Another Radio

[Turkeytop]

I was with my wife in one of her stores called Gabe. It's the kind of store women like. Mostly clothing plus household accessories and home decor items.

But they have a small rack of tech stuff to keep the men from getting too bored. Mostly cell phone accessories and blue teeth products that don't interest me and I know nothing about.

But I came across this radio, a Dolphin Retrobox for $27.99. Looks like a 1970s Boom Box. It has AM, FM and SW and it can play MP3 files from a thumb drive or SD card.

So I got it, not expecting much for that price, but it surprised me. The radio works remarkably well, for a $30 radio. The downside is that the analog dial isn't calibrated very precisely. The audio has lots of punch but the speakers rattle at high volume. The radio runs on AC but it also has a built in lithium battery that charges whenever the radio is plugged into AC. There is also a space inside for four D Cells for backup. And it also has a built in flashlight.

So, I won't be adding it to my DX arsenal, but for a $30 radio, it works well. But I have many higher priced radios that work better. The radio has some nice features, but nothing I don't already have on other radios.

While I would like to add this one to my collection, I have a hard time justifying one more radio when I have so many already. If my wife decides she wants to go back to that store for any reason, I might just return it.





https://youtu.be/tQ-2S_rc1U8

[billmich88888]

what's on SW now a days anyways?

[Turkeytop]

what's on SW now a days anyways?

Very little. Most of the International broadcsters are gone. Radio Romania International is still going strong. Radio Cairo and Voice of Turkey are still on but are plagued with Technical problems.

Even the venerable Radio Havana is hit and miss. Their equipment is old and worn out. Arnie Coro, their engineer, who kept it all together for years, passed away a couple of years ago.

China Radio International still broadcasts to North America and has some decent programs. But they broadcast via Cuba, using RHC's unreliable transmitters.

Most broadcasters have forsaken radio and are streaming their programs on the Internet. WRMI in Miami records some of those programs and broadcasts them OTA from their own transmitters.

Otherwise, most of what's left on SW is christian stations from the US.

Some of the guys with their fancy SDRs call it a logging if they get a tiny blip of a signal from some exotic station on their screen, even if they can't hear it.

A lot of my listening now is utility stuff. Weather, marine, aviation, railway etc.

[MWmetalhead]

Surfing the shortwave dial just now, I didn't even hear an EWTN signal, which surprised me.

Two stations with preachers reading from scripture came in loudly & clearly (one such station around 9.35 MHz was especially strong), I heard two Radio Havana signals (one was very fuzzy, the other one was a bit stronger), I heard another station with some guy babbling in some European language unrecognizable to me, and I heard WWV at 15 MHz.

Edit - I'm guessing the station near 9.35 MHz was WRMI from southern Florida, because WWCR's transmitter at 9.35 MHz only broadcasts at night.

[CurlyHoward]

Has Radio Cairo ever NOT had technical problems? I remember them being undermodulated as fuck when I went through a heavy shortwave listening phase in 1995-6.

I bought a little C. Crane radio a few years ago and tried seeing what was on SW and yeah, it was just religious stations, China and Cuba basically. BBC, Radio Netherlands, Deutsche Welle, etc. are all long gone at least from shortwave.

[MetalUpYourAss1973]

I was just thinking about dusting off my radio just to see what's going on out there. It's been a while. I don't remember there being anything really exciting years ago the last time I checked. My first memory on SW back in the 80s was hearing a New Orleans Saints football game being broadcasted on a SW station. I used to hear a VARIETY of music styles at any given time, and even some American music, but even that has been a while ago. I suppose online streaming is the preferred way to broadcast now. Where's the fun in that?

[billmich88888]

I have an old Sony 2010 I bought in college in the late 80's that was my "night time AM listening/DXing radio".

I played around with the shortwave bands occasionally, bought some good antennas for it as well.(anyone remember Kiwa antennas?).
I haven't broken out that radio since before pandemic, maybe next winter it can be a weekend thing to do, see if the ole thing still works

[Turkeytop]

I have an old Sony 2010 I bought in college in the late 80's that was my "night time AM listening/DXing radio".

I played around with the shortwave bands occasionally, bought some good antennas for it as well.(anyone remember Kiwa antennas?).
I haven't broken out that radio since before pandemic, maybe next winter it can be a weekend thing to do, see if the ole thing still works

The Sony 2010 is an excellent radio.

[Turkeytop]

So, I ended up returning the Dolphin retro. It's a nice radio. I liked it. But I already have so many radios I just don't need it. It didn't have any features that I don't already have on other radios.

But, now I've got this one. Sangean HDR 18. I'll be keeping this one. My only HD radio. I'll be leaving it here in Florida. I don't believe we have any HD Radio stations at home in the town where I live.

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

I have an old Sony 2010 I bought in college in the late 80's that was my "night time AM listening/DXing radio".

I played around with the shortwave bands occasionally, bought some good antennas for it as well.(anyone remember Kiwa antennas?).
I haven't broken out that radio since before pandemic, maybe next winter it can be a weekend thing to do, see if the ole thing still works

I still own mine, but the contacts are messed up so the display readout is not what it was.

[Turkeytop]

So, I'm keeping the Sangean here in Florida, where I can enjoy its full potential.

But I got this one here today that I'll take home with me. I got it from the Batteries + store. It's an all purpose AM FM and WX radio. it's powered by an internal battery that can be charged by hand cranking or by the built in solar panel or by using a USB charger.

It also has a flashlight, a reading light and it can be used as a 4000 ma/hr power bank.

I won't be adding this one to my DX arsenal. And it isn't exactly hi fidelity. But it's a decent radio and it's novel. In a radio, novelty goes a long way with me.

[Honeyman]

Busch Light....why not just drink water?

[ZenithCKLW]

I've got one of those crank type radios with a solar panel. Worked great during the power outage of 2003, and now it's used when camping. Mine is made out of clear green plastic, so hopefully that kind of plastic doesn't degrade and crack. I still keep it in its original box and plastic wrapper.

Something I've noticed with new radios that drives me kind of crazy is the dial. The number font is usually big and bold, so there's not really adequate spacing between those numbers on the dial, AND the "needle" is also a wide piece of plastic. Maybe it's for increased visibility, but the combination of these things doesn't lend itself to precision tuning. My favorite radios have a thin (black, white, or orange) needle that slowly glides with tuning, against numbers that are either short and wide if the dial is vertical, or tall and narrow if the dial is horizontal. Preferably with some sort of notch to denote exactly where a frequency should land on the dial, although if the tuner isn't very accurate against the dial, that notch begins to drive me nuts.

[Turkeytop]

With this one, I now have three wind up radios. I'm a geek for things like that. In reality, I'll probably never need that feature. Because I'm such a geek I always have plenty of spare batteries around the house.

[teetoppz28]

Is Canadian beer so bad that you have to drink Busch Light when you're here??