That is very true! This is, relatively speaking, not a very strong signal at my location. But you have a good point, I will do a similar comparison with a much weaker signal.
Not really. Some radios like the Tecsun PL-310ET, PL-380 and PL-398 have poorly implemented AGC circuits that will distort and overload itself when strong stations are received in especially when connected to an external antenna. I have a PL-398MP that can't take strong MW/SW signals. I'd have to off tune it by 1 or 2 kHz to be able to listen to such stations. The catch is that the audio falls sharply if the station isn't tuned dead center.
@@StratmanII You make a good point here, and also about the external antenna. Some receivers don't cope very well with strong external antennas. But I have found that most of mine seem to work fairly OK with my 10 metre wire. There is one general quirk though, the PL-368, for example, works well when I add the wire, but with a wire it also picks up many mirror frequencies in the 120 metre band in particular, sometimes even in the 60 metre band. The Qodosen also has this mirror frequency quirk, but it is much less serious than on the PL-368. On the Qodosen it only happens with two or three strong frequencies here at my location. I did a scan tonight with my PL-368 and the wire, and there were many (around six, I think) mirror frequencies in the 120 metre band, 90 metre band and 60 metre band. This happens to a greater or lesser extent on all my DSP radios, always only between the 120 metre and 60 metre band. It seems to be a DSP quirk when there are very strong SW signals in the 13 to 19 metre bands.
@@swlistening Hi Andre, in my experience Tecsun's shortwave radios that use the BL-5C phone battery get these false signals, probably due to their poor image rejection capability on the lower HF frequencies. The PL-660, PL-680, PL-880, PL-990, S-8800 and H-501 fortunately don't suffer from getting ghost stations. My PL-368, PL-320 and PL-330 have the same "mirror signal" anomaly as I suspect they share a common circuit design, which incidentally is powered by the 3.7 volt BL-5C flat battery. Their AGC settings are on the other hand, fine. No different from any XHDATA radio with the same Si 473x DSP chip. I returned a brand new PL-310ET in less than a week when I found it annoying having to listen to the volume go up and down because its AGC became hyperactive in dealing with strong stations. When I bought the PL-398MP it also unfortunately behaved like the PL-310ET, but I since I got the former at a super low price, I decided to keep the radio and live with its unpredictable AGC characteristics. 🙂 Trust me bru, you can always ignore and delete ETM+ memories that register 160m and 120m band stations that aren't there. It's a mild annoyance, but having to listen to a radio programme with an improperly configured AGC totally ruining the SWL'ing experience is something else. 😥 XHDATA on the other hand, may not be known for designing good looking digital display shortwave receivers, but at least its radios don't suffer from AGC pumping issues. 📻😀
Bru, you always luck out when it comes to hunting down Radio Dengê Gel! 😀 I've never ever gotten to listen to the real station but when I hear the same Turkish patriotic songs on my radio, I knew that was the jamming broadcast from Turkey. Will I buy the Qodosen DX-286? Yes, but I figured out that I'd wait it out in case the factory has issued further firmware updates. I've gotten tired of my Sihuadon D-808, put it back into my closet and took out my least used radio - the Tecsun PL-320. It's a much cheaper version of the DX-286 and uses the Silicon Labs Si4734-A10 DSP chip, without SSB. 📻❤ I wouldn't suggest you the PL-320 unless you like its rounded edges and need a radio with a kickstand, which the PL-330 still doesn't have. Incidentally, the PL-320 is Tecsun's first model to come with the USB-C port. If you had to pick one of the two near identical receivers, the latest PL-330 would be the better choice, but only if you need SSB. 🙂
I've actually only been hearing the actual Dengê Gel over the past couple of months, before that it was always the Turkish jammer. Lately I do seem to hear Dengê Gel a lot more, also tonight on 11515 kHz, and the jammer was on 11535 kHz. I don't know what time you listen, but around 1530 UTC seems to be my lucky time these days. I think I will much rather get the PL-330 than the PL-320, just because the PL-330 has SSB also. And, as you told me before, maybe the new version has some unknown improvements, who knows... It is on my to-buy list now. It will also be interesting to compare it to the PL-368.
@@swlistening Ah, that would be 2330 hours my time when the time is 1530 UTC. I usually turn on my shortwave receivers after midnight just before I fall asleep. 😴💤 One of your subscribers also has a PL-320 and he doesn't feel the lack of SSB as a deal breaker. Tecsun introduced the PL-320 in late 2022 as a domestic China market model. It's not widely sold like the PL-330 which limited its exposure to the SWL community worldwide. I have no idea where Tecsun is taking the PL-320. It wasn't really needed in the first place and the manufacturer isn't really promoting it either. That said, I strongly feel that the aging PL-330 really needs a major refresh than just introducing the USB-C port. If the company used the PL-320's improved buttons and housing (which includes the mini kickstand), the "new" PL-330 will definitely attract more attention. I guarantee that if Tecsun sent you a PL-320 for your review (and you also get keep it) you'll find it to be more likeable than the Sihuadon R-108. 📻♥️
Well, this comparison has been pretty surprising to me because except for the final part, both receivers are sounding just about the same 😮 thr only thing the small XHDATA was worse in was its AGC. No pumping at all on Qodosen, and this is in line with my own observations of a "hand-crafted" TEF6686 😉 Maybe without the wire the difference would be more pronounced. BTW I can assure you the Erdogan Jammer was on the air at the same time yesterday on 11510 kHz with a good signal, and Denge Welat went off @1600:03z, uncovering low-power Sound of Hope on 11549.931. It remained weak but unjammed throughout my IQ recording until 16:12 UTC. Denge Gel hadn't returned anywhere (at least on 25m), while Erdogan Jammer remained on 11510. (And 11500 had another SOH, even weaker, measured 11499.976 🙂) Oh, I'd forget... In fact, I caught Erdogan Jammer on 12020 kHz too 😮 but very weakly. It was an intermodulation product (Glenn Hauser calls it a "leapfrog mix") of 11510 and 11765 Voice of Turkey in Dari & Pashto, with the difference of 255 kHz between the two frequencies, placing an image of Erdogan Jammer another 255 kHz up 🙂 Usually these intermodulations are very weak, but may be audible depending on signal strengths of base signals. And obviously, there should be two VOTs (or VOT + jammer) on one band for this to occur. André, also try checking BBC on 12095. It's via Oman, beamed to Central Asia (10deg), but it was very strong on Reunion KiwiSDRs. I was checking the BBC on several Kiwis because I noticed an ambient buzz on both sidebands on my Airspy, but much weaker in Doha, Qatar, where Oman was pretty strong. No buzz on Reunion either, but Oita, Japan had the buzz fairly, with little BBC! Then the buzz disappeared sometime around 16:00 UTC while BBC continued, unfortunately I can't tell when exactly because before that, on my IQ recording, BBC became partly obliterated by naZi ruZZian OTH radar 😡
Oh and one more observation: 11935 kHz, and the big buzz out there. It encountered a complete break from 1523:43 to 1525:50 UTC, and then from 1554:31 UTC to return at 1555:30 UTC as... a clean, albeit weak-ish signal with Quran 😳 I think I'll have to post a video & resolve this matter once & for all 😂
Hey Arnie, quite surprising performance from the little D-368 here! I should do a similar test without the wire and see. But, as some others have pointed out here as well, with stronger signals the difference between radios on very strong signals is often quite small. It's with the weaker signals where the difference becomes pronounced. I heard Denge Gel last night and the night before, on 11515 kHz, and the jammer on 11535 kHz. The day I made this video, three days ago, I only heard Denge Gel, on 11530 kHz. A lot of fun to follow these two signals around! About Yemen Radio, I also monitored them for some days now, yesterday and the day before I heard Yemen Radio, clearly. But the two days before that I heard the buzzer, and also Yemen Radio in the background. Your comment about the signal going off air and then returning clearly does seem to solve the mystery. It looks like it is a recurring transmitter problem... Or some other issue, in Saudi Arabia itself, which they are tryomg to fix. I'll keep checking that BBC signal on 12095, thanks for the tip. I did hear it last night, there was no buzz, probably similar to what you heard on the Reunion Kiwi SDR. But I will check again tonight.
@@ArnieDXer OK, so today (17 July, 15:50) the big buzz is back! And Yemen Radio in the background. Denge Gel is on 11540 today, the Turkish jammer on 11545.
@@swlistening thank you very much for checking these out 😃 now Denge Gel & Erdogan Jammer have finally collided 😂 and yesterday there was no Buzz on 11935, at least before 16:00z. Today I couldn't check :( thanks again :)
Same goes for me André. I dig it out from its drawer from time to time to recharge its battery and play with it a bit. It's a great little radio that gives a lot for little. Its very decent speaker helps a lot bringing clarity in audio too. This is the weak point of its sibling the D-219 IMO. Do you find it more sensitive than the D-219? I haven't made any real comparison. There was a promotion here on Amazon FR that put the D-368 cheaper than the D-328! I almost bought a second one but I resisted this time 😅
Hi Alain, I haven't actually done a real comparison between the D-219 and the D-368 yet, it is something I still want to do. I have a feeling they will be very similar. But the speaker on the D-368 is definitely miles ahead of the speaker on the D-219. The D-368 sounds much clearer, which makes weak signals sound better on the D-368. I am actually surprised at how little noise I hear on the D-368. I want to do a comparison between all my XHDATA radios at some point, I think that will be quite interesting.
André, I have an XHDATA D-219 and a D-109. After seeing your videos I've been leaning toward the Qodosen DX-286. Was about ready to get one until this video, now I'm thinking maybe i should get the XHDATA D-368. Well, I think the Qodosen actually has a lot of other advantages. I think I'll stick with it.
