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It’s a weakness. AliExpress sent me an email — 50% off, free shipping.

It cost $27.28 — that’s just $3 per band. Looks big! Actual size is 105 x 45 x 118mm (4.1 x 1.8 x 4.6 in). So it’s at least not tiny. Product listing. It reminds me of a HanRongDa HRD-700 back in the day. The “Service Manual“; however, is tiny. Supposedly the “9 bands” are MW, FM and SW-1-7.

Features

The screaming deficiency for me is the lack of a digital readout. Also Shortwave is not full coverage, limited to 5.7-17.9MHz. MW tops off at 1620 kHz rather than 1710. The frequency response is advertised as 30 Hz – 15 kHz. Yeah, right. One reviewer said it had “good bass.”

It uses an 18650 battery (included). USB Type-C charging. IPX-3¹ weather resistant.

Given that it’s weather resistant, meaning outdoor use, the flashlight question arises, and apparently there is none. It does work as a Bluetooth speaker and can play music from a TF card. Surprisingly, it has ATS.

Is it a weather radio?

Tricky question. Nothing in the product description says that it is. The linked manual says some models have weather and others don’t. That manual photo shows a picture of a model J-101, not the J-101W pictured on the website, but it says it’s for the J101W. Usually the “W” suffix indicates the weather version. The manual, while mentioning the band, doesn’t explain how to invoke a weather function. If it DOES have the weather band then MW spacing is fixed at 10 kHz, otherwise switchable through some procedure not in the manual. The photo says ALERT, which typically suggest Weather, but it might refer to the SOS siren. The manual, however, doesn’t say “ALERT.”

It’s a pickle.

1. IPX3 Provides protection against
   Light rain
   Water spray from any direction up to 60°
   Occasional splashing
   Being near a sink or light spray from a hose (not direct jet)
   Does not protect against
   Heavy rainstorms
   Direct water jets (IPX5/IPX6)
   Immersion (IPX7/IPX8)
   High‑pressure washing
   Submersion in puddles or dropping into water🤖 ↩︎

I rate FM radio performance by counting local stations I can hear down on my patio in the middle of the day. That’s simplistic, because daytime propagation varies and E-Skip happens. Not all stations are necessarily local and consistent.

Sporadic‑E (Es) is a propagation mode where radio waves in the 30–300 MHz range reflect off dense patches of ionization in the E‑layer of the ionosphere (≈90–120 km altitude). On the FM band (88–108 MHz), this produces long‑distance reception of stations 600–1500 miles away, often with strong, local‑quality signals.

Es clouds form when wind shear and atmospheric tides compress metallic ions (mostly Fe⁺ and Mg⁺) into dense layers. When the electron density spikes high enough, the layer becomes reflective at VHF frequencies.

Key triggers:

• Summer solstice season (May–August)
• Winter minor season (December–January)
• Strong wind shear in the upper atmosphere
• Thunderstorm complexes (sometimes correlate)
• Jet stream boundaries🤖

The package consists of a MW/FM/SW/WB radio with stereo speakers, plus a repeater — an external device that is a radio itself, able to relay received audio to the base radio. The repeater adds AIR band and VHF/UHF.

Let’s start with a video. It’s a transmission of Radio Romania at 01:33 UTC on 30-June-2026 on 9495 kHz.

In the upper right of the radio display is an antenna symbol with the letters *EXT* underneath; when solid on rather than blinking, the icon informs us that the radio is receiving an external signal from the W3 repeater. The repeater was on the back porch about 5 meters away, and connected to the repeater was the 3 meter wire antenna supplied in the W3 accessories pack. In my opinion, this is the “normal” use case for this product.

The “9.495 MHZ” tells the frequency, almost. The bandwidth is fairly wide, so the station is easily heard on 9.490 and 9.500 (noting that this is a strong signal). The little number “5” is blank on frequencies that are multiples of 10 kHz indicating that 5 kHz is the smallest tuning step on SW. The display shows signal to noise ratio (SNR) is 16 and the relative signal strength (RSSI) is 72.¹

The video shows what an iPhone microphone picks up.

I’ve been waiting to order this since early May when an early version appeared on the AliExpress website with prominent warning that SSB tuning step was 5 kHz and that there was no printed English manual, to be remedied by a new version on May 27 with a 0.5 kHz SSB tuning step. I left a message yesterday for the seller CLOOBLUT asking if the new version were available yet, and this morning when I looked for a reply, instead of a reply, there was a product listing of the new version.

Dangerous outdoor temperatures have kept me indoors and away from necessary outdoor testing for my ZWS-802 review, so to pass the time I clicked on a CNBC video on YouTube about Walmart’s attempt to boost online sales and complete with Amazon.

According to the video 90% of Americans (myself included) live within 10 mines of a Walmart retail store, and for what it’s worth, I live within 10 mines in a major Walmart distribution hub (Amazon is building one even closer). But I don’t think I’ve ever bought a radio at a Walmart store or their website. The selection or the price just didn’t make sense last time I was shopping.

Both Amazon and Walmart rely on third party sellers for their product diversity. Some sellers employ both platforms. I tried the term “shortwave radio” on Walmart to see what popped up. Foremost was an ad from Midland, featuring weather/emergency radios and walkie talkies. When I scrolled down, I did see some brands that might interest a shortwave listener. The table below lists some comparison prices between Walmart and Amazon:

One problem I had with Walmart was that some items didn’t have a model number or I couldn’t tell what version was offered on a Si4732 Mini. Walmart tended to have older models.

Anyhow, Walmart could be worth a check. But check shipping costs, delivery times and return policy.

I noted before a new variant of the LiJiANi Rd239 for sale at AliExpress, interesting because it added app control, SSB, and communicating with an external (possibly outdoor) repeater. The repeater model was identified as “W2.” This was clearly interesting to me because of all the internal noise in my house.

Now there is another that popped up on Amazon today when I went browsing for Prime Day deals.