Attack of the Swiss Army Knife™ Radios

Posted on August 3, 2024 by Kevin

I’ve started using the phrase, Swiss Army Knife™, to describe some radios. I thought it would be worth some time talking about the concept and applying it to some examples I have. The general term refers to a useful tool that performs many functions, as do the Swiss Army Knives made by Victorinox in Switzerland (who owns the trademark).

VN16795XXL Victorinox Swiss Army Knives Swiss Champ XXL

My working definition is: a shortwave radio that has at least two distinct non-radio functions, but is not generally considered a “weather radio,” although it might have a weather band. I’ve already presented my Thunderous Clash of the Weather Radios article for weather radios. Examples of a second function might include a flashlight or a music player (Bluetooth or MP3). I saw a radio for sale once that included a bottle opener.

Top row: Evche EC-2110BTS
Bottom Row: HanRongDa HRD-757, Raddy RF75A, LiJiANi Rd239
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HanRongDa HRD-757: An Evolving Review

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Kevin

Rather than write an article and publish it after a week of fiddling and editing, I’m going to publish this one early and update it as it evolves.

I had a negative first impression of the HanRongDa HRD-757 and I posted some of my objections on the OfficialSWLChannel Facebook group. I got some pushback that I wanted to check out.

Birdies

The first challenge is that the other user didn’t find any birdies.

I didn’t go out looking for birdies, but I got a biggie on the first station in my band scan.

HanRongDa HRD-757 birdy

Testing with two other radios on the same frequency had no distortion. I sort of jumped to the conclusion that the radio is riddled with birdies without a really exhaustive test to see how many there are. The 757 reminds me of another HanRongDa radio, the HRD-701, that has similar distortion. Further testing found a couple more, but it is not “riddled” with them.

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And speaking of manuals …

Posted on July 24, 2024 by Kevin

I just got an email from XHDATA. They’ve released their long-awaited update to the D-808 Portable Digital Radio manual (direct download).

Readers may remember that I was critical of the old manual — to the point that I even wrote my own. I sent it to XHDATA and they incorporated some it in their revision (preen).

XHDATA D808 Manual 2024Download

A quick review looks very good.

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Finding radio user manuals and technical information

Posted on July 23, 2024 by Kevin

I often go searching for technical information on consumer electronics. I want to get a look at the user manual for a new radio before I buy it, or I want a searchable electronic copy. Persistent digging has led me to a website, Device.Report, with a phenomenal database of information, including FCC type certification test results, product teardown photos and user manuals.

There are a multiple ways of searching the site. I use a Google search on the model number like this:

site:device.report “HRD-701”

It returns what I want most of the time.

There is a search built in to the home page, https://device.report/, but it required the brand. There there are also index pages for many brands, including these:

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First Impressions: HanRongDa HRD-757

Posted on July 20, 2024 by Kevin

So welcome to the HanRongDa HRD-757 (aka Raddy RF757, Zhiwhis ZWS-757), what appears to be a relatively new entry in the Swiss Army Knife™ radio class (see feature list below), and my first radio with UHF coverage up to 999 MHz. It completed its FCC type acceptance testing on March 1, 2024.

HanRongDa HRD-757 (photo by author)

I got my HRD-757 from AliExpress at the Jai Ping Bo store. It cost $71.02 including sales tax and shipping to the US. It took 15 days to arrive (1 day late). It’s around $90 with a coupon on Amazon (the Raddy and ZHIWHIS logo versions). The Amazon versions have different packaging and accessories. Update 8/4/2024: the ZHIWHIS version with coupon is around $81.

Unboxing

The radio comes with:

  • Box
  • Radio
  • Radio Manual
  • App Manual
  • USB-C charging cable
  • 2500 mAh 18650 battery
HRD-757 Unboxed (photo by author)

The radio came with the battery installed and the radio key lock setting on. The correct time and date were already set, but for a 12-hour later time zone.

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Comparing radios

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Kevin

I post lots of articles comparing radios and recently I came up with a list of particular radios I’m calling my “Keepers.” I briefly thought I might compare them side by side. How many comparisons would that be? The old math major in me immediately pulled out the formula for the number of combinations of n things (in this case 17) taken r at a time (where r = 2 for side-by-side comparison).

C(n, r) = n! / ((n-r)!r!)
Thanks to Mathplanet.com for a nice picture

C(17, 2) = 163. If I throw out the less serious entries, the list becomes 12 long, and I’m still left with 66 combinations for these radios:

  1. Eton Elite Executive *
  2. HanRongDa HRD-757
  3. LiJiANi Rd239
  4. Qodosen DX-286
  5. Raddy RF75A
  6. Sangean ATS-405
  7. Sihuadon R-108
  8. Tecsun PL-330 *
  9. Tecsun PL-660 *
  10. Tecsun PL-990 *
  11. XHDATA D-109WB
  12. XHDATA D-808 *

(*) Radio has SSB

Divide and conquer

I could divide the radios into two groups: those with single sideband (5) and those without (7) and compare only within groups. Comparisons now are down to C(5,2) + C(7,2) = 31, but that wouldn’t be useful for the international shortwave broadcast enthusiast who doesn’t care about SSB.

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Keepers: The Saga Continues

Posted on July 6, 2024 by Kevin

It’s time to downsize — again. I’ve talked about having too many radios before under the topic, “Sharing the love.” Gilles Letourneau over at the OfficialSWLChannel on YouTube gets out an old radio from time to time and renews the relationship for a couple of weeks. I can see the value of that, but I have radios that really don’t aren’t worth it. It’s time to go through things and pick out what’s good. What’s not good will likely end up at the local Goodwill store or on eBay.

I visited this topic a couple of years ago in another article called “Keepers.” The original keepers list was:

  • Panasonic RF-085
  • Lextronix E1100 (rebranded Tecsun DR-920)
  • Tecsun PL-380
  • Tecsun PL-330
  • Tecsun PL-660
  • Zhiwhis ZWS-603
  • Degen DE15
  • Kaito WRX911
  • Kaito KA29

Of that list the E1100 died and was replaced with a similar Tecsun DR-920C and the PL-380 was sold in the Great Downsizing. The Tecsun PL-660 was far and away the best of show.

To be on the Keepers list, a radio has to have something special that might lead me to actually get it out and use for something, rather than just occupy shelf space.

The Continuing Keepers

  • Panasonic RF-085: Nostalgia and my only all-analog.
  • Tecsun PL-330: Great for travel and has SSB
  • Tecsun PL-660: Very good radio, and probably best SSB performance
  • Zhiwhis ZWS-603: Good speaker, mainly for its record capability
  • Degen DE15: Very compact, attractive, and has good FM performance.

I refer the reader back to my original Keepers article for descriptions of these radios and why they were original keepers.

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