One thing was painfully obvious in my Little Radio Review, the ATS Mini isn’t very loud. I have a solution, hooking up the radio via audio cable to my Sony SRS-XB20 speaker. The problem with that solution is that the SRS-XB20 is heavy and won’t fit in my radio bag and certainly not in a pocket. I paid $48 for this in 2017 but Amazon sells it today for $124.99! Stereo versions get into serious money.
Wireless transmitter
Digging around in a drawer, I found an OiDiPi BT6 Wireless Transmitter/Receiver I had bought in February of 2024 for some reason that escapes me now unless it was because it was under $10 on Amazon.
So I gave it a try.
ATS Mini radio, OiDiPi BT6 Wireless Transmitter / Receiver and Jazmm 213 Radio / Bluetooth Speaker
Several small shortwave radios reside in my accumulation and I’m interested to see how they compare, especially how newer ones compare to older ones. At least a dozen of my radios fit the “Ultralight” category (volume under 20 cubic inches), including some serious radios like the Tecsun PL-330 and the Qodosen DX/SR-286. While those radios are small, I don’t consider them “little,” and little is more the concept I’m going for here. So here is a little list:
Kudos to Amazon who delivered the radio less than 12 hours after I ordered it. The package includes box, radio, User Manual, Thank You card and USB-C charging cable.
Jazmm 213 Portable Radio / Bluetooth / MP3 player
First Impressions
Like Amazon reviewers, I found it smaller than expected, even though the size was right there in the product description. It’s very close to the size of my Raddy RF760, but thicker because of the belt loop. But while the two radios are the same height, their antennas are very different. The Jazmm 213 has an antenna of 11″ (28 cm), while the Raddy antenna is 18 1/2″ (53 cm).
OK, it will soon be my birthday and so I blew a big $25 (after 20% discount) plus tax for a pocket shortwave radio. I asked Rufus (Amazon AI assistant) and it said the model number was: 6f9846ec-031e-4f5a-876d-0ee9460591cb, and apparently that really is the model number. I’m going to have a hard time remembering that. The manufacturer is Jimeng, and so far no manual is to be found online. Amazon, however, has a couple of videos that cover operation in some detail, one that appears to be from the manufacturer and one from a user who found what he described as “hidden features.”
Jazmm Bluetooth AM FM Shortwave Radio with NOAA Weather Alert
I’m a sucker for small radios, and this one seems pretty small, 2.3″L x 4″W x 1.3″H, although that’s a bit thick due to the speaker and belt clip. In addition to MW/FM/SW it adds weather band, Bluetooth and MP3 play. It may act as a computer speaker if “USB MP3 Play” means that. It’s described as having NOAA weather alerts. Shortwave coverage is 4.75-21.85 MHz. There is some sort of auto-scan feature with 100 station presets. The odd thing about this radio is that every picture of it online shows the same 162.585 MHz display, which is not a frequency the radio is supposed to receive.
My main reasons for the purchase was the high reviews given to the speaker, the small size and the flashlight. Negatives include a non-replaceable battery, product reviews saying shortwave was weak with the telescopic antenna, and the radio being on the thick side.
One Amazon reviewer thought it would be better without the belt clip. Another said the earphone output was mono on FM, but that it played stereo from MP3 files. Overall ratings were 4.3 stars.
I want to make a bit of a change in the blog and I haven’t quite figured how to do it. The idea is to add some travel content and some photography, but without watering down the radio focus. It may be a separate blog, maybe something like travel.blogordie.com. We’ll see, but in the meantime, here’s a crossover piece sharing some radio reception I had in Úbeda, Spain, on June 4, at around sunset local time, 19:30 UTC. (Somehow I can’t hear the town name without thinking of EBITDA).
Here’s a photo snapped of the RTVE tower in Madrid (not where these transmissions are coming from).
RTVE Tower Madrid
The video features the ATS results from my Qodosen DX-286 using a Sangean ANT-60 reel antenna strung out in a city park. I quickly recognized Radio Romania, Radio Exterior de España, and many Chinese stations–good signals and a much different selection from what I would have heard in the US. Time in UTC is on the radio (approximately).
How did this blog about shortwave radios come to be?
My first domain was Davnet.org in 2002. The oldest version of my website on the Wayback Machine dates back to to August 2003, when it was pretty well developed. I found an older kwdavids.net version from February 2, 2001 but it is a hijacked version with advertising slathered in. I’m pretty sure my first web page was far older than that, hosted by an ISP, under their domain name. I have an article here, transferred from that site dated in 1995.
The banner of that website has these prophetic words:
Find out who I am by reading my web site and I will find out who I am by writing it.
Blogging has always been a voyage of self-discovery for me.
Thanks to AliExpress and their downstream agents, my shiny new AMNVOLT ATS Mini arrived in time for my trip to Spain and avoiding a hulking batch of new tariffs:
AMNVOLT ATS Mini and accessories
First Impressions
My first observation is that the box wasn’t half crushed like the prior one, and the instructions seem professionally printed. The case fits together without a big crack. This is definitely a higher build quality product. It came with V1.01 of the firmware. And yes, headphones work. Yea! The front and back printed Quick Start Manual actually names the product. AMNVOLT is the manufacturer and ATS MINI is the model name. (My former was called a “Mini Radio” or “ESP32 Si4372 Receiver.” And according to the ATSMINI page on github, mine is version 3.
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