Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Jamet, who writes:
Hi Thomas,
Near my home, there’s a small pond where shortwave reception is often very good…
Receiver: XHDATA SIHUADON R-108 with single telescopic antenna (No external antenna)
Recording with a smartphone placed close to the receiver, which explains the ambient noise, especially the wind noise in the microphone.
Here are two recordings:
1 – The Voice of Korea in English; at the end of the recording, the frequencies are announced. Note that the Voice of Korea broadcasts to Europe in English from 3 pm to 4 pm UTC on 12015 kHz … But I got the best reception on 12020 kHz; this is not due to a defect in the receiver. At the same time, I also received 5/5
2 – RFA (Radio Free Asia) in Tibetan from the island of Tinian precisely on 12125 kHz; Cf. attached file; very strong signal
[…]Voice of Korea is becoming commonplace, but what’s interesting is to be able to pick up these distant stations with a little 45€ receiver! I’m very happy with this little receiver for listening to shortwave.
I agree with negative comments about the use of the antiquated cell phone battery. Must be a huge,cheap supply of them to go out and design a radio to make use of them. Mine also uses a micro usb not usb C…i bought this radio new in 2023 too. I would not have minded if the battery lasted longer than a couple of hours before showing it’s 50% depleted. Not even good for one day trip. My bad, I knew it was a BL-5c but I thought,Hey…it’s a cellphone battery..it’s should be decent 1000 mah..I have a simular radio using rechargeable AA that I need to charge maybe every 3 weeks or so using same usage time. Well,having read other reviewers, I feel suckered.
I have BL5c batteries in use in other items. I ordered largest capacity replacement batteries. Last longer & cheap.
No wonder I own multiple pocket SW radios as they all have the strong and weak points. Or is it chasing the radio that picks up the most DX?
The most annoying is dial spin chuffing……and memory management …..or batteries drained while sitting on the shelf.
I am starting to think the Icom705 solves all my problems at 50 times the price hihi when the battery stuffed FRG-7 is too big to listen to on the bus.
John ve3ips
I’m just wondering if the guest contributor had just purchased the 2024 edition Sihuadon R-108 with the Type-C USB charging port.
It’s said that the latest version no longer has the annoying pops when changing between AM and FM modulation.
I bought my R-108 in 2022 and listening through earphones was not an exactly pleasant experience for me. Tecsun has never had this audio popping issue while XHDATA’s D-109 was its first model to eliminate this annoyance.
My only receiver that wins the award for the loudest speaker popping goes to the ATS-25 AMP. Even the simple act of switching it on results in three very audible pops.
I have owned the RADIWOW R-108 – beige color – since 2018; I evaluated it at the manufacturer’s request and did not discover any major defects … Except that, as with most DSPs, LW reception is mediocre, MW reception not so great … I later discovered that the battery was draining day after day when the device was not in use.
I bought the SIHUADON R-108 version – black – with USB C plug; I didn’t notice any difference in performance; however, the battery no longer drains day after day …
With these two receivers I have often received in good conditions (SINPO from 3/5 to 5/5) the German Kall-Krekel 1 KW transmitter to listen to RSI – Slovakia – I am located 350 km from this transmitter.
FM reception is very good … AIR band reception too … Adding an external antenna to the ANT 3.5 jack greatly enhances shortwave reception.
To find out more ..:
Gary DeBock’s 2021 Ultralight Radio Shootout!
https://swling.com/blog/2021/05/gary-debocks-2021-ultralight-radio-shootout/
It is a solid little radio. FM is very good. SW is OK. AM is a lost cause. The battery is a nuisance. I have been caught in an emergency situation with a low battery and a 48 count package of AA in hand.. I have had a couple of the %#@ batteries swell so the battery door wouldn’t go on. I would have gone with a Tecsun PL-330 as a replacement to gain SSB and ETM, but it has the same terrible battery… so no thanks. I have gone to an ATS-25 AMP with a loop antenna for my bedside radio.
When they work they work. Currently, I have an Eton Elite Executive. It has SSB and LW. I’m trying to get used to it. The fine- tuning adjustment is intermittent. It works when it decides to. Orherwise it’s a decent radio.
Cellphone style battery, yuk.
Prefer AA cells, always available.
I feel lucky to have my D-808. Not a perfect radio (tantalizingly close) but the fact that it does so much so well, and includes SSB and very solid coverage of the increasingly rare LW band make it my current goto portable shortwave radio.
I don’t have much use for any radio that doesn’t include SSB.
XHDATA D-808 on a beach in Goa India Feb last year outperformed my Belka SDR (keeping mainly as it’s very small) and my Tecsun PL660.(now sold).
It is a pity that these Chinese radios are not equipped to receive Digital Radio Mondiale signals from their transmitters the schedule is;
2000-1800 UTC Korea Central Broadcast Station (DPRK) 3205 kHz Daily Korean East Asia Pyongyang, DPR Korea 100 kW Non Dir
2000-1800 UTCKorea Central Broadcast Station (DPRK) 6140kHz Daily Korean East Asia Pyongyang, DPR Korea 100 kW Non Dir
With such signal strengths you are receiving these transmissions would be rock solid with FM quality sound including stereo if they were to transmit it.
China has a 5 high powered HF DRM transmitters as well for an internal audience and now they will be rolling it out in the medium frequency band as well.
DRM does not provide “FM quality sound” on shortwave. The audio bitrates achievable in DRM are less than 30 kbps. No serious study claims this is in any way comparable to FM radio quality, in fact it’s less than early 90s dial-up internet could offer.
Please, may I invite you read this paper?
Allow DRM for Digitizing the AM Band
https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/allow-drm-for-digitizing-the-am-band
Audio quality that is on par or better than FM. DRM, of all recognized digital standards, is the only one using the ultra-efficient and compressed xHE-AAC audio codec that delivers, at even very low bit rates, exceptional audio quality for speech, but music as well (www.drm.org/listen-compare/).
And so on …
In fact, with DRM, up to three programs can be retransmitted on the same AM frequency. Often, only two are used:
one for the program (news, music, etc.) with a high bit rate ;
the other for data transmission (e.g. Journaline) at a low bit rate;
The broadcaster can thus decide on the quality of the audio …
Read: https://www.drm.org/summary/
No any sign of a “keyboard warrior” here, just plain facts. You are referring to a video containing a comparison of encoding of a pre-recorded audio material, which has no relevance here. In that case the encoder can use various optimization techniques like 2-pass encoding etc. which are not available for encoders working in real time. When discussing DRM, we should refer not to some laboratory examples, DRM consortium promotional materials etc, but to actual over-the-air broadcasts. Like this one: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kEQXP_zCDMs – a recording of a DRM station transmitting a 10 kbps audio stream encoded in xHE-AAC. Is this what you call “FM radio quality” or “very good quality for speech”? I beg to differ. It is a distorted narrowband signal, much more similar to a phone call than to a good quality AM signal. In fact, the bitrates used by DRM are in the range of the one used by modern cellular networks, so it would be more factual to call it “phone call quality” instead of “FM radio quality” because transmitting an audio signal through FM radio does not introduce any digital compression artifacts.
How does it compare to the XHDATA D-808? It seems to have similar features at less than half the price
The main difference is that the R-108 has no SSB mode …
D-808 user manual
https://xhdata.com.cn/pages/d-808-manual
R-108 user manual
https://xhdata.com.cn/pages/r-108-manual
Very good receiver, but awful memory management. Sold mine, I never used it, prefer Tecsun every time.
You’re right … But managing stored frequencies is not easy with the D-808!
I like the TECSUN PL-365, which lets you sort stored frequencies in ascending order.