The truth: Qodosen SR-286 is really excellent, but there are some flaws  

Let's hope so! For now, as I said in my video, I work around it, I just charge the battery inside another radio. But it's not ideal.

My pleasure, thank you Eyad!

Thanks for sharing, that kind of explains it a bit in my case also. I am located at the lower end of a very steep hill, with another quite high hill right on the other side, so a bit like a small valley. Glad you liked the review!

Hi Alain, thanks for your comment and your remarks about the speaker. These days I almost don't notice the speaker sound on any of my radios anymore, as I always use the Tecsun ICR-110 as my speaker so that it is ready to record when I find something interesting. The Tecsun ICR-110 speaker is excellent. But it is a valid point you are making about the built-in speaker on the Qodosen, a good speaker on a relatively expensive radio would be great! I have also not experienced the digital noise. I know many people using the "home-made" versions that you can buy on Ali Express do complain about digital noise on those radios. People who experience digital noise might try to switch off the display. I have never had the need to do that, but the radio does offer that option.

@@swlistening I was referring to complaints I've read (or watched) that were specifically about the SR-286. I wasn't even aware that the LCD could be turned off on this radio. You mean completely off, not only the backlight? Other radios suffer from this e.g. it's a major annoyance on my Retekess V115 (also sold under other brands like HangRongDa) Again, so far it hasn't bitten me on the Qodosen.

@@F4LDT-Alain The V115 noise is very annoying! On the Qodosen you can press the numbers 1 and 3 together, then the display will turn off, completely. The backlight will stay on for a few seconds as it always does, and then also turn off.

Thank you so much for your comment, it is interesting to hear that you have experienced the same mirroring issues. As you say (and as I say in my video also), this also happens on many other portable radios. It probably has to do with the filters. That Raddy RF919 looks like a very interesting radio! But it's quite pricey. I would really love to hear your comments about that one, once it arrives!

@@swlistening As a matter of fact I've discovered yesterday that my Tecsun PL-660, an analog radio, showed me quite a few image signals in the 23 Mhz range which isn't even a broadcast band. Most of the time I could actually hear two stations mixed, so they're likely to be heterodyne signals of stations interfering.

I learned the hard way :-) To be honest, I haven't had any similar cases in the past. My little Eton Elite Traveler has a nice fake leather cover, the D-808 has a slip-in cover. And the PL-368 and PL-360 covers use Velcro, but there are no carrying straps to get stuck in the Velcro. I'll probably just cut off the strap on Qodosen in the end, it's looking rather worse for wear and I never use it anyway.

It's my pleasure, I am glad if you enjoy the videos! Your idea for charging through the case is a good one. About the radio turning on in the middle of the night: Just a crazy thought, but didn't you perhaps set the alarm by accident for the middle of the night? Or maybe it was on a default setting from the factory and you activated it by accident? Maybe you already checked this, but I thought it's worth mentioning. It has happened to me with some new radios, when I was still getting to know the buttons and settings. If not, then it is rather strange indeed and then I would perhaps consider returning it.

Hey John, thanks for your comment! I am quite sure other manufacturers will start using this chip at some point. They will have to, if they want to remain competitive. The mirror frequencies have me stumped, I really have no idea what they are, but the thought of harmonics also crossed my mind.

@@swlistening I totally agree. Anyway, last evening I caught HF Trading CGA984 out of Harrow Canada on 7570, no SSB but SW broadcast . Morse Code. It lasted for a good 30 minutes or so then blended in to some type of music program. Quite interesting.

@@NJF60 That HF Trading signal sounds really interesting! I find it quite interesting that some traders use Morse code on shortwave.

@@swlistening yes I was reading somewhere about it that it will be adopted for use in the shortwave band/frequencies that are not being used.

It is kind of strange. That being said, I have also experienced it on radios like the XHDATA D-808 (less often) and the Tecsun PL-368 (more often), and others have commented here that they have had similar experiences on their radios. Luckily it is not bothersome and does not happen on busy bands, but hopefully over time they will be able to fix it. At some point I will get another TEF6686 radio to see if it happens on other radios with the TEF6686 chip.

@@swlisteningThe case is solved by swapping around the Velcro so the soft is on top like Sony cases. There’s cases like external Hard drive cases from Amazon that fit very well. I’d like a SW car radio based on this chip though!

@@arcticradio I should have been much more careful with that Velcro, but too late for my lanyard now 🤣 A car radio with SW using the TEF6686 chip would be quite something!

Sure! I don't own anything similar to the Grundig Satellit 750, so it is hard for me to compare. What I can say is that my Kenwood R1000, which is quite a good, old-fashioned desktop receiver, is very slightly less sensitive than my Qodosen, but, being a higher-class receiver, the Kenwood sounds a bit better and the difference in reception is not that big. If you own a high-end receiver like the Grundig 750, I think the Qodosen might not be worth your while, unless you want something very small and very portable for travelling or outdoors DXing. Then the Qodosen would be a great choice.

There is no real difference, the DX-286 just has a few different shortcut keys, for example to switch the antenna amp on and off and to switch between internal and external antennas for MW. Also a minor FM tuning step adjustment for use in the US. Otherwise the functions and performance are exactly the same. There is no immediate indication of a version with SSB, but perhaps some time in the future.

Sure Arnie! Which one did you get? I'm also thinking of getting a second one, one of those "home-made" Chinese ones.

@@swlistening mine is the "home made" one too, actually it's one of the cheapest models listed on Aliexpress 😅 it comes at a price though, because with a supplied telescopic antenna, this radio is... useless XD lots of humming on many frequencies, one even obliterates my local on 101.7! It decreases somewhat when display switches off (and I need to set a screensaver as "turn off the screen" to make it happen), so I assume its shielding is next to none, not to mention virtually zero counterpoise to that whip as all of the radio's chassis is plastic XD. Fortunately, any external antenna seems to help a lot, and I had promising results with a ~1m diameter shielded loop, no amplifier, hung in the kitchen, both on FM & SW. Should be OK on LW & MW too, although more testing, as well as testing with a more decent outdoor antenna is still needed. A curiosity: with that loop and the radio's own amplifier, all I hear on 225 kHz is noise, while when I turn the amp on, Polish Radio immediately blasts in 😅 Another nice thing with this and many other "hand-crafted" TEF radios: my model is eqipped with a Wi-Fi module, and I successfully set up a server on my laptop to control the radio with a web browser 😀😀 the only issue is the radio can't transmit the audio via Wi-Fi, so I still need to plug a 3.5mm cable to pipe the audio to the laptop... and I think I need to use an external sound card to do it as the laptop has only one integrated 3.5mm plug, which somehow can't work in a line-in or mic mode 🙄 so maybe better use a dedicated smal PC or a Raspberry Pi for that server? 🤔 And forgot to mention: this one's a somewhat larger box which needs two hands to hold, but at least it's lightweight 😅 but again, due to its noise problems with a bare telescopic whip, its purpose as a portable radio is questionable anyway :/

@@swlistening Andre, instead of getting a second TEF6686 that can't possibly hold a candle to the Qodosen SR-286, why not buy an ATS-25 AMP or the ATS-25 Max Decoder II instead? 😀 You'll be the only YT content creator who DX'es shortwave stations with an ATS-25 box, trust me. 9 out of 10 owners on TouYube just demonstrate their abilities on SSB (which is surprisingly excellent) but not so much on SW radio stations. The ATS-25 AMP is the only Si4732 based receiver that: a) Has the most interesting and colourful user interface screen. b) Can upgrade its firmware over WiFi automatically (need to have at least the 4.2 Air Beta firmware first). c) Can fine tune SSB transmissions with a 10 Hz resolution concurrently with a 1 Hz resolution BFO. No other radio I know does that, not even Tecsun's PL-990x. d) Offers two Variable Frequency Oscillators (VFO), like your Quansheng K5 walkie talkie. No other radio does this (not even the Malachite SDRs). e) Has a decent speaker output, better than any XHDATA D-808. Probably sounds more like the D-109 with bass frequencies. f) Offers seven bandwidth options like the D-808. No Tecsun, Eton or C Crane receivers give you 7 bandwidth filters. g) Can decode (unencrypted) CW, FT4, FT8, RTTY, digital Feld Hell transmissions onto the screen or to your Android phone via its USB port. h) Has a decent 3000 mAH lithium ion polymer battery. Runs for nearly 300 hours straight using earphones. i) Has so much UI display customization (firmware 4.2 Air Beta) that staring at the Kenwood R-1000 frequency display won't be the same again. 😀 j) Gives you a choice of listening to a station via a simulated retro (analogue) frequency dial or the standard digital display. k) Offers more features in the future as the Harduino firmware developers add more enhancements and improvements in future firmware releases. I've been looking for DX'ing channels that feature something like the ATS-25 or ATS-120, none of them use one for DX'ing. I was hoping your channel will be the first one that uses an ATS-25 for band scanning. 🙂 I'm not selling the ATS-25 AMP's LW or MW features (it does have both bands) because it lacks an internal ferrite antenna and relies on external antennas that are good for at least medium wave. MW signals are absent at my QTH, and the use of the Tecsun AN-200 induction loop is useless since all ATS-25 receivers don't have internal ferrite bars. For FM (yes it has RDS) and SW the ATS-25 AMP is hard to beat as long as you don't use the supplied (detachable) telescopic antenna. Sorry to bring this up in the comment section, but I felt that you might sit up and take notice rather than reading this via email. 🙂

@@StratmanII Thank you so much for the suggestion and the long and interesting comment explaining the characteristics of the ARS-25 AMP! I have, in fact, been thinking about this one for a while. I will be honest, as you have probably noticed also, I am not buying as many radios as before. I feel I have a good understanding of what most of the popular portable radios on the market can do, so there is nothing there that I feel I really need. I don't have a Tecsun PL-330, but I have a PL-368, they are the same to me. I don't have the Sihuadon R-108, but I have the D-808, which serves me fine. My future radio purchases will be radios or receivers that really offer me something that I do not have yet. The ATS-25 AMP is one such receiver. All the features you describe are great, and I can see that I will probably have a lot of fun with the ATS-25 AMP. I particularly like the decoding feature. The gaps I see in my radio arsenal are: an SDR receiver; the ATS-25 AMP with all its functionalities; maybe another portable with good SSB (Tecsun PL-660 or PL-680); and maybe another very good MW radio, in addition to the Sangean PR-D4W that I just got and the Qodosen SR-286. I do also want another TEF6686 radio, not necessarily because it will be better than the Qodosen, but for comparison purposes, just to see how other TEF6686 receivers perform. Also because there is so much interest in radios with that chip. So I particularly want to test a less expensive version, to see if I can recommend a TEF6686-based radio on my channel that is not as expensive as the Qodosen. All that being said, the ATS-25 AMP is DEFINITELY on my to-buy list 🙂 I think my next purchase will be another TEF6686 radio, and the purchase after that will be the ATS-25 AMP. I think it will be a very interesting radio to use for SW band scanning, as you suggest, and I will certainly do that!

@@swlistening I hear you. Just a quick suggestion, bru! 😀 Why not prioritize the ATS-25 AMP over another TEF6686 radio? After all, you did state that the ATS-25 is on your "must buy" list, while another TEF6686 project radio's features would most likely to be more less-or-the-same as the SR-286. 🤔 You might want to spend a couple of months with something like the ATS-25 Max Decoder or ATS-25 AMP and look at the experimental TEF6686 receivers later. See what happens by then! You might just fall in love with the ATS-25 that you'll also get its sibling, the ATS-120 that resembles the PL-368's shape! 😀 Now, I'm not suggesting that you entirely drop your TEF6686 evaluation project, but rather to postpone it. Who knows, your receiver interests down the road change and later on you'll decide to be satisfied with just the Qodosen SR-286! ❤

It sure is an excellent radio! I think it is a bit expensive, but it's worth the money.

That is true. Unless you carry a spare battery, which is what I do. One does need to be aware that this one is power hungry and prepare for that.

Hi Ísleif, thanks for your comment! I hope you will be happy with your SR-286! I think the built-in charger is just very slow, I don't think it is the battery itself. I use a battery from XHDATA inside my Qodosen, I swap them around, sometimes I use the 3000 mAh one from the D-608WB. I think that one is a good battery. But it still takes hours to recharge inside the Qodosen. Much quicker to just charge it inside another radio.

@@swlistening Thanks for your kind words, I was referring about the type of battery charger, as I know, the radio comes with no charger. The radio itself does not charge the battery, only the charger that you plug into the radio that does it. I have a couple of those MicroUSB, battery chargers I got some with a greater wattage than the ones people usually have. The radios as I know, comes only with the charging cable, and you provide the USB-A transformer to charge the radio from mains. That is my suggestion to try charging the radio with a fast charging mains adapter so the battery charges faster this time. My radio has not arrived yet, it is supposed to arrive not later than 13 May. Take care.

@@swlistening I just received the SR-286 today and I still playing with it. It came without battery, as they offered one in the vendor's page, but I don't care, as it arrived promptly and working. I have a lower capacity (1200 mAh) 18650 battery on hand and it has so many settings but I am happy with it.

After working with the SR-286 after I installed a 2600 mAh battery, it is working fine after one hour and the battery still strong. I never have a radio more sensitive and powerful than this. I noticed it becomes a bit warm on back when I felt it by placing my hand on the radio, I am very happy with it and hope that others will enjoy it as well.

@@isleifoterogarcia4478 Hi Ísleif, I am so happy to hear that you are enjoying the Qodosen! I received a new radio yesterday, the Sangean PR-D4W, that is said to be one of the best on MW, but I am a little bit disappointed when I compare it to the Qodosen. The Qodosen is just so good, I agree with you, I have also never had a radio as sensitive as the Qodosen. It really is something else! Even my new Sangean does not match the Qodosen.

You can change the settings on the antenna, yes. There is an antenna amplifier that can be switched on and off. You can also change the antenna attenuation levels, which I haven't tried yet. But it can be done. Press the "page" button and 5 when the radio is on to change the attenuation levels. But I don't think this is an overloading issue. I know of someone who picked up mirror frequencies without catching the actual main frequency.

@@swlistening Oh, it's good that it has the attenuation adjustment option. Also, since all those DSP receivers lack any "front-end" or hardware bandpass filters, the type of antenna used matters a lot. For example, in my (cheap) DSP receiver, using the whip antenna may cause SW stations to get mirrored on AM/MW; however, if a band-specific antenna is used (such as a loop antenna, which provides a narrower spectrum), there would be no mirroring. But here we are talking about a device that is ±x4 more expensive, after all... It definitely requires further investigation. 👍🏻

@@any_username It sure does, and I am hoping some others with similar experiences will also comment here.

Hi Andre. Thank you for mentioning the mirror frequencies. On my SR-286, it’s a feature. It enables the radio to get CB (Citizen Band) frequencies. I found that 4045 kHz on my SR-286 mirrors 27085 kHz on my shortwave radios that pick up CB frequencies. 3985 kHz on the SR-286 mirrors 27025 kHz. Try it out. I live in the West Coast of the United States and I can pick up CB frequencies during daylight.

I also have the Goozeezoo silver TEF6686 radio I bought from Amazon. It, too, mirrors shortwave frequencies so now I can pick up CB frequencies with it. I’m pleased.

Thank you so much for this! I keep forgetting that I should not change the volume right after punching in a frequency, so I keep getting the error message. This will help.

@@swlistening no worries, glad this helps.