Category Archives: Technology

Degen DE32 AM/FM/SW radio/MP3 player

This is an interesting little shirt-pocket radio available on eBay for under $30. It has a few nice features and some drawbacks too. The radio covers the US FM radio band as well as the low FM band (64-87 MHz) … Continue reading

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Degen DE17: First look and operations

My new Degen DE17 waltzed in the door today. This is a digital DSP radio. Like other eBay digital wonders, this one comes with only a Chinese-language instruction manual ;( and some things aren’t obvious. Most of the operating instructions … Continue reading

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Radio anticipation

I ordered a Tecsun R9702 radio a week or so ago and I’m anxiously awaiting its delivery. I have over 100 radios, most of them shortwave models, but none has a particular feature set that I’m interested in: Dual conversion … Continue reading

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5 DSP radios

Looking on the radio shelf, I see 5 shortwave radios that are powered by the same Silicon Labs si4734 “shortwave radio on a chip.” There’s not much difference in the radios as far as performance goes except on MW or … Continue reading

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Kchibo KK-D680 radio invites comparison with smaller cousin

I continue to be intrigued by the tiny DSP radio from Kchibo, the KK-D202. That’s the radio that I’m most likely to slip in my shirt pocked when walking out the door. This KK-D680 from Kchibo fits in a shirt … Continue reading

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Kchibo KK-D202 shortwave receiver review

The Kchibo KK-D202 is an AM/FM/Shortwave receiver based on the Silicon Laboratories si4734 digital signal processing chip. There are three versions of the radio: the Chinese labeled D202 (reviewed here), the D202 upgrade (adds 9/10 KHz AM radio channel separation … Continue reading

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Tecsun PL-118 Stereo FM radio review

I usually write about shortwave radios, but this FM-only radio deserves a mention. It represents a  cost/performance/feature breakthrough based based on a new integrated circuit radio-on-a-chip. Let’s start with cost. I paid $13 plus $7 shipping from eBay seller ANON-CO. … Continue reading

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