PANIC
The USPS delivery site said they were returning it to sender, undeliverable because of insufficient address. They delivered it anyway. The address was mangled by jamming it together with no spaces between street number and name. Disaster averted.
Unboxing
My first impression was the radio, from seller CLOOBLUT, was in a real shipping box, and the internal product box wasn’t crushed at all.
The back of the box was more interesting with some specifications, and a surprise — a UHF band of 200 – 470 MHz, only with the repeater. That addition led me to look at the included product manual, which is later than the one I downloaded (and doesn’t list UHF).
Once the box was opened, the pretty stuff appeared:
Everything was perfectly protected with the foam lining in the box. Things I noted included:
- The W2 repeater is white, in contrast with the W3 repeater I got with my Zhiwhis ZWS-802 that’s gray. Otherwise, apart from the label, they look the same.
- The wire antenna for the W2 (red thing) has a very usable alligator clip on the end rather than the more complicated plastic clip on the one that came with the W3.
- The box was much lighter than the ZWS-802 box.
- The LiJiANi RD-239S is almost identical in size to the popular Tecsun PL-330.
A Quick Check
I quickly checked out the radio just to report to AliExpress that the package was received (since they were notified that USPS was returning it). I put the batteries in.
FM radio worked. Connection to the W2 repeater worked. FM via the repeater worked. I plugged in USB cables and let them both charge. I also started the Radio-CT app on the phone to check the firmware version. Radio: V2.05 and W2: V2.04. Part of the message was in Chinese.
Next
I’m making this first impressions post short. The weird thing is that I’m already very familiar with this radio, since I’ve had the Rd239 for years. Adding the repeater really doesn’t change much, except adding UHF and SSB. It’s not a radio I need to first get familiar with. And while the older version doesn’t have an app, I’m familiar with the app.
I can envision this radio getting a great deal of exercise over the coming week. It can take the place of my Tecsun radios for SSB. The repeater perhaps removes the need for hiking down to the patio in the dark to avoid the noise.
Update
After posting this article I was watching the Official SWL Channel live show on YouTube and Gilles mentioned a pirate radio station on 6935 USB. So I took the repeater out on the porch and turned it on. Then back indoors, I keyed in 6935, I pressed the SSB button and a few seconds later, there was the station, playing music perfectly tuned.
I also got a note from someone who has this radio, and has very bad experience with MW on with the W2 repeater, so I gave it a quick test, after dark, and there were normal-sounding results around sundown.
I remembered to use the app to set the radio clock.