Sharing the love

I have a lot of radios. Here are two pictures of them.

That’s 25 radios, not counting the novelty radios on the top shelf, clock radios, car radios, the shortwave radio in my car, an SDR, a weather radio on the window sill and a couple in boxes. (The observant reader might have noticed two XHDATA D-109 radios; one of those was the recalled one.) Focusing just on unique working shortwave radios, I think the total comes to 28.

The trouble I had coming up with that number is a symptom of the problem, too many radios with which to share the love.

What’s the solution? Some of my radios I couldn’t sell on eBay when I tried last year. I already gave three to a charity yard sale last week. I think that the 4 on the second from the top left shelf belong in the giveaway pile too, plus a Kchibo KK-959 not shown, and the Rysamton YK-M03 on top of the right shelf. That gets me down to 21, but the Tecsun DR-920C arriving next week takes it back up to 22. That’s too many to appreciate.

Some of these radios are very simple and straightforward to operate. Some of them (notably the Eton Executive Elite) require reference to a manual to make setting changes. 22 radio manuals is more than I can hold in my head at a given time, but each radio brings something unique to the table, a performance perk, an operational convenience, visual appeal, size, sound quality, band coverage or a feature. It’s just that I can’t think about them all at the same time.

I thought that maybe I would pick one radio each week to get special attention, but I didn’t follow through. Then I thought I would pick the very best one and put the others aside. You can read how that didn’t work. Top 2? 3? 5? Sigh.

The photos separate the radios into upstairs radios (my study) and downstairs radios (the shop). The upstairs radios are the quickest to grab in the moment, often to use without an external antenna. The downstairs ones include the larger, more serious ones, stored close to the MLA-30+ antenna termination; the SDR is there too. One side benefit to my dilemma is that I get lots of exercise going up and down stairs.

Now when I want to listen to radio, I have to consider all the choices each time. Some of my radios don’t get the attention they deserve. It’s a pickle.

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For reference, the radios featured in this article are:

Upstairs, left to right:

• XHDATA D-219
• Tecsun PL-330
• XHDATA D-109
• Tecsun PL-118 (FM only)
• Raddy RF75A

Downstairs, starting with next to top left shelf:

• Baijiali BJL-166
• Kchibo KK-9615
• Kchibo KK-MP903
• JWIN MXM17
• Prunus J-429SW
• Kaito KA29
• Zhiwhis ZWS-603
• Panasonic RF-085
• XHDATA D-808 (2023 version)
• Tecsun R-9700DX
• Tecsun PL-660
• Eton Elite Executive
• Sangean ATS-405

Downstairs, right shelf

• Rysamton YK-M03
• Evche EC-2110BTS
• Degen DE28
• Mesqool CR1015
• XHDATA D-109 (recalled version)
• HanRongDa HRD-701

Not pictured shortwave radios

• Degen DE15
• Mesqool CR2019 Pro
• Kchibo KK-959
• RTL-SDR Blog SDR