Interesting comparison of an assorted range of pocket SW radios, juxtaposed against the gargantuan, vintage Hammarlund valve receiver! 🙂 I remember that Tecsun used to make radios for the Eton company, which in turn bought the Grundig brand. I didn't realize that the R-808 is also the same model as the Grundig 100PE and what makes this model stand out is its tuning scale that starts from from right to left, just like Arabic calligraphy! 😀 Small pocket sized analogue SW receivers generally have lower S/N ratio characteristics and it's not unusual to experience increased a noise floor along with its sensitivity. My personal experience with mechanically tuned DSP radios like the XHDATA D-219 and D-368 have generally been positive, but I realised that the nature of the DSP chips that they use also meant that these radios tend to favour stronger shortwave stations than fainter ones - especially when the stations are adjacent to one another. I found that the D-219/D-368 have impressive noise rejection characteristics but they also have a less sharp selectivity relative to an all-analogue receiver. I wonder if I should revisit the Retekess V-115. I had bought one some years ago, but it wasn't for me. 📻🙂
I think the Retekess V-115 is a decent radio, but mine has also been hiding in a drawer for some time :-) It was fun to take it out and compare it to these other radios. It's not a bad performer, especially when you add a wire. I should have added a short clip at the end with the same station on the Hammarlund 😀 I quite like my little Tecsun R808, for its size, it is really sensitive. I think it is better than both the R-909 and the R9012, even though it is a bit noisy. But so are the R-909 and R9012.
You'd be surprised how many old Soviet radios have their scales running right-to-left 😂 and if it does run left-to-right... it's only because the scale indicates wavelengths, not frequencies!
@@swlistening Thank you. The Tecsun R-909 didn't impress me in any way and I ended up giving it away to the needy. It wasn't sensitive even on FM, of all things!🙂 I had thought of getting a Retekess V115 for my birthday this month but ended up with the Tecsun S-8800, ordered from Anna herself. The damned parcel was held up by the Customs until I paid the ransom...I mean, import tax online. I've always liked field radios ever since I had my old Toshiba RP-2000F back in '82! 😀
@@ArnieDXer You'd be surprised that I've never seen Soviet era radios myself! They certainly weren't featured in the Passport to World Band Radio 1999 paperback either! 😀
@@StratmanII Congratulations with the S-8800! That is quite a jump, from thoughts about the cheap and cheerful V115 to the sophisticated and pricey S-8800 🙂
Thanks Andre for reminding me I had a Retekess V115 that I bought as a speaker for Afrendri SDR radio, never used it as a radio. I have the Xhdata D220 and D609W, and finally broke down and ordered the 2024 Xhdata D-808 today. However, Radioddity it running a sale on your Raddy model so I might get as a gift for a friend who needs a digital readout to tune. Decisions ,Decisions….😂!’ 73! Have a great day!
I think the Raddy will make a nice gift for your friend, it is an impressive radio for its size and price. I will be very interested to hear your opinion of the 2024 D-808 when you get it! I also don't use my Retekess very often these days, but I think it deserves some use. It's quite a nice radio 😀
Bit of advice to a new D-808 owner: be very gentle with the BFO wheel. It's fragile. So is the antenna whip, I had to replace it. Otherwise a fantastic radio if you can stand the paged memory system that's a bit of a headache.
Hi Norman, that little Tecsun is quite a nice radio. I think it performs better than some of the other small analogue Tecsun radios, like the R-909 and the R9012.
The Tecsun R909 would pick up FM signals on shortwave, as well as strong MW stations. I am trying to buy a Tecsun1210 from a special radio store in China. One radio that was good on SW and VHF/UHF was the ICOM R6, with coverage from 150 khz to 1300 MHz, a so-called Wideband receiver. Only drawback was no SSB and limited tuning steps and was terrible on MW. Wishing you good listening, future success and good health.
@@normanhill535 I have an IC-R6 and I always forget that is covers shortwave. I need to try it with an external antenna sometime. One big drawback is trying to operate a radio that has only four buttons! (Thank goodness for programming software!)
My pleasure Dan, it’s a really great radio! Did you enter my raffle, there are two D-220s up for grabs in the raffle. There is a video link in the description of this video to enter the raffle.
Tecsun r808 all the way.Sensitive,true analogue so it doesnt cut any adjucent incoming signal.So in my opinion,this is the "real" sound.Thanks for the very nice video
Thanks for your comment! I do like the Tecsun for the fact that it is full analogue. It makes for a more old-fashioned and, perhaps, authentic DXing experience, in my opinion. That is also why I really like the Tecsun PL-680.
Great comparison Andre. I would be hard pressed to choose between the Raddy and XHDATA for sound. But then again, the Tecsun is a great little radio as well. So I might just be forced to purchase all 3 at some point. 😂
Thanks Rodney. You can never have too many radios! 😄 But you can scratch the Tecsun from your list because it seems impossible to find, it has been discontinued for some years now.
Hello André, I watched this very interesting shootout (I like your shootout videos!) twice to build myself an opinion and I'll beg to disagree with you here. To me the (surprise) winner is the V115 that has the most balanced sound and less noise. As an elderly guy, my ageing ears need more treble sound and the D-220 sounds a bit too muffled for my taste here, and I can hear no definite advantage regarding the noise level. Raddy RF886 comes second to me. Yes, the Clooblut is noisier and this come as no surprise considering my experience with this radio: quite sensitive but quite open to RFI and signal breakthrough too. Good old Tecsun does pretty well, although in the noisier range too. One radio in this sample I don't own, and I regret it. My experience with other entry level analog radios by Tecsun has been so-so, although the not-so-cheap R9700DX is fantastic and its smaller and cheaper (but hard to find) R9710 is quite good too.
I returned the Tecsun R-9700DX after testing it for a week. Wished I could keep it, but when merely sifting through the frequencies resulted in garbled and distorted sounds, I would have none of it. The frequency calibration was also off and there was no way it was adjustable (unlike the Tecsun PL-660/680/330/320/880/990 etc) short of opening up the receiver. The tuning wheel was also quite stiff and my thumb and index finger pads became sore after a few days. The only thing that I liked about the R-9700DX is its fully illuminated frequency dial - not too many analogue radios have this feature. 📻💡
Well, I really think that you received a defective unit that had bypassed quality control checks. I have had none of these issues with mine. Granted, the frequency scale is a bit off sometimes, but much less than what I've seen on other analog radios. I really like it, it's quite sensitive, has a very stable VFO and excellent sound.
@F4LDT-Alain HI Alain, thanks for your comment. I think you have just put a third possible winner on the table. Judging from the comments of viewers, the Raddy and the XHDATA seem to be equally popular. There are many who prefer the Raddy. Now the Retekess has entered the race :-) I think the Retekess sound is really great, and it actually performs quite well with a wire.
@@swlistening Each one his own preference 😁 The issue with the V115 is the noise it catches from its own internal electronics when using the whip antenna. But yes, on a wire in does quite good in my experience and its speaker if well above average.
Interesting what you say about the Clooblut and batteries. My experience has been different, I have some Energizer batteries in mine and they have been going for many months. I guess it depends on how often you use the radio. I use mine most days for about 30 minutes a day.
Defenitely, they have the (not-so) most strong transmitters. I've received once Radio România on 5910 KHz (A24 frequency) from the Saftica transmitter site with my XHDATA D-109, and the signal strengh indicated from 6100 to 6840.
Well, I think I'm not going to agree with you on this one 🤪 The bandwidth setting in D-220 sounds a bit too narrow to my liking. Although it surely helps reject adjacent-channel interference 😜 Retekess, Clooblut and the old Tecsun sound a lot brighter, Clooblut is actually too bright 😂 might be an audio overdrive on your mic though. Raddy turned out more balanced, and its AGC seems really fine. A synchronuous detector would be best in this case but frankly, it's still reserved for more expensive rigs & SDRs 😕 So in this comparison, I'd choose the Raddy.
There are several others here who share your opinion, and I actually agree that the Raddy is good here. It is my second choice 😀 This video was recorded with my phone, no external mic. The Clooblut really sounds like that. It's a sensitive radio, but not the most pleasant sound.
Replying to my comment to another video, you had asked me about the price on Amazon US for the new radio. I responded twice, but TH-cam deleted my replies. So I'll repeat here: the price is $18.90 for either the green or orange color, with a 20%-off coupon available. Let's see if this comment sticks!
@@paul.steckler Thanks for persisting Paul, I appreciate it. No idea why TH-cam deleted your previous two comments... Thanks for sharing the price with me.
Hi Jeff, thanks for your comment! This was at night here at my location, it was already pitch dark, it was 19:46 local time. But it is interesting that you mention this. I certainly agree that for some bands the tests should be done at night, like the 49, 31 and 25 metre band. The 13, 16 and 19 metre bands are good during daytime though. Sometimes even the 31 metre band is great here in Johannesburg from early afternoon onwards. I often DX the 13, 16 and 19 metre bands during daytime, they are very busy and I hear many stations in those bands during the day. Then at night I move to the other bands. Now in the northern winter the 19 metre band seems to be great day and night here in Johannesburg.
While XHDATA 220 has good audio, I returned it due to cramped tuner, very low build quality including wheels and importantly "unspecified" chip inside ( in fact it's against FCC rules to tamper the chip information ). Having said I still like and keep XHDATA 219
Thanks for your comment! I think the build quality is about the same as all inexpensive radios, but I do understand that the cramped dial is not to everyone's taste.
Ah, I'm glad someone else also noticed the unmarked DSP chip in the D-220. It's not made by Skyworks but I'm inclined to think that it's even less expensive than the genuine Si-4825A10 DSP used in the D-219 and D-328. Some people said that XHDATA sourced the DSP chip from an unidentified Chinese manufacturer. If I had to make an educated guess, XHDATA used this alternative DSP chip because it could not obtain the Skyworks Si 4825-A10 in sufficient quantities at the wholesale price that it wanted.
![เป็นไปได้ไหม - WanMai [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_6lZ6b3_7Vo/mqdefault.jpg)
Interesting comparison of an assorted range of pocket SW radios, juxtaposed against the gargantuan, vintage Hammarlund valve receiver! 🙂
I remember that Tecsun used to make radios for the Eton company, which in turn bought the Grundig brand. I didn't realize that the R-808 is also the same model as the Grundig 100PE and what makes this model stand out is its tuning scale that starts from from right to left, just like Arabic calligraphy! 😀 Small pocket sized analogue SW receivers generally have lower S/N ratio characteristics and it's not unusual to experience increased a noise floor along with its sensitivity.
My personal experience with mechanically tuned DSP radios like the XHDATA D-219 and D-368 have generally been positive, but I realised that the nature of the DSP chips that they use also meant that these radios tend to favour stronger shortwave stations than fainter ones - especially when the stations are adjacent to one another. I found that the D-219/D-368 have impressive noise rejection characteristics but they also have a less sharp selectivity relative to an all-analogue receiver.
I wonder if I should revisit the Retekess V-115. I had bought one some years ago, but it wasn't for me. 📻🙂
I think the Retekess V-115 is a decent radio, but mine has also been hiding in a drawer for some time :-) It was fun to take it out and compare it to these other radios. It's not a bad performer, especially when you add a wire.
I should have added a short clip at the end with the same station on the Hammarlund 😀
I quite like my little Tecsun R808, for its size, it is really sensitive. I think it is better than both the R-909 and the R9012, even though it is a bit noisy. But so are the R-909 and R9012.
You'd be surprised how many old Soviet radios have their scales running right-to-left 😂 and if it does run left-to-right... it's only because the scale indicates wavelengths, not frequencies!
@@swlistening Thank you. The Tecsun R-909 didn't impress me in any way and I ended up giving it away to the needy. It wasn't sensitive even on FM, of all things!🙂
I had thought of getting a Retekess V115 for my birthday this month but ended up with the Tecsun S-8800, ordered from Anna herself. The damned parcel was held up by the Customs until I paid the ransom...I mean, import tax online. I've always liked field radios ever since I had my old Toshiba RP-2000F back in '82! 😀
@@ArnieDXer You'd be surprised that I've never seen Soviet era radios myself! They certainly weren't featured in the Passport to World Band Radio 1999 paperback either! 😀
@@StratmanII Congratulations with the S-8800! That is quite a jump, from thoughts about the cheap and cheerful V115 to the sophisticated and pricey S-8800 🙂
Thanks Andre for reminding me I had a Retekess V115 that I bought as a speaker for Afrendri SDR radio, never used it as a radio. I have the Xhdata D220 and D609W, and finally broke down and ordered the 2024 Xhdata D-808 today. However, Radioddity it running a sale on your Raddy model so I might get as a gift for a friend who needs a digital readout to tune.
Decisions ,Decisions….😂!’
73! Have a great day!
I think the Raddy will make a nice gift for your friend, it is an impressive radio for its size and price. I will be very interested to hear your opinion of the 2024 D-808 when you get it! I also don't use my Retekess very often these days, but I think it deserves some use. It's quite a nice radio 😀
Bit of advice to a new D-808 owner: be very gentle with the BFO wheel. It's fragile. So is the antenna whip, I had to replace it. Otherwise a fantastic radio if you can stand the paged memory system that's a bit of a headache.
@@F4LDT-Alain Good advice, thanks Alain!
Yes. I liked the sound of the D220 too.
Thanks!
Thank you for the comparison test. I once owned the Tecsun R808.
Hi Norman, that little Tecsun is quite a nice radio. I think it performs better than some of the other small analogue Tecsun radios, like the R-909 and the R9012.
The Tecsun R909 would pick up FM signals on shortwave, as well as strong MW stations. I am trying to buy a Tecsun1210 from a special radio store in China. One radio that was good on SW and VHF/UHF was the ICOM R6, with coverage from 150 khz to 1300 MHz, a so-called Wideband receiver. Only drawback was no SSB and limited tuning steps and was terrible on MW. Wishing you good listening, future success and good health.
@@normanhill535 I have an IC-R6 and I always forget that is covers shortwave. I need to try it with an external antenna sometime. One big drawback is trying to operate a radio that has only four buttons! (Thank goodness for programming software!)
@@normanhill535 The R1210 is new to me, I never knew about this radio. It looks quite similar to the R-909, do you know what the differences are?
Interesting comparison of all these radios thanks Andre. I'll probably be ordering a XHDATA D-220.
My pleasure Dan, it’s a really great radio! Did you enter my raffle, there are two D-220s up for grabs in the raffle. There is a video link in the description of this video to enter the raffle.
Great catch from the Galbeni-Bacau transmitter site! 👍 The XHDATA sounded much more better than the v115 & the Clooblut.
Thanks Andrew. I agree with you about the D-220 😀
You must be a young guy whose ears don't need much treble then 😁
@@F4LDT-Alain Yes, i am a young one lol (17yo). I am more common with treble on Medium Wave listening.
Tecsun r808 all the way.Sensitive,true analogue so it doesnt cut any adjucent incoming signal.So in my opinion,this is the "real" sound.Thanks for the very nice video
Thanks for your comment! I do like the Tecsun for the fact that it is full analogue. It makes for a more old-fashioned and, perhaps, authentic DXing experience, in my opinion. That is also why I really like the Tecsun PL-680.
Great comparison Andre. I would be hard pressed to choose between the Raddy and XHDATA for sound. But then again, the Tecsun is a great little radio as well. So I might just be forced to purchase all 3 at some point. 😂
Thanks Rodney. You can never have too many radios! 😄 But you can scratch the Tecsun from your list because it seems impossible to find, it has been discontinued for some years now.
Hello André, I watched this very interesting shootout (I like your shootout videos!) twice to build myself an opinion and I'll beg to disagree with you here. To me the (surprise) winner is the V115 that has the most balanced sound and less noise. As an elderly guy, my ageing ears need more treble sound and the D-220 sounds a bit too muffled for my taste here, and I can hear no definite advantage regarding the noise level. Raddy RF886 comes second to me.
Yes, the Clooblut is noisier and this come as no surprise considering my experience with this radio: quite sensitive but quite open to RFI and signal breakthrough too.
Good old Tecsun does pretty well, although in the noisier range too. One radio in this sample I don't own, and I regret it. My experience with other entry level analog radios by Tecsun has been so-so, although the not-so-cheap R9700DX is fantastic and its smaller and cheaper (but hard to find) R9710 is quite good too.
I returned the Tecsun R-9700DX after testing it for a week. Wished I could keep it, but when merely sifting through the frequencies resulted in garbled and distorted sounds, I would have none of it. The frequency calibration was also off and there was no way it was adjustable (unlike the Tecsun PL-660/680/330/320/880/990 etc) short of opening up the receiver. The tuning wheel was also quite stiff and my thumb and index finger pads became sore after a few days.
The only thing that I liked about the R-9700DX is its fully illuminated frequency dial - not too many analogue radios have this feature. 📻💡
Well, I really think that you received a defective unit that had bypassed quality control checks. I have had none of these issues with mine. Granted, the frequency scale is a bit off sometimes, but much less than what I've seen on other analog radios. I really like it, it's quite sensitive, has a very stable VFO and excellent sound.
@F4LDT-Alain HI Alain, thanks for your comment. I think you have just put a third possible winner on the table. Judging from the comments of viewers, the Raddy and the XHDATA seem to be equally popular. There are many who prefer the Raddy. Now the Retekess has entered the race :-) I think the Retekess sound is really great, and it actually performs quite well with a wire.
@@swlistening Each one his own preference 😁
The issue with the V115 is the noise it catches from its own internal electronics when using the whip antenna. But yes, on a wire in does quite good in my experience and its speaker if well above average.
Good demo.
Thanks!
I have the Clooblut radio and love it, but it goes through batteries fast. Faster than all my Xhdata radios.. thanks for the comparison.
Interesting what you say about the Clooblut and batteries. My experience has been different, I have some Energizer batteries in mine and they have been going for many months. I guess it depends on how often you use the radio. I use mine most days for about 30 minutes a day.
Radio Romania International has excellent transmitters.
Defenitely, they have the (not-so) most strong transmitters. I've received once Radio România on 5910 KHz (A24 frequency) from the Saftica transmitter site with my XHDATA D-109, and the signal strengh indicated from 6100 to 6840.
Yes, I enjoy their programmes in English through the week.
RRI comes in loud & clear here in Scotland.
@@lew9223 On what frequency & meter band did you receive RRI in English? 😲😊
7220khz the programme in English is usually 23.00- 00.00 if I recall.correctly.
Great comparison Andre. Thanks. Is your wire antenna inside or outside?
Thank you! The wire is outside.
Well, I think I'm not going to agree with you on this one 🤪
The bandwidth setting in D-220 sounds a bit too narrow to my liking. Although it surely helps reject adjacent-channel interference 😜 Retekess, Clooblut and the old Tecsun sound a lot brighter, Clooblut is actually too bright 😂 might be an audio overdrive on your mic though. Raddy turned out more balanced, and its AGC seems really fine. A synchronuous detector would be best in this case but frankly, it's still reserved for more expensive rigs & SDRs 😕
So in this comparison, I'd choose the Raddy.
There are several others here who share your opinion, and I actually agree that the Raddy is good here. It is my second choice 😀 This video was recorded with my phone, no external mic. The Clooblut really sounds like that. It's a sensitive radio, but not the most pleasant sound.
I'm not surprised if the D-220's default bandwidth is narrow, considering that it has a wide range of frequencies squeezed into one shortwave band! ☺️
Nice test. My winner is the Radddy.
The Raddy is my second choice, for sure! It is very good, but I like the sound on the D-220 a bit more.
Excellent shootout. Andre, am I confused or did XHData announce an updated D-220 the other day?
The updated XHDATA is the D-221.
Indeed, the D-221 with the weather band.
Replying to my comment to another video, you had asked me about the price on Amazon US for the new radio. I responded twice, but TH-cam deleted my replies. So I'll repeat here: the price is $18.90 for either the green or orange color, with a 20%-off coupon available. Let's see if this comment sticks!
@@paul.steckler Thanks for persisting Paul, I appreciate it. No idea why TH-cam deleted your previous two comments... Thanks for sharing the price with me.
220 a bit too bassy for me, raddy 2:49 would be my choice, i think
The Raddy is certainly very good, I agree. My second choice. For me it is a bit too tinny 😁
Thanks for the video makes choosing a cheap portable easier there are loads out there 👍
@@martinryan5069 My pleasure Martin, thanks for your comment.
Doing a test on radios 📻 may be better by night 🌙. So is DXing. Your friend, Jeff.
Hi Jeff, thanks for your comment! This was at night here at my location, it was already pitch dark, it was 19:46 local time. But it is interesting that you mention this. I certainly agree that for some bands the tests should be done at night, like the 49, 31 and 25 metre band. The 13, 16 and 19 metre bands are good during daytime though. Sometimes even the 31 metre band is great here in Johannesburg from early afternoon onwards. I often DX the 13, 16 and 19 metre bands during daytime, they are very busy and I hear many stations in those bands during the day. Then at night I move to the other bands. Now in the northern winter the 19 metre band seems to be great day and night here in Johannesburg.
While XHDATA 220 has good audio, I returned it due to cramped tuner, very low build quality including wheels and importantly "unspecified" chip inside ( in fact it's against FCC rules to tamper the chip information ). Having said I still like and keep XHDATA 219
Thanks for your comment! I think the build quality is about the same as all inexpensive radios, but I do understand that the cramped dial is not to everyone's taste.
Ah, I'm glad someone else also noticed the unmarked DSP chip in the D-220. It's not made by Skyworks but I'm inclined to think that it's even less expensive than the genuine Si-4825A10 DSP used in the D-219 and D-328.
Some people said that XHDATA sourced the DSP chip from an unidentified Chinese manufacturer. If I had to make an educated guess, XHDATA used this alternative DSP chip because it could not obtain the Skyworks Si 4825-A10 in sufficient quantities at the wholesale price that it wanted.
@@StratmanII Whatever chip it is, it performs well!
Dont forget the SWL Contest 2025 will start in January 2025, thank you sz SWL F14368 contest organizer
Thanks Frank. I will talk about the contest in one of my upcoming podcasts also.