The Raddy ATS-200 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. Plus it sports a flashlight.
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:
Here’s that feature list in text form:
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:
My first attempt at DRM on the MLite-880 was Radio Romania, and there I got a wonderful sound experience. Today at 9:45am local time in central Virginia (13:45 UTC), I tried my old favorite from 2023, Music 4 Joy from Nauen, Germany.
Today on 17670 kHz with the 20′ WUT antenna out on the patio with the MLite-880 and its newly-installed V1.6.1 firmware I received Music for Joy’s DRM broadcast, but there was no sound. Here’s what showed on the radio’s display:
Over the years, radio manufacturers have sometimes included antennas with radios, including ones ones like the following comprised of a longwire, a connector and a reel.
The photo below shows the basic structure. There is some kind of a clip to attach the reel on one end to some fixed object, for me often a tree branch. Then there is a 3.5mm plug connected to one end of a coil of wire inside the reel. One pulls the plug out and the wire extends. This model, as do most, adds an adapter to allow a clip-on to the antenna for radios that lack a suitable antenna jack.
DRM is a digital encoding method available to radio broadcasters. It can be decoded by some of the SDR software on a computer and now by a beta firmware release on the MLite-880 receiver. I see the question in Facebook groups, asking where one can find DRM broadcasts and this is my reply.
I’ve suggested Radio Romania that I’ve received successfully, but the list at EiBiSpace.de is one great source. It’s really the end of the schedule season now, but I downloaded the time-sorted bc-a26.txt file from EiBiSpace and searched for the keyword “DIGITAL”. This Windows Powershell “script” will filter out just the entries with that keyword.
Select-String -Path "bc-a26.txt" -Pattern "DIGITAL" | ForEach-Object { $_.Line } > bc-a26-DIGITAL.txtThe Zhiwhis ZWS-777 (aka HanRongDa HRD-777 / Raddy RF750 Plus) is a little product, a mere 2.8″L x 1.7″W x 2.3″H plus a 10.6″ telescopic antenna. It’s also hefty at 7.7 oz. with BL-5C battery and accessory ferrite loop antenna, compared with 4.7 oz. for the larger HRD-701. I suspect some of the weight is due to the metal case and perhaps the 3W speaker (both use the same battery).
This a member of the military-styled radio class from Shenzhen Hanrongda Electronic Corp: the HRD-700, ZWS-702, ZWS-702X, HRD-A320, and HRD-C919. It has sort of a geeky retro military feel to it, from the olive drab color, the five-pointed stars stamped in various places and the schematic circuit symbols around the speaker.
I spent a very long time last year attempting to receive shortwave signals encoded with a scheme called DRM, or Digital Radio Mondiale. The process required an SDR and installing software called DREAM and some other stuff. Long story short: I never got it working.
I found on the public LiteMALADSP MLite-880 Facebook group that new beta firmware V1.60 for the LITEMLADSP MLite-880 includes a DRM decoder. The firmware is a available in the group’s files.
Update: As of today, V1.60 is officially released and available on the One-Click installer.
After the firmware update, a new entry, DRM, appears among the modulation types. Google AI says:
Digital signals like DRM require careful gain management. If your signal is overloading, press the “5” button, [next page,] then “2” to access the spectrum/gain menu, and manually back down the gain. Setting it too high can distort the signal and break the digital lock.
Because DRM is a “perfect or nothing” digital standard, the built-in telescopic antenna is often insufficient for clean decoding. For optimal results, connect a high-positioned external random wire antenna or a magnetic loop antenna.🤖
One way to find DRM broadcasts is to search EiBiSpace for “DIGITAL”. Most entries are from China, but a bit from the BBC, France (RTF and RFI), Voice of Romania, Trans World Radio, Radio New Zealand, Funklust (Germany), KCBS North Korea, and the enigmatic Music 4 Joy also from Germany.
Google AI suggested that the easiest catch in Virginia is probably Radio Romania. I checked and found Radio Romania on in digital at 1700 UTC on 13750 kHz, and it was glorious! I was out on the patio with the 20′ WUT (wire up tree) antenna connected.
AAC is the standard DRM audio codec and 11.6 is the audio bitrate. d = -127 Hz is the deviation between the transmitter’s frequency and the receiver’s tuning. DRM-B is the transmission mode that indicates a bandwidth of about 10 kHz. Symbol synchronization of 88% is quite good. Anything above 70% is usually enough for stable decoding.
“Tiganesti E1” on the display refers to a specific shortwave transmitter and antenna configuration at the Țigănești transmitter site in Romania — one of the main facilities used by Radio Romania International (RRI) for its shortwave broadcasts.
Instead of a spectrum display, the MLite-880 shows a Constellation Diagram on the left in DRM mode.
“Imagine the transmitter is throwing darts at a dartboard. Each dart is a piece of digital information. A perfect signal means all the darts hit the bullseyes. Noise, fading, and interference make the darts scatter. The constellation diagram shows where the darts actually landed.”🤖