Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Tom Stiles, who notes that he’s recently posted a video review of the Tivdio V-115 on his YouTube channel. He added that the V-115 is an, “amazing little shortwave radio with many functions including MP3 recording.”
Check out Tom’s review via the embedded player or YouTube link below.
Click here to view on YouTube.
Many thanks, Tom, for sharing your review!
Funny story…
After watching most of Tom’s video this morning while packing for YAT (Yet Another Trip–!) I thought purchasing a V-115 from Amazon might make a lot of sense. Frankly, it would be handy to have a portable that does even a mediocre job of recording shortwave to MP3 files.
I did a quick search on Amazon only to discover, in the search results, that the quickest I could receive the V-115 was next Wednesday. I considered shipping it to my hotel.
Once I opened the product link for the V-115, I saw the following message from Amazon:
I thought, “What?!? I don’t remember this purchase…!”
A bit confused, I opened the large container that holds all of the portables I use for review benchmarks. It was the only place this radio could be hiding. Inside, I discovered an unopened box containing an Audiomax SRW-710S–looking in my Amazon order history, I confirmed that the Tivdio V-115 is also badged as the Audiomax 710-S and Amazon linked the two.
Then, my memory kicked in! I purchased the SRW-710S for review, but pushed it to the backburner. Then in December 2016, SWLing Post contributor, Troy Riedel, submitted a full review of the SRW-710S.
Click here to read Troy’s review.
After Troy’s review, I sat the 710S aside and, frankly, forgot I had even purchased it (after all, quite a few radios come into and go out of my shack!).
I’ll pack the 710S and test its recording capabilities on the road this week.
Tom seems to have been favorably impressed with the Tivdio V-115–perhaps the Tivdio version has had some performance tweaks?
Post readers: Anyone else have a version of this radio? What are your impressions? Please comment!
I purchased one of these a few years ago, and have just started using it for recording 20 and 40 metres ssb. SSB??? yes I built a sugarcube vfo using an attiny85 and si5351a and use it as a BFO at the receiving frequency to insert the missing carrier. Just place it near the radio and it works as well as my xhdata d-808 but with recording capabilities.
I also modified the aux-in jack and changed it to an antenna input jack, routing some small coax internally to the antenna. I can now use an end fed longwire, but this needs a 4.7pf capacitor in series to prevent broadcast band overloading the front end. The vfo (bfo) can be found here:
https://www.zl2pd.com/sugarcube_VFO.html
Hi. I have the Reketess brand model and I’m glad with it. really enjoy it.
But a few cons :
– no SW signal at all (!)
– USB 1 transfers (about 700 kB and never more than 1 MB/s)
– weak on/off button (activates by itself if shaked hard, sometimes anoying on a bike)
– trying different DSP mostly only makes more vibrations, so I keep the default DSP
Question :
is there any hack to update the firmware and / or the USB transfer speed ?
is there a better model keeping this spirit ?
thanks !
Worked well for several months, but now it’s in perpetual “Mute” mode. Pressing the ?|| key doesn’t unmute it. Any ideas? Occasionally, the sound will return – briefly – before the radio falls silent again.
I repaired one of the Audiomax-branded ones with the same symptoms a couple of weeks ago. Turned out to be a failing battery – terminal voltage under no-load was OK, but dipped when turned on. If it only dipped a bit it was fine, but most of the time it dipped below ~3.5v and went into ‘permanant mute’ mode, staying there even if the battery came back up again.
I didn’t get a chance to see if the problem was caused by a charging circuit issue – it was just handed to me by a relative while visiting since I “know radios ;)”, and simply replacing the battery with one I had lying around. Luckily the BL-5C it uses is as common as muck, since they were used in millions of Nokia phones and have been adopted as a semi-standard.
Hope yours has the same problem – it’s an easy fix!
Good day Tom,
Can you usb/charge this radio while is on or just after fully charged?
Thanks,
Rafi
Wesley Chapel, FL
Got one a few months ago – had to wait 3 weeks to get it from China. Use it to listen to FM broadcasts and as a music player. And with a jack cable you have a great external speaker for your smartphone or laptop. And found an extra battery in an old Nokia phone I had laying around.
When I do a scan with the forward buttons my display inverts. Works fine if I manually input a frequency but I cannot figure out how to stop the display from inverting. Firmware 1.4
That’s firmware problem.Need reinstall firmware.But where we download firmware?
Any one give link to download Tivido v115 firmware flash file?
I just got mine. All very nice, except it doesn’t read the very old 4gb microSD card I put in it. I’m hoping it’s just a card format problem. Can anyone confirm what file format works with this radio (Fat16, Fat32 etc…)? I’d much appreciate it.
I am using FAT32 and it works fine. The other thing is that it may not work with older slower cards.
Tom
Hi,
I bought one of these to test it out and for the price paid, they are ok but mine is plagued by an inordinate amount of hash from the digital display. I’ve tried rerouting the antenna cable with thin shielded cable and put some shielding behind the board earthed to the earth points of the circuit board but to no avail. Maybe I’m asking too much from it. Anymore suggestions for quietening down the hash?
Cheers…….. Phil vk2gjf
I love this Radio. however, there are two issues which I believe is firmware related:
1- When I set it on Sleep Timer, pressing the Key Lock will disable the timer and the radio stays on continuously.
2- When I lock the radio the back light turns on and stays on. this drains the battery pretty quickly.
Anyone else noticed similar issue and got a fix for it?
Thanks
Hello enthusiasts:
Great little radio! i’ve not had one like this that also records. Just bought as a chrismas present for myself on Amazon. $26.34 with shipping. https://www.amazon.com/TIVDIO-Portable-Shortwave-Transistor-Recorder/dp/B01ARN28SQ
-Matt
Mine worked great for 3 months. Now I cannot turn it on. The “Welcome” sign comes on for about 4 seconds, then goes off. When I try to recharge the battery, the radio blinks on and off. There is no troubleshooting manual; and I don’t know how to fix this. Suggestions anyone?
Replace the battery.
here is my review rwiten on Aprilbut posted verrecently
https://swling.com/blog/2017/05/tom-reviews-the-tivdio-v-115/
was ordered forw xasual listener
Yours Zacharias
https://sites.google.com/site/zliangas/tivdio
This is the corect link !!!
You have some great article. Do you mind if I show your website on my YouTube show?
Another Thomas
CAN I PLAY WHATS ON MY USB KEY WITH MODEL V-115…..CAN IBUY OTHER BATTERYS TO HAVE MORE TIME OF PLAYING…THANKS TOM FOR THE ANSWER……….MIKE
It only accepts SD memory cards not USB memory cards. Some of their other models such as the V-116 and the HR-11S will accept both types of memory cards. See my recent reviews of these radios. The battery is very generic and is used in many cellphone so it is easy to find and not very expensive. A high quality battery will give a very long playing time.
Another Thomas
I purchased the V-115 about a week ago, and was surprised at how much radio I received for $15 plus free shipping. The FM band is quite sensitive. AM is good for locals, but not exactly a DX machine. Shortwave was iffy, but improved once I tightened the antenna mount screw (I’m used to loose screws!). Depending on location, shortwave is better, but does get some bleed from strong AM’s in the area. The audio is amazing for something of this price. I have yet to try the recording, but, this has become my go-everywhere radio as of late.
– Andrew
The TVDIO V-115 is an amazing receiver. It was bought because I needed a small recording device for my portable SWL activities. I put a 32 GB into the slot, and found that the recordings all were of excellent quality. It also doubles as an external speaker for my FDM-DUO qrp transceiver.
I’ve only tried the radio part on 25m shortwave, and to my surprice the first station heard was from Brazil.
Not bad for a device costing less than USD 20 including p&p from China to Norway!
Egil – LA2PJ|
I recently purchased this TIVDIO radio. I am in Australia and it is a little beast of a machine.
I live in rural country area and seem to have no luck with the short wave radio. Everything else is great!
I have a 64gb micro SD card in it and can fit thousands of songs in it.
The screen is awesome, seems to detail everything going on even has a little spectrum analyzer at the bottom of screen.
The speaker along with the bass is outstanding considering the size and price of the unit.
Thanks heaps for a great vid.
JR
I bought two of the TIVDIO version radios several months ago. A 16GB TF card completed each one. They are, of course, re-chargeable, the sound, for the size, is excellent, the case finish is worthy of a more expensive item. Button lock, mp3 recording, auxiliary input, delete function, (including unwanted channels that the auto-tune has found), makes them a real bargain. They impress everyone who sees – and hears – them. OK, so there’s no clock or DAB, but for just over £12, including shipping from China(?), it would be really churlish to complain. One battery charge seems to last a very long time.
I ordered one of these yesterday to use for calibrating a 40 meter transceiver that I recently built. The TIVDIO V-115 was the only inexpensive radio that looked like it might do the job. All of the analog radios in the same price range seemed to truncate the bands (lopping off a little on each end). If this little guy will receive 7023-7125khz I’ll be satisfied however after reading your review it appears that it will do more than that.
I own the Audiomax version of this radio. I have recorded classical music from an FM station using the Audiomax. When playing the recording on an iphone with $100 Audio Technica headpbones, the recording sounded quite good. Using the Audiomax to play recorded music off its storage card also sounds pretty good if the equalizer setting is Jazz and the headphones are expensive. While the Audiomax does not have a timer, its Auto On or Sleep function will save any recording when it turns off the radio automatically. When playing music off the storage card, the music can be listed according to artist. But the artist listing is not completely alphabetical. Radio reception for AM, FM, and SW is solid but not DX quality. When entering a frequency you have to wait about 4 seconds before the frequency changes. Also you cannot scroll to any desired frequency. The scrolling keys will skip over any frequency which does not have a significant signal. Where the Audiomax shines is that with a press of a button you can go from a boring commercial on the radio to some nice prerecorded music or podcast. For the radio alone, the Audiomax is worth its selling price.
No need to wait 4 seconds when direct entering a frequency. If you hit the play button (below the 7 key) after entering it a frequency, it switches immediately.
Hi, I have the 710S for few months and it’s great for FM and podcasts. (not much SW 4 me in a big city)
Only recently I found undocumented feature on it.
The culprit is that one can’t delete MP3 files that were loaded to the card, only internal recordings can be deleted with the DEL button. But now you can, here how
1) when on MP3 listening mode , press/hold PLAY until menu, select ROOT
2) press PLAY and navigate to the file you want to delete with the II
3) press the volume – down delete massage pop, confirm with PLAY.
I hope it will be useful to all.
I think you have a serious problem when you buy stuff, and don’t even open it! Ha ha. Too many toys.
Just kidding. keep up the good work. Somebody has to test all these radios.
Cheers;
Ronald
Ha ha!
Thanks for the post and that is an interesting story you have.
Another Thomas
Owned one of these since January, 2017. Cost was $15.09, shipped from China, and received in 10 days.
FM reception is quite good, as is the MP3 record and playback. Amazing audio quality for such a small, inexpensive item. Tactile feel of control buttons is commensurate with the price. The visual display and character size / font compare with more expensive portables. Case is not flimsy, but not overbuilt, either. Antenna rod must be purposely small to offset front-end overload on very strong SW signals.
Some front end overload from the shortwave powerhouses on 4840, 9375, etc that is not present on AMBC. AMBC and shortwave signals are masked by very high internal digital noises manifested in the audio on all but the strongest stations. This is usually caused by poor internal shielding of digital circuitry or the display. Has anyone had a similar issue and had the time to investigate? I’m thinking a couple of ground points and tin shielding material can cure this, making the radio a real bargain.
T. D.