Tag Archives: shortwave radio

Tecsun PL-330 or Qodosen SR-286?

Posted on June 4, 2024 by Kevin

Update Since this article was originally written, Qodosen introduced a mass market version of their radio, the DX-286. The DX-286 and the SR-286 are physically identical, only with differences in firmware, documentation, packaging and price. Introduction The Tecsun PL-330 is … Continue reading →

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RDS / RBDS: FM on Display

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Kevin

The Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS), as it is called in the North America, or simply RDS in the rest of the world, is a protocol for embedding data in an FM/VHF broadcast. The data can include the station name, … Continue reading →

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Thunderous Clash of the Weather Radios

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Kevin

Weather radios are an interesting genre of radio. Some of them are specifically designed as emergency radios and some are general coverage radios with a weather feature added. I seem to have accumulated 8 weather radios. Here’s the photo array: … Continue reading →

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Before the battle: iRonsnow IR-688.

Posted on March 13, 2024 by Kevin

I have a new radio this week, an iRonsnow IR-688 emergency radio. I bought it on sale for $34.99 from Amazon, not to collect or to test, but to sit in the window and get weather alerts. It did arrive, … Continue reading →

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Qodosen SR-286 Tuning Tutorial

Posted on March 9, 2024 by Kevin

I’ve never seen a radio with more tuning modes than the Qodosen SR-286. I thought it might be worth the time to go through everything related to the topic in a tutorial. Broadly speaking there are 5 areas in tuning: … Continue reading →

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Sihuadon R-108: an overlooked radio

Posted on February 11, 2024 by Kevin

I’ve seen nice things said about the Sihuadon R-108 radio for some time, but I never bought one because it seemed redundant for my personal use. The radio is quite small (5″ L x 1.2″ W x 3″ H), it … Continue reading →

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Incoming Radio! Qodosen SR-286

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Kevin

If all goes well, I’ll be receiving a Qodosen SR-286 (aka Xiaoqiang SR-286) radio mid-February from AliExpress. I learned about it from RadioJayAllen’s review and it pushed a few of my buttons. First off, the SR-286 is small: 128 x … Continue reading →

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