Shortwave listening and everything radio including reviews, broadcasting, ham radio, field operation, DXing, maker kits, travel, emergency gear, events, and more
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, DE1DGK, who shares the following mini review of the Tecsun R-9012:
I also have the Tecsun-R-9012, the little analog brother of the R-920c with digital display, and like to tune over the given bands with it. The sound is loud and clear and speaker-quality seems to be quite good as well. With earphones you can listen FM in stereo sound.
Either on Shortwave and Mediumwave, selectivity and sensitivity are fantastic for such a little 20€ worldband receiver. On FM, the bigger stations come in fine but it’s not very selective for weaker signals or FM-DX.
For shortwave, an external antenna like Tecsun AN-05, often overloads the receiver. It’s not recommend to use it for such low cost receivers at all.
In fact, the serial telescopic antenna works good enough in most of the situations. It could be helpful to shorten telescopic antenna a bit so reception might be better when there is too much RFI around. It depends from band to band. Battery life is amazing. It only needs two AA-batteries and works over months.
When you look for a basic worldband receiver, the Tecsun R-9012 is one of the best analog devices in the 20€-price-range. On the internet are out many reviews and tests about this little receiver which are all positive and often outperforms much more expensive worldband receivers. I would rate the Tecsun R-9012 with all pros and cons with 4.5 out of 5. It does perform great. Ideal for shortwave beginners and listeners who like the analog-feeling or those who want a universal little radio with shortwave.
Thank you for sharing your review! I agree–the R-9012 is a safe choice for simple and affordable radio fun.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Nicolás Colla, who shares the following review:
The Tecsun AN-07 is a whip antenna extender that is approximately 65 cm long. I bought mine from eBay seller Anon-co, and it arrived from Hong Kong in approximately twenty days.
The first thing I noticed with my new antenna is that it probably works only with Tecsun radios.
The antenna on my Degen DE-13 self-powered radio is too thin for the extension; the one on my Panasonic RF-3500 kitchen radio is too thick. I have another Tecsun antenna, the AN-05, which is a 6 m wire with a clip on the end that can be put on the radio’s aerial. I hung the AN-05 indoors, in the place with the least amount of RFI (just next to a window), and decided to compare the performance of my Tecsun PL-310ET with the default whip, the longwire and my new extension, on shortwave and FM.
For that, I made a quick scan of the bands with the Easy Tuning Mode (ETM) function of this radio, between 1330 and 1355 UTC. The results were the following:
Shortwave
With the default aerial: 3 stations found.
With the AN-07 antenna extension: 9 stations found.
With the AN-05 longwire antenna: 23 stations found.
As you can see, the AN-05, which is 6 times longer than the AN-05 (the aerial’s height is 1 meter with the added extension), gives by far the best results. Ironically, another scan with the AN-05 AND the AN-07 at the same time, with the clip adjusted on the extension, gives 29 different stations. I don’t know why, but it works better!
FM
With the default aerial: 42 stations found.
With the AN-07 antenna extension: 57 stations found.
With the AN-05 longwire antenna: 35 stations found.
The AN-07 seems specifically designed for FM reception, and it really shines on this band. The signal of a local station increases approximately +12 dbµV on this set’s signal meter.
In short, if you would like to get outstanding FM reception, or if you want to increase your shortwave signal quality JUST A BIT and don’t want to mess with wires, the Tecsun AN-07 is ideal.
Thank you, Nicolás, for the quick review! As you say, that’s impressive performance on FM especially. What I like about the AN-07 is that it’s passive and requires no power supply or batteries. It’s also compact and easy to pack for travels. Many thanks for sharing your evaluation!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Robert Gulley, who shares this fascinating video from the Alps DX YouTube channel. In this short demonstartion, you can follow the flight path of an Airbus A320 and the signal from France Musique from Marseille as it is bounces off of the aircraft. Fascinating:
Description from YouTube: France Musique from Marseille / Grande Etoile on 94.2 received via Airscatter. I’m always amazed when I see and hear those signals coming out of nowhere when the plane crosses the path … Nothing a few seconds before, nothing right after. Radio is magic !
I find this amazing. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never attempted FM aircraft scatter. Since I have an ADS-B receiver, and several excellent FM receivers, all I really need is a decent Yagi antenna and some careful planning.
Post Readers: Please comment if you’ve logged stations from aircraft scatter! Any tips?
I am not familiar with this radio, Marc, other than I can see the physical similarities with the Eton Mini. The Eton Mini, however, does not have the VHF coverage of this radio.
Post readers: Is anyone familiar with the JINSERTA Mini? If so, please comment!
I received my copy of the 2019 World Radio and TV Handbook (WRTH) directly from the publisher earlier this week. It arrives annually–without fail–just prior to my Christmas holiday travels.
I look forward to receiving this excellent staple radio reference guide–and this is their 73rd edition! The WRTH has never disappointed, so my expectations are always quite high.
Once again, the WRTH lived up to my expectations.
WRTH’s team of noted DXers from around the world curate frequencies and broadcaster information by region; while I’m not sure how they orchestrate all of this, the end result is truly a symphony of radio information. In addition to broadcaster listings, WRTH’s radio reviews, feature articles, and annual HF report make for excellent reading.
But the WRTH isn’t just a frequency guide: the publication always devotes the first sixty or so pages to articles relating to various aspects of the radio hobby. Following, I offer a quick overview of these.
The first article always features a WRTH contributor: this year, they feature Kai Ludwig who is their contributor for Germany. His lifelong passion for international broadcasting started in what was then East Germany–he watched with interest as the broadcasting world change around him as the Iron Curtain fell.
The second set of articles is always my favorite: WRTH receiver reviews.
The AirSpy HF+ SDR
This year, WRTH begins with a review of the WinRadio Excalibur Sigma SDR receiver–which essentially set a new benchmark. They also review the SDRplay RSPduo, AirSpy HF+ (which truly impressed), the Reuter RDR51 “Pocket” SDR, XHDATA D-808 and the new Icom IC-R30 wideband handheld. What I love about the WRTH review selection is they span products ranging from £70 all the way up to £6200! Certainly, choices for everyone.
The next feature article, written by none other than Dave Porter, focuses on curtain antennas–the true work horses of international broadcasting. His article speaks to the history and theory behind curtains and notes several types often used by international broadcasters. A must-read!
Hans Johnson’s feature, Broadcasting For Peace, tells the inspiring story of how two stations with one mission helped promote peace in a troubled region of Africa. It truly is amazing how these stations gave their listeners a voice and hope.
The following article highlights a broadcaster on the opposite side of the globe: V7AB in the Marshall Islands. For this feature, journalist Mika Mäkeläinen traveled to the Marshall Islands and visited this powerful national AM broadcaster.
Speaking of powerful broadcasters, TWR Broadcast Engineer, Dave Pedersen, authors an article outlining the reasons for and challenges of operating and maintaining TWR’s Bonaire MW transmitting station.
Next, WRTH spotlight the annual Digital Update which summarizes the dynamic state of digital broadcasting. I’ve found this feature to be incredibly informative as we see how digital broadcasting is penetrating both domestic and international services.
The final article–a tradition–is the WRTH HF propagation report/forecast by Ulf-Peter Hoppe. Always an informative read despite the fact we’re in a solar low!
The 73rd is another fantastic edition of the World Radio TV Handbook. As I say every year,I’ve never been disappointed with WRTH. Their publishing standards are such that the quality of their reviews, their writing, and (most importantly) their broadcast listings are simply unparalleled.
For DXers who collect QSL cards, you’ll find that broadcaster contact information in WRTH is often more up-to-date than a broadcaster’s own website. When readers contact me asking for QSL information from an obscure broadcaster, the first place I search is the current WRTH. Remember: their information is based on volunteer contributors who specialize in specific regions of the world–the most knowledgeable regional DXers keep this publication accurate.
Published 7 December 2018 – Order your copy today!
We are delighted to announce the publication of the 73rd edition of WRTH.
For full details of WRTH 2019 and to order a copy please visit our website at www.wrth.com where you can also order the B18 WRTH Bargraph Frequency Guide on CD and Download.
WRTH 2019 is also available for pre-order, for readers in the USA, from Amazon.com or Universal Radio in Ohio.
I hope you enjoy using this new edition of WRTH and the new CD.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, for the following guest post and review:
Tecsun’s S-8800: Is This All The Radio You Will Ever Need?
These days, we who still derive enjoyment from listening to shortwave broadcasts, be they larger international broadcasters or smaller stations that remain on the air against all odds in the Internet age, also enjoy using the many types of radio receivers that enable this activity.
One of the cruel ironies is that today’s technological advances have made possible the kind of worldband radios (the term that first came into wide use way back in the 1980’s) that years ago we could only dream of, be they full communications receivers or portable receivers.
Having begun my own DXing/SWL career in the late 1960’s, and pretty much maintained my hobby activities over the decades, I have used pretty much every receiver that ever existed, from tube radios to today’s latest DSP wonders.
I have a soft spot for classics from SONY — my list of portables today includes the fantastic SONY ICF-SW77, SW-07, SW-55s and SW-100. Panasonic is represented in my portable collection by the wonderful RF-B65.
Only in recent years did I decide to test the main higher end portable offerings from Tecsun: the PL-660/680, and PL-880. What I discovered, as have most people who own the Tecsuns, and similar receivers such as the XHDATA D-808, are the wonders of DSP chips and the great flexibility they provide, such as multiple selectivity options, along with excellent sensitivity.
Though it’s been on the market for going on three years now, one of the receivers I had not been able to test was the Tecsun S-8800. There are quite a few reviews already online. Some go into extensive detail in describing the plus and minus points of the radio.
With so many people having already assessed the radio — and most of them in fairly glowing terms — I won’t repeat a long list of technical specs, as you can find those in other reviews, and on the site of Hong Kong-based Anon-co, which is probably the main seller of the S-8800.
Headline
The S-8800 is arguably the best multi band radio portable among portable category offerings on the market today. It combines superior audio delivered from its superb front-firing speaker, with equally superb sensitivity (triple conversion), and multiple selectivity options, with an amazingly professionally-executed remote control.
I used the S-8800 in a number of physical locations, from public parks where I hoped to avoid high noise levels, to my back yard where noise levels are, unfortunately, quite high. I have compared the S-8800 to a number of portables in my collection, including: SONY ICF-2010, SW-77, SW-55, along with Tecsun’s 660 and 880, Grundig SAT-500.
Audio
Hands down, the S-8800 wins the audio competition when compared to pretty much every other radio. Where the competition gets tight is with receivers such as the classic Grundig Satellit 500, and Tecsun’s PL-880.
Sensitivity
This is a TRIPLE conversion radio. As everyone knows by now, Tecsun did not merely adopt the cabinet of the old Eton S350 but basically stuffed a hot rod racer into the cabinet of what was previously a mediocre radio at best.
Selectivity
Widely used in a number of radios these days, the S-8800 uses a DSP chip that is seen in a number of other receivers. The best description I have seen so far is in the review by Jay Allen who notes that Tecsun “decided to utilize a combination of DSP (Digital Signal Processing) circuits along with traditional analog circuits . . .most of the AM/SW circuitry is PLL/analog along with the 1st and 2nd IF’s, while the 3rd IF is DSP.” It appears that after a bit of a rocky period in the beginning when initial units suffered from images and birdies, Tecsun got it right.
Ergonomics
Much has been said about the fact that Tecsun decided not to include a keypad on the radio itself. I too was skeptical. We have all become accustomed to keypads as standard equipment on portables.
Personally, I do a lot of my listening on the beach during vacations, and am used to being able to hold and operate the radio in such situations, so the thought of having to carry a remote control seemed uncomfortable at best.
However, the reality is that it’s still possible to navigate the shortwave, AM, and FM bands easily even without the remote — call me old fashioned, but I am from a group of older listeners who have most frequencies memorized anyway, so I know where I want to go to hear certain stations.
Tecsun hit it out the ballpark with the remote supplied with the S-8800. It looks like something you would find with high end stereo equipment and clearly much thought went into making sure it can control every aspect of the receiver, from SW band slewing to selectivity, volume, readout — everything except BASS and TREBLE control, Timer/Alarm, and master volume (i.e. as other reviewers note, you have to set the on-radio master volume to a high enough level first, then use the remote to vary).
Power
The radio requires two 18650 lithium (Li-ion) rechargeable batteries, with individual indicator LEDS inside the battery compartment. This choice is perhaps one of the most controversial aspects of the 8800. Among other things, 18650s usually receive more attention from airport security personnel if one is taking the radio on a trip — this is something everyone should keep in mind. Any radio being transported on a flight these days is going to be subjected to added scrutiny, simply because almost no one uses radios anymore.
As for the power needs of the receiver, the 18650s seem to do a good job and last quite a long time, even days. Included in the box is one of those white USB charger blocks — quite small and convenient. I usually travel with separate 18650 chargers, the kind used with high end flashlights, so having spare sets of charged batteries is not a problem. But if both 18650’s in the Tecsun are drained, the radio definitely needs to re-charge to a minimum level required for operation.
As I write this, I plugged the S-8800 into a wall outlet (a blue LED indicator on front indicates charging mode) and I was unable to use the radio as the battery level had completely zeroed out. Also keep in mind that the USB charging brick throws off EMI to other radios in the vicinity, and makes it impossible to use the S-8800 itself — there is just too much interference from the charging process to the radio’s receiving circuitry.
Comparisons
As mentioned, I compared the S-8800 with a number of other portables in my collection. Each of these other radios, including the classics from SONY such as the SW-55 or SW77 have their strengths. For example, the SW77 has the best implemented synchronous reception of any portable since the ICF-2010 along with superb sensitivity. However, even the large speaker on the SW-77 was unable to compete with the S-8800. Only radios such as the older Grundig SAT 500/700 had the advantage when compared to the S-8800’s speaker, with the Tecsun PL-8800 close behind.
Receiving Comparisons
I decided to take the S-8800 out to my back yard for a receiving comparison with the receiver I consider to be among the top five best in what I call the small portable category (which is above the mini-portable category in which we find the SONY SW-100 and SW-07 and similar size radios).
Rather than produce several separate videos, I have combined one listening session comparing the S-8800 with the RF-B65. It’s a bit long, so my apologies, but gives you an idea of how these two fine portables did going head to head.
Leaving aside the obvious superiority of the Tecsun where audio is concerned, the S-8800 competes well with the Pan RF-B65, often superior to the smaller radio, but sometimes inferior in one respect.
While there was nothing the S-8800 could hear that the Panasonic could not, signals seem to jump out of the S-8800 in a way that they did not with the smaller radio. However, there appeared to be an interesting difference when it came to the ability of each radio to deal with interfering stations 5 kHz above or below.
As shown in the video, the Panasonic was able to distinguish more clearly between a station on 9,650 kHz (Guinea) and a station 5 kHz above (in this case, Algeria via France, using 9,655 kHz) than the Tecsun, which seemed to struggle. Indeed, at one point I was forced to attempt ECSS (Exalted Carrier SSB) mode to separate the two stations, whereas on the Panasonic, being the older and simpler radio design was an advantage in that the RF-B65 was actually able to more clearly separate the two stations by “de-tuning” from the center frequency.
One huge advantage of the S-8800 by the way is that there is a hidden software change that enables one to adjust SSB zero beat to zero or near zero. This means that in theory using LSB/USB to improve reception is possible, though keep in mind that there may be some variation from unit to unit. So far, after performing the so-called ‘secret’ fix (among a list of tweaks discovered so far) my particular S-8800 appears to be able to zero beat LSB/USB with little or no variation between the side bands, pretty much up and down the SW bands.
Conclusions
For me, the S-8800 has turned out to be the biggest surprise of the last several years. Coming seemingly out of nowhere, packaged in the cabinet of a receiver that was seen as mediocre at best, we have a triple conversion beauty (it seems to weigh almost nothing by the way) that provides pretty much every tool required these days to tackle what is left of shortwave broadcast reception. It has superior audio, unless one compares to older Grundig and similar sets.
Drawbacks are quite few to be honest. A case can definitely be made that using 18650 batteries was a poor choice by Tecsun. This means, for example, that if you’re out on the beach or elsewhere for many hours, the only way to charge up the radio would be to use a separate phone battery charger rather than simply be able to slip in regular alkalines. But then, I carry separate battery charge units already for my phone.
The big criticism that synchronous reception could have been included is also valid. The same was said about the SONY ICF-SW55 — with synchronous reception, and a bit more careful design of the tuning circuit, that radio could have been a heavier hitter, a mini-ICF 2010, something the much more expensive SW-77 was designed to improve upon.
However, so far radios utilizing DSP chips have struggled when it comes to synchronous reception capability. Indeed, the feature has ended up being discovered only as one of a number of ‘secret’ features. Only the PL-660 has a decent synchronous feature, but that radio is hobbled by limited selectivity options, while sync on the PL-880 is pretty much useless.
Finally, I have to say thank you to Tecsun for doing everything possible to avoid the dreaded ‘MUTING’ problem that has been seen on so many small portables.
As I found to my disappointment when using even the much-praised Eton Grundig Satellit, and even the C Crane Skywave SSB, this problem can be a killer for those of us who consider it absolutely critical to be able to hear EVERYTHING on and between frequencies.
So, the big question — would I recommend the S-8800? As with almost everything, the answer to that is, it depends on what kind of a listener you are, and expectations.
From a performance perspective, if you are like me, a die-hard DX’er at heart who gets a kick out of searching for the last Peruvians on the air, the S-8800 should be more than sufficient. If you’re both a die-hard DX’er and enjoy FM and AM, the 8800 should also be a perfect selection, since it’s been reviewed quite well in terms of medium wave and FM capability.
A personal note — for me, part of the fun of shortwave portables has been their ‘cool factor’. I’m just one of those who likes to carry around complicated looking radios with lots of buttons. The SONY 2010, SW-55, SW-77s, older Grundigs all fit the bill.
I never thought the S-8800 or radios similar to it in appearance would. So, for me it’s going to require a bit of a change, since the S-8800 looks like, well . . . it looks like a ‘toy radio’!
But it’s one hell of a toy-looking radio. It’s a triple conversion monster packed in the frame of something that, at one point in the past, you might have considered getting for your kids (if they even knew or know what a radio is!).
As many of us are at this point in our lives, I am also thinking ahead — to the day when my numerous premium Watkins Johnson and JRC radios, and a few boatanchors hanging around, will have to go because of downsizing.
When I’m 65, as the Beatles song goes — or more likely 85 or 90 — what will I be able to fit on a bedside dresser and use easily to tune in whatever is left on shortwave (if anything)?
The answer to that question is a radio that’s small enough and enough of a performer, preferably with a well-designed remote, to bring in anything that’s still on HF, MW, and FM. With those needs in mind, the answer is already here, in the Tecsun S-8800.
[I want to express sincere thanks to Anna at Anon-co who responded quickly when I proposed a review of the S-8800 and supplied the receiver on which this article is based. Anna was patient as my original plan to have a review in by September was delayed by unavoidable personal matters. Thanks also to Tom Witherspoon for getting the review up so quickly].
