It’s been a few weeks now with the Qodosen SR-286 receiver. This is a status report.
I have over 30 shortwave receivers, some pretty good ones. I find myself using the SR-286 almost all of the time. The only exceptions are when I get out the Tecsun PL-990 to receive SSB — in particular LRA-36 in Antarctica, and the XHDATA D-808 to compare something.
I use the SR-286 with its telescopic antenna alone, with Tecsun AN-07 extender, and with an external long wire. I’m not using the MLA-30+ much right now.
I really like the radio. One advantage is its compact size over the PL-990. I like the controls. The automatic scans pick up weak stations so well that I don’t need to do band scans by hand.
It’s sensitive, it sounds good and it’s fun to operate. The display is easy on the eyes in any light.
The bottom line is that I’m using the SR-286 to the exclusion of the others.
Here was a really fun reception of Radio Piepzender from the Netherlands:
Update:
I tried a feature on my SR-286 for the first time last night and I really like it.
When the tuning knob is pressed in, the radio switches between FAST, SLOW, AUTO and STOP modes. I tried AUTO. In this mode, the radio begins a search for the next station and stops when one is found (either up or down depending on which way it’s turned). I found that it stopped for faint stations. There is no DSP chuffing sound when tuning this way.
Update 2
Hint for North American SR-286 users:
The DEFAULT values for FM de-emphasis and RDS settings are wrong for North America. Also the MW step should be set.
To change the values, turn the radio off, then long-press the SET button until MW-XXK appears. (XX will either be 9K or 10K).
If you see MW-9K, short press the SET button to change it to MW-10K.
Continue turning the knob until you see either FM-RDS or FM-RBDS. If it’s FM-RDS, short press the SET button to changed it to FM-RBDS.
Continue turning until you see “FMDE-XXUS.” If XX is 50, quick press SET to change it to “FMDE-75US.”
Thanks for those hints, I also really like the radio as it performs well and the size is ideal.
Cheers
Please tell me how to turn off the tuning knob clicking. I have no idea why they enabled this when this is supposed to be a non-chuff radio. You can’t hear anything because of the clicks in between anyway.
I am calling this radio way, way overrated. No sync, no SSB, lots of bandwidths but few of them useful and just to hard to operate. My Kaito 1103 is easy compared to this one. I do like that the dial light will stay on some times if you read the manual over and over. You have to keep turning the radio off to change anything. There’s nothin intuitive here. The price is fine but an original Kaito 1103 is way more fun than this and it doesn’t click, click, click plus it has SSB.
I don’t know any way to turn off the chuffing.