Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Jeff McMahon, who notes that he’s published his thoughts about the Qodosen DX-286 [SWLing Post affiliate link] over on his blog, The Herculodge. While the DX-286 had solid AM reception, its audio quality and build didn’t quite meet his needs.
In the end, Jeff opted for a more robust choice for his setup. Curious about his experience with the DX-286 and why he made the switch? Read Jeff’s review here.
I have a modified Sony XDR-F1HD that I bought from the XDRGuy and use it daily. It is hooked up a Stellar Labs 4 element yagi that has been modified to 5 elements.
http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/stellar.htm
I attached the yagi to the DX-286 to compare the FM reception of the Sony vs the DX-286. My completely unscientific testing seems to show that the Qodosen has virtually the same performance as the Sony. This would seem to be very impressive as many reviewers in the past said that the Sony is most likely the best FM receiver ever made.
Thank you for posting the computer modeling of the Stellar Labs FM yagi. I have a Stellar Labs #30-2460 still in the shipping box and enjoyed seeing that analysis.
It is pretty easy to do. Took me like an hour and only cost a few bucks for the parts from Home Depot
I agree with the other comments. It’s a great radio. It is indeed small, but let’s face it – no one has ever claimed otherwise.
If a DSP-based Tecsun is named ‘a luxury radio’ and ‘a true cruiser’, why the inherent flaws of that chip were not mentioned? Every receiver based on Si47xx suffers from the same issue with broken AGC, destroying the audio quality of unstable signals. For me, they’re good only to check what’s out there on the bands, because trying to listen to an actual broadcast for more than 5 mins can result in a headache. This is a real dealbreaker. On top of that, no one of the companies selling these receivers have managed to fix it. It’s been more than a decade! They are just pushing the same thing again and again in different packaging and, sometimes, with some non-radio-related stuff added. My view is that getting these receivers should be actively discouraged, especially if we’re considering newcomers into the hobby – they’re going to get a completely false and distorted impression of how does shortwave radio actually sound.
On the other side, it’s the first release ever from Qodosen and they got almost everything right. Apart from good MW and FM reception that the others have mentioned, it’s the only Chinese radio that’s actually usable on the longwave broadcast band. All other DSP Tecsuns, XHDATAs are just deaf there, struggling with the reception of a local 1 megawatt station, not getting anything from abroad. This one is actually good!
Qwertyamdx (or anyone else who shares their opinion),
Besides this Qodosen, what radio would you recommend for a newcomer to the hobby, if we say the hobby is broadcast dxing? Would it be a PLL model? Current or vintage? What is there with a similar price tag, takes batteries and is portable without too steep a learning curve compared to the DSP Tecsuns, Xhdatas etc?
Hello Fred, my two cents:
First of all, I don’t really think there’s a learning curve involved when switching from one receiver to another, as long as you don’t want to dig into memorizing stations, using fancy auto-tuning features etc. As long as basic listening is involved, they operate very similarly.
If I was to recommend something, I would start by asking: do you need to have SSB? If not, the Qodosen will bring you the best reception of LW, MW and FM bands. Especially the performance of LW and MW is really unbeatable because of the possibility of switching between telescopic and ferrite antennas. Telescopic increases the sensitivity a lot, but works only outdoors. The downside is high energy consumption.
Otherwise I could recommend the Tecsun PL-6×0 series, the MW, SW performance is good, LW so-so but nothing extraordinary. FM is also quite good but doesn’t match the Qodosen because they lack selectable bandwidths. AM audio is precisely as it should be. They all take regular AA batteries and Ni-MH rechargeables and they take much less energy.
As for the vintage ones, I have good opinion on them (especially the Sony ICF series), but at this point they’re starting to show their age, so I would recommend such radios only in case if have someone knowledgeable at hand who can help with fixing the common issues (caps etc).
I’m listening to my DX-286 right now. For casual listening and BCB DXing, it is one of my best radios.
Does it sound the best on FM? No, but it falls about halfway in my collection in that regard. It amplifies well, though, so a small amplified speaker like the one I carry for my KX2 and (tr)u-sdx is a great addition.
I find it excelling in sorting out signals and pulling them out of the noise. It’s very gratifying when you hear the radio “grabbing” a signal and locking on. FM performance at home is close to the best in my collection, if not the best. I get a lot of weird FM performance where I am with a couple of mountains nearby and one hosting a couple of high-power FM stations. This radio sorts it out better than most. MW performance is great because of the flexibility. I find that just barefoot it’s great, and for some of the local stations, really nice when bypassing the loopstick. Outside, just using the whip on MW gets me almost noiseless reception of NYC stations 75 miles south. I really love this thing on MW when I plug one of my antennas in, particularly my big inverted L, which I normally use for HF. On that antenna I can pull stations that none of my other radios ever could. SW’s performance is also impressive, and the bandwidth choices, even though they are not perfect, are better than most.
SSB would be nice, but I usually have my Kenwood TH-F6a on me which does that when needed, or one of my QRP HF rigs.
I can’t wait to see what this company comes up with next.
What amplified speaker do you use? Do you have a link?
Sure. It’s hard to find good ones with a 3.5mm input. I use the OONTZ Angle Solo.
Great sound and good battery life.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DPVF8DQ?th=1
I don’t agree with the overall assessment by Jeff/Herculodge. From the first moment one picks up and operates the 286, you know this is a huge step forward. The radio’s sensitivity boosts it far over others on the market. Yes, it lacks SSB and has no SYNC (which has become kind of a false flag for many) and coverage range should be straight up to 30 mHz. But, this is THE portable to have and these days can fully serve as a main receiver in the shack.
Agreed!
I read all the reviews, memorized the Amazon listing, and almost put one in my basket during the Black Friday sale. However, for me, it all came down to the lack of SSB:
– no hams
– no utilities
– no AM ECSS reception
Maybe later on this year? That depends.
It appears that the TEF6686 or 7 does not have a function to demodulate SSB directly. This make some sense, as it ostensibly was designed for cars. One chap has apparently got it running on SSB by applying an outboard BFO tunable in 10-Hz steps – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qptoMJ4OE7E. Perhaps we will see a DX-286 SSB yet.
I agree the small speaker is limited in sonic fidelity.
I agree the “kickstand” looks delicately frail and for me creates the wrong viewing angle.
In other reviews I agree the 3 kHz bandwidth setting needs a 2 kHz too.
The two lithium batteries supplied in package
labelled “BFN 3400 ma-hr”
which are protected button top 18650 (aka 19670)
actually test out closer to 2600 ma-hr.
Memorizing the complicated instructions would give even “The Amazing Kreskin” a headache.
But there are other impressive qualities.