Category Archives: Radio

Radio Collecting and listening

Look ma, the DX-286 got batteries!

It’s no big deal for me since I have a pile of 18650 batteries, but reading anecdotes on the Internet leads me to think procuring them is a problem for some folks. Initially, the DX-286 was sold without batteries. Then … Continue reading

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Santa’s Nice Radio list for 2025

Unlike my “Top Ten Portable Shortwave Radios for 2025,” these are not necessarily the best you can buy, but ones that I think bring something worthwhile to the table, and are good value. They’re ones that I personally use and … Continue reading

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Radio Time

I was in the chat room of the OfficialSWLChannel on YouTube when someone commented that the clock on their radio wasn’t accurate. I got out a few of mine and observed some a minute or so off, some more, but … Continue reading

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Tuning, Muting, and Things that Go Chuff in the Night

Terminology one sees online isn’t always precise, and many people equate muting, soft muting and chuffing. I tend to get sloppy too. For the purpose of this article, here are the terms as I’m using them: Whenever someone asks a … Continue reading

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XHDATA Launches Improved D-219

I bought the original XHDATA D-219 in February of 2023, gray, with a fixed 9 kHz tuning step on MW, topping off the MW band at 1620 kHz. I wrote about it: Ultra-bargain XHDATA D-219 AM/FM/Shortwave radio.

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Size Matters?

A snippet of discussion occurred on the OfficialSWLChannel YouTube channel. Someone commented in the chat that the Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 had a telescopic antenna almost a meter long! I replied, to some surprised reactions, that the Tecsun PL-990 telescopic was the … Continue reading

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Birdies in the Dark: ZWS-C919

It was dark and bleeping cold this morning (OK 40°F is not all that cold, but it was damp and foggy too) when I dragged 3 radios down to the patio to see what was happening before sunrise. The radio … Continue reading

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