Thanks for the video review comparing the new XHDATA D-219 with the Tecsun R9012! I agree with you, Andre, that the XHDATA D-219 seems to be more sensitive in SW reception vs. the Tecsun R9012. Thank you...
It seems the XHData D-219 is the winner, so I bought one based on this and other reviews. I don't 'need' another radio but I couldn't resist for AU$20 incl shipping! It has just arrived, can't wait to try it out after dark tonight. Thanks for your videos!
Very interesting comparison, thanks. I do agree that my D-219 generally outperforms my R-2019 and R-909 except when in areas with saturated airwaves (FM transmitters around) and a lot of RFI. There, the D-219 tends to be overloaded with FM breakthrough and become almost deaf. That's the drawback of its extra sensitivity, I guess. I've even taken advantage of Amazon Prime Days to get myself a second at a bargain price (for here, at least) that I intend to leave at the family house in Brittany 😁 I'm sure that it will shine there.
I'm just old enough to still say the analogue Tecsun is a bit better. Just a bit. The D-219 is a great radio. I think the crappy customer service I'm getting from XHData is clouding my opinion. I would contend that it's the hedonic treadmill everyone is on that makes us 'think' the D-219 is better. I'll let everyone Google that one. It's deep but so very applicable.
Thanks for your opinion! But I'm not so sure, I really think the D-219 sounds much better than the R9012, clearer, locks onto the signals better, and it seems quite a bit more sensitive. Also, half the price, makes functional SW DXing accessible to so many more people. If I had to choose between these two only I would not hesitate to choose the D-219. I do, however, like analogue radios a lot and I still very much want to buy a Tecsun R9700DX some day!
@@swlistening For the price just own both. LOL That solves it. What one can't do the other can and vice versa. I wonder how the D-219 fares with the R-909 and R-911. If I remember years back I had the R-911 just slightly better than the R-9012 yet they are all so close. But different propogation could throw that list a curve on any day just slightly. Anyway..... oh lock into a 9700dx you won't be disappointed.
The XHData performed very well, I think the sound from the speaker appears to reduce some of the background static which would help clear up the signal a little more.
Nearly all the Tecsun radios use antiquated speaker technology very low volume - can barely hear anything when outside & tinnie sound. They can easily use up to date louder speakers with better midtones. The one single reason I don't but the Tecsuns is their very poor audio quality except for the R 9700DX which is great.
Very true about the Tecsun speakers. But I suppose, for voice listening on SW they work OK. My PL-368, for example, is actually quite clear when listening to voices. There are a couple of Tecsun radios with great speakers, the ICR-110 and the PL-880 use the same passive radiator speaker system. I have the ICR-110 and the sound is very good, I use it often to listen to music.
good morning, thank you very much for this video and other videos you uploaded, very helpful indeed, i own xhdata d 219 and i am amazed by how it performs, i also have the tecsun r9700dx, i know that you can not compare apples and oranges, but it seems that there are times this little radio out performs the tecsun r9700dx, considering the lenght of its whip antenna compared to much longer antenna of the tecsun, though its a good radio likewise. i am about to buy the r9012, because of its tunning knob, i am now having second thoughts after watching your video, i am satisfied with my xhdata.. kudos from the far east, the philippines..God bless you sir and maraming salamat po...(or thank you very much in our dialect) mabuhay! (long live)..
Thank you for your comment. I actually just uploaded a new video where I compared the D-219 to the D-109 and the D-808 on a weak Voice of Turkey signal. The D-219 easily matched the other two radios. It is an amazingly good radio at such a low price! The R9700DX that you have is one of the radios I still want, it looks like a really good radio to me. My honest opinion, if you have the D-219 and the R9700DX, I don't think you need the R9012. It is a nice radio, but the other two are way better. Even though I don't have the R9700DX I have seen enough and read enough about it to know that it far outperforms the R9012.
@@swlistening Onlangs wandelde ik in de polder langsheen de rivier Schelde, net ten zuiden van Antwerpen en kon ik Radio New Zealand ongestoord Q5 ontvangen, op ik denk 7.390 khz met de XHDATA D-808 in de hand en de telescoopantenne tegen mijn lichaam. Een afstand van toch zo'n 18.000 km short path of 22.000 km long path, whatever it was.
@@rvdb8876 Dit is ongelooflike ontvangs! Ek probeer al lankal om Radio New Zealand op te vang, maar sover was ek nog nie gelukkig nie. As dit wel moontlik is om die sein in België op te vang met net die teleskoopantenna, dan glo ek dat ek ook eendag daardie sein hier in Suid-Afrika sal kan opvang. Dankie vir jou kommentaar hieroor!
@@swlistening The WRX911 was a total failure. Almost no MW and zero shortwave reception. I tried everything with no success. I've been a dxer for more than 50 years. Anyway, the D219 is really good and I'll be doing some late night MW dxing with that soon.
@@richardmerriam7044 Did you try the WRX911 this weekend? If you did try it this weekend, the poor performance is most certainly because of the geomagnetic storms we have been experiencing. Complete radio blackouts in many places. Looks like propagation will improve by Tuesday.
I'm curious as to whether the D219 is improved compared to XHData's older radios like the D328 that I already have so at the price I've ordered one to make the comparison.
I don't have a D-328 to compare with, so it's hard for me to say. But the D-219 is definitely a very good radio, especially on SW. I am amazed at how sensitive it is, and also at the quality of reception.
@@swlistening True. No doubt about that. I am doing research on the last real analogue radio on the market. I know all of it now is DSP. I need a free dial. DSP Radios mostly don't pick up a signal well. I might as well find a better, affordable DSP receiver, such as the D219. I am considering a few options, but I am ready to do something about it.
@@FamtechVideos You will see there are still analogue radios around. Tecsun has a few analogue radios, the R9012, the R909, and also the R9700DX. Retekess also has some, and the Tivoli I bought the other day is also analogue, but only FM and MW on that one.
Which one of these deal better with Radio signal interference, electrical noise from appliances and qrm? Asking since the biggest limiter in my place is this noise and a long wire also doesn't helpbor makes things worse. Thanks.
My R9012 is quite noisy, it seems to pick up a lot of interference. It might just be mine, I am not sure if they all behave like that. So in my experience the D-219 is certainly a bit better at dealing with interference. But if you really have a lot of electrical interference in your place, no radio will really be able to deal with that fully, except more expensive sets with noise blankers. Or try to switch off all your electrical appliances while DXing. I always switch of the noisiest equipment in my house. Chargers are a real culprit, if a laptop or phone is charging somewhere nearby, the noise will be overwhelming. LED lights also.
Hi Andre, sorry for a silly question, but... can you tune above 7350 kHz on the Tecsun? 😂 I mean... I love the folklore of these analogue radio dials, how one radio's bands cover not only a full broadcast band but also way outside, while the other seems to stop mid-band... or does it? OTOH, radio can't be simpler to operate than that 👍
Arnie, yes, it does go higher than the stated 7300 kHz range on the back of the radio. For example, just now I managed to pick up VOA in Tibetan on 7470 kHz, at 16:20 UTC, and BBC on 7445 kHz.
I was looking for a 1:1 comparison between the D-219 and a high end one like XHDATA d-808 or tecsun pl 880 or pl 990x and there's not much content on such a comparison. Especially after a reddit claimed to like this $10 radio more than his $240 pl 990x. His words: "I have a pl-990x and i use the xhdata d-219 so much that the pl is up for sale on Craigslist I added a connector for an external antenna and a li-ion battery bank (the polarity for the external power supply is wrong on the radio, but that's the only issue I could find with it)"
Thank you for your comment and question, I agree with him that the D-219 is a really great radio, although I think some of the more expensive radios do offer you many useful features, which the D-219 does not have. One thing that I really miss on the D-219 is a digital frequency display. I have actually done many comparison videos of the D-219 to more expensive and more sophisticated receivers, even comparing it to my Kenwood R1000. It has always performed well. Here are some of the videos, if you want to watch them: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--ba7gWlR-Fs.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0ZJOpRkWIuw.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-M74ToBW4Uaw.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Jqu-YyK1FN4.html
@@swlistening thanks, will have a look at them. For me there is something about analog tuning that gives me a sense of convenience and satisfaction. I can quickly move across the whole band very fast, and when you are near your meter band, just move slowly. I found it very annoying and restricting in the d808 that I cannot maneuver quickly across the band. I had the d808 for a week, will get it sometime later. But even if I have a digital tuning I don't think it will give the same convenience of analog tuning. This could have been less of a problem if the d808 has a clever way if switching memories. Like having the up down buttons to also switch channels instead of frequency. Instead those 2 up down buttons do only the same task as the 2 knobs - change frequency. This is really dumb.
@@anulearntech I'm with you on the ease of scanning through bands in an analogue way. I actually do that often before I start a DXing session, I will use one of my small adios like the D-219 to just quickly scan through all the bands, then I know what conditions are like, and which bands seem to be best at the time. It is very convenient indeed!
Hey André, season's greetings. Great review up there. Loved both these Radios. Received Tecsun 9012 today from Hong Kong this afternoon here in my QTH, India. Was testing it ever since. Loved everything about this good old day analog receiver. But I came across one issue in FM. The tuned stations are showing 10-12 mhz away in front in the tuning scale. Some minor frequencies fluctuations here and there in MW and SW but can be managed. I was definitely not expecting this flaw with Tecsun and raised my issue to the seller. Should I be worried while using this unit on a longer run if seller refuses the return or replacement?
Hi there Harshit, thank you for your comment! I almost never use mine for FM, so I am not sure if the frequency fluctuations on FM are normal. On MW and SW they are quite normal, on these small analogue receivers the display is almost always a bit off, it is never precise. So I don't think you need to worry about that. You will get used to the fluctuations over time and then you can just compensate for the fluctuations in your mind while tuning, by adding or deducting the fluctuating value.
@@swlistening Greetings André, Thank you for your kind reply. Upon careful calibrations and comparing the exact frequency with my Tecsun PL-380, I found that the difference of frequency in FM Band in my R-9012 showed up within 3.5 mHz. I am sorry I miscalculated the same in my previous comment. For sure it looked a huge difference in the frequency chart of this radio but it is something, I think I can live with. Enjoy your trip to Germany. Thanks again. 73! 🙏
I will do an AM comparison of these two radios also. A good radio for AM is the Tecsun ICR-110, it is one of my favourites, costs about $31 from anon.co.
I have the R9012 and in comparoson to the XHDATA featured here it receives nothing and from New Delhi , Infia where I live on SW it receives all the Chinese radio stations best and once one night it even received Radio China loud and vlear !!! The R9012 in my opinion is a great Chinese propaganda receiver 😀
Voice of America ,BBC and all Western countries ought to counter the Chinese by first of all bringing bavk to life their SW services to the world and develop and indtall transmitters stronger than that of the Chinese . The Chinese also resort to jamming of SW signals of other countries and the U.S./ European countries must drown the Chinese SW signals by transmitting their own very very strong and powerful signals. The Chinese are behaving like Radio Moscow of the Cold War era.
@@niladrimukherjee2098 I don't actually know of any SW radios still made in Europe. Most of the well-known ones come from China now, Tecsun and XHDATA, for example. Then there is Sangean from Taiwan, as well as Eton and CCrane from the United States (but made in China). Those are the main ones that I know of. Of course, many other brands also come from China, like Retekess and Prunus.
Are people really listening to these inaudible shortwave radios in a time where everything can be accessed in better audio quality straight from your phone ?
They most certainly do! It's all about the magic of radio waves travelling all around the world. Quite unlike the digital world. It's actually a bit of an escape from the always-on digital world.
I forgot to mention, internet access is certainly not universal. Many millions of people still have poor or no access, or cannot afford internet access. For them, SW radio is a reliable and inexpensive way to access news and information about the world. SW radio also bypasses government censors. SW radio will still work when there is some kind of major power blackout, when all other devices may fail due to lack of power.
@@swlistening and to add to that, when electric goes down, your portable battery powered shortwave radio is the way to go. It will be the only thing that will work. Oh, and if that internet goes out, you’ll still have information and entertainment. There was life before the internet. Too many people take a simplistic approach to radio and internet use. Or in simple terms “turn your radio on!” It’s true. We Americans are indeed spoiled by our technology and smartphones. I bet most Americans probably don’t even read newspaper anymore. (No offense intended because most media does really suck).
@@RJDA.Dakota I really like the simplicity of radio. And, yes, SW is just perfect when there is no power and other devices fail. You will still know what is going on in the world.
