For current owners (or future owners) of the RF-919, Raddy has discovered an issue with upgrading the firmware from the original firmware shipped with the radio (version 1.689). There have been some instances where the radio becomes inoperable after trying to upload the new firmware (version1.706).
Please do not upgrade the firmware from the original version until Raddy has this issue sorted out. I am in touch with their representatives and will post a notice here when all is clear to upgrade (the upgrade will add some nice features based on what it was intended to do).
If you have already experienced the problem, contact Raddy Support for more information, as they have an excellent warranty policy and responsive customer support team.
Here is a link to Dan Robinson’s excellent review of this radio for those who have not read it yet:
Dan’s in-depth review of the new Raddy RF-919 shortwave portable radio
Cheers! Robert Gulley, K4PKM
As of November 19, 2024, Radioddity responded to me that they will replace the radio if it is bricked doing a firmware update. I have one on order from them now.
i wrote tò raddy because after the firmware update my radio stop working. I hope the customer support will help me!
Because radio firmware updates are performed on an inefficient processor that accepts LCD and button operations and performs processing, error handling is not adequate.
Therefore, depending on the compatibility with the flash media and usage conditions (e.g., fragmentation), it may cause an error and become unrecoverable.
This can also happen rarely with PC motherboards, and in the case of radios, the probability of an error occurring is even higher than that.
According to hearsay from the developers, performing the same update multiple times will brick the system, so use new flash media (32GB or less and FAT32 is good), update carefully, and remove the media as soon as it is completed.
Is this the first mass-market consumer portable to implement firmware updates in the field?
Hi Mike,
I can’t say for sure, but it is certainly the first one I have run across. Maybe others can chime in if they know of user-upgradeable firmware.
Cheers! Robert
Here’s the URL to my update on the firmware issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHvajz4-7P8&t=44s
Based on the comments I am seeing on my updated video, I would not
attempt the FW update to avoid bricking the radio.