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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Alfredo (EA4IMN), who writes:
Hi Thomas,
Greetings from EA4IMN. I recently purchased an XHDATA D-808, and got puzzled by the absence of an external jack for the LW/MW antenna. Inspired by previous work, I set to add this feature to my unit.
My journey was overall straightforward, but not without some hacking required, so I’m sharing my experience here, in case it helps others. (I have briefly documented this on another forum, but here you are the abridged version of the story.)
First, let’s start with a pic of the pristine PCB:
It’s a recent unit, and I observe it has minor differences even from some USB-C variants I could find on YouTube. I assume XHDATA keeps tweaking the inner design, and that’s not documented.
In the “external MW Jack” picture [above], you can see how I added a 5-pin female jack. Interestingly, I could entirely reuse the litz wires that came with the internal ferrite antenna. It works as follows:
When no male jack is inserted, the internal ferrite antenna is directly connected to the antenna pads on the PCB.
When a male jack is inserted, the internal ferrite antenna gets disconnected, and the PCB pads take the signal from the external antenna connected to the male jack.
Since I wanted to be able to also connect a long-wire, it was crucial to correctly identify the “hot” pad on the PCB, so that it would be wired to the tip of the jack (and not to the sleeve). It turns out that, on my unit, the squared pad was connected to GND.
I recommend anyone wishing to do this mod to verify the pad layout on their unit, since the PCBs keep changing. This is how to do it:
Pick one litz wire of the internal ferrite antenna and cut it. Make sure to cut it at a point that will later allow you to solder both ends to any of the 5 pins of the jack (you still don’t know if you cut the hot or GND wire!)
With a multimeter, check for continuity between the antenna pads and a well-known GND pin. In my unit, I used the audio amplifier chip, the CS8573E, for which datasheets are available, to check which pins go to GND. (Note: I first tried to check continuity with the negative pole of the battery, but that didn’t work, likely due to the battery recharge circuitry.)
Also, I recommend soldering the sleeve and ring pins (you can see a black wire in my picture): some ferrite antennas come with a stereo jack where the ring is floating, so the added wire makes sure all jacks are treated as mono, by shorting ring and sleeve.
Now… closing the unit was an issue: the 5-pin jack I just added clashed with the display! I had to get creative in a few ways:
Bend three pins in the jack that were clashing against the display. That made them just lower enough that I could “gently push” the case so that it would close.
Yet, the pins were now touching the metal cover of the display, hence shorting together, and nullifying the antenna! That was sorted by covering the metal plate with insulating tape. I had to add a couple of layers, since the soldered pins had rough edges that would keep piercing into the tape…
In the end, it all looked good to me, as depicted in the “Final result” photo:
Admittedly, the external ferrite antenna in the picture performs roughly the same as the internal one. But at this point, it’s just a matter of plugging another jack and keep experimenting!
More of Don’s traveling DX stories can be found in his book Tales of a Vagabond DXer[SWLing Post affiliate link]. If you’ve already read his book and enjoyed it, do Don a favor and leave a review on Amazon.
I’m spending April and May wandering around northern Spain and northern Portugal. My goal is to visit places I haven’t been to before, but I also have to return to Salamanca. I had been there twice before, but Salamanca is the kind of place that draws a person back. I love to wander the back streets of the old city. I also wanted to find some things I hadn’t done before, and that’s how I came across the Museo del Comercio (Commerce Museum) in a modern neighborhood east of downtown. That may not sound very interesting, but I knew immediately that I would have to go. One of the two main permanent exhibits is a collection of old radios.
Most of the items on display came from the collection of Agustín De Castro. Agustín was born in Salamanca in 1928 and began building radios when he was eight years old. Here’s one of his early radios.
As a young man, he went into electronics and eventually operated his own radio store and radio repair business in Salamanca. He donated his vast collection to the city in 2002, and in 2006, it became part of the new Museo del Comercio, which was opened in Salamanca’s old underground brick water cistern.
I might only DX on modern SDRs these days, but I still love looking at old radios. Everything here is in excellent condition and is kept in glass display cases to keep it that way. Unfortunately, that does make it harder to get good photos without getting glare or reflections. But I think these came out pretty well.
Let’s start with a closer look at a few of the more usual pieces.
The Gram Model 157 was built in Spain in 1947. I liked this one for the fancy logo on the dial. Note that while the medium wave band at the top is marked in kilocycles, the shortwave band at the bottom still used meters.
The Fono model 140 was also made in Spain in 1945. Again, the dial used kilocycles for medium wave and meters for shortwave.
This 1940 RCA radio/phonograph is one of the few items that didn’t belong to Agustín De Castro. What caught my eye was the original station list inside.
The LAK Radio was a small set made in Spain in 1950. It’s also medium wave and shortwave, but now the shortwave dial has frequencies instead of wavelengths. Likewise, the 1960 Vanguard Atlas from Spain uses only kilocycles.
Two Unusual Designs
The next two sets will show that there were some rather unusual designs coming out of France. This first set is a Philips A-48-U made in France in 1942. The dial is on a panel that folds down when the radio is being used and then snaps back up when it’s not in use. I think the idea is to give the user a way to put the radio away without having to move it. Notice that the knobs are also mostly hidden. The tuning knob just barely sticks out from the front of the fold-down panel. Two other knobs are at the bottom of the speaker grill on either side.
I wish I could have gotten a better picture of the dial markings on this, but there was too much glare at other angles. The A-48-U was only produced in 1941-42 in Paris, which would have been under Nazi occupation at the time. Nevertheless, the dial still lists Daventry, London, and Droitwich, although it would have been illegal to listen to those British stations in occupied France. The dial also shows New York, Boston, and Moscow, but it’s possible the plates were made before the USA and USSR were part of the war. Continue reading →
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dan Robinson, who shares the following review:
MLite-880 Spectrum Display Portable: Advanced SDR Performance in Traditional Portable Clothes
by Dan Robinson
For years, radio listening hobbyists (as many of us who are still around in 2026) have had numerous choices when it comes to portable receivers. Those of us who got our start as DX’ers/SWLs in the 1960’s (some earlier) or 1970’s have seen a lot of hardware come around the corner.
Some years ago, the Malahit/DSP receivers, firmware, and hardware designed and made in Russia appeared. There was the Belka, amazingly small but a superb receiver that many of us still use. Although shortwave broadcasting has generally been on the decline, we were lucky that companies such as Tecsun, Sangean (reported to have now stopped all production of SW portables), and other China/Taiwan-based companies continued to make impressive portables.
ICOM, Yaesu and Kenwood began putting spectrum scopes in displays a long time ago. ICOM’s IC-R9000 (produced 1989 to 1998) was the first to bring that feature. The more recent Icom 7300, 8600, and 9500 demonstrated far more advanced spectrum displays, as did Kenwood. Ten Tec in its original form put rudimentary spectrum display capability in its RX-350/Jupiter receiver/transceiver.
Today, we’re seeing a number of HT units with some kind of spectrum display. The Radtel 950Pro is one example of this. ICOM’s IC-R30, discontinued but a superb wide band unit, also has a spectrum option though quite limited. Various China-based companies started putting spectrum displays into the ATS series of receivers, and scope displays became standard on transceivers by Xiegu and others.
Malahiteam in Russia licensed firmware out to a range of China-based manufacturers. The China-made “ATS” portables available from AliExpress and Banggood have been through numerous versions, including the ATS25 Pro + AIR desktop, the ATS25 Ultra, ATS25 XF (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJC-pAu4nUk), and these are increasingly emphasizing the spectrum option on the display. There have been some very interesting front panel designs such as the DP-666 based on the TF6686 chip, and the AMNVOLT ESP138, the first with dual 4732/6686 architecture (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1njJskDSUI&pp=ygUMZXNwMTM4IHJHzGlv)
What we had not seen until recently was anyone putting a spectrum display into a “traditional” portable cabinet (some years ago, I had suggested to County Comm/Maratac which has carried a re-badged Tecsun PL-368 that they consider doing so. At one point I received from them a photo of a prototype which looked like a PL-368 with a spectrum display at the top. But to my knowledge nothing was done to advance that to market).
The major feature can be seen at power on. Instead of just a digital/numerical display of frequency we see the frequency AND below, a 40 kHz slice of spectrum. As the advertising description on the Elecevolve.com website states:
“A new generation of SDR digital radio that can “see” radio stations” . . . and “the radio in people’s impressions stays in the last century.”
The message that Malahiteam wants to convey is clear: this is a major step forward from portable design of the past.
The radio is very light, with a back-stand and a fairly robust whip antenna which stands at an angle when the receiver is being used with the back-stand (unfortunately, the antenna base does not allow it to go vertical).
Around the cabinet, there are a minimum of controls: on top, we have a simple power-on/off switch and a microSD slot (more about that later). USB-C and headphone jack are on the right, and an external antenna jack on the left. The frequency display module of the radio looks like just that — it’s on top above the multi-function keypad and ABCD keys. As for mode displays, there are battery and Bluetooth lights below and next to the LITEMALADSP letters. On the back, we find the 21700 battery compartment, and on the back-stand, we find information about the receiver, but no “Made in…” information whatsoever.
From the videos, and certainly from the name of the radio (LITEMALADSP) we have the impression that the MLite-880 is a cost-reduction version of the Russian DSP/2/3 receivers. Neither 4732 nor TEF 6686 chips are used. While one video review states that an MSI-SDR-M1 chip is inside, Georgiy at Malahiteam states that this is not so.
There was obviously a deliberate choice of the 21700 battery rather than 18650 used in Tecsun, Choyong, and other portables. First adopters say that so far, this battery keeps the receiver going for hours, something I can confirm. Anyone unfamiliar with professional type batteries like this should invest in a good standalone charger; if you already own a Tecsun PLxxx or D808 portable you will be familiar with 18650 and similar cells. [UPDATE]: Larger size 21700 battery does not fit — the battery provided with the radio is a EVE INR21700/50E
The inclusion of a backstand is very welcome, since Russian DSPs and China-made SDR portables often lack one. The whip antenna is not thin and flimsy like those found on some China-made small portables. There’s a mini to SMA adapter included in the box.
One reviewer notes that high-speed microSD cards are needed because files are recorded in WAV format. Georgiy at Malahiteam states that 16 and 32 GB cards have worked, BUT one user reports a 256GB card worked. Recording capability is a feature seen on other portables like the Raddy RF919. A good sized speaker is on the left. The tuning knob has a dual push-pull function for volume and frequency change.
And the radio has Bluetooth capability, which worked fine when I first tried it with a Bluetooth speaker.
In menus under “About” we see “Designed in Russia/Made in China.” I recommend that readers view the various videos available online. While I was in the process of writing, I was surprised when the MLite-880 I had ordered from Banggood showed up on my doorstep. So, I’m able to provide initial impressions, and when a second unit arrives here, I’ll do some unit-to-unit comparisons. [NOTE: Testing done using only the onboard whip antenna]
If this is supposed to be a “Lite” version of the Malahit DSP receivers, whether the original Russian-made units or those from China, that would not be apparent to someone using this receiver for the first time. Numerous options are brought over from the Malahiteam DSP. We have synchronous reception (but see below) and the ability to correct calibration variations. Recalibration and BFO fine adjust is something we see on Tecsun portables, and China-made SDRs, and the AFEDRI SDR.
I won’t list everything, but we also see Hi-Z/50 Ohm, BiasT, Attenuation, and options for adjusting display brightness, spectrum average, spectrum fill, and RDS view. That is quite a lot of flexibility and reminds me of what we find on receivers costing thousands of dollars. Under Audio settings, we see Filter Type, Filter Low Freq, Filter High Freq, and variable Noise Reduction. One reviewer asserted that NR “works significantly better than on the Russian-made DSP-3, which costs near $500,” and based on my first tests, I agree. NR runs from 0 to 15 and, once set, can be quickly activated by pressing the C button on the right labeled NR. Overall filtering ranges: 0 to 8 Hz, 0 to 12 Hz, 0 to 15 Hz for the three designated filter positions.
AGC settings include AGC limit, AGC gain, and manual control, all settable in dB. On a third page of options, we find NB Mode, NB Threshold, Equalizer Type, Key Beep Level, and SQUELCH Threshold. Recording is accomplished with a direct access button (NOTE: I had some problems getting record working with a 1GB microSD but switched to a FAT32 8 GB and it worked). A quite nice printed manual shows the modes: USB, LSB, CW, DSB, AM, SAM, NFM, WFM. Steps are listed as: 100 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 kHz, 2.5 kHz, 5 kHz, 6.2 kHz, 8.3 kHz, 9 kHz, and 10 kHz.
The MLite-880 contains band ranges selected by pressing the appropriate key and then A/B to scroll through those ranges. Coverage is from 100 kHz to 519 kHz, from 520 kHz to 1710 kHz, and up to 29,999khz. But one can directly enter any frequency in this entire range, regardless of the ranges. Under AMATEUR BANDS, we find 135.70 kHz to 137.80 kHz (2200m), 472 kHz to 479 kHz (630m), 1800 kHz to 2000 kHz, 3500 kHz to 3800 kHz, 5351.5 kHz to 5366.5 kHz, 7000 kHz to 7200 kHz, and on up to 29.700 kHz, with 70 mHz to 70.5, and 144 mHz to 148 mHz. Finally, FM/VHF bands include 65.9 mHz to 74 mHz (OIRT), 76 mHz to 108 mHz, and AIR band 118 to 137 mHz.
The spectrum display on the MLite-880 is 40 kHz. For most people, especially those coming from a portable with just a digital numerical readout, I don’t think this is going to be a problem. The 880 obviously has a smaller spectrum display than the full Russian DSP or Chinese-originated portables. Under VISUAL settings, we have choices of: BRIGHTNESS LEVEL, BRIGHTNESS OFF TIME, SPECTRUM AVERAGE, SPECTRUM FILL.
I have not opened my MLite-880, but RADIOCHIEF.RU on YouTube shows the cabinet back removed (around the 29-minute mark). We see extensive shielding with metal covers over key sections. Very impressive, and it finds me wishing that other manufacturers would have done this. How much better the short-lived “Elite Satellit” by Eton might have been with better internal shielding.
What remains to be seen is the extent to which the MLite-880 monochrome display throws off interference, a well-known issue with the original Russia-made Malahit units and China-made portables. See my interview with Georgiy of Malahiteam, who notes that not all noise is gone. “We weren’t able to completely eliminate the noise,” he says, adding that “it still occurs in places, mostly on the long and medium wavelengths. However, significant attention was paid to the screening, and turning off the display completely solves the issue.” The screen shutoff he mentions is accomplished as of now by pressing the “9” key.
We learn from the few available YouTube reviews that the main microcontroller in the MLite-880 is the STM32H743, which one reviewer says is “about the same as the older version in the Malahit DSP-3”. And he adds: “It’s a full-fledged SDR like the DSP-3 that is, unlike all sorts of superhet Tecsuns and DEGENs on chips with all sorts of soft mutes, the Malachite works just as well but significantly better. . .”
Unfortunately, so far we see that firmware updating is accomplished using the STMCube program used by the Russia and China units and the excellent AFEDRI. I find STMCube to be clunky and often frustrating, though it seems straightforward when explained in the ML-880 manual.
RADIOCHIEF.RU on YouTube provides a demonstration of the MLite-880, comparing it with an ICOM IC-R20 and a DSP-3. He notes that while there are flaws in the 880 they appear to be fixable via firmware upgrades. In the downloads section of the elecevolve website we see version 1.2 dated 6 February 2026. The unit delivered here has 1.1 The printed manual shows “v2.1.0 Release date July 10, 2025”. I’m not aware of videos or other online presence of the ML 880 before January 2026.
WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
SWLing Post readers, whether SWLs or amateur operators, may be asking what the big deal is with the MLite-880. That’s understandable, but let me explain the significance. Much as the Choyong LC-90 became the first receiver to provide HF and Internet radio in a traditional radio cabinet (though without any spectrum display), the 880 shows that placing such a display in a traditional portable cabinet has been quite possible for some time — it just took someone to go ahead and do it. Continue reading →
In the late ‘60s, I worked as a mechanical assembler at Communications, Electronics Inc. (CEI) in Rockville, Maryland (acquired by Watkins-Johnson Company). We produced military-grade receivers, mainly for the military (whom else?). These covered the spectrum from VLF through microwave. It was the early days of electronic digital readouts. There were no LEDs or LCDs. Instead, some of our models featured the Numeric Indicator eXperimental, or “nixie” tubes. These were glass tubes filled with low-pressure neon/argon gas, featuring stacked wire cathodes shaped like numerals (0-9) and a mesh anode. An analog-to-digital circuit encoded the frequency to illuminate the correct digits.
Below is shown a DRO-50 Digital Readout from the 1968 CEI catalog. It contained 6 nixie tubes for the frequency display, and the unit had an accuracy of ±100 Hz. Interestingly, this frequency display was designed specifically for the Hammarlund SP-600 Receivers (R-274A/FRR (Army), R-274B/FRR (Navy)). I never saw a DRO-50 come across our line and suspect it may not have gone beyond the prototype. About that time, the SP-600s were ending their military service, so there wasn’t much of a market for upgrades. It would still be a few years before I owned an SP-600 of my own, but how would I love to have one fitted with a DRO-50.
What I had instead of nixie tubes were variable capacitors or inductors, which changed the tuned frequency through a kluge of pulleys and strings, all these hidden behind a Raymond-Loewy-designed bezel and operated by the tuning knob.
What was visible on the front of the radio was an irregular representation of frequencies covering the tuning range of the radio, in other words, the dial. As you rotated the tuning knob, you set the whole tuning mechanism in motion. Signals were progressively tuned, processed, and reported through the speaker or headset as you advanced higher or lower.
Somehow the frequencies never quite agreed with the numbers or divisions on the dial. It could be that the circuits inside the radio were out of alignment. Just as likely, the design of the dial was determined using a preproduction prototype which could not possibly account for the tolerances of the components used on the assembly line.
Consider the figure at the beginning of this posting. It is a portion of the dial on a Hallicrafters S-38E – magnified somewhat. The full dial on the E model was big and bright. It extended across the front panel of the radio and presented frequency readout about as well as was possible. Nevertheless, there were real shortcomings.
The figure is not only typical if communication receivers of the time but also living room console radios of an earlier period. Take the 31-meter band as an example. Broadcast stations were bunched roughly between 9400 kHz and 9800 kHz. At 5-kHz channel spacing, this resulted in roughly 80 channels. Of course, not all were in use at any given time, but still a smidgeon turn of the knob could traverse two or three stations.
This situation was relieved somewhat on communication receivers by the addition of a bandspread – a separate tuning mechanism which could effectively magnify a small portion of the main dial. The idea was to place the main tuning dial at the high end of the desired band and the bandspread at 0. Then, by tuning the bandspread toward the other end, lower frequencies could be tuned with greater separation.
Since the bandspread could be used at any place within the tuning range of the radio, a separate dial became a problem, so it was usually annotated with a simple logging scale incremented linearly from 0 to 100. Thus, one had to compile a log-to-frequency conversion table or graph to interpret the frequency. More sophisticated receivers could display the 80- through 10-meter ham bands on the bandspread dials.
As an example, I located some notes made in 1959 using the S-38E. The table shows the frequency, bandspread reading, station and country. Thirty-one meters was an easy match for the bandspread, as WWV on 10000 kHz was a steady marker which you could use to calibrate the bandspread with the main tuning. For all practical purposes, the band was bounded by the Voice of Spain on 9360 kHz and R. Budapest on 9833 kHz. For many years, Tel Aviv was an outlier on 9009 kHz.
Alternately, one could construct a graph as shown below. Unfortunately, most inexpensive radios did not produce linear tuning, so you couldn’t simply draw a straight line between two points on a graph and expect to interpolate the intermediate frequencies with accuracy. Instead, graphs were constructed laboriously by hand adding intermediate points for known frequencies. The figure shows the resulting parabolic function where the slope is greater on higher frequencies and gradually levels off as the bandspread is tuned lower. Notice that most of the activity was mashed between 40 and 60 on the bandspread, then compare this with the picture of the bandspread above.
On the S-38E a bandspread was something of an improvement, but not the complete answer. The problem only got worse as you went higher in frequency. At 19 and 16 meters the band compression became quite severe.
Our esteemed leader, Thomas, occasionally uses a picture of the dial shown below as a lead figure of a posting. It is possibly an RCA Victor Model 110k console radio. When I see this, I think, who wouldn’t give a king’s ransom to own that radio in its fully restored condition? Note the 31-meter band has been magnified as its own separate band and appears in a near linear progression. Thirty-one meters was arguably the center of international shortwave broadcasting in the golden age.
Have you ever wondered what the rest of that radio looks like? Here’s one in sore need of some Pledge. Now imagine yourself, perhaps 11 or 12 years old, perched in front of it on your grandmother’s needlepoint stool tweaking the dial. If you have experienced this, no explanation is necessary. If you haven’t, none is possible.
So, as it turns out, I have tempered my earlier conviction that a digital frequency readout is necessarily better than a classic dial. Not to say you can easily pry the PL-880 with 10-Hz resolution from my cold, stiff hands, but I have come to realize that intrigue and mystery of shortwave listening rested in the uncertainty of knowing exactly what frequency you were on. There was always the possibility that the elusive Nibi Nibi Islands lay somewhere near the shadow cast by the dial pointer. It was a land of enchantment, and once you left its borders, you could never return again.
Rob, W4ZNG, endured three weeks without electricity on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
When he and I spoke about his experience (and what any one of us might want in our “fertilizer hits the fan” radio kit), he mentioned that during Katrina, all of the local broadcasters were wiped out. There was a local low-power FM broadcaster who got permission to increase power to 1,000 watts and was broadcasting where to get food and water. There was a New Orleans AM station that was on the air, but all of its coverage was “New Orleans-centric.” After a few days, some local FM broadcasters, working together, cobbled together a station that they put on the air and began broadcasting news. Rob also began DXing AM stations at night to get additional news.
Hold that thought for a moment.
A few weeks ago, Andy, W2SRA, pops up on the Radio Monitoring Net (which I run on Tuesday nights) with a list of “Rolling News” medium wave stations that can be heard at least some of the time from my location in the Capital District of New York State. Rolling news stations broadcast news ‘round the clock.
The list includes:
780, WBM, Chicago, IL
1010, WINS, New York City
1030, WBZ, Boston, MA
1060, KYW, Philadelphia, PA
1090, WBAL, Baltimore, MD
1130, WBBR, New York City
1500, WFED, Washington, DC
When I saw that list, I thought “This is a pretty good resource.”
Then a day ago, something clicked, the lightbulb went on, and I realized: “This is exactly the list of stations that I would want if I were in the same situation as Rob after Katrina, where my local stations were dark, and I wanted to know what was going on! I named the list: the News Cruiser.
So, in the predawn hours, I decided to put the News Cruiser list to the test. I plugged the frequencies into several of my radios, and here is what I found. With the CCrane Skywave SSB 2, the signals ranged from copyable with noise to marginal to uncopyable, depending on the station. With the CCrane CCRadio SolarBT the results were better, but often tough to copy. Neither of these radios has the ability to connect to a medium wave loop antenna through a direct wired connection, although they can be inductively coupled to a loop such as the Terk AM Advantage.
The CCrane 2E, a much bigger radio with a much bigger internal ferrite bar antenna, produced markedly improved results. All three of these radios can be powered by off-the-shelf AA or D cells, which I considered to be an advantage during an emergency.
Two other radios, the Qodosen DX-286 and the Deepelec DP-666, which are powered by rechargeable batteries, acquitted themselves quite well when hardwired to the Terk AM Advantage loop antenna, but I prefer radios that can accept off-the-shelf commercial batteries.
If you live in North America, you can create your own News Cruiser list for your emergency radio by consulting https://radio-locator.com/ and using the search function to find stations that broadcast in the “News” format.
Once you have assembled your list, test it out with the radio you would grab in an emergency and see how well they perform. You might find the perfect combination that you like or you might discover that there is some room for improvement.
In any event, I heartily recommend that every household has an emergency radio that can be easily deployed to discover essential information when the fertilizer hits the fan. The point is to discover what works for you and to discover it before it is needed.
Further, I would very much like to know what works for you no matter where in the world you are located. Let me know in the comments below.
The XHDATA D-219 is a shirt-pocket radio which performs quite well, especially given the low price point of ~$13. Paul Jamet has already done an excellent review of this radio (even the same color as mine!) which can be found here. I encourage you to check out Paul’s excellent review, as I am only going to add my experience with the review radio I was sent by XHDATA.
As I typically do, I tested the radio stock – no additional antenna support or boost. Like any portable, a clip-on wire would likely boost performance, but I test radios in their basic state when promoted as a portable radio like the D-219.
Reception was quite good from the solid antenna and (presumably) internal ferrite. AM stations were plentiful and loud; FM stations were also solid and plentiful to my rural location. Shortwave radio was surprisingly good considering the use of the telescopic antenna. The antenna is made well, rotatable, and solid enough for any typical handling.
The side tuning dial is sensitive but very controllable, with slight adjustments bringing in new stations. For such a small radio, I had no difficulty reading the analog-style display, and the front slider moved between bands easily.
On/Off switch, DC 5V input, and headphone jack along with Kickstand
I appreciate that the radio runs on two standard AA batteries, and has a fold out kickstand. It does also have a DC 5V input (power cable not included), but I did not test it for noise/birdies as again, to me a portable radio will not, under normal circumstances, be tethered to an outlet (did I mention I hate wires?!).
With headphones plugged in the audio is strong and clear, mono, but coming in both sides for that middle of the head effect. Of course, it also works with a single earbud with a mono or stereo plug on the end. Audio without the headphones is also good – as I have noticed with many of the newer Chinese radios, miniaturization allows more room for speakers, and the D-219 does not disappoint.
At this price-point it is hard to find fault with the radio. Within its reasonable limitations, it performs way above what one might expect, as do many of the new radio offerings. Analog looks with digital precision – what’s not to like?! Besides, being a retro kind of guy, I like these portable radios for on-the-go listening!
Which radio listener hasn’t dreamed of owning a portable multi-band receiver allowing them to explore the widest possible radio spectrum?
For nearly a year now, walkie-talkies have appeared on the market which, beyond the classic VHF–UHF functions, also allow listening and transmitting on CB (27 MHz) as well as listening to LW/MW/SW bands (LSB/USB/CW). The RADTEL RT-860 has won over those who have tested it.
The arrival of the Quansheng TK-11 — available in three versions — has caused quite a stir on social networks. Then, almost at the same time, the RADTEL RT-880 and RT-880G (G for GPS) appeared, also sold under other names such as iRadio UV98.
Among all these available models, I chose — as a radio listener, especially when I’m traveling — the RADTEL RT-880G. My choice is explained mainly by its antenna connectors (SMA-Female and SMA-Male), its large color display, its GPS module, its thousand memory channels, and the possibility of simultaneously monitoring three VHF/UHF frequencies. This device is highly customizable, but its user manual would deserve to be much more detailed and explicit.
The RT-880G comes with a “standard” 18 cm antenna for VHF-UHF bands, which is also used for FM station reception. I haven’t yet tested the device on the 27 MHz (CB) band, for which a dedicated antenna is preferable. No antenna is provided for LW/MW/SW listening.
For listening to LW/MW/SW bands, the device is often shown with small donut-type loop antennas (10 cm diameter).
However, for easier transport, I simply chose this small telescopic SMA-Male antenna, 48 cm long (weight: 20 g): to which it is possible to clip a wire antenna, such as the SONY AN-71, which can prove very useful.
I also used an antenna normally intended for CB, the ABBREE 27 MHz telescopic antenna (130 cm), admittedly heavier (weight: 78 g) and bulkier, but which gives very good results for the HF band.
The purpose of this contribution — which concerns only listening — is to arouse curiosity among mobile (or stationary) listeners, to invite those who own this walkie-talkie to come here and share their experience, and to collect your comments. It is therefore not a full review of the RT-880G, but simply an illustration of what it offers for listening to LW/MW/SW bands.
For LW/MW/SW bands, the RT-880G allows you to set the:
step to 1 – 5 – 10 – 50 – 100 – 500 – 1,000 – and 9 kHz],
bandwidth [0.5 – 1.0 – 1.2 – 2.2 – 3.0 – 4.0],
AGC (Automatic Gain Control)
BFO – (Beat Frequency Oscillator) – used for fine tuning SSB reception (the minimum step being 1 kHz).
Sample Recordings
Local park where some of the recordings were made.
Here are a few audio files that will help you form an opinion. The recordings were made with a smartphone placed near the receiver. The recordings were made using a smartphone placed near the receiver. The sound quality is quite good, even surprising. Continue reading →
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Alfredo (EA4IMN), who writes:
