Blog or Die!

Size Matters?

Posted on October 21, 2025 by Kevin

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 same length. And did you know that some radios have a telescopic antenna more than a meter?

I handle telescopic antennas all the time and sometimes wonder about whether their length makes much difference. So just how long are they?

In classic Blog or Die! style, here’s a big table. Data +/- 1 cm due to rounding. Antenna under the plastic doesn’t count.

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Birdies in the Dark: ZWS-C919

Posted on October 21, 2025 by Kevin

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 of interest this trip was the Zhiwhis ZWS-C919. Mostly I tuned the 49m band and below, using the radio’s Search feature (hold down the tuning button) to find some good stations. I got this unbelievably gorgeous signal in Japanese, but when I looked up the schedule, alas, it was from WRMI.

The most memorable bits from the experience were not the stations, but the other sounds. The C919 has lots of birdies. The birdies would come and go perhaps migrating up and down the bands.

The topic of birdies brings to mine another radio manufactured by the HanRongDa company, the HRD-701, that had sporadic birdies.

Posted in Radio | Tagged Birdies, HanRongDa HRD-701, Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 | Leave a comment

Zhiwhis ZWS-C919: Tips and Tricks

Posted on October 17, 2025 by Kevin

Here are some things I discovered. I’ll add when I get something new.

The Tuning Knob Step

I knew from watching videos that there are two concentric knobs above the number keys and that turning them changes the frequency of the radio.

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Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 Product Review – Part 2

Posted on October 16, 2025 by Kevin

Performance

MW/FM

The Daytime Band Scan had surprising results:

Given the nearly 1-meter long telescopic antenna, I fully expected superior FM performance, and I was not disappointed — it delivered a top scoring 88 stations, but given the radio’s size and price range, I was not expecting its mediocre MW performance. A teardown by ElectricBananas of the Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 (henceforth called the C919) showed a very long ferrite antenna nearly as long as the radio is wide, perhaps the longest loop of any radio I have. Nevertheless, it got only 15 stations.

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Posted in Radio | Tagged Longwave, Radio-CT app, Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 | 1 Comment

Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 Product Review – Part 1

Posted on October 11, 2025 by Kevin

The Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 is a device that receives a wide range of frequencies and has a long list of features. It scores high on quantity. This review concentrates on how well it performs all those functions it has. The firmware underlying this review is v1.723.

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First Impressions: Zhiwhis ZWS-C919

Posted on October 9, 2025 by Kevin

I picked the Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 out of the 4 available brands, because it had best sale price on Amazon (and a little because Zhiwhis bought some good will by offering to send me a free updated version of the ZWS-603).

HanRongDa is the OEM manufacturer for all the branded versions, and today they seem to all have the same firmware and accessories. Raddy, however, has the best manual, but that’s not a deciding factor since they make it available online for free. All the ones I checked online also are advertised as having latest 1.71 firmware (mine ended up with 1.723).

Please keep in mind that these are first impressions. I may not be using some features right and I might not understand some things. I could change my mind. I’m going to mention comparisons to the Tecsun PL-990 throughout this post because it happened to be nearby and as my other higher-priced upper-tier radio, I intend to make more comparisons in the future.

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Posted in Radio | Tagged Zhiwhis ZWS-C919 | 3 Comments

Big Deal Days

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Kevin

October 7-8 are Amazon Big Deal Days, and there are some deals to be had on shortwave radios. I didn’t see anything for Tecsun or Qodosen, but the Raddy, Zhiwhis, Retekess, Retevis and XHDATA crowd are offering 20% or more off on some items, and there appear to be some new regular prices on the high end RF919 (also branded Zhiwhis, HanRongDa and Retekess).

Here are some I found: