Table of Contents

radio receivers

see also:

  • I don't sell any of these nor do I receive any remuneration if you buy them, and I have not personally reviewed all of them, they are listed here to give you perspective

Introduction

  • avoid having radio transmitters such as 2-way radios within 2m of receivers as they will overload them
  • to minimise noise, move away from or turn off electronic devices that produce EMF noise including LED lights, power sources, etc
    • HF (SW) is particularly sensitive to noise and ideally needs a long antenna outdoors to match the HF wavelength, although for signals bouncing off the ionosphere, antenna orientation is less critical as the polarisation is dispersed due to the bouncing
  • if using an outdoor antenna BEWARE of lightning strikes!

Software Defined Radio (SDR) receivers

Portable SW radio receivers

  • if you want good sounding stereo music from these, you will want to use headphones (most only have a Mono speaker) and as most do not come with Bluetooth, you may want to add a BT adapter into headphone socket, otherwise you will get very frustrated with the headphone cable!
Feature Tecsun H-501 Tecsun PL-990 Tecsun PL880 Qodosen DX-286
price $AU490 $AU475 $AU275 $AU119
released 2021 2020 2014 ?
weight 1kg 0.62kg 0.52kg 0.24kg incl. battery
size 277 x 167 x 44mm 198 x 120 x 38mm 240 × 160 × 70 mm ~133 x 76 x 31mm
speakers 6Ω, 3W x 2 stereo 4Ω, 3W single single 4Ω/3W single
USB PC speaker mode yes no no no
bluetooth no? can use radio as BT speaker no no
microSD slot music yes yes no no
alarm clock yes yes yes yes
USB chargeable lithium battery two (2nd as spare) x 18650 selectable one 18650 one 18650 one 18650
DC input power DC 5V/1A power adapter USB micro 5V
SSB yes, USB/LSB yes, USB/LSB yes, USB/LSB no

Weather forecasts on radio