The new HanRongDa K-603 portable radio

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mei Tao, who writes:

Yesterday, I received a new radio: the HanRongDa K-603, which was sent to me by the manufacture.They want me to test this prototype machine in order to find any bugs. If there is nothing to fix, I believe this radio will hit the market in this or next month.

K-603 is a small portable radio which also has some great functions. Its major features include:

  • FM, AM, and SW bands
  • Bluetooth 5.0 connection
  • TF Card Player
  • Recording function
  • Line in
  • LCD can display three different languages,English?Chinese and another foreign language.
  • Powered by the BL-5C Li battery
  • MW channnel space can be switched between 9KHz adn 10KHz.
  • Tuning methods: Scan, ATS, and direct key entry

The designer told me that this K-603’s fm coverage is from 87MHz to 108MHz, but they will extend it to 64MHz in the next version. That’s really good news.

In a few days, I will test it carefully. If necessary, I will make side-by-side comparisons with my own Tecsun, Sangean, Radiwow, and Degen radios. Then i will present some text and video reviews.

I would like to share some pictures of this new radio with you and other BCLers

Best wishes to you!

Photos

Thank you, Mei Tao! We look forward to your review of the HanRongDa K-603. Yes, please let us know how it compares to your other receivers. We also look forward to any update regarding price and availability. Thanks for sharing those photos!

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20 thoughts on “The new HanRongDa K-603 portable radio

  1. SB

    I have been using the V115 for a while and then saw that the K603 appears identical but with Blue Tooth.I ordered ,received and tested one.The k603 Blue Tooth does work fine.Also it can play FLAC files which the V115 cannot.The bad is that when I have radio on and hit record some interference noise begins and is heard on the recording.Also I don’t like the button setup or button labeling quite as well.The good improvements may outweigh the negatives I reported.Depends what you want.If you only want it for radio listening,no MP3 or FLAC file playback and don’t want to record the radio take the V115.

    Reply
    1. adi

      I also got the K603 not long ago.
      I found the Bluetooth not usable as there is a hiss and buzz along with the audio, low but noticeable. (less then a meter from source)
      Volume control is not as wide as on my V115, when it set to 1 it’s sometimes too loud, 0 is muted of course.
      FM reception is not as good as V115 and memories do not consolidate if you delete the not needed.
      The button setup is different, so I make mistakes sometimes.

      Reply
  2. harry Rauker

    Cannot start the radio only comes up with welcome on the LED then shuts off with USB and with the battery attached.

    Is there a reset switch

    Reply
  3. Petro

    Is there any difference between HanRongDa K-603 and the HanRongDa HRD-603 models or are they same? I like radios that record to the micro SD card. Blind individual here. Thank you.

    Reply
  4. GaryN

    Hi
    I like this little radio recently purchased from AmazonUK – very good for the price
    I am recording a few programmes onto the microSD card, but have found that the file date stamp is not correct, so presume the chip date setting needs to be updated / corrected. Does anyone know is this is possible ? Many Thanks GaryN

    Reply
  5. Jae Luc

    Can someone tell me how the latency of the Bluetooth works with AM radio when connected to a wireless speaker?

    Reply
  6. John Ruschmeyer

    Did the formal review of the K-603 ever come out?

    FWIW, I purchased one from an eBay seller recently and received it the other day. I’m guessing that it is a production model as the FM band will tune down to 66Mhz (though the label still reads 88Mhz).

    Basically, I would say that it is not much more than an updated Retekess V-115. The major change is the addition of Bluetooth (receiver, not transmitter). Minor changes consist of a slightly longer antenna, small change in button layout, and minor cosmetic changes to the face of the radio. The back and sides appear to be identical. The contents of the display, including the “hello” and “goodbye” messages seem to be the same as on the V-115. Interestingly, the Setup menu says that the ROM version is 1.5 (V-115 says 1.4).

    Performance appears to be very similar to the V-115 and I suspect that most comments about that radio will apply to this one. It would probably be interesting to compare it to the Retekess TR102 which is supposedly an “evolved” V-115.

    Reply
  7. James Patterson

    From what I can see from photos,it does not have SSB,,does not have full SW coverage up to 30 mgs. Therefore I would say it’s not a true,full coverage SW receiver/radio.I dout you could compare it with a Tecsun,because it lacks so many features that other radios have.It has extras that the true DXer would never use. Look forward to comments.

    Reply
    1. Max

      Yes, we can see that this is a $15 radio without SSB and continuos coverage and that it canno be compared to a $60 radio. Thanks for pointing it out anyway.

      Reply
  8. Karl Keller

    Strong resemblance to the V-115 (and clones). I’ve made several mods to mine, and believe it or not, it’s become my daily driver. Anxious to see what HanRongDa has done with it, especially as mentioned by Mike S, the need for shielding and redressing the lead from the telescoping antenna to mitigate the inherent noise problem. Would also be nice if they improved the front end prior to the chip. Time will tell I guess.

    Reply
      1. Karl Keller

        Hi John. Yeah, basically I replaced the telescoping ant. lead with a very thin coax grounded to a gnd pad and routed it away from the chip. I installed ant jacks for mw and sw/fm. The other mods I made came directly from Frank Hughes (VK6FH) excellent webpage: http://www.vk6fh.com a real wealth of info. I didn’t use his preamp, but used one of the cheap lnas from ebay incorporated into a wideband untuned loop. Works like a champ now. Not exactly a portable anymore, more of a small desktop radio. Since I spend most of my time in a wheelchair, portability isn’t a big issue for me. ’73

        Reply
        1. John Ruschmeyer

          The antenna routing on the V-115 does seem counterintuitive. Basically, the connection to the circuit board is at the edge near the speaker cavity while the connection to the antenna itself is also in the speaker cavity. The wire, however, is routed over the circuit board (and held down with a crappy piece of adhesive tape) before going through a channel and into the speaker cavity. It seems like it would make more sense to go straight into the speaker cavity in the first place.

          Reply
      2. Karl Keller

        #2 John, the wideband loop I built can be found at https://www.pa0fri.com. From the main page click on “ANT”. From the next page click on the first entry “Active Receiving Loop Antenna”. It’s a long but very interesting read, but if you’re in a hurry scroll all the way down to “GUUS”. I just copied his work, but added a pot to control the voltage to the lna to ride the gain to minimize overload and intermod. Works great and the whole thing costs about $10.00. Cheers

        Reply
  9. Mike S

    Please look at the issue of processor noise leaking into the audio on MW/SW.
    This hardware bears a familial resemblence to the previous Tivdio/Retekess models in which MW was annoyingly covered in processor hash. It would be great if the internal shielding o this new model were designed to control that.

    Reply

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