But, but, but, I thought that unpronounceable green thing was the incoming radio (Incoming Radio: Sttfaishen S10). It didn’t work out. Not only was the product description wrong (color and size), it just didn’t work well on weather band. So another radio will be welcomed into the arms of Goodwill Industries. Sigh.
So here is the next great hope:
Why this one?
First, it checks all the boxes (the battery could be bigger, but whatever), including an IPX4 weather resistant rating. Of course it’s sold as yellow, my mother’s favorite color, and could be featured this year for National Yellow Radio Day (June 1). It’s also clear from the product photos that the controls are easy to read.
I own one Zhiwhis radio already, a ZWS-603 MW/FM/SW radio (about which several articles have been written). What I remember most about that radio is how good the speaker was. Good sound is a valuable attribute for a radio that doubles as a Bluetooth speaker and MP3 player. The ZWS-603 also had recoding capability, but I am not expecting that here.
I find the ZWS-2415 to be on the large size compared to the radios I use every day. If that’s something to make the sound better, then I’m OK with it.
Emergency radios seem to be associated with tiny antennas. This one is bigger than many at 19″. What is more unusual is that it also comes with a 3m clip-on wire antenna. That’s got to be for shortwave.
The product description says: ” AM/FM/SW/VHF/NOAA Weather radio.” So what is that VHF thing? Deep down in the product listing I found: VHF: 30.00-199.975MHz. I think that’s all FM, so no AIR band I presume.
At a price under $35 (with coupon), how could I go wrong? (Answer: Snake Bit by Emergency Radios).
And while waiting, perhaps I’ll peruse the ZWS-2415 User Manual.
Expectations
Since I was able to find a User Manual, I already know a good deal about the radio. It was first on Amazon in November of 2024. It’s a new product, and all the Amazon reviews were by their VINE participants, people Amazon sends free products to in exchange for reviews. Those who addressed issue said MW performance was poor — which I fully expected. I expect it to be big and clunky. I expect it to be very complicated to set up. I hope the speaker can be turned up loud and doesn’t sound too bad.
The user manual seemed vaguely familiar. At first I thought of the Raddy RF75A, a radio that covers the same list of bands. Here’s a detail from the RF757 manual on setting VHF bandwidth:
Here’s the same topic in the Zhiwhis manual:
The screenshot doesn’t show it, but both of these procedures start from what the manuals call “clock mode.” Then there is a long press of a button for to start. The bandwidth values are the same.
Also the top of the screen for both the Zhiwhis and the Raddy has a similarly looking signal strength display (misspelled LEVER on the Raddy and correctly spelled LEVEL on the Zhiwhis).
The Boxes Not Checked
- No thermometer
- Can’t record to the flash drive
- No earphone jack. The jack is for AUX input.