he said there's no Sporadic-E in Botswana o.O and I say what?! could it be so? Well... you are there over in South Africa to check 😜
@@ArnieDXer I will certainly check, as I get into the whole FM DXing thing more. The Qodosen is said to be great for FM DXing!
13:00 If I were to buy a D-220, it would become the kitchen FM radio to replace the old Tecsun R-909. I would however be interested to see you compare its sound quality vs the D-219. I like the D-219 because it has a separate ON/OFF switch, independent from the volume control. In my experience, it's easy to forget whether I've turned the radio completely off and not just turned down the volume level. Furthermore, there's nothing like having the HF band divided into seven independent world bands! 📻7⃣🌏
Congrats Andre on buying the D-220! 😎📻 I haven't spent money on radio related items this year (it's all been flashlights, lol) and I think I'll go ahead and order the R-9700DX before it goes out of production!
I will certainly compare mine to the D-219 and some of the other small radios I have. It will be interesting to see the sound quality, and also the reception quality, in comparison with some of the others. Let me know what you think of the R9700DX if you do buy it!
@@swlistening I also wonder how the D-220 compares mine to the D-219. I guess tuning SW wil be much better with the the D-219.
As a kid I had a D-220 shaped Sony radio, only AM & FM, I wish I kept it.
@@swlistening The D-220 obviously has a different case than the D-219 but I don't know if XHDATA fitted the D-219 with the same speaker.
I do know that the D-368 has a richer sound compared to the D-219. Higher wattage speakers and having better acoustic baffles for the speaker generally translates to a better bass response. As for the DSP chip inside the D-220, there are no markings on the surface. An authentic Skyworks Si 4825-A10 will have its model printed on the chip.
Todderbert bought two D-220s and he opened up his orange unit.
The absence of the DSP's markings could mean that XHDATA used a cheaper Chinese designed DSP. When you buy DSP chips in bulk (1000 units or more) that cost savings translate to bigger profits. 😊
I missed out on the 8.8 sale on my usual e-commerce platform, Andre. That R-9700DX was priced at MYR 173 (plus shipping) for just 48 hours and it's gone back to its normal selling price. I'll wait for the next 9.9 sale and if I can get this radio at that price, I'll order one immediately! 📻👏🏼
So far I've been lucky enough to buy the Tecsun and XHDATA radios at their lowest prices. In 2021, I got the PL-660 for well below MYR400, and the seller raised the price ever since. In any case, the PL-660 is no longer in stock, which confirms your news about Tecsun discontinuing this and the also PL-680.
@@StratmanII I will certainly compare the D-219 and D-220 speakers. I have a feeling they are different, some people have commented here and elsewhere that the sound is quite good on the D-220.
I am like you, I do try to look out for specials when I buy radios, especially the more expensive ones. Saves me some money on import duties also when I can get a radio at a lower price.
My Pl-680 from anon-co was $101, a really good price. It wasn't on special, but most other sites seem to offer the PL-680 at quite a bit more, up to $150. I see the PL-680 is out of stock on anon-co now. They still seem to have the PL-660, but probably not for long. You were one of the people who tipped me off about the discontinuation! That's why I contacted anon-co to find out what was going on 😀
@@hammockdweller A good reason to get the D-220, for old time's sake 😀
Thanks for another great episode! I've also noticed some VOA transmissions from other sites have also been missing. The English broadcast on 15580 from Botswana has been missing for quite some time.
My pleasure. Thanks for the information about Botswana. English on 4930 is still there, although transmission times have been reduced by about an hour.
1530-2030 UTC, ex-1400-2200. And in the mornings, 05-07 ex 03-07 UTC.
BTW I've just noticed they have 5940 @ 17-18 UTC Mon-Fri / 1630-1800 UTC Sat/Sun from... Lampertheim 😮
@@ArnieDXer Hey Arnie, I think Botswana might only come on at 1600 now, I haven't heard it before 1600 lately, but I will check again. And then sign-off at 2030 indeed, not 2300 like before. I will check 5940 also, thanks for the times!
@@ArnieDXer Bummer they cut the 14 to 22 broadcast. from 20 to 22 they had a good signal into North America
@@swlistening Yes, I:m very curious of this transmission! Guess it's aimed at East Africa, but the frequency might be too low for that at this time of year 😕 but it may be serving Middle East very well, SE Europe... maybe all of Europe in fact? 😅
updating MW (AM) band in Malaysia.
I am surprise to receive a few CRI station at 12PM UTC (8PM Malaysia) on my Tecsun PL-330 at outdoor.
I do try to dxing more details frequency next round...
Thank you so much for your report! It will be great if you can share some frequencies and times with me when you have more details.
That's interesting. Are you located along the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia? I live in Petaling Jaya and can't get anything on MW except for a faint Voice of America broadcast to Myanmar. The station is located in southern Thailand.
@@StratmanII Hello,
I live at Setapak, KL.
maybe I am higher location at outdoor garden at 8PM (12PM UTC). I using Tecsun PL-330. May I know what radio you are using?
I will try to get more frequency details in next round.
@@ahheng6402 I have several Tecsun and XHDATA radios, including the PL-330. Mine is the earlier version with the micro USB charging port.
Currently I'm using an ATS-25 AMP DSP receiver with a 100-foot external wire antenna with a mini balun. If you're fascinated with hi tech SW radios, check out the ATS-25 receivers on Lazada.
My home is surrounded by tall two storey bungalows, with many buildings in the horizon across the Federal Highway.
It's not an ideal location for medium wave DX'ing and I can barely get through SW listening.
If you live in a condo unit that can oversee the Kuala Lumpur skyline, there's a good chance for you to receive long distance HF radio signals, as long as your antenna can see the outside sky. 🙂
Such a shame they gave him 252khz. If he will be able to increase power to reach the area, algeria would probably still overpower him in central europe :/
I thought the same. But now RTE has gone on that frequency I may be able to hear him.
I think for people in northern Europe it will be fine, and perhaps even in northern parts of Canada or the US. Apparently Algeria is not heard in Finland on LW. But, yes, in central and southern Europe, Algeria will certainly dominate.
@@swlistening It will be interesting to see if I can hear him here in Northern England - I'm not sure 1KW is going to be enough going by the signal RTE gave me on that frequency. I guess he won't have a huge antenna to beam that 1KW either. That said I am so glad he is having a go at this, and I will be listening out for him.
@@Hiram8866 Will be interesting to see if you do hear it in England. Who knows, might be possible when conditions are good.