My pet peeve about “unboxing” videos is that invariably the item being unboxed was already unboxed before the video, and often not even in the box. This isn’t a video, but this series of photos is authentic, and taken as the radio was being unboxed.
Unboxing the ZHIWHIS ZWS-306 Radio
The radio comes with:
ZWS-306 radio
Plush carry pouch
14-page instruction sheet
Audio cable
USB cable
BL-5C rechargeable battery
The radio covers AM/FM and shortwave between 4.75 and 21.85 MHz.
My first reaction was that the radio was broken because every radio I’ve ever had with a digital display displays a clock after batteries are inserted, but not this one — it doesn’t have a clock. After I remembered that I just pressed the Power button. It didn’t come on. Rather than a separate lock button, this radio requires a long press to turn it on and off. Once I figured that out, the bright green display welcomed me (it actually says “welcome”).
This is my first radio with a menu interface. I was able to tune stations without consulting the instructions, but I will definitely need to read them to get much farther.
This is my first use of the WordPress gallery feature.
I’m completely recycling my shortwave radio inventory, selling mostly, but I bought a couple of new ones to check out.
One new one I ordered this morning was an XHDATA D-808. It’s feature rich, combining SSB with Air band and RDS. One expects a feature set like that to cost at least $80, and I wouldn’t have bought at that price, but AliExpress offered it for half that:
AliExpress listing for XHDATA D-808 radio
In the end, the order totaled $39.36 including shipping.
Just for grins, I checked eBay to see if I could have gotten a better deal. Apparently not. Here’s one offer:
eBay listing for XHDATA D-808 radio
I wondered how that “GREAT PRICE” came about; eBay says:
A Great Price badge helps eBay shoppers quickly and easily discover high quality inventory at highly competitive prices. When a Great Price badge appears with your qualified listing, your item will get buyers’ attention because they know they’ve found a great product at a great price.
There were 2 offers on eBay at that price with the “GREAT PRICE” logo, and as far as eBay is concerned, that is a great price. There were a total of 36 listings for the radio on eBay, and including shipping that $100.98 is the lowest price, but there were many much higher than that, topping off at $285!
A little reading finds that this is not a new radio, but one from late 2017, shipped to the US for a short time, but then suddenly not available here. You can read about that at the SWLing site. There are also reviews of the radio at eHam, whose readers give it between 1 and 5 stars. One big negative they report is a poor memory management system, but I rarely use that feature.
So I’m either getting a radio at an extraordinary price, or ripped off.
Update:
Well, I guess I’m sort of ripped off.
AliExpress listing for XHDATA D-808 radio
Update 2
That last was just too good to be pass up, so I ordered 2 of them to sell on eBay. As I taught my children, it it sounds too good to be true, then it’s probably not true. Both Ali Express sellers failed to ship the radios and I got refunds instead. $100.98 is more than I want to pay for a radio that’s not especially better than what I already have, so I’ll just do without.
The Kchibo KK-9615 is a Chinese AM/FM/Shortwave shirt-pocket radio from a decade or so ago. It has analog tuning and a digital display with clock and alarm.
I know of no English-language manual for the Kchibo KK-9615, but through trial and error I discovered how it works. Below is a labeled photo.
Kchibo KK-9615 Radio with Labeled Buttons
Radio operation
The power switch is on the side of the radio, lower right. The tuning knob is on the side of the radio, upper right. The volume control is on the side of the radio, upper left. To tune an FM station, flip the power switch downward, extend the antenna, press the FM button (see photo), and tune the radio with the tuning knob. The large display shows “FM” and the frequency below. To tune MW (AM) press the MW/SW button and set the band selection (top of radio) to MW. The display shows “MW.” To tune shortwave, again press the MW/SW switch and use the band selector to pick the desired shortwave band; the display shows “SW.”
Bandswitch
Alarm On/Off/View
With the radio on or off, press the Alarm Off/on button to turn the alarm on or off. A clock icon will display on the radio screen to indicate when it’s set. To display the alarm time, press the View Alarm button.
Time/Alarm setting
To set the clock or the alarm time, first turn the radio off. For the clock, press and hold the Time 1 button while pressing the Time 2 button repeatedly to set the hour. Press and hold the Time 2 button while repeatedly pressing the Time 3 button to set the clock minutes. To set the Alarm time, press and hold the View Alarm button while repeatedly pressing the Time 1 button to set alarm hour. Press and hold the View Alarm button while repeatedly pressing the Time 3 button to set the alarm minutes.
Using the Radio
The most noticeable thing about the radio is how loud it is, especially for its size. The size is quite small; I measured 113 x 72 x 21 mm. I found reception to be good for a cheap pocket radio. Here is the frequency coverage:
I’ve been interested in shortwave radio since I was a teenager, and over the decades I’ve owned quite a few shortwave radios. Now it’s time to downsize and I’ve been selling radios on eBay right and left, 61 so far. As the inventory dwindles, it’s time to decide what to keep.
Some I want to keep for sentimental value and some to use. The first shortwave radio I had was in the 1960’s in high school, a Nanaola Model 10NT504. That radio is long gone, but I found a photo of one online:
Nanaola 10NT504 Shortwave Radio
It had MW, longwave and 3 shortwave bands. The two features I fondly remember were the dial light button and the concentric tuning control with the outside control knob for coarse tuning and the central knob for fine tuning. It worked quite well.
My next radio was a Lafayette KT-340, a multi-band shortwave radio that I built from a kit. This is what it looked like:
Lafayette KT-340 – Photo from Rigreference.com
Here’s a photo from 1967 of me with both of these radios.
Photo of my radio equipment in 1967
A number of other radios have come and gone including a RadioShack DX-60, DX-300 and DX-400 that I very much enjoyed at the time, but back to the question of what to hang onto from the existing accumulation.
I haven’t bought a radio in quite a while, but the new Tecsun PL-330 seemed quite capable, so I used the proceeds from selling off older radios on eBay to buy a new PL-330 (with firmware version 3306). I was primarily looking for an all-purpose model with emphasis on travel.
The PL-330 invites comparison with the earlier PL-380, both at similar price points and size, so I dug out my old A/B switch, plugged in the headphones and compared reception of CHU on 3300 kHz. I could not detect any difference in reception between the two radios — I thought the switch was broken. The switch was fine; the radios were just that close.
Tecsun PL-330, PL-380, PL-660
Note: the only manual that came with my PL-380 was in Chinese, so I found one online and have included it here. The others came with English-language manuals.
Size matters:
For travel purposes, size and weight are concerns. There’s a big difference. (Specifications from the manuals, weight with battery and case measured.)
PL-330 – 130 x 80 x 26 mm – 210g (238g with case and battery)
PL-380 – 135 x 86 x 26 mm – 200g (324 with case and batteries)
PL-660 – 187 x 114 x 33 mm – 470g (649 with case and batteries)
The PL-660 with case and batteries weighs more than the other two radios combined! The manual is just wrong on the depth measurement. The PL-330 is 24mm deep and the PL-380 is 29mm (rounded down). Part of the difference in depth is that the PL-380 has a kickstand structure on the back that adds to the thickness, but even without the kickstand, the PL-380 is noticeably thicker.
Batteries
Part of the weight difference comes from the batteries (my measurements used eneloop brand rechargeable batteries). The PL-660 uses 4 AA batteries; the PL-380 uses three AA batteries and the PL-330 uses one BL-5C cell phone battery (included), available on eBay for under $5 with free shipping.
Both the PL-330 and PL-380 can be charged in the radio by connecting a 5V DC source. The PL-380 uses a mini USB connector and the PL-330 a micro USB connector (in the models I have). The PL-660 requires a 6V external supply to charge the batteries.
Each radio has a setting to enable internal charging and to change the battery charge status indictor to take into account the lower voltage of rechargeable batteries.
Various features
The PL-380 seems to be unique among the three in having a thermometer. Use the “Display” mode button to switch between what’s displayed in the upper right corner of the screen. A long press of the “3” key with the radio OFF switches between 9 kHz and 10 kHz steps on the AM band and at the same time switches the temperature display from C to F.
The PL-380 and PL-660 have kickstands but the PL-33o does not. The PL-660 has an aircraft band but the other two do not. The PL-330 and PL-660 have external antenna connectors, but the PL-380 does not. A secret long-press (“3” with the radio ON) switches the PL-330 to switch AM/LW reception from the internal ferrite antenna to the external antenna jack. For more hidden features, visit the SWLing site.
The PL-330 can tune in 5 kHz or 1 kHz steps on shortwave, but in addition can be set to tune to a precision of just 10 Hz. This is used for SSB and SYNC tuning.
The PL-330 and PL 380 each have 27 buttons and 2 knobs, albeit not exactly the same ones. The PL-660 forges ahead with 28 buttons, 2 switches and 3 knobs. The two switches are for features lacking in the other radios, a DX/Normal/Local switch and a tone switch.
Sensitivity specifications are identical for each radio except for longwave where the PL-660 is rated at 5 mV/m compared to 10 mV/m for the other two.
Memories
All three radios have better memory than I do, organized in different ways:
PL-330. 850 memories, 100 LW, 150 MW, 300 SW, 100 AM, 100 SSB, 100 SYNC. In addition there is a separate memory set for the Enhanced Tuning Mode (ETM+) that stores stations found by automatic scanning, organized by band and for some bands, by time of day. For shortwave, there is a separate bank of memories for each hour of the day, and for AM there are 6 segments of time with their own memory bank. FM has only one bank. The user can also store individual stations manually. There is a total of 21 banks of ETM+ memory, but the number in each bank is not specified in the manual.
The PL-660 has an incredible 2000 memories. It has an Easy Tuning Mode (ETM) that can store 100 FM/AM/LW/Air stations each, 200 shortwave stations and 200 SSB frequencies. On top of that there are an additional 1200 memories organized in 12 pages of 100 memories each. It also has manual storing.
The PL-380 has a pathetic (just joking) 550 memories, 100 each for AM/FM/LW and 250 for SW. It also can scan and automatically store stations.
Frequency coverage
PL-330
LW 153-512 kHz
MW 520-1710 / 522-1620 kHz
SW 1711-29999 kHz
FM 64-108 / 76-108 / 88-108 MHz (depending on region; mine goes 87-108)
PL-380
LW 153-513 kHz
MW 520-1710 / 522-1620 kHz
SW 2300-21950
FM 87-108 / 64-108 / 75-108 MHz (depending on region; mine goes 87-108)
PL-660
LW 100-519 kHz
MW 520-1710 / 522-1620 kHz
SW 1711-29999 kHz
FM 76-108 / 87 MHz-108 MHz (depending on region; mine goes 87-108)
Air 118-137 MHz
Single sideband (SSB)
Only the PL-330 and PL-660 support SSB transmissions. The PL-660 uses a more traditional approach. One tunes the station and then uses a separate SSB BFO (beat frequency oscillator) control to zero in on the setting that generates the missing sideband. The PL-330 simply tunes the station by frequency and nails the reception. It is possible for the station or the radio to be slightly off frequency and for that the turning step can be set for 10 Hz to get it precisely, although this is usually not needed.
The two SSB radios also have synchronous detection, a technique where only one sideband is received and the other excluded and regenerated in the radio. This can perform miracles in cases of selective fading, and sometimes remove interference.
Picking
Up until now, my go to radio for home use was the PL-660 and for traveling the PL-380. I prefer the PL-660 overall because of the lack of chuffing, the “chuff, chuff, chuff” sound heard when tuning. It’s annoying. The PL-660 tuning dial turns smoothly, while on the other radios there is a detent for each position that can be felt (more so on the PL-380 than the PL-330). At this point I don’t see any need to keep the PL-380 and I’ll probably sell it. [Update: I sold it.]
I’ve driven every incarnation of Tesla’s Autopilot system, from the Autopilot Convenience Feature using the Mobileye chip, to Enhanced Autopilot using TeslaVision and the NVidia computer, to the FSD computer and Tesla’s limited distribution Full Self-Driving Beta 10.10.2. I have some basis for an informed opinion.
Autonomous driving has two parts: building a computer model of the roadway surrounding the car, and deciding how to drive on it.
Both Tesla and Waymo (Google’s autonomous ride-sharing project) use artificial neural networks to map sensor data into a model of the car, the roadway and objects on the road. They both use expert-written computer code to tell the car what to do, and they are both trying to increase the role of machine learning and reduce the amount of computer control code. Here is a diagram from a Waymo presentation showing the overlap (ML is Machine Learning):
Neither Tesla nor Waymo to my knowledge have disclosed how big each piece is, but Musk (in the interview below) indicated that a significant shift will occur towards the ML side in Version 11 of their FSD that’s in alpha test now, with a possible release date of February 2022 missed.
But Musk says that the driving rules are the easy part; vision is the hard problem. Waymo simplifies the problem with specially-prepared high-definition maps. The car already knows every curb and every driveway before it starts. (Preparing those maps will delay deployment by Waymo to new locations.)
Vision is the hard part, but look at where Tesla was as of version 10 of its FSD Beta:
It sees cars, trash cans, motorcycles, pedestrians, stop signs, speed limit signs, lane lines, mile markers, turn lane markings, traffic lights and even dogs.
It’s easy for me to understand why Waymo uses high-definition maps when I drive and notice all the weird stuff in the real world — roads that are really parking lots, and nonstandard intersections. I run across things that I can’t visually figure out at night.
There is a very curious thing about Republican claims of a stolen election in 2020: they never say who personally did it. One guy with Dominion Voting Systems supposedly said something, and one low-level election worker in Georgia is getting death threats, but this massive conspiracy that supposedly happened in many states about Venezuelan voting software, supercomputers in Germany or under the South Pole, and trucks of Chinese-made fake ballots magically appearing under a table or whatever else remain vague. They fish for “anomalies” but are clueless how they could have actually happened. They don’t name names.
Things don’t happen unless someone made them happen and that is the fatal flaw in the Trumpian version of 2020. They say things happened, but nobody did it.
The conspiracists did name some companies, companies that are suing for billions of dollars in damages for defamation. That’s why the conspiracies have no names attached because the moment they name names, those falsely accused of crimes can sue in court to clear their names and recover damages — big damages.
Always be wary of a conspiracy claim that names no one.
Update
Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million in April of 2023. More lawsuits on the docket. An arbitration panel is requiring Mike Lindell to pay $5 million to a guy who accepted Lindell’s “prove me wrong” challenge, and showed that his data was garbage, not even related to the election.
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