been watching this RX too, thanks for the review, it confirms my plan wait till all the revs get sorted out, it's no good that it is deaf with a whip antenna for local AM bcb.
@@nq0amark138 I agree - The Belka-DX is an amazing little HF receiver and very good with the telescopic antenna - I listen to HF while walking my dog.
I bought just the board about 6 months ago from a stateside source, a little over $90 shipped. About another A$20 for an aluminum case, 2500mAH battery, and BNC jack, and it's all together. Didn't opt for a internal speaker because a small speaker to fit just wouldn't sound good at all and was just planning to use this at home anyway. I figured for that $110 bucks, there's a lot worse portables out there and none with spectrum waterfall display, selectable audio filtering, and touch screen. About the only thing I'm not too thrilled about are the cheesy encoders, but even that is fixable if you're going to build one up from a board only.
The speakers on the back of the case are NOT a woofer and tweeter. The one that is concave is actually a speaker. The one that is flat is actually a passive radiator. A passive radiator is powered by the air pressure generated by the powered speaker and are often used instead of a port in the enclosure or where the enclosure is too small for a port to be effective.
2m is useless as inteferance from the internal circuit, but its great on HF, half of the memory slots do not work. The freq steps are a REAL pain on the touch screen to touch correctly.The sound is really full and detailed on FM.Mine looks the same, I need to make a speaker grill. The Pre amp setting is wrong ie off is ON, and on is OFF, leave it activated ie OFF on the rod antenna. Setup I find 75db on AGC as recomended by the Russian designer "George". RF gain 20 to 25 .
The days of the traditional portable shortwave radio, at a comparable price, are absolutely numbered. It's going to be a sea change. Just wait until these problems are resolved, and when the well known companies (Tecsun, Sangean, etc...) start producing them.
Thanks for the review. It probably needs a wound crystal rod like lots of am radios have and an internal antenna connection hooked to it. You saved us from making the same purchase. I agree it's an incomplete product. I suspect over time they will build the bridge. It would clobber short wave radios if they can make it work.
I have been looking to buy one of these for a little while. The thing that needs to be considered, is that these radios are open-source (which is why the chinese can get away with cloning them legitimately). You could call it an ongoing development project. Open-source allows tinkerers to freely adapt, modify and share there own circuit designs and mods with the rest of the world, without copyright issues. With this understanding, one can decide whether to buy one now, or wait until it evolves and improves further in time. I still haven't decided when I will buy one, but I am always resisting the urge.
I've got same type of clone recently, just with unlocked software. Had to play a lot with it to understand how to turn it on first. Managed to update software to the latest version only after playing with wire jumpers inside (maybe bad luck?) Had the same waves on 40m bands and huge humps at the sides of each strong station, especially in MW band. Ended up replacing 22 MHz main crystal oscillator (purchased from Russian developers- no stock anywhere else) which has radically changed receiver's behaviour. It was also a problem with connection of headphone socket - left channel grounded. Sensitivity on 40m band is slightly better compated to my Tecsun pl880 on their native telescopic antennas. Quite a lot of interference from own display, but otherwise - very nice little receiver with panoramic screen. Love FM tuning dial in the newer firmwares.
Once you connected the whip and heard nothing that was a show stopper. Was that the case on shortwave freqs starting with 80m and above? You mentioned the whip worked on the FM band.
Doesn't Malachite have an antenna impedance option in settings that can be changed from 50ohm to high impedance? I don't have Malachite yet, but I remember that I have seen something like this in one of the TH-cam videos.
Just got mine today...Have all the problems you have plus the battery won’t charge and the base of the antenna came apart......They also sent a charge/power usb cable but wouldn’t fit....Sending this one back also..
How does the whip antenna work with your FM broadcast bands? Can you tune the adjacent channels, right next to your locals? 99.1, 99.3, 99.5, 99.7, 99.9, 100.1 etc
@@joeblow8593 Well the scope is of little use for FM because it can display only 160 khz and the FM signals are 200 khz wide. I'm not sure what radio you would compare this to or what is actually good for FM DXing.
I do, love the concept of the pocket SDR however for now, These (no name or model) Malachites seem a little shady and dubious like they were made in some clandestine speakeasy similar to bootleg bathtub gin of the prohibition era.
I am guessing its a impedance matching problem with it being 50 ohms instead of making it high impedance. You might be able to make a small whip with a tightly wound coil for the AM band. I would try making a high to low transformer. Its to bad they didn't have it built into the receiver a high/low impedance switch.
Naw.... An impedance mismatch can't cause this. Hey, I can stick a screwdriver in the antenna input to any 50 ohm input on a typical receiver and at least get local stations or static. Not this thing...It's only able to hear its own noise!
@@n4lq Could the sensitivity be that bad? I used to own a AOR 8000 scanner that also covered the broadcast band and shortwave. With the rubber duck I could pick up a few broadcast stations. With a 3 foot whip I could pick up shortwave stations all around the world
Great review, I’ve had a lot of questions about this device ever since I first saw it. The SDR in a case is a great idea. I hope they fix the problems soon. Maybe an American company will fix the problems and copy the good parts, just like the Chinese.
Still too many bugs, not enough spectrum, and way too expensive after upgrade which only brings you into the 2ghz range. For what it’s worth, you might look into the tried-and-true vetted HackRF or simply a $20 rtl-sdr. I have both and they work fantastic with any Android device running off the device’s batteries and speakers. Phone, tablet, probably a chrome book. I have other sdr radios like the BladeRF and RSPduo but the first two I’ve tested thoroughly since they were my introduction into sdr radios. In particular, you can do lots with the HackRF since it can transmit half-duplex. The BladeRF is full-duplex 2tx2rx up to 6ghz with a >60mhz viewing bandwidth if you have the computing power.
Everything you say about this Chinese copy is true of every Chinese copy of every electronic product I have ever investigated. For example, the KY-038 sound input module is a very simple circuit and is available all over ebay, but documentation is almost always incomplete and wrong. I honestly believe that Chinese copies are just that: copies made by people with no understanding of the original products. And like photocopies, each iteration is less precise than its predecessor.
Your lucky - mine hasn't even got "made in China " on it. I'm thinking about getting a ferrite rod from an old transistor radio and adapting that as an antenna.
Wow Steve. I almost bought one. Thank you very much. If your ever in the Springdale pa area perhaps you can stop bye the shack for a visit. Don't feel to bad I spent 500 dollars for the sdr xiegu gsoc for the g 90 transceiver and its a complete piece of crap. Don't waste your.money. take care and best regards. Ron. Zz.
No it does not. I am being bombarded by this same comment. The transformer "improved it"... This one is dead with the whip. Besides, it's a different radio totally. Metal case. Different firmware.
Same radios. The Chinese just had lower QC some of the time. Same design. The complaints you hear are largely from the Russian designers who got cheated out of their $50 by Chinese entrepreneurs who cloned the Russian firmware to make their clone more attractive to buyers. Neither side have clean hands.
I’m trying to return mine and having a lot of trouble getting a return label to send it back. These are crap.mine is off 10kHZ and is useable in HF bands.I recommend not buying one.
Strange the whip doesn't do anything. Reminds me of something that maybe is the reason here too, a wrong connector.....So two females, there are many combinations that don't connect....
Those speakers being exposed like that runs the risk of something poking a hole in the speaker cone leaving you either having to recone, or replacing them entirely, neither job is blind friendly lol.id glue a fine spaced piece of winter screen across the back as a diy speaker cover to protect them little speakers.
There is an impedance mismatch between the 50 ohm sma connector and the 1000 ohm whip. This is the reason you cannot hear anything on it with the whip. Search youtube for a fix using toroid core with winding instructions to make this perform almost as good as an outdoors antenna. 73
An impedance mismatch will not result in no reception at all. You are probably basing this on the video someone posted however he does not use the same radio. His reception did improve but not dramatically.
Don’t update the firmware, it needs an activation code which you need to buy from the Russian developer for 55 bucks, I am doing that now. I have the exact same one did you fit a battery? Works great but I wish I knew about the developers one I’d of got one of them instead of the rip off.
@@n4lq The firmware update it is really easy to do, but unfortunately because it is a rip off you need a genuine license from the Russians, Quite like it personally just need to find out what’s with the battery, mine is the same as yours. Cheers for the response.
The radio is open source but the software is not. Alot of the Chinese version of the radio come with a demo version of the software. You can pay extra for the full version. It's a open source toy. It's funny to hear a Elmer try to figure out open source project. You don't get it.
Interesting video, I've been following the Malachite and what you say rings true. The received wisdom is that it's best to pay a little extra and get the original from the guy in Russia. The downside of that is that the waiting time is months. It does come with the expanded reception bandwidth and works well apparently. I've read of people who have had good Chinese clones and others who couldn't get theirs to work at all. You can get just the board, which would be good to build into a homebrew transceiver project.
That's just the demo firmware! You pay the Russian to get the real firmware. Or you can buy a version that has the real firmware from the Chinese for $50 more and be done with it! The hardware is open source but not the firmware! I got mine from banggood with the real firmware and I love it!
That model is MUCH different. The case if metal. Speaker is covered. Menus are different. However.... Notice he is using an external antenna, not the whip. My issue was with the whip antenna on HF. It just wont' work.
Thanks much Steve for your thorough review. It's too bad this little guy is deaf. I would hope that you just received a defective unit, but it sounds like they all may have the China Virus. Maybe smarter engineers will pick up where these folks left off and tweak the circuitry. It appears to be a great idea that should not have left the R&D bench.
So the Chinese don't just copy Intellectual Property IP from the USA - they copy the Russians too. Pony up and buy from a reputable company like Icom - get the IC-705. I got one and I simply love it !!!!
Go and get the real radio not a china knock off if you want quality. Here is where to find the real McCoy. www.mobimax.bg/en/BELKA-DX-shortwave-receiver
been watching this RX too, thanks for the review, it confirms my plan wait till all the revs get sorted out, it's no good that it is deaf with a whip antenna for local AM bcb.
Really appreciate this review, thank you. Have been considering this device & now may wait a bit. Looking forward to future developments for sure.
Here is a better radio not from china. www.mobimax.bg/en/BELKA-DX-shortwave-receiver
@@nq0amark138 I agree - The Belka-DX is an amazing little HF receiver and very good with the telescopic antenna - I listen to HF while walking my dog.
I bought just the board about 6 months ago from a stateside source, a little over $90 shipped. About another A$20 for an aluminum case, 2500mAH battery, and BNC jack, and it's all together. Didn't opt for a internal speaker because a small speaker to fit just wouldn't sound good at all and was just planning to use this at home anyway. I figured for that $110 bucks, there's a lot worse portables out there and none with spectrum waterfall display, selectable audio filtering, and touch screen. About the only thing I'm not too thrilled about are the cheesy encoders, but even that is fixable if you're going to build one up from a board only.
The speakers on the back of the case are NOT a woofer and tweeter. The one that is concave is actually a speaker. The one that is flat is actually a passive radiator. A passive radiator is powered by the air pressure generated by the powered speaker and are often used instead of a port in the enclosure or where the enclosure is too small for a port to be effective.
If you are using the small telescopic antenna, you can go into the menu screen and increase the sensitivity level.
NO YOU CANNOT.
2m is useless as inteferance from the internal circuit, but its great on HF, half of the memory slots do not work. The freq steps are a REAL pain on the touch screen to touch correctly.The sound is really full and detailed on FM.Mine looks the same, I need to make a speaker grill. The Pre amp setting is wrong ie off is ON, and on is OFF, leave it activated ie OFF on the rod antenna. Setup I find 75db on AGC as recomended by the Russian designer "George". RF gain 20 to 25 .
The days of the traditional portable shortwave radio, at a comparable price, are absolutely numbered. It's going to be a sea change. Just wait until these problems are resolved, and when the well known companies (Tecsun, Sangean, etc...) start producing them.
Thanks for the review. It probably needs a wound crystal rod like lots of am radios have and an internal antenna connection hooked to it. You saved us from making the same purchase. I agree it's an incomplete product. I suspect over time they will build the bridge. It would clobber short wave radios if they can make it work.
I have been looking to buy one of these for a little while. The thing that needs to be considered, is that these radios are open-source (which is why the chinese can get away with cloning them legitimately). You could call it an ongoing development project. Open-source allows tinkerers to freely adapt, modify and share there own circuit designs and mods with the rest of the world, without copyright issues.
With this understanding, one can decide whether to buy one now, or wait until it evolves and improves further in time. I still haven't decided when I will buy one, but I am always resisting the urge.
I've got same type of clone recently, just with unlocked software. Had to play a lot with it to understand how to turn it on first. Managed to update software to the latest version only after playing with wire jumpers inside (maybe bad luck?) Had the same waves on 40m bands and huge humps at the sides of each strong station, especially in MW band. Ended up replacing 22 MHz main crystal oscillator (purchased from Russian developers- no stock anywhere else) which has radically changed receiver's behaviour. It was also a problem with connection of headphone socket - left channel grounded. Sensitivity on 40m band is slightly better compated to my Tecsun pl880 on their native telescopic antennas. Quite a lot of interference from own display, but otherwise - very nice little receiver with panoramic screen. Love FM tuning dial in the newer firmwares.
What portable shortwave radio performance wise would you compare it to?
Once you connected the whip and heard nothing that was a show stopper. Was that the case
on shortwave freqs starting with 80m and above? You mentioned the whip worked on the FM band.
Doesn't Malachite have an antenna impedance option in settings that can be changed from 50ohm to high impedance? I don't have Malachite yet, but I remember that I have seen something like this in one of the TH-cam videos.
no
Your voice sounds like you, "sell propane and propane accessories"... lol
Interesting little unit tnx for the info ! Take care ! Peace ☮️ from Welland Ontario Canada 🇨🇦
Just got mine today...Have all the problems you have plus the battery won’t charge and the base of the antenna came apart......They also sent a charge/power usb cable but wouldn’t fit....Sending this one back also..
Great video. I would point to it in one of my videos if that is OK. Thanks and have a great day.
How does the whip antenna work with your FM broadcast bands? Can you tune the adjacent channels, right next to your locals? 99.1, 99.3, 99.5, 99.7, 99.9, 100.1 etc
The stations locally aren't that close together. That would be poor planning!
@@n4lq I meant, is it any good for FM dxing?
@@joeblow8593 Well the scope is of little use for FM because it can display only 160 khz and the FM signals are 200 khz wide. I'm not sure what radio you would compare this to or what is actually good for FM DXing.
@@n4lq OK Thanks
Steve yours seems better than many offered - what was the URL?
I do, love the concept of the pocket SDR however for now, These (no name or model) Malachites seem a little shady and dubious like they were made in some clandestine speakeasy similar to bootleg bathtub gin of the prohibition era.
Sounds like my Nooelec NESDR SMArTee XTR SDR. FM stations and little else with a whip antenna.
I am guessing its a impedance matching problem with it being 50 ohms instead of making it high impedance. You might be able to make a small whip with a tightly wound coil for the AM band. I would try making a high to low transformer. Its to bad they didn't have it built into the receiver a high/low impedance switch.
Naw.... An impedance mismatch can't cause this. Hey, I can stick a screwdriver in the antenna input to any 50 ohm input on a typical receiver and at least get local stations or static. Not this thing...It's only able to hear its own noise!
@@n4lq Could the sensitivity be that bad? I used to own a AOR 8000 scanner that also covered the broadcast band and shortwave. With the rubber duck I could pick up a few broadcast stations. With a 3 foot whip I could pick up shortwave stations all around the world
Looked like there was some kind of circuit or antenna built into the bottom of the case. Saw a trace in the case. You did not see it???
I did not open the case.
@@n4lq You didn't need to open the case. I could clearly see it on the video. It looked like a copper trace in the bottom of the case.
Great review, I’ve had a lot of questions about this device ever since I first saw it. The SDR in a case is a great idea. I hope they fix the problems soon. Maybe an American company will fix the problems and copy the good parts, just like the Chinese.
there is another TH-cam vid that added a internal coil the antenna is not made for AM bands
Check the rod connections, mine works but the bands are bad at the moment, yes it is an incomplete radio, its a flippin shame.
Still too many bugs, not enough spectrum, and way too expensive after upgrade which only brings you into the 2ghz range. For what it’s worth, you might look into the tried-and-true vetted HackRF or simply a $20 rtl-sdr. I have both and they work fantastic with any Android device running off the device’s batteries and speakers. Phone, tablet, probably a chrome book. I have other sdr radios like the BladeRF and RSPduo but the first two I’ve tested thoroughly since they were my introduction into sdr radios. In particular, you can do lots with the HackRF since it can transmit half-duplex. The BladeRF is full-duplex 2tx2rx up to 6ghz with a >60mhz viewing bandwidth if you have the computing power.
Everything you say about this Chinese copy is true of every Chinese copy of every electronic product I have ever investigated. For example, the KY-038 sound input module is a very simple circuit and is available all over ebay, but documentation is almost always incomplete and wrong. I honestly believe that Chinese copies are just that: copies made by people with no understanding of the original products. And like photocopies, each iteration is less precise than its predecessor.
I like the photocopy analogy, spot on.
Great demonstration, thanks for sharing the real world performance
Excellent review Steve. Its a great advert to learn morse and use a QCX!
With that little telescopic antenna, you need a unun between it and the radio. 73
Your lucky - mine hasn't even got "made in China " on it. I'm thinking about getting a ferrite rod from an old transistor radio and adapting that as an antenna.
Neat SDR too bad you need a large antenna. Would be nice if it received well with the portable telescoping one.
By the way. Flex maestro has everything you need for operating from the porcelain throne over WiFi.
Thanks for this video and the one before it (already knew that and TX really knows it right now)
Wow Steve. I almost bought one. Thank you very much. If your ever in the Springdale pa area perhaps you can stop bye the shack for a visit. Don't feel to bad I spent 500 dollars for the sdr xiegu gsoc for the g 90 transceiver and its a complete piece of crap. Don't waste your.money. take care and best regards. Ron. Zz.
The whip works great, if you build an impedence transformer to go under it. Good how-to video on TH-cam.
No it does not. I am being bombarded by this same comment. The transformer "improved it"... This one is dead with the whip. Besides, it's a different radio totally. Metal case. Different firmware.
Do you think there is any performance differences between the China knock off and the Russian version?
Don't have any way of knowing. It does appear that a circuit board is missing, namely the RF preamp / front end board.
Same radios. The Chinese just had lower QC some of the time. Same design. The complaints you hear are largely from the Russian designers who got cheated out of their $50 by Chinese entrepreneurs who cloned the Russian firmware to make their clone more attractive to buyers. Neither side have clean hands.
I’m trying to return mine and having a lot of trouble getting a return label to send it back. These are crap.mine is off 10kHZ and is useable in HF bands.I recommend not buying one.
Try an MLA30
Strange the whip doesn't do anything. Reminds me of something that maybe is the reason here too, a wrong connector.....So two females, there are many combinations that don't connect....
As I said, the whip works fine on FM.
Watched vid... Got excited... Watched more... Was going to look for one... Get to end of video; nevermind.
Buy from the actual designer. What he produces is a far more refined unit
@@gerrykavanagh I wish i knew how to find that... Everything out there seems to be the xhicom knockoffs.
Those speakers being exposed like that runs the risk of something poking a hole in the speaker cone leaving you either having to recone, or replacing them entirely, neither job is blind friendly lol.id glue a fine spaced piece of winter screen across the back as a diy speaker cover to protect them little speakers.
I meant window screen. Sorry for my spelling.
Thanks. You just saved me $150+ bucks. 73
every pocket am radio uses a ferrite bar antenna not a whip
no magic there
look into BELKA DX receiver
smaller, no waterfall, good performance
Those tiny Belka DX radios really do work, and just £100 delivered to UK.
There is an impedance mismatch between the 50 ohm sma connector and the 1000 ohm whip. This is the reason you cannot hear anything on it with the whip. Search youtube for a fix using toroid core with winding instructions to make this perform almost as good as an outdoors antenna. 73
An impedance mismatch will not result in no reception at all. You are probably basing this on the video someone posted however he does not use the same radio. His reception did improve but not dramatically.
Don’t update the firmware, it needs an activation code which you need to buy from the Russian developer for 55 bucks, I am doing that now. I have the exact same one did you fit a battery? Works great but I wish I knew about the developers one I’d of got one of them instead of the rip off.
They battery was already installed. No way would I attempt a firmware change.
@@n4lq The firmware update it is really easy to do, but unfortunately because it is a rip off you need a genuine license from the Russians, Quite like it personally just need to find out what’s with the battery, mine is the same as yours. Cheers for the response.
Dang I just ordered the exact same looking one off ebay
You do realize that normal portable radios have internal ferrite rod antennas for MW rx right? Use a vx7r antenna with the SW coil instead.
The radio is open source but the software is not. Alot of the Chinese version of the radio come with a demo version of the software. You can pay extra for the full version. It's a open source toy. It's funny to hear a Elmer try to figure out open source project. You don't get it.
Interesting video, I've been following the Malachite and what you say rings true. The received wisdom is that it's best to pay a little extra and get the original from the guy in Russia. The downside of that is that the waiting time is months. It does come with the expanded reception bandwidth and works well apparently. I've read of people who have had good Chinese clones and others who couldn't get theirs to work at all. You can get just the board, which would be good to build into a homebrew transceiver project.
Thanks Steve! Nice job Sir! So sad, this has such potential. :(
Us aliens got robbed as well
They seem t be better priced on Ali-express than eBay.
That's just the demo firmware! You pay the Russian to get the real firmware. Or you can buy a version that has the real firmware from the Chinese for $50 more and be done with it! The hardware is open source but not the firmware! I got mine from banggood with the real firmware and I love it!
If you buy the hacked version from the Chinese with full coverage you can forget about firmware updates.
@@matthewdavies2057 Sorry but that's just too broad a statement. Mine updated to the latest version just fine and like I said I got it from banggood!
Это клон из китая, оригинал по другому выглядит
nice unit, I bought an sdrplay 2 years ago and used it for maybe 30 minutes. at over $200
Could it be a firmware issue? I'm still to nervous to buy one but did see this vid: th-cam.com/video/o6EWqzeoGug/w-d-xo.html
That model is MUCH different. The case if metal. Speaker is covered. Menus are different. However.... Notice he is using an external antenna, not the whip. My issue was with the whip antenna on HF. It just wont' work.
Thanks for the review. Now I know not to buy one.
Thanks much Steve for your thorough review. It's too bad this little guy is deaf. I would hope that you just received a defective unit, but it sounds like they all may have the China Virus. Maybe smarter engineers will pick up where these folks left off and tweak the circuitry. It appears to be a great idea that should not have left the R&D bench.
If you had bought from teh designer RX9CIM, you would not have had such a negative experience I think
In scanner land, those signals are called birdies. I am an avid scanner nut, lol.
So the Chinese don't just copy Intellectual Property IP from the USA - they copy the Russians too. Pony up and buy from a reputable company like Icom - get the IC-705. I got one and I simply love it !!!!
Notwithstanding that the IC-705 is a transceiver, it's also more than 10 times the price! Not realistically in "pony up" range for normal people.
th-cam.com/video/o6EWqzeoGug/w-d-xo.html
That is not even the same radio.
Go and get the real radio not a china knock off if you want quality. Here is where to find the real McCoy.
www.mobimax.bg/en/BELKA-DX-shortwave-receiver
Dude, if you need to take a ham radio with you to the bathroom ... You should consider adding another hobby because you're way too deep into radio.
Radio helps cover up the noise.
@@n4lq Touche! Sounds like you have problems other than an infatuation with ham radio ;)
Incomplete ? No, just more china junk,
WA8QFE
Made in China garbage! Nothing going to fix that except a sledgehammer!