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Category Archives: Radio
Phase Locked in Battle: Tecsun PL-990 Against All Comers
Someone made a comment on the Official SWL Channel Facebook group: So I’ve got the modern raft of DSP and SDR radios, just the same as anyone else. I was wondering whether, in 2025, there’s any point in picking up … Continue reading
Posted in Radio
Tagged Grundig G4000A, Grundig Yacht Boy 400, Kaito KA1101, Official SWL Channel, Sangean ATS-909, Tecsun PL-660, Tecsun PL-990
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Rambling on some old and new radios
I usually talk about radios I’ve used or intend to buy. This is is different, mostly about radios I didn’t and won’t buy. Retekess V115 The Retekess V115 radio has been a very popular “starter radio” because of its low … Continue reading
The Battle of the Sixes: Part 2
Continued from The Battle of the Sixes: Part 1. In this part I discuss reception performance and audio quality, with my final conclusions. Performance MW The first barrier in comparing MW performance is that the DP-666 doesn’t have an internal … Continue reading
Posted in Product Reviews, Radio
Tagged Ferrite antenna, Portable Radios, Qodosen DX-286, SPARKELEC DP-666, TEF6686
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The Battle of the Sixes: Part 1
A Comparison of two radios based on the TEF6686 DSP chip This post title was inspired by my new Sparkelec DP-666 radio based on the NXM TEF6686 DSP chip. That’s a lot of sixes. Here I compare two radios based … Continue reading
Upgrading the Sparkelec DP-666 Firmware
Don’t That’s my advice. There is a newer version with the Megatron M17 mods and I was led to get it from the Deepelec website. After installation, the new version showed a Deepelec logo when I boot the device, but … Continue reading
Radio Silence
No posts for a while. I have two projects in the works and they aren’t progressing as fast as I would like. One is a comparison between the Sparkelec DP-666 and my other TEF6686 radio, the Qodosen DX-286. The other … Continue reading
Posted in Radio
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First Impressions: Sparkelec DP-666 (Updated)
My DP-666 finally arrived today. It’s based on the NXP TEF6686 chip, designed for automotive applications. The contents of the box bore an uncanny resemblance to the seller photo (what we call a “good thing’), and here it is: