I typically buy a radio after it’s been on the market for a while, often several years. This one, the XHDATA D-109, was released February 16, 2023 and I ordered it two days later.
It’s an MW/FM/LW/SW radio that adds audio playback from a micro SD card and can act as a Bluetooth speaker. It adds a two-alarm clock and thermometer. It’s not a radio for the serious radio enthusiast (lacking SSB), but it has some features in that direction, like variable bandwidth on AM and 1 kHz fine tuning.
The XHDATA D-219 is an AM/FM/Shortwave radio with an analog tuning dial. It covers AM (only up to 1600 kHz), FM (2 bands) and shortwave (9 bands from 4.75 to 22 MHz) It doesn’t have much in the way of features, but it gets the job done and is the best performer I’ve encountered in the under-$20 price bracket. It’s particularly attractive at today’s $12.99 including shipping from Amazon, or at $11.38 on sale direct from XHDATA where I got mine. (Note: the one shown below is the international version, identifiable by the 522-1620 MW scale. From Amazon you will get the US version 520 – 1710 with 10 kHz step.)
XHDATA D-219 Radio (9 kHz MW step model)
It has a generous 20.5″ telescoping antenna, an earphone jack, wrist strap and a kickstand. It lacks a dial light and FM Stereo. It takes 2 AA batteries and can be powered by a 5V external DC p0wer source. It comes with a basic manual that no one should need.
One issue for potential buyers in North and South America is the MW (AM) channel spacing, set permanently at 9 kHz, while the stations in this region broadcast on frequencies that are a multiple of 10 kHz. The radio itself has a digital signal processing (DSP) chip that only tunes discrete channels, even though you can physically set the dial to anything. The upshot of this disparity is that you wouldn’t be able to tune weak stations next to strong ones when the multiples don’t line up, and that you will hear the same station on two adjacent locations on the dial when the station frequency lies between the radio’s channels. This is really only an issue when you’re trying to trying to receive distant stations, and not likely to be an issue just listening to local AM. It’s fine for the rest of the world.
I ran a comparison of the D-219 against several other sub-$25 units on AM and FM. It was among the top contenders. I also scanned the shortwave bands using just the internal whip antenna. I was able to receive a couple dozen stations in the daytime. I could reliably set the dial to 15 MHz and from central Virginia receive WWV in Ft. Collins, Colorado. There are gaps between the shortwave bands, excluding much non-broadcast parts of the spectrum; however, it covers international broadcasting. In the US, you should easily receive stations like China National Radio and Radio Romania.
Shortwave bands:
4.75 – 5.06 MHz
5.6 – 6.4 MHz
6.8 – 7.6 MHz
9.2 – 10.0 MHz
11.45 – 12-25 MHz
13.4 – 14.2 MHz
15.0 – 15.0 MHz
17.1 – 18.0 MHz
21.2 – 22.0 MHz
Here are some test results scanning MW and FM bands using radios outdoors using the built-in antennas. I live in a weak signal area for MW.
Note: the table below shows the more recent 10 kHz MW step model of the D-219.
This is definitely not a radio for the serious shortwave listener or for the audiophile, but for a radio to carry with you camping or to dabble in shortwave, you can’t go wrong at this price.
These are my thoughts about an online word game hosted by the New York Times called Wordle. The game picks a 5-letter word and the player tries to guess it. After each guess (up to 6) the game reveals for each letter of the guess whether the letter is correct, in the word but somewhere else, or not in the word at all. Results look like this:
Wordle 593 3/6
⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Blank (sometimes black) is for the letter not appearing anywhere in the word. Yellow means that the letter in that guess position is in the word, but somewhere else, and green indicates the right letter in the right place. Each row evaluates one guess.
For example, if the solution was “STRIPE” and the player guessed “PARTS” the game would respond:
🟨⬜🟩🟨🟨
There is a “P” but it’s not in the first position. There is no “A” at all. The “R” is correct and in the correct position “T” and “S” are in the word, but not in those locations.
Having a mathematics and computer science background, I immediately thought that the game is best played using information theory, maximizing the amount of information obtained by each guess. Information is maximized when the game’s possible responses are equally (or as close to equally) likely.
It was relatively straightforward to write a computer program I named “WOBOT” to play the game; however, there might be more to winning than just the pure math. One obvious requirement to play the game optimally is to know all the possible solutions. The NY Times wrote in August 2022 that there were 2,309 of them. That original list is available on Github: it came from the original Wordle game before the Times bought the rights, but includes 6 additional words that the Times considered too obscure or offensive. In other places, the Times says that there are 2,309 and here is that official list.
I don’t know what the New York Times is trying to accomplish in its coverage on driver-assist systems, but informing the public is not it.
“Driver-Assist Systems Linked to Hundreds of Crashes“ was your headline, carrying the context-free ambiguous term “linked.” Would you use a headline like “Door bells linked to hundreds of house fires” just because a house that caught fire had a door bell? Perhaps the careless reader will confuse “linked” with “contributing factor” and that would be a gross error.
I’m an avid watcher of Tesla dash cam crash videos on YouTube. The most common scenario is a car without driver assistance crashing into the rear of a Tesla stopped at a traffic light or a traffic backup. Usually the driver at fault was on their phone and not paying attention. It happens over and over. If the roles were reversed and the Tesla with FSD was behind, there would have been no accident because Tesla’s FSD doesn’t drive distracted. So in what way is my crash scenario a “link” between a crash and driver-assistance technology — when the Tesla isn’t even moving?
Where did you mention that there are SIX MILLION traffic accidents in the US every year and and 1.3 million traffic deaths worldwide?
I’ve been testing the Tesla FSD beta for a year now, and used the generally released product for 3 years before that. I know it’s not perfect and left unsupervised it could cause an accident, but Tesla now requires eyes on the road enforced by a cabin camera, and hands on the wheel. Most other cars don’t have that safety feature. What I do know from my own experience is that a human driver plus FSD is far safer than either alone.
So your article said:
Scores of manufacturers have rolled out such systems in recent years, including features that let you take your hands off the steering wheel under certain conditions and that help you parallel park.
Scores? Really? A score is 20, so the plural would be 40. Are there really 40 driver assistance systems? And since the article is mainly about Tesla, you should have mentioned that Tesla doesn’t allow hands off the wheel. Later on in the article you say “[a]n advanced driver-assistance system can steer, brake and accelerate vehicles on its own.” There aren’t 40 such manufacturers with these systems.
The reader has to go pretty far into the article for the first hint of context:
But he cautioned against drawing conclusions from the data collected so far, noting that it does not take into account factors like the number of cars from each manufacturer that are on the road and equipped with these types of technologies.
Your data lacks context, confuses apples and oranges, and doesn’t define exactly what cases you’re counting. I give you points for noting the Waymo accident data, but what you failed to note was that the Waymo car was at fault in a few of those accidents — the only example you gave was when the Waymo car was not at fault.
I saw something online saying that electric vehicles consume so much energy that more than a few in a neighborhood would crash its power grid. They had a few numbers that sounded mostly right, but they lacked context. Here’s something easier to grasp.
EPA estimates for electric vehicles are based on miles driven, assuming 15,000 miles per year (that’s about double what I drive). They say my 2018 Tesla Model 3 LR RWD consumes about 26 kWh per 100 miles, or 3,900 kWh for the hypothetical 15,000 miles. The Tesla Model 3 is the most popular electric car, and most of those are more energy efficient than my earlier model, so I think the choice is reasonable. According to one industry site, an electric hot water heater uses 4,860 kWh per year, more than 15,000 miles in my car.
Context is also important. Refrigerators and hot water heaters use more electricity when we’re awake and using hot water and opening our refrigerators. That’s also where the major demand from heating and cooling of the house happens. The power company refers to these times as peak hours. My power company says peak hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. in the warmer parts of the year and 7 am to 11 am and 5 pm to 9 pm in the colder parts. People who charge their cars at home typically do so at night. My two EVs are programmed to start charging at midnight and 2am.
If every car and truck in the United States were electric, then perhaps the capacity of the power grid would need expansion, but it’s not a short term issue.
The parable tells of a man who found a treasure in a field and sold all he had to buy the field. My new Baijiali BJL-166 FM/MW/SW1-18 radio MP3 player arrived from China today. Save your money; this is no treasure.
Baijiali BJL-166 FM/MW/SW1-18 radio MP3 player
Let’s start with what I don’t like. The MW tuning step is permanently set at 9 kHz. In the daytime the radio got exactly zero MW stations. I live in a weak signal area, but even the cheapest radios usually get something. At night I could pick up MW stations but they were very noisy.
The radio displays a maximum of 4 frequency digits, rounding to 10 kHz on shortwave. I don’t know what the actual tuning step is, but it hardly matters on a radio with such poor selectivity. Even with 10 kHz display, strong stations are heard on several displayed frequencies. It’s not selective on FM either, with a strong station audible on several frequencies. The radio has no automatic band scanning or memory.
There is a raspy tone audible across the MW band up through HF, perhaps less pronounced above 15 mHz. I assume it’s poorly shielded display electronics. It’s not audible with a strong signal. It’s possible that the internal noise was covering up the weak MW stations.
It’s also an MP3 player (no WMA files). It has no earphone jack and no clock, but it does have a sleep timer.
On the good side of the ledger, it does receive lots of FM stations on the whip antenna, crisply, and its tiny speaker does a credible job on some content, but is annoying on other.
Tuning is peculiar. Although the display is digital, the radio tunes like an analog receiver with a slide rule dial. The tuning thumbwheel has resistance, like it’s geared to a pointer. The wheel rotates multiple times in a band, but has a definite physical start and stop point. While your typical DSP radio tuning dial goes around with no stops, this one has limits. If you switch bands, it matters where the knob was on the previous band. Thanks to the gearing (and the lack of selectivity), tuning is not at all ticklish. The second thumbwheel on the side acts as a shortwave bandswitch (there are 18 SW bands) and next/prior track for MP3. The radio has tuning mute, the only reason I would think it’s DSP because it otherwise tunes a lot like the Tecsun DR-920 (an analog radio with a frequency counter).
I spent a little time on shortwave (it was daytime) and picked up some stations on the whip. Shortwave works best with an external wire antenna. CHU is a particularly strong station here on 7850 and with the whip antenna I heard it on 7840, 7850 and 7860.
I thought the case was solid, and seemed to have decent quality. I think it looks good. The lettering was large and crisp, and the display large and easy to read in good light. Perhaps a parent who just wants to listen to FM would be full of praise.
The radio uses an 18650 rechargeable battery, charged with a mini USB cable (supplied). The antenna is 26.5 cm (10.5″). The radio measures 10.5 x 6.5 x 3.3 cm (extra thickness to accommodate the battery). Mine came with no box, just a one-page instruction sheet, battery, wrist strap and USB cable from AliExpress for about $17 including shipping.
One reason I’m writing this is that a Google search for EVCHE EC-2110BTS returned no hits. We can’t have that!
EVCHE EC-2110BTS AM/FM/SW radio, Bluetooth Speaker, MP3 player
I bought this AM / FM / SW / Bluetooth / MP3 player flashlight from AliExpress in hopes that the solar panel would be powerful enough to operate the radio directly, not just slowly charge the battery — and it does. In full sun the solar panel powers the radio at full volume.
Here are some of my observations:
The manual is 4 pages, most of which don’t tell you anything useful. For example, the radio has an AUX jack that’s never mentioned, nor is the solar panel. But it states twice: “Plase stop using the machine before switch on or off to the power.”
The radio is powered 5 ways: direct from solar panel, 18650 battery, 2 D cells (UM1), 110/220V AC power cord, 5V USB micro cable. A 220V power cable with a Schuko plug was included.
No unboxing video because there is no box. It’s in a shipping bag surrounded with ample bubble wrap.
It has just one SW band, 5.9-18 MHz.
The radio is big! It’s about 6 3/4″ wide, 5 1/2″ tall and 3″ thick including the folded down solar panel.
The radio arrived in good condition except that the solar panel mount was loose. I found out that the radio case underneath the mounting bracket had broken. The solar panel will have to be propped up to use.
The radio mutes while tuning on SW. I’m assuming that shortwave tuning is done in 5 kHz increments. This means that a tiny turn of the tuning dial mutes the radio, advances the frequency 5 kHz and then unmutes the radio. The result is a “chuff, chuff, chuff” sound while tuning the radio.
No earphone jack.
This sucker is loud. Most of the weight is in the 3W speaker.
The manual says not to take the radio apart, and the case is stamped with the same message. I took the radio apart (see photo following) to remove the rattling broken pieces of the solar panel mount.
The internal flashlight reflector had a big fingerprint on it. The flashlight is mediocre, and far less bright that the current breed of lights in emergency radios.
The AUX jack accepted both line and earphone level input OK.
The TF card can be at least 64G. Max not specified in the manual. MP3/WMA/WAV formats accepted.
Manual says it will operate > 300 minutes as a music player or > 500 minutes as a radio on one charge.
Bluetooth paired easily with Windows.
The tuning dial has a “scale” opening, but it it has no marking or numbers for the scale. I don’t think the designers knew what a scale is for.
It does not appear that the charging light goes off after charging is complete (at least not so far after 15 hours).
I think radio this might make sense as a kitchen radio since it can be AC plugged and the audio is quite good for music, plus you can get local radio stations during a power outage in the sunshine.
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