Most of my reviews are written within 3-4 days of receiving the radio. While I try to give the receivers a workout, cover the main points and present a case for or against, opinions change over time; some radios even get firmware updates.
The receiver that initially spurred this series is the Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 / Raddy RF919 / Retekess TR113 / HanRongDa HRD-C919. I wanted to re-think this one because my first opinion was so negative, and other reviewers are more positive.
This radio received one of my longest initial reviews, and some follow-ups:
- Incoming radio: Zhiwhis ZWS-C919
- First Impressions: Zhiwhis ZWS-C919
- Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 Product Review – Part 1
- Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 Product Review – Part 2
- Zhiwhis ZWS-C919: Tips and Tricks
- Birdies in the Dark: ZWS-C919
The unit has since gotten a firmware update to V1.910, with these changes since 1.706:
- Optimized Bluetooth connection INT issue.
- When headphones are plugged in, “WFM” demodulation mode will be displayed and the heard signal will be mono. Long-pressing the [BW/DEMOD] button to enter demodulation setting and then once more pressing [BW/DEMOD] button to switch to “St”ereo demodulation mode results in stereo sound.
- Fixed FLAC card reading issues.
- Fixed EQ tone in FM mode now working as expected.
- Fixed device freezing and automatic power-off issues.
- Fixed issue where the app/phone display wasn’t synchronized with the main unit after long pressing the [SUB BAND] button to enter the free intercom frequency in UHF mode.
- Optimized USB screen flickering.
- Fixed FM64 tuning issue where the device wouldn’t remember settings after powering off.
- Added multiple manual tuning symbols to the AM mode display.
- Improved secondary screen misalignment and no sound when using headphones.
I hadn’t experienced any issues with the things on this list with my V1.723 Zhiwhis version and initially decided not to install the update, but four months after delivery the radio failed: no sound on FM, MW or LW. Other bands worked. I wrote Zhiwhis support and they send a firmware update, and the sound returned after installation. I don’t know if this was a fix or if the installation just did a deeper factory reset than the one on the menu. There were no instructions provided by Zhiwhis to perform the update, but I used the ones on the Raddy site. Because the update file names are different, I would not recommend attempting to apply the Raddy firmware to the other brands.
After getting FM back, my immediate reaction was how good the speaker sounds.
I had the radio out in a successful attempt to receive marine radio station WLO in Mobile, Alabama, CW on 8788 kHz. I picked up India with a 40-foot wire attached around 19:21 UTC (following).
When I returned to the radio, I was reminded of how complicated it is, with its antenna channels, filters, low noise amplifiers (2), antenna tuner, and attenuators (2). Further reading found that my reaction to the complexity was not isolated. Other agree with me that one is best served by ignoring everything and using the default settings. One of the three reference cards attempting to explain the antenna function, supplementing the two sections in the manual says:
! Please Attention
If the tuning method is not correct, the receiving performance may be worse than if the external antenna is not used.
Tuning is off 200–300 Hz and cannot be calibrated, making SSB tedious to tune.
This radio just isn’t. It works, but it’s nothing special. It adds no value to my collection beyond a possible Bluetooth speaker or “kitchen radio”1. I put it back on the shelf.
- A radio used for background listening. ↩︎