I blew $7.66 ($20 minimum order), including shipping, on Temu to snag this MW/FM/SW radio. A couple of years ago they went for $5.
It reminded me very much of a Kaide KK-9 I once owned.
They are outwardly very similar, but inside very different. Rather than the coils and transformers in the original, the new one is a DSP radio using a KE0936M chip with nary a coil in sight according to a teardown discussion on Reddit.
Manual and Operation
The microprinted manual (see photo at the top of the article) is a bit of a challenge; however, I did find one online.
Operation is fairly straightforward. The off/on volume control is on the left side, along with the earphone jack and an undocumented 3V power jack. The radio is powered by 2 AA batteries. A Tuning knob is on the right side.
On the Temu product photos and the microprinted manual there is a small slide switch below and on the the left side of the tuning dial; it’s labeled “DX/Local.” On mine and the in online manual copy, there is no label. Experimentation found that the switch does nothing.
The perhaps complicated part is band switching. Two large buttons on the lower right of the radio switch between FM/TV and everything else. FM/TV allows the tuning knob to cover the FM broadcast band and the old VHF television band, now used for FM in some countries. The other button labeled AM-SW enables the MW band and 7 shortwave bands; which one is determined by a slide switch on the top. Unfortunately, the slide switch detent spacing doesn’t align with the labels next to it, so that “6” on the case means band 7. One just has to count the clicks.
The manual does not specify the frequency ranges covered, but visually I read:
| Band | Meter | Range |
|---|---|---|
| AM | 530 – 1600 kHz | |
| FM/TV | 76 – 108 MHz | |
| SW1 | 49m | 5.95 – 6.42 MHz |
| SW2 | 41m | 7.08 – 8.40 MHz |
| SW3 | 31m | 9.43 – 10.97 MHz |
| SW4 | 25m | 10.44 – 12-29 MHz |
| SW5 | 22m | 13.68 – 14.13 MHz |
| SW6 | 19m | 14.94 – 15.71 MHz |
| SW7 | 16m | 17.47 – 18.29 MHz |
The meter band indications are on the tuning dial, at the top, but due to low contrast black on gray, they are very difficult to read.
Performance
Tuning is so touchy that the numbers in the table don’t mean much. The slightest turn of the knob can skip a station. MW, as it is typically for low-end radios, is abysmally poor in my weak signal area. It might work for someone in a city.
Shortwave
I received 7 shortwave stations at around 2 PM local time indoors with the 13.5″ (34.5 cm) telescopic antenna. That’s actually not bad given the time of day and the short antenna.