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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Christian, who writes:
Hi, Thomas, I just discovered that the Retekess V115 is currently $16.99 shipped on Amazon with free freturns. You might wish to mention this to your readers because this is a low price for this very inexpensive radio. As I mention with any Amazon sale, pricing is dynamic and can change at any time.
Thomas takes this little portable on travels to record Shortwave, AM and FM broadcasters. Very handy.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Martin, who shares the following comment:
Ok, this comment might be a little bit too late, but what the heck, SW radios are way more too old so. I’m 46 and as a little kid, my first “electronic” device was a National or Panasonic (not sure what was it) AM Transistor Portable Radio and I loved it. I spent hours looking for something to hear through all the spectrum. In 1988 (I think) my father bought a Panasonic SW Portable Radio and I “stole” it from him, it took me back to the Radio experience and open me the interest for the SW. 10 years later, or so, it was stolen from me (and eye for an eye).
A couple of years ago I was thinking about getting one but didn’t want to spend too much for an entry-level radio. So after a lot of research (including your post Troy), I decided to go for the Retekess V115, which is the rebranded version of the Audiomax SRW710s, or the Tivdio V115, or… I bought it for around $23.00 USD through our local “eBay” platform “Mercado Libre” in Mexico as they had local stock. I first bought a Retekess V117 for my dad which is an analog version and for the old man will be easier to use. After testing this one before handing it to the old man I was impressed by its performance, so I decided to go for the “digital” version. 2 versions were available as an entry, the V111, and the V115. I went for the V115 as it has a rechargeable iON battery, numerical buttons for presets and entering stations, and last but not less it is an MP3 player.
So far I have used both AM & FM radio with a pleasant experience. I work in a hard concrete building and it gets signal from stations that I couldn’t get with my mobile FM radio app. As for the SW I have gotten signals from CUBA, and I believe some others from Europe. I haven’t spent too much time looking for SW stations though. Sound is amazing for this little thing, it is crisp on radio and it also delivers some bass with music! MP3 player is kind of limited, but it is not an iPod, right? It only plays by folder but also you can look for specific songs surfing the root file.
Anyway, I highly recommend this little thing for an entry level SW radio, even if you don’t want to spend too much and are not looking for the big guys (Tecsun, Grudnig, C. Crane), I can assure you will have a lot of fun with it.
Happy tunings and greetings from Guadalajara, Mexico.
Thank you so much for sharing your review, Martin. You’re right: the audio from this little radio is pretty impressive especially considering the price and size. As I mention in the photo caption above, I often travel with the V-115/SRW-710S because I can so easily make off-air recordings on the internal MicroSD card.
This radio has so many brand names, it’s difficult to track them down. At the moment, it seems Retekess V115 is the most ubiquitous. Also look for AudioMax and Tivdio.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow (N9EWO), who writes:
Just FYI, for those who may have missed this :
My light reviews on the CCrane Skywave and Retekess TR604 (AM/FM only set), are now posted on my web page. These are the first 2 reviews on this page :
Thanks for the update, Dave. In your review you note the virtues of the Tivdio/Retekess V-115 (a.k.a. Audiomax SRW-710S) as an mp3 player. That’s how I’ve been using my unit as of late. It makes for a nice portable player with reasonable audio. The last time I traveled to Quebec for a couple months, I used this rig to make a few off-air recordings of my favorite FM radio program: “C’est si bon” with Claude Saucier. I only recently re-discovered these recordings on the MicroSD card in my radio and have been enjoying listening to them since.
Listening to the BBC Midwinter Broadcast, with some limited success, on June 21, 2017 in Québec.
I also recommend the V-115 as a very affordable radio that can record off-air broadcasts. As we’ve also mentioned in past reviews–and as Dave notes–it has some issues with internally-generated noises, etc. but for the price it’s hard to complain. It’s currently $24.99 shipped on Amazon (affiliate link).
Click here to read our previous reviews of this radio. The V-115 makes for a great portable broadcast receiver/recorder and has very pleasant audio–certainly a benchmark performer in the sub $25 category. It’s a great little backup radio to keep in the car glove compartment or go-bag. This is the lowest prices for the V-115 I’ve ever seen. This receiver typically floats around the $23-25 range.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Keith Stephens, who writes:
Regarding the Audiomax SRW-710S radio.
I was very pleasantly surprised at more than one aspect of this radio. First, it sounds like something with a much larger speaker. It has the base capability of at least a 6″ speaker. My favorite FM music station comes from a mountaintop repeater over 70 miles away. The 710S is one of two radios I have tried through the years that brings it in clear and clean. The other is a much bigger more expensive radio. And of course, the voice quality of the local AM talk shows is excellent. I lost my instruction booklet (as usual) but I do want to record the FM station for times when I am out of range.
It is a pity that I have to tell of a bad shortcoming on this wonderful radio. Alas, I couldn’t believe it the first time it died at the end of three hours. I thought I had a bad battery, but a fully charged new battery only lasts 3 hours! I would pay twice the price for the same radio if it had a better battery life. Please let me know if there is a better battery or the same radio with a larger battery.
Thanks for your mini review, Keith! Admittedly, I’ve never tested the battery performance of this set because I typically use it for short (1 hour) recording sessions.
Click here to read our previous reviews of this radio. The V-115 makes for a great portable broadcast receiver/recorder and has very pleasant audio–certainly a benchmark performer in the sub $25 category. It’s a great little backup radio to keep in the car glove compartment or go-bag. This is one of the lowest prices for the V-115 I’ve seen on Amazon. This receiver typically floats around the $23-25 range.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Christian, who writes:
