It's a great radio for the price, but on the one I bought recently the AGC jumps around on moderate or above signal strength signals on SW making it essentially unusable. Older units I've seen on YT seem not to have this problem, so my guess is that a recent software modification has a bug.
In my follow-up video comparing the V115 to my Tecsun I did notice that it mutes some of the stronger stations once I connect up the antenna, attenuating the signal automatically. However, it was usable and compared favourably to my Tecsun when connecting to a long-wire antenna and using the automatic channel scanning feature on both radios, they performed similarly!
@@devhackmod It's certainly possible that I simply got a defective unit. Using a signal generator a few feet away with a clip lead as an antenna, the receiver was OK until I got to a moderate amplitude, at which point the AGC would become erratic. It seemed like the best explanation was a software bug that would affect all units, but since yours doesn't exhibit the same problem it must just be a one-off bug. Lucky me. :)
I have one of these too and i kinda like it. Especially the recording feature which is pretty neat and it actually not that bad in the highest quality mode. Over here in Scandinavia the AM-band is pretty useless as there's next to nothing to recieve anymore, the SW picks up some random stuff but the auto search is a bit annoying as it probably skips a lot of weak signals. I'll definitely look closer to that shield modding you mentioned, it sounds like a good idea. Over all a cheap and fun radio to play around with and it really shines on FM in urban areas, that's for sure.
I'm enjoying this radio so far. I have used the auto-scan feature on both my Tecsun PL-310ET and this V115 and both seem to find about the same stations (using a 30-40 ft long-wire clipped to the antenna). The difference is my Tecsun can scan the entire range in 5 minutes whereas the V115 takes about 15 minutes! But after the initial scan I am getting about the same reception, although Tecsun lets me fine-tune to 1 kHz steps and go up/down easily, but V115 only does 5 kHz steps and I have to manually type it each time. But for the price you can't beat the V115.
I find you a bit unfair to this radio. You can't compare a sub-20$/€ radio to a higher end Tecsun or Xhdata. For its price, I really find this radio a real bargain. Agreed, it might not be the best SW receiver on Earth, but with the help of a long wire antenna I've had quite decent results with it, on par with more expensive receivers. Using a long wire did solve the problem of the internally generated noise for me. The 5 kHz step on SW is no problem as long as you don't do SSB, which this radio doesn't have anyway. It has one of the best loudspeakers I've found in such a small radio, with deep bass and clear sound. It's also packed with interesting features, especially the ability to record audio from internal or external sources, including a line in port. A rare feature, very handy to record catches done with this radio or another. one you connect to it with a 3.5mm jack cable. That's one of the reasons why the V115 always is in my bag of radios when I go SWL.
True, the Retekess V115 is a really great bargain! And in my later video (comparing SW reception to my Tecsun) it actually did quite well! I was surprised by the performance and extra features like SD Card record/playback, rechargeable battery and mic! When I connect it to my laptop, the USB not only works as an SD Card reader but also registers the microphone AND the speaker on the radio as audio devices! So I use the radio's microphone to record audio to my laptop rather than using the terrible built-in microphone in my laptop screen. It's great! It's almost like they plan on making little to no money on the V115 so that people buy the more expensive Retekess radios!
Yes you are correct. The radio only allows 5 kHz steps which by default should pick up all the regular stations if they are broadcasting correctly. I will miss some of the stations in between but most of those are HAM or other transmissions typically using SSB which I can't decode anyways. Interestingly when I do the automatic scanning memory feature on my Tecsun it also jumps by 5 kHz steps (or at least that's what it shows) so I'm not sure if that's just to save time scanning or save on display refresh. Either way, the Tecsun takes about 4 minutes to scan from about 2300 kHz up through about 21950 kHz whereas the Retekess V115 takes almost 15 minutes for a shorter 4750 kHz to 21850 kHz range.
Yes! Thank you! I love that song!!!! For a second I thought it was "Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime" but upon reviewing the video it was obviously not! At least I was in the correct decade! LOL!
@devhackmod Ha..well done on the decade! To be fair a quick blast of it and his voice does indeed sound like David Byrne of Talking Heads...And here's an Interesting fact...Listen very carefully to the chorus in the song & you will hear the unmistakeable sound of Michael Jackson doing backing vocals...actually true! Ps I have the Retekess 115 & for the money & size it's great I think!
It's a great radio for the price, but on the one I bought recently the AGC jumps around on moderate or above signal strength signals on SW making it essentially unusable. Older units I've seen on YT seem not to have this problem, so my guess is that a recent software modification has a bug.
In my follow-up video comparing the V115 to my Tecsun I did notice that it mutes some of the stronger stations once I connect up the antenna, attenuating the signal automatically. However, it was usable and compared favourably to my Tecsun when connecting to a long-wire antenna and using the automatic channel scanning feature on both radios, they performed similarly!
@@devhackmod It's certainly possible that I simply got a defective unit. Using a signal generator a few feet away with a clip lead as an antenna, the receiver was OK until I got to a moderate amplitude, at which point the AGC would become erratic. It seemed like the best explanation was a software bug that would affect all units, but since yours doesn't exhibit the same problem it must just be a one-off bug. Lucky me. :)
I have one of these too and i kinda like it. Especially the recording feature which is pretty neat and it actually not that bad in the highest quality mode. Over here in Scandinavia the AM-band is pretty useless as there's next to nothing to recieve anymore, the SW picks up some random stuff but the auto search is a bit annoying as it probably skips a lot of weak signals. I'll definitely look closer to that shield modding you mentioned, it sounds like a good idea. Over all a cheap and fun radio to play around with and it really shines on FM in urban areas, that's for sure.
I'm enjoying this radio so far. I have used the auto-scan feature on both my Tecsun PL-310ET and this V115 and both seem to find about the same stations (using a 30-40 ft long-wire clipped to the antenna). The difference is my Tecsun can scan the entire range in 5 minutes whereas the V115 takes about 15 minutes! But after the initial scan I am getting about the same reception, although Tecsun lets me fine-tune to 1 kHz steps and go up/down easily, but V115 only does 5 kHz steps and I have to manually type it each time. But for the price you can't beat the V115.
I find you a bit unfair to this radio. You can't compare a sub-20$/€ radio to a higher end Tecsun or Xhdata. For its price, I really find this radio a real bargain. Agreed, it might not be the best SW receiver on Earth, but with the help of a long wire antenna I've had quite decent results with it, on par with more expensive receivers. Using a long wire did solve the problem of the internally generated noise for me.
The 5 kHz step on SW is no problem as long as you don't do SSB, which this radio doesn't have anyway.
It has one of the best loudspeakers I've found in such a small radio, with deep bass and clear sound.
It's also packed with interesting features, especially the ability to record audio from internal or external sources, including a line in port. A rare feature, very handy to record catches done with this radio or another. one you connect to it with a 3.5mm jack cable.
That's one of the reasons why the V115 always is in my bag of radios when I go SWL.
True, the Retekess V115 is a really great bargain! And in my later video (comparing SW reception to my Tecsun) it actually did quite well! I was surprised by the performance and extra features like SD Card record/playback, rechargeable battery and mic! When I connect it to my laptop, the USB not only works as an SD Card reader but also registers the microphone AND the speaker on the radio as audio devices! So I use the radio's microphone to record audio to my laptop rather than using the terrible built-in microphone in my laptop screen. It's great! It's almost like they plan on making little to no money on the V115 so that people buy the more expensive Retekess radios!
It has no 1 khz stepping. Minimum 5 khz. Try 4755.
Yes you are correct. The radio only allows 5 kHz steps which by default should pick up all the regular stations if they are broadcasting correctly. I will miss some of the stations in between but most of those are HAM or other transmissions typically using SSB which I can't decode anyways. Interestingly when I do the automatic scanning memory feature on my Tecsun it also jumps by 5 kHz steps (or at least that's what it shows) so I'm not sure if that's just to save time scanning or save on display refresh. Either way, the Tecsun takes about 4 minutes to scan from about 2300 kHz up through about 21950 kHz whereas the Retekess V115 takes almost 15 minutes for a shorter 4750 kHz to 21850 kHz range.
@8:11 Nope...Not Talking Heads...it's Rockwell "Somebody's Watching Me" circa 1983
Yes! Thank you! I love that song!!!! For a second I thought it was "Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime" but upon reviewing the video it was obviously not! At least I was in the correct decade! LOL!
@devhackmod Ha..well done on the decade! To be fair a quick blast of it and his voice does indeed sound like David Byrne of Talking Heads...And here's an Interesting fact...Listen very carefully to the chorus in the song & you will hear the unmistakeable sound of Michael Jackson doing backing vocals...actually true! Ps I have the Retekess 115 & for the money & size it's great I think!