Great DXing on the Qodosen SR-286: ORTM Radio Mali, KNLS Alaska, WMV Wiluna, EWTN

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I had a very fruitful DXing session on my Qodosen SR-286 last night, 24 February 2024. Some entirely new catches and some nice and improved catches of stations that I have caught before.
A strange catch here is WMV Wiluna, the Australian maritime weather service from Western Australia, on 6230 kHz. It is transmitted in USB mode, but received clearly and fully understandably here. I also heard the teletype signal from the US Airforce Base in Maryland on 12015 kHz.
I heard some talking on the Radio New Zealand frequency, 11725 kHz, very weak, but the first time ever that I have heard anything on this frequency. Also a nice and relatively clear catch of ORTM Radio Mali on 9635 kHz, an extremely rare catch for me. It comes from a 50 kW transmitter in Bamako. Another rare catch for me is EWTN Catholic Radio on 12050 kHz from Alabama in the United States.
The three Voice of Vietnam transmissions on 11885 kHz are all targeted at Europe, but received nicely in South Africa. You can also hear HCJB Radio Akhbar Mufriha on 7300 kHz, a station that transmits for only 15 minutes at a time, to Morocco and the Sahara.
This video shows some highlights of the DXing session, mostly I don't show the very strong and usual signals, this is more about unusual and rarer catches for me, here at my location in Johannesburg, South Africa. I do show NHK on 11910 kHz, usually nice and strong at my location, so that you can also hear what stronger signals sound like on the Qodosen.
All received with a 10 metre (27 feet) wire, attached to the whip antenna and stretched outside.
#shortwave #radio #tef6686
00:00 Fruitful DXing session
01:56 KNLS from Anchor Point, Alaska (infrequent catch)
04:20 ORTM Radio Mali, from Bamako (very rare catch)
06:41 Weak Radio New Zealand International (new catch)
06:55 Possibly World Music Radio, extremely weak (new catch)
07:15 Radio Free North Korea from Uzbekistan (new frequency catch)
08:52 Voice of Vietnam in French
10:18 HCJB Akhbar Mufriha, from Woofferton (rare catch)
11:55 Voice of Vietnam in Spanish
13:21 NHK from Yamata, Japan
14:07 Radio Marti from Greenville, NC
14:57 US Navy from AFB, Maryland
15:09 EWTN from Alabama (rare catch)
16:16 WWCR from Nashville, Tenessee (new frequency catch)
16:27 VOV English sing-on and jingles
17:22 VMW Wiluna from Australia, 6230 kHz (weird catch)
19:50 Bangkok Volmet 6676 kHz

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26 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 84

@Funk-DX 5 месяцев назад

dear Andre, the numbers of thumbs up for your video goes up and I am thankful for your videos about the Qodosen Rx. Best wishes from Klaus

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Thank you Klaus!

@Kw1161 5 месяцев назад

Thanks Andre for your bandscan video of the QSR286. The “Q” is very sensitive to SW. which is a good thing in my radio desert…😊! I believe you were able to demodulate the Australian Volmet USB signal because the background music station was mixing with the Volmet’s like a BFO generator in a SSB capable receiver. That is why the other one didn’t sound good. I saw a video elsewhere on RU-vid where a ham used his RF Signal generator to be as a BFO on his equivalent of my ZHIWHIS A320…which is good if you have one..😮! Radio New Zealand RNZ is a regular catch at my QTH with 11725KHZ a usual signal at my QTH 17675 and 13755KHZ my nighttime catches. Their website has the frequency lineup on the “How to listen website “ Finally, 15770 KHZ is WRMI regular frequency that is usually beamed North and South maybe you will hear it now we are in a high solar index. Well 73!

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Thank you, and thank you for the explanation about VMW, now I understand what happened there. About WRMI, I have picked up some of their transmissions that are kind of aimed in my direction, there is one programme called WRMI Radio Africa on 15770 kHz, which I have caught before, here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-12TgWDed9fI.html Once, early in the morning, I also picked up Radio Prague on a WRMI frequency, 9955 kHz, but it was very weak: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vneh1nRHmbM.html In general, the WRMI transmissions remain quite elusive here at my location. Just like Radio New Zealand. I am jealous of the places where people seem to pick it up all the time!

@StratmanII 5 месяцев назад

@@swlisteningAndre: "I am jealous of the places where people seem to pick it up all the time!" Me: "Hold my iced rooibos tea". 🍺

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

@@StratmanII 🤣

@canyondan 5 месяцев назад

What a wonderful DXing session my friend. Thank you for sharing.

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Glad you enjoyed it, thank you Dan!

@migsvensurfing6310 5 месяцев назад

Nice cathes.

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Thank you!

@F4LDT-Alain 5 месяцев назад

What a great sample of catches. Geez André, you'll end up making me order this thing despite what I wrote earlier 😆 I'm fighting a serious itch to grab my credit card 😅If it were for around 100$/€, it'd probably be ordered already. Only the steep price is holding me back...

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Thanks Alain. I think, seeing that there seems to be a bit of a shortage of these TEF6686 chips, it might be time to grab that credit card :-) I am actually seriously considering getting a second one, as a spare. But, on the other hand, maybe there will be a more advanced version of the TEF6686 chip soon. It might be worth waiting for newer radios with newer versions of the chip...

@StratmanII 5 месяцев назад

@@swlistening Andre, if I were you I'd wait until not only the prices stabilize but in case Qodosen releases an improved successor to this inaugural model. Maybe with SSB capability and some bugs from the first generation one ironed out too. The TEF 6686 is one of NXP Semiconductors' proverbial cash cows. 🐮💰 Unless the Dutch company officially announces any shortage of supply or the discontinuation of the 668x series, treat any Internet rumor as one. At the peak of the Covid-19 season, worldwide electronic chip shortages had once affected Skyworks' supply of Si 4735-A10 DSPs that caused Tecsun to temporarily halt the manufacture of their popular PL-330 receiver. Production has since returned to its original capacity and Tecsun has since resumed making the PL-330. Chip shortages is one thing, discontinuing a best selling chip is a completely different issue altogether. Semiconductor companies like Skyworks and NXP aren't competitive like Intel and AMD. In the world of PCs where end users (especially gamers) are willing to upgrade their CPUs once every two years, no one bothers to know if their Tesla, BMW or Mercedes Benz' car audio player has a MSI001, ESP32, Si 4734 or TEF 6686 radio-on-a-chip in it. 😊 Consumers don't treat their in car radio receivers like laptops, gaming PCs or smartphones. This is why audio chip makers don't really bother to upgrade their semiconductor products for decades. I don't see a compelling reason for NXP Semiconductors to discontinue the TEF 668x DSPs unless they have a better replacement in the pipeline. 📻🙂

@swlistening 4 месяца назад

@@StratmanII What you say makes a lot of sense, but I think there is so much hype now that people just want to get these TEF6686 radios while they can, even if they are expensive. That's kind of how I feel also, there is always this little bit of fear that the chips might run out and not be made again. Even if that happens, I guess there will just be a new version, or a better version. Or, more likely, they will never run out, as you say 🙂 It's probably the sensible thing to wait a while. I think you are hitting the nail on the head when you say the rumours of shortages are just that, rumours.

@arcticradio 5 месяцев назад

Great catches! This is shaping up to be a great portable radio. Good you finally heard RNZ it knocks the door down here at +20db so it’s a bit like ‘yeah easy catch’ 😆 You can hear it indoors on a whip!

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Thanks Matt, it certainly is shaping up to be a great radio. It's only a very poor catch of RNZ, but at least something, and at least now I know it does reach South Africa. With a better antenna or on a really good day for propagation I might get a better catch. For me NHK Japan would be this "yeah, easy catch" :-) Yamata, Japan, is very distant, but this signal is always there, often even clearer than in this video. How is it in Finland?

@arcticradio 5 месяцев назад

@@swlistening I’ll have to check it out, what frequency do you catch it on?

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

@@arcticradio @MattinLapland They use quite a number of frequencies, right now 9440 and 11800. From 17:00 to 19:00 UTC.

@arcticradio 5 месяцев назад

@@swlistening ok I’ll drag the Kenwood out to the cabin. I notice you got WMR World Music Radio…..I heard this station on MW but not sure where it comes from. I think it was 930 kHz I heard it.

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

@@arcticradio Mine was really just the slightest possibility of a signal there, no real ID and not intelligible. But another one that I will keep chasing.

@ArnieDXer 5 месяцев назад

Great catches Andre! And you did it! You heard New Zealand! I told you 😅 It really seems like Qodosen is EXTREMELY sensitive on SW. Man, I think I need more comparisons of the SR-286 with other portables though 😂 I know you did make a few but I'm really wondering if the TEF6686 chip is really filtering out some types of noise (particularly impulse noise)? 🤔 And yes, it really cries for SSB capability. I think we all wait for a TEF radio that can demodulate SSB. Guess it's not natively supported on the chip, and it would require some separate firmware, just like the XHDATA D-808 has. VMW and US Navy RTTY had demodulated clearly to you only because there were AM broadcasts on the same frequencies, putting a carrier conveniently. Without Sound of Hope, 6230 would've sounded just like 6676 🤪 And I can't tell any audible difference between preamp on & off on your SR-286. Perhaps your noise floor is too high for it 😜

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Thanks Arnie! I am hoping to get some clearer catches of RNZ, but I am very happy that I finally got something. I think there is really a lot of interest in more comparative videos, so I will be sure to make some more! It is very interesting for me also to see how different radios compare to the Qodosen. About SSB, I think it is exactly as you say, it will have to be loaded with some separate firmware. I am sure someone will do it. Maybe Tecsun or XHDATA are working on secret projects with this chip :-)

@Juanfernandez-sm8jl 5 месяцев назад

Great DXing on the Qodosen SR-286,, es una buena radio cuando este a la venta en España la comprare, gracias por tus videos!!

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Gracias Juan. ¡Espero que esté disponible pronto en España! Pero en realidad puedo recomendar Ali EXpress, he tenido muy buenas experiencias hasta ahora. Si está interesado, puedo indicarle el distribuidor específico que utilicé; muchos otros han utilizado este distribuidor sin problemas.

@anulearntech 5 месяцев назад

Promising and interesting results. Have you considered grounding the antenna? it supposedly helps a lot in catching new signals. I'm not sure exactly hoe its done though tbh, but there are videos from other DXers.

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

I am sure grounding my antenna will help, I am probably just lazy :-) Just need to do it.

@johnbeckham1483 25 дней назад

Well you don't normally listen to SSB while driving in a car hence the TEF6686 is normally a chip found in a super sensitive 🚗 car 📻 radio tuner! Thanks, Andre!

@johnbeckham1483 25 дней назад

Andre, the SR286 speaker is very clear! I listen with a fine tuned ear to the various orher DX286 radios out there on video! It might be my imagination but some of these DX286 speakers sound better than others marginally???

@swlistening 24 дня назад

John, I agree, it is better than some speakers, but I still think some of the best portable radio sound comes from the XHDATA D-109 and the Tecsun ICR-110, two radios with really good sound, to my ears. But sound is a very subjective experience for people, others will enjoy other radios.

@tlebryk 5 месяцев назад

I am jealous of your quiet noise-floor! Great catches, but I thought Austria was landlocked and does not need a navy?

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Thanks for your comment Tom! It's Australia though, not Austria :-) These maritime broadcasts are quite interesting to catch, they are actually aimed at all shipping traffic, not just the navy. So fishing boats, freighters, any craft at sea really.

@billpenna 5 месяцев назад

If there's an AM signal on the same frequency as an SSB transmission it provides a high-power BFO for you!

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Thanks for the explanation Bill!

@StratmanII 5 месяцев назад

I wish this radio is priced about the same as Si 4734 powered DSP receivers, like the Sihuadon R-108, XHDATA D-109WB and the Tecsun PL-320. I guess the NXP TEF 6686 chip itself costs a lot more than the Si 4734, therefore the radio manufacturer has no choice but to pass the cost to the buyer. Qodosen is not the first brand to make use of this TEF 6686 chip, but it's the first one that came up with this elegant design, while the rest just look like work-in-progress, project radios. 📻😊

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

I hope the other manufacturers will start picking this up! I agree with you that the Qodosen is the first nicely designed radio with the TEF6686 chip, the others look like DIY kits. The Qodosen feels like a well-designed product with relatively easy-to-use functions.

@F4LDT-Alain 5 месяцев назад

I'm not sure it's the cost of the chip itself. I see the bare chip being sold and it's not expensive. Well, assuming what I saw aren't fakes, which is always possible... For some reason the radios based on this chip seem to come only from small, unknown brands and probably in small volumes, which inflates costs. If only one of the big guys Xhdata or Tecsun were to come up with a model based on that chip, their manufacturing volumes would probably pull the prices down. Or so I hope.

@StratmanII 5 месяцев назад

@@F4LDT-Alain I think there's a minimum quantity purchase on the raw components imposed on whoever makes the Qodosen SR-286. I would probably say that the manufacturer is doing market trials at the moment and with the lack of competition, they are free to price the radio arbitrarily. While the TEF 6686 DSP chip has been around for some years in the automotive audio industry, no one has really thought of using it in a pocket sized, multi-band receiver. NXP also has the 6688 variant which includes support for DRM+ and HD Radio. NXP's product sheet for the TEF668x states, _"The TEF668X is a single tuner AM/FM receiver for automotive applications and supports analog AM/FM and HD/DRM reception"_ While the brochure does briefly mention that the chip also covers LW and SW bands, automotive ICE manufacturers aren't interested in adding LW and SW bands into their products. I agree with you that the Tecsun and XHDATA should take notice of other competing DSP manufacturers than just relying on Skyworks Solutions (formerly Silicon Labs). The Si 4735 chip might be the more popular component, but in the end all Si 473x powered radios pretty much sound the same. 😞

@F4LDT-Alain 5 месяцев назад

One source of information told me that this chip is actually no longer in production, so what's on the market now is existing stock. Sourcing it in large quantities might therefore be a problem for whatever well-known brand of radios wanting to put a new model on the market based on this chip... if this information is correct (I have no idea, really). I see that it's sold as a module or as a bare chip on Ali, with prices in the 15$ range for the module and less for the bare chip. What part of this offering are genuine chips and what part are fakes is another issue. (edited for typos)

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

@@F4LDT-Alain I agree, the chip is actually not that expensive. Maybe it is just scarce.

@oz_dx 5 месяцев назад

It's a shame that TEF6686 does not support SSB.

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

It is indeed. Weird that WMV is so clear though.

@canyondan 5 месяцев назад

They could possibly be using Double Sideband Suppressed Carrier which could possibly be why you are hearing it so clearly. Mostly DSB SC is used for digital transmissions but I have heard some voice transmissions using it. At least I think that what it was. LOL never know with todays radio transmitters and their capabilities..@@swlistening

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

@@canyondan Thanks, that might be the reason, I don't know myself how this happened.

@StratmanII 5 месяцев назад

I've looked at the Skyworks Si 4732 and 4735 DSP chips' data sheets. Neither mention SSB as a native feature, yet radios like the ATS-25, ATS-120, Tecsun PL-330, PL-990, H-501 and XHDATA's D-808 are SSB capable. The reason such radios offer SSB is because they have additional software that is temporarily uploaded to the DSP for sideband modulation. This explains the delay and sometimes, a popping noise is heard when the SSB software is uploaded. I'm guessing that no one has successfully written the SSB modulation software for the TEF 6686 chip yet.

@F4LDT-Alain 5 месяцев назад

This sounds like a well-documented explanation, thanks. Such a radio with SSB would be a dream receiver. So many interesting things going over SSB when AM broadcast radio is kind of dying down slowly.

@The06201980 5 месяцев назад

Great DXing! What is your preferred website for checking what stations you have found while DXing?

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Thank you! I rely on various sites, I have found that there are always stations missing on all the sites. So I use short-wave.info, shortwavedb.org and also an app on my Android phone called Skywaves Schedules. It is a free app and really great, also gives you links to web SDRs so that you can check signals to ensure your ID is correct. I usually use shortwavedb as my first point of call, the others are for when shortwavedb does not list something, which happens.

@anulearntech 5 месяцев назад

Also have you tried switching off the display to cut out RFI interference from LCD unit?

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

I haven't actually, but I know it can be done, thanks for the reminder!

5 месяцев назад

I have it too, it's only worth to switch of the display on LW. On any other band I didn't find it worthwhile to switch it off. It's a very quiet receiver!

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

@ Thanks Johann. I will definitely do that on LW, so far no real luck there, I think I need to listen well after midnight or early morning. I hear some traces of signals on 198 and 225, but nothing to capture yet.

@anulearntech 5 месяцев назад

@@swlistening there were videos osted kn lw, I think it was blog or die. He wasn't getting anything on lw with antenna but once grounded it became alive.

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

@@anulearntech I saw that video, some nice catches he had there!

5 месяцев назад

@swl how do you consider battery life? At room temperature mine gets slightly warm at the back and would confirm my observation that its quite power hungry. Didn't yet measured power draw at the bench though. Also didn't yet attached head phones to test if its the receiver chip or the NF chip driving the speaker which causes the power draw.

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Hi Johann, mine does not get warm, but the battery seems to run down very quickly. I use the radio a lot now, several hours a day, and the battery seems to last only about five days or so. But I use a 2000 mAh battery now (from the XHDATA D-109). I will get a bigger battery. I think the radio does draw a lot of power, so you need a good and big battery.

@adk5746 5 месяцев назад

If this rig is picking up usb on regular am how does it do on lsb and usb for ham radio signals

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

Maybe this was just a fluke, but I will check out the ham bands also.

@dadwire1483 4 месяца назад

..the chip makers should manufacture ONLY the TEF6686 car audio chips, and place these in every communication trans-receiver with...SW/MW/AiR/FM/LW/MARINE/CITIZEN bands..!?

@swlistening 4 месяца назад

That would be the ideal :-)

@jamesglenn6461 5 месяцев назад

This just begs the question, why don't the other higher priced radios use that chip? Not really a higher production cost. I kinda feel cheated on the other higher price radios I've bought.

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

That is a very good question, James. I think one of the reasons might be SSB, I am still struggling to find an absolute answer on whether or not the TEF6686 chip can handle SSB. On one discussion site someone said it can be modified for SSB signals also, but I haven't really found any confirmation of this. Edit: Corrected typo, TEF6606 in my comment was meant to be TEF6686.

@migsvensurfing6310 5 месяцев назад

@@swlisteningAcording to NXP this chip is obsolete. A new one is named TEF6686. I think the reason for no SSB is simply, one don't need it in a car.

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

@@migsvensurfing6310 This radio does contain the TEF6686 though. They also have the TEF6688, which adds digital radio like DRM. Both are in production, according to their website. Aimed at different markets, I think.

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

@@migsvensurfing6310 Sorry, my mistake, I see where the confusion came in, I made a typo in my comment above, it was meant to say TEF6686, not TEF6606. That's the one that is obsolete, as you say 🙂

@migsvensurfing6310 5 месяцев назад

@@swlisteningThanks for coming back.

@ominkan3129 5 месяцев назад

Hi Andre I wonder if you might be able to explain for me. I have bought a very cheap sw radio for $5. It has a very short antenna but the radio picks up so many station on the whip antenna, but when I clip my long wire antenna to the whip antenna the reception of all these stations drop-out. Out of all my radios this is the only one that doesn't like the long wire antenna. What is happening?

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

This is actually quite strange, does the wire work on other radios? How do you clip it on? It should work, any wire clipped on to an antenna should make a difference to reception.

@ominkan3129 5 месяцев назад

@@swlistening Yes I use the wire antenna on all my other radios with great results. I have a nice metal clip that clamps on to the whip antenna and is held securely in place. I was thinking the radio the tuner is so sensitive that when the antenna is clipped on to the whip the tuners front end is overloaded and goes silent. When the clip is removed the reception is back. This happens only on this one radio which I have just bought, which the radio is so cheap and sold under many different names, but the performance so exceptional just on its own, day and night.

@swlistening 5 месяцев назад

@@ominkan3129 OK, that's strange then, I really don't know why the cheap radio does not work on the wire.

@ominkan3129 5 месяцев назад

@@swlistening Well that makes two of us, not knowing. Thanks Andre, take care.

@StratmanII 5 месяцев назад

Different receiver designs react differently to overloading issues. The Tecsun PL-310ET, 380, 390/398 and 360 models tend to aggressively clip the strong AM signals, making them tiresome to listen to. What is the length of your random long wire antenna? If you suspect the AGC cannot handle signal overloading, simply start with a very short length of wire and add its length until you notice the radio is severely attenuating signals. If you have one of those inexpensive XHDATA AN-80 or Tecsun AN-05 retractable reel antennas, that's an even more elegant solution. You can unravel the wire a little at a time while having the contact adapter clamped at the whip at the same time, until you find the actual length where the $5 radio can't take the RF input anymore. 🙂

@prasadasgoa 26 дней назад

You should have done it side by side.. Propagation differs from time to time..

@swlistening 26 дней назад

Thanks for your comment Prasad, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean? These signals are all on one radio only, the Qodosen DX-286. Do you mean comparing the signals at different times?