This radio has an incredible secret, you can listen VHF and UHF, including air band. Try this: first choose a OM frequency, for example 1225 KHz, press and hold REC (you must have a memory card inserted), when it start recording press FM / AM and MODE keys. That's all, now it tunes 122.50 MHz. It works by tuning SW as well, the frequency in KHz goes to VHF or UHF. Enjoy!
Hello, Ham Radio Crash Course, I must agree with you that the audio quality on the Retekess is fantastic! You gotta like its MP3 Player/Recorder as well! The AM/FM is above average whereas the SW is average to below average! Sensitivity and selectivity could have better specs. You will need a wire antenna to enhance shortwave reception! All in all the Retekess V-115 overall is a surprising performer for the price especially considering its sound quality!
I just received this same radio from Amazon yesterday (Tuesday August 15th.) I have been considering buying one for a while now and finally did. So far I absolutely love it. It tunes in stations easily and sounds great.
I love mine. I think I need to get a new one I have beet the heck out of it. I accidentally broke the last section of the antenna off. I love the sleep feature. I agree with your review. I paid 15 bucks for mine. I think I have put static zapped mine because it doesn't seem to want to save channels anymore or arrow up or down on the frequencies. I still love it especially AM at nught.
I worked in electronics manufacturing. We made our top quality name brand and all the clone brands. It was the same thing with a different name printed on the case. When I fixed poly-bag machines I noticed same thing with beans, potatoes and carrots. The just changed the label on the bag so generic is the same carrot as the top name brand. You have to look very close at every detail because the clone might be the real thing manufactured in the same plant assembly line.
I own the Reketess clone of this radio, paid $15 for it on ebay. Seriously, this receiver it has to be one of the best bargains around. It performs way, way, way above its price point. Sensitivity is excellent and the audio quality is just exceptional even compared to consumer radios in the over $100 bracket. Audio-wise it puts to shame some of my $500 plus wideband scanner radios/transceivers (are you listening Uniden and Yaesu). I was easily able to pick up the stronger SW stations and I'm sure with one of those reel-type antennas it would do even better (have one, just never needed to use it). Add the fact that it also has a built in mic and can record on-air broadcasts and comes with a rechargeable battery and a USB cable for charging makes it a no-brainer and a steal at $15 (I've seen it sell for anything between 13 to over $35. Would make a great present for a youngster that's shown an interest in radio.
I have one and it performs nicely. I have a Kaito reel antenna connected to the telescopic antenna. Shortwave radio stations come in nicely. I have the factory battery and a pair of XHDATA batteries which I keep charged up with a battery charger. I love my Retekees V115 radio.
I bought the v-111 last year and it has about the same stuff but doesn’t record, that’s a nice extra. I did get the first one from the distributor and it didn’t work, I sent them an email and they sent another right away. Excellent service.
I got it years ago, it is still functioning, it is amazing value for the price. the SW instead are quite a disaster, but I have much better radios for SW and SSB, the quality of sound on FM is simply astononishing good for the price, and the recorder is fantastic
Shortwave radio reception on the Retekess V-115 is a low average perhaps but an external wire antenna helps and your body's own induction that it can provide this radio by holding it helps amplify the shortwave reception! It's great for MP3 playing/recording indeed! For the money it's a great investment indeed!
I just recently purchased this tiny cheap radio and was looking at the videos. Pretty impressed with sound but in regards to the SW what do you expect for something for $17. Get a good shortwave radio for that.
I was blown away with the sound from such a tiny radio. After living with it for a while and using it to record amature cover songs by youtube artists in high quality I decided to buy another one to keep stored should anything happen to this one.
Looking forward to getting my Retenkess V 115 today and giving it a try. Love the idea of being able to record the stations I can receive. As a SWL'er and Ham Radio user, I can record and save stations I pick up on DX, so having a hard copy of my contact and how it sounded ? Thanks for the review, but the radio quality sort of sold itself ! 73's Good DX Andy M6APJ.
It's a very good radio for the price. However it suffers from atrocious internal noise in the am band. It can be enhanced but reducing the FM antenna wire length and shielding the circuits with aluminium foil. It's way better but not perfect and noise remains. But it's worth the price only for the mp3 player (with random mode), excellent speaker and mp3 recording functionality.
Absolutely LOVE this little radio. Loud, sensitive, and I like how it records to MP3. I don't like how they use MP3 Blade encoding. Sounds terrible They should use MP3 LAME encoding which sounds better.
Wow - surprised you reviewed this little oddity. I tried everything to get the SW to work better - including disassembling it to see if a direct endfed connection to the ant connection on the board would help - no luck. However, for MW DX if you just create a 4 inch diameter, 7 loop wire inductor to a long antenna - the AM MW works great! FM is fantastic as well as the MP3 player. Nice little radio (if only the SW could work).
I Picked one up during your "sales pitch" to GunWebsites during a lobby. I will say the the AM/FM quality is really good, if it picks up the station. In my house it picks up the "local" AM stations loud and clear but not the 50K Watt clear channel station 150 mies away. But that being said its a neat little pocket radio.
I saw a review that compared this radio to the TECSUN PL-880! I BOUGHT one for the recording ability. I want what they are smoking, I suspect my pl-380 will do SW much better. Thanks for the review, for $16. I'm not expecting much! If I can record Coast to Coast AM on the location station I will be satisfied...
I like this radio a lot. It's always stashed in my case ready to go for a quick radio listening. Trouble is, if I scan for SW radio, though sensitive, I need a very wide, unobstructed area to scan for SW signals. I'm in the northern Philippines, and I usually scan for SW signals from nearby China and Japan at the nearby beach during Black Saturday holiday when most AM stations are signed off. Nonetheless, neat little radio! I love my V-115.
Radio perfomance isnt anything special but for the price cant complain Whats great about it its the Speaker quality while playing MP3 ,the deep bass is amazing from such a tiny device
I was excited about the recording ability (since my first ever shortwave radio was a Radio Shack DX-392 with the cassette recorder built in... wish I still had that) but sad to hear the shortwave isn't great, since I already have a Tecsun PL380 and Kaito WRX911 and can't really justify a third small radio that's only good for AM/FM when I'm happy with the AM/FM on those.
I have a DX - 392 & it still works - the best of its type back then & now we have this great little MP3- recording Am/FM/SW radio with so much more features & capacity.
I ordered mine the night you opened it live. LOL I like it. It is a cool little hand held. I'll probably by the antenna you mentioned. Just a cool little radio to play with.
To be more precise. The v115. Got better. When I took a Tentec 455 bfo. Firs had 12 feet if hook up wire. Then a small peice of wire along the antenna wire. Maby 1-2 inches.then put a heat shrink tubeing (tune for signal not wanting to swamp the work) apply heat. And clip your wire as you would normally. The rig pops up. And with tubeing it works some what. I use mine on a net frequency. So as not to wear out the can. V-115 DOOING ssb. Kv4li
I have Retekiss V115 (Same radio) and it does great on AM/FM, but not very good on SW. It does....OK......Conversely, I have a Tecsun R-9012 that does great on SW (For a $22 radio) and cant receive crapola on AM/FM. :-) I prefer the analog dial with indicator for station hunting. I would like a quality SW receiver that has a dial, and is portable. I travel a lot for business and would stuff it in my preps.
I was unlucky, mine was defective, it would not perform it's functions. I did notice the sound was impressive, better than some other small radios including the skywave. The skywave performs all its functions though.
thanks for the review. I just bought one online. Probably take a year to get here from China now with the Corona stuff going on. Kinda sad how fantastic it sounds off the card compared to straight off the radio.
Great review - It's kind of lacking in shortwave, but the sound output is amazing - Also, when using an mini SD card, you can see what you are listening to - For the money, well worth the buy -
Shortwave broadcasts reception depends on when you're listening and propagation. I have a shortwave radio schedule mobile app in my cellphone that I use to find stations.
There appears to be an almost identical radio, the ZHIWIS ZWS-603, different only in the addition of Bluetooth speaker capability and Bluetooth recording.
"I'll take Retekess V-115 is junk for $1000, Alex" Pros: good sound and price, Cons: Mine stopped working after an hour flashing between AM station and the message 'install TF card'. Installed Micro card and still the same message. Still was hoping for better results but it is what it is. Going to buy a better quality radio. UPDATE: 3/14/2023 After talking with Retrevess customer service, they deemed an issue internally and unfixable. I had to send information on the radio and a video of the problem. I am giving an update on the rating on customer service to five stars. We will see what the new radio can do.
That's also called a RETEKESS V115. The only thing i don't like about it is it uses a Lithium battery that requires a USB power source to charge it, so you can't swap-in a charged battery while you charge the empty one. And you can't change the aerial, unless you clip-on a wire .
Just keep your cell phone power bank charger handy. I always carry a small, compact 3x2" with me. You can either keep a spare charged battery handy, or recharge in-unit with that compact charger.
This radio have features that could be implemented in other sets, based on cellphone speaker design, one could make a set like this with the same speaker low frequency handing built on a smaller enclosure. It is amazing how well these small speakers sound if that is possible with a small Li-Po battery o regular Ni-Mh AA ones.
Bought their Tivdio HR-11W and found their Facebook page through Angela. If there is a radio or features you're looking for, they are trying make these better or come out with better models. Let 'em know what you're looking for and they'll make it.
Very nice v 115 radio am fm recorder . Sd card i have had this 6 month earlier now what is amendment to make better pl tell I am very much interested in v 115. A leader of all radios.thanks
Looking for an FM radio with MP3 player, where the MP3 will randomly shuffle tracks from different albums on the TF/SD card. I noted that you don't mention track shuffling on the TF card player. Of the makes that you've tried, which would you suggest please for that feature?
Hello! (Please answer this) i’m 12 years and i gonna buy This radio. My question to is: Can i listen to the spooky radio station UVB-76 at 4625 KHZ on This radio?
So long as you can receive the station from your location, yes, you should be able to receive it. Have you used other radios to receive it in the past?
Got 2, and 4extra power cells. No ssb though. How ever my Tentec® bfo did the trick. So it all fits well in my E.D.C. BAG. Ps. TEN FEET OF HOOK UP WIRE WITH A roach clip works wonders. For SW use good show. Kv4li
I have not ran it until it died, but I wouldn't be surprised if it hit 8 hours or more. Plus, the battery charge lasts a long time, I've charged it twice since owning it and it really hangs in there.
Can you figure out how to make the little clip for the antenna, besides using a test clip? The clip from a badge or IDE card holder fits just right, but doesn't clip on like the antenna clip does.
I just found that Amazon was selling this for $11. I got one and thought of another use. I will be recording my QSO's. Thanks for the review to help seal the deal.
there's a new hardware revision called the prunus j-401 and it sounds a lot better on the other bands than the v-115 because they fixed the dreaded interference from itself. you can mod this radio by shielding the display to ground, but if you're going to buy a radio now, don't get this radio, get the j-401. $18 won't break the bank. the new one has manual tuning, the AUX jack doubles as an antanna jack, it's built better, has a real stand, weighs more, has a proper volume knob, and probably more, but it's the same radio on the inside just improved somewhat.
Does anyone know of a radio like this one, but can be setup to automatically record an AM program at a certain time everyday? Also, I would like it to have blue tooth, but that's not as important. I found the CCrane Witness Plus radio, which has a built-in timer for setting record times but its too expensive for my budget.
The screen on my unit has gone blank. It lights up, but no textual info shows. It's too good to toss out, but too hard to use without the screen working and telling where you are with freqs and mp3 playbacks. If anyone knows a hack for jolting the screen back into functioning, post it here. ...greatly appreciate any suggestions....
