The Avion portable DRM receiver is now available on Amazon India (click here to view). It’s being sold for 14,999.00 INR (roughly $230 US).
At time of posting, The Avion DRM receiver only has one review by someone who has (obviously) never used the radio. They give one star then state: “price is very high. so i hate this product.”
While I dismiss reviews like this, I must believe that this price is, indeed, high for most Indian consumers; especially when compared with alternate forms of media consumption (smart phones, analog radio, FTA satellite TV, etc.). It would be high for me, too.
I hope, at least, that the Avion performs well. I have no plans to review the Avion DRM receiver at this point simply because it’s challenging for me to find and decode DRM here in North America with my SDRs hooked up to large external antennas. Don’t get me wrong–occasionally, I do get amazing copy–but it’s typically when conditions are favorable. Listeners in Europe, Asia, and Oceana would have better results, no doubt.
Has anyone seen an objective review of the Avion DRM receiver? Please comment.
I’ll be interested in objective reviews when more radios are in the hands of users. If the performance is equivalent to Newstar’s DR111, then it’ll be good enough for an initial design. Although the initial price might be high for the AVERAGE Indian, it isn’t too high for its intended market consisting of a billion people. LoL
Before the radio came out Avion was saying it was going to be an affordable radio. For the Indian market 50 to 60USD would be affordable. But 230USD?
I had the radio with me when I was in Europe and I tried a few times to pick up he European DRM transmissions. But reception on the radio is so poor all I could get was text. The Uniwave radio I had on loan had no problem.
I heard Keith Perron’s review on PCJ and it wasn’t a favourable one $230 US means it is not going to cheap at all in Australia especially with shipping
I was interested in this DRM receiver until I saw that there is no where to connect an external antenna, you must rely on the whip. Given that interest in DRM radios is not exactly mainstream yet, including features to cater to radio enthusiasts would seem like a good idea.
While on the subject of external antennas and portables shortwave radios, I would like to see an SMA jack for the external antenna connection on a portable. I have thought about taking my drill and soldering iron to a Tecsun PL-380 to retro-fit the part myself.
Affordable for the India market? Humm! Not at all. The receiver we got hold of is just as bad as the DR111. Also its a very ugly design. And the performance is awful.