by Dan Robinson

Since my first look at the MLite-880 some new information has become available, so passing on what I know to SWLing.com readers:

FIRMWARE UPDATES

Drawing from comments in various places, including those left on my original article, the Telegram Malahit chat, RigReference, and first adopter comments on YouTube, the following have been discussed:

• Size of microSD cards compatible with the receiver
• Ease of connecting BT to various speakers/PCs etc
• Clock time not holding after certain periods powered down
• Continuing requests for selectable sideband in SAM mode
• Some reports of frequency correction/calibration not working
• One user asserting that when in HiZ LW and MW reception is not good, while external antenna brings “great” results.
• Some users reporting poor FM reception using whip and issues with RDS
• Some users reporting encoder occasional “misses” out of the box

I have been helping relay user issues to Malahiteam in Russia as well as to Elecevolve in China, but I’ll address each of these based on my use of a unit purchased from Banggood.

• microSD: I am now using a 16GB card with no problems when in RECORD mode. We have had one user report that up to a 256GB card was usable. So, there are varying reports still coming in.
• BT Connectivity: Again, varying reports as to ease of connection to various speakers but my Edifier speaker connects with no problem
• SAM: Malahiteam reports that providing selectable sideband synchronous is in fact planned for the future
• Frequency correction: one user reported that frequency correction/recalibration was not working in FW 1.2 But I have experienced no problems with my unit but did notice out-of-box error from displayed frequency but not huge and correctable.
• HiZ LW/MW reception: I have not experienced this. In fact I am impressed with the radio’s performance on MW using the whip (note there is no ferrite internally).
• FM/RDS: I have experienced no major problems with FM reception or with RDS on my unit though I do notice that RDS character clarity can be variable — this may be due to antenna sensitivity depending on whip length and location of radio in my house.
• Encoder misses: my unit purchased from Banggood does not exhibit this issue.

Thanks to Guy Atkins who provided the Amazon URL to the carrying case pictured above. This case is an excellent fit for the MLite-880 with some space to spare in the lid top and the bottom for USB cable and other items.

Malahiteam informs me that they are monitoring various reports, but are in “no rush. . . as there are no critical bugs requiring immediate fixes.” They say the “bug collection process is ongoing” and users should contact Elecevolve with any serious issues being seen at the moment.

Indeed, I have noticed as one user reported that recordings have the wrong month. This is an obvious bug that we hope will be addressed in upcoming firmware updates.

Malahiteam states on clock issues: ” . . .power is turned on mechanically [something that was] actually done at the insistence of DSP1-3 users — not everyone liked the button-based activation, as it caused false alarms despite the built-in protection.” And they add on the microSD: “the SD card reading speed is low, about 1.5 MB per second, and there is no way to increase it.”

Another issue I have noticed is the need to take care with VOLUME when making recordings. I almost blew out my speaker when playing a recording. NOTE that the manual states for RECORDING: “Rotate [knob] to adjust the audio gain level when recording/the recording indicator should be approximately at the level of half to 3/4 of the scale.”

From my SWLing.com article, Richard Langley notes: “It seems there is no way to transfer files from the receiver to a computer except by moving the memory card between the receiver and the computer. It would be nice if the receiver could be connected to a computer so it sees the files so that they could be downloaded over USB. The radio couldn’t see my MacBook Pro to broadcast audio to it when Bluetooth was set up. No problem connecting to an Anker Bluetooth speaker, however. As received, it appears that the frequency calibration of my radio is good to about 10 Hz. I used the Fldigi spectrum scope while tuned to CHU. I tuned the radio to 7849.00 kHz in USB mode and narrowed the bandwidth. The offset in the spectrum scope from 1000 Hz was about -10 Hz or so. One of the reasons I acquired the MLite-880 to add to my stable of receivers was a promise of scheduled audio recordings. When I asked on the Banggood website if that was possible with the receiver, I was told it was. Oh well. So, it would be nice if the receiver had an alarm function so that the receiver would tune to the desired frequency/mode and then start recording audio for a set period of time.”

Guy Atkins: “Those who think the frequency calibration may be broken in firmware 1.2 have likely not turned the knob far enough. The MLite 880’s adjustment is in very tiny 0.1 PPM (parts per million). This is an impressive level of adjustment accuracy for a portable receiver. I upgraded my set to firmware 1.2, and wanted to replicate a 1 kHz offset tuning on WWV at 15 MHz. When you put a radio in SSB and tune up or down by 1 kHz, you definitely hear the audio quality change. A 1 kHz change from 15 MHz equals 66.67 PPM. Since the frequency calibration in the radio adjusts in 0.1 increments, this means you need to turn the knob (a lot!) to read “667 x 0.1ppm”. I did this on mine and the tonal change in the voice announcements was clearly audible. I then returned the setting to “0 x 0.1ppm” and the audio sounded fine. Note that parts per million calculations is frequency dependent, so I recommend using upper HF signals for testing, such as WWV 15 MHz, or you’ll be tuning the radio’s knob for a lonnnng time! A more scientific way to check the frequency calibration of the MLite 880 would be with a software tool called Spectran. I’ve used Spectran in the past to check the exact carrier frequency of medium wave stations. (A big thanks to Victoria, BC Canada DXer Nick Hall-Patch for alerting me to this useful program.)”

But BGFourQL noted: “It may be, but I only need to adjust to 60 x 0.1ppm in the firmware of 1.0 and 1.1, but even if it is adjusted to 600 in 1.2, of course, the developer has admitted that it is a BUG, and he will fix this problem in the next firmware.”

Finally, direct from Elecevolve we get clarification that Banggood sources MLite-880 directly from them. Regarding firmware, they confirm that 1.2 is as of this writing still the curent version but updates are “planned to be released in the near future” along with “more new products”.