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Performance

LNA

The most important thing I can advise is to make sure the low-noise amplifier (LNA) is on unless you have a reason to turn it off. The LNA is always off when the radio powers up, so you have to remember to turn it on (double tap the button lower left of the display). When on, the icon LNA appears on the display to the left of the battery status icon. With the LNA off, I got not a single MW station. LNA will be turned on for all testing.

Antenna

There are three things one might call “antenna” on this radio. The obvious one is the 10 segment 82 cm telescopic antenna on top. It’s quite a serious physical object, and appears robust. Absent any other antenna, it supports all bands including MW.

The second antenna is the earphone cord plugged into the 3.5mm TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) jack on the top, presumably for use when the radio is in a shirt pocket or the like.

The third antenna is one you plug into the bottom — a rather awkward place if you expect to stand the radio vertically. This jack supports both AM and shortwave reception with the former in the form of a ferrite loop antenna and the other a long wire. Of course one might experiment on what else might work. On MW, I have had good results in the past with a ferrite rod antenna that came with my Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 that I believe is the same as their model T-20 Antenna sold separately. The ZWS-C919 is also sold by Raddy as the RF919.

Not much in the box: USB C charging cable, ATS-200 radio in bubble wrap, manual and a detached high-visibility green wrist strap (which may require radio disassembly to install).

The first surprise (about which I was warned) is how small it is (137 x 50 x 20mm / 5.4 x 2 x 0.8″). It will protrude from a shirt pocket less than an inch, and most of that is the antenna stub.

It’s October 25 and the Winter 2026 shortwave schedules went into effect today. EiBiSpace.de has not updated yet (it’s just one guy and a lot of work). The new schedules are available from the High Frequency Coordination Conference. Note: DRM broadcasts are indicated by an “N” in the MOD column. The file layout is defined in their file format.

They also have a convenient lookup tool. The tool lets you pick broadcasts directed to your geographic location, in your selected language.

I’ve been fascinated with Music 4 Joy since 2023 when its techno music AM signals directed towards Africa, the Middle East and the Far East were hard to hear where I lived in Virginia. I finally heard it, only to lose the privilege when they switched to DRM modulation.

When version 16 of the MLite-880 firmware arrived with support for DRM decoding, I was on the warpath again and tried for two weeks to snag one of their broadcasts. Finally I succeeded today.

I had been going outdoors using a 7m reel antenna in various locations and angles. Receiving a signal was not difficult, but receiving one clean enough to decode the music escaped me. Finally this norming at 23:56 UTC on 17.670 MHz, I threw the antenna over the side of the porch, about 7m to the ground, and there was a burst of sound. Music 4 Joy was there.

The Raddy ATS200 was first released in May of 2024. I ordered one from Raddy today because it was on sale for $69.99 (plus about $10 shipping). That’s $50 off.

It’s an attractive package at that price, with LW, MW, FM, SW, AIR, featuring both RDS, CW and SSB. It has touch screen operation plus lots of settings for AGC, bandwidth, attenuator and LNA. The chip is an Si4732 DSP plus an EPS32 microprocessor. Plus it sports a flashlight. Operation is almost all touch screen.

Saw this on Facebook on the MLite-880 groups with “Elecevolve’s new product, the RT-880X, gets an early reveal — pre-sale is coming soon. Stay tuned for more details!” plus these photos:

Update: Now for pre-order sale — $69 + $19.53 shipping.

Here’s that feature list in text form:

• High-Sensitivity TEF6686 Reception
• DX Scanning & Full RDS Support
• Switchable MW Ferrite / SMA Antenna Input
• 118-137 MHz Airband Reception
• Auto Scan & Store / 198 Memories

I’m scratching my head over this. The first thing that jumps out is how much this looks like the Sparkelec DP-666 that I own and that has been talked about on this blog:

The rather unique dual power switch on the DP-666 is also on the RT-880X, albeit on the opposite side, and one notes a third knob (or something) on the RT-880X top.

The teaser image tells us up front that it uses the TEF6686 DSP chip, and hence the prominent support for FM RDS. But it also says the receiver has AIR band and that is something the TEF6686 does not support. Perhaps they downconvert AIR band signals.

Here’s a video I found:

Update:

I’ve been doing some FM DXing lately and one of the radios I’m using is the the DP-666. I really like the radio for this purpose because direct frequency is convenient, the display is bright, colorful and easy to read, and all the RDS information is on the screen at the same time. The tuning knob is right up top. The disadvantages are that it sometimes makes up spurious PI codes, and overall it’s less sensitive than the Qodosen DX-286.