RaddyPortable Digital Radio - AM/FM/SW/VHF/WB with BT Connection, NOAA Alert, Rechargeable Pocket Radio with 9.85 Ft Wire Antenna

Cute little radio and it works very well. I can use it for shortwave or just listening to the regular local radio. I would recommend this.

I bought this with a coupon for $20.79 just to check it out and see how it worked.My first reaction is that the radio was bigger than I expected. It's 2.6"L x 1.1"W x 4.9"H. It's huge compared to the Raddy RF75A for example, but smaller than a Tecsun PL-330.Everything works, including weather alerts, and I could also pick up weather on the VHF band, the only thing I found there. Note that you cannot receive air traffic on this radio because air traffic is in AM mode and the VHF band on this radio is only FM. You can turn air traffic frequencies, but you can't hear anything.The major problem with this radio is tuning, you have to jump with buttons, and then turn the knob a lot to get where you want to go. This is not a big deal on MW and FM, but it is on SW and really is on VHF.When the radio arrived, handling it caused to the display light to come on for a few seconds. The non-replaceable battery seemed nearly fully charged (3 bars) and the lock was not set. There are 13 buttons, 9 on the front and 4 on the side. There is an earphone jack, but no earphone supplied. Well, who doesn’t have a box of earphones already?This radio fits in my Swiss Army Knife category with a Bluetooth music player, flashlight, MW/FM/SW, weather band with alerts and VHF. (It doesn’t have an MP3 card slot.)The manual is a single sheet of paper that folds out to 24 pages total. I rate the print size as acceptable. It's better than some of the Chinese shortwave manuals I see, but still could use some work. There are mistakes, for example, weather alerts are turned on with “Storage/Stored Memories/Alert" button, not the "Lock/Set” button that the manual says to use. There is no table of contents and the PDF version of the manual on the Raddy website is NOT searchable. Finding something in the manual is tedious.FM Frequency Range and MW step is a combined setting described on page 18 of the User’s Manual. The setting is made in “time mode.” If the radio is on, turn it off, and if the radio is off, turn it on to enter “time mode.” Press and hold CH+ for 2 seconds to enter the selection mode, then use the arrow keys to scroll through the options until arriving at “87” and then press CH+ again to save the setting. My radio came already set correctly for North America.The radio is loud. It should prove acceptable listening, although there is not much bass response. I tried a pair of quality monitor headphones and the result was unimpressive, still no bass and the result seemed a bit tinny. I note that the equalizer feature works with radio.It’s sort of a bummer that the flashlight can’t be turned on in Weather Alert mode because all the buttons are disabled in that mode.The radio doesn't get many MW stations in my low-signal area. There was something odd with FM. As I scanned the band, there was a bit of hiss on the empty channels, but then there would be dead silence and the LEVEL display would be half way across the display or more. I got out another radio to make sure there was no real station there, and there wasn’t. There were a total of 6 frequencies with this characteristic.The telescopic antenna (what the manual calls the “straight pull antenna”) is not even a foot long. Given that the radio ships with an external antenna, it makes sense to me to test the radio that way.So I went out around 2:30 PM local time when reception is generally poor. I clipped on my 20 ft. wire up a tree antenna in my central Virginia location and did a band scan. It stored 36 stations, most of which were something real. Radio Exterior de España on 17.855, was very good. CHU in Canada on 7850 was very good. The scan didn’t store WWV on any frequency, but manually I found the 20 MHz signal good.Bluetooth connected quickly and with no hassle to my Windows computer, and worked as a Bluetooth speaker.The first thing I noticed is that a short press of the Power button acts as a mute for the radio. This is very convenient feature when comparing to radios, just push the mute button on both radios to instantly switch between them.Shortwave coverage is from 3.2 – 21.95 MHz. That’s 3,750 5 kHz shortwave channels. The options are to press the arrow key thousands of times, press and hold an arrow key for a faster scan, use the Meter button to skip through the bands, to 4.75, 5.60, 9.90, 12.10, 13.87, 15.80, 17.90 or 21.85, or use auto tune storage (ATS) and let the radio scan the bands and pick up likely stations. If the up and down arrow buttons are long pressed, sometimes they go into really fast forward mode. I haven’t found how to make it work reliably.There are 99 ATS memory locations for each band, for a total of 396 (no ATS on the weather band of course). An ATS scan on shortwave took 6:07, noting that it scanned from 3.2 – 21.95 MHz continuously, not just the international broadcast frequencies. The only listenable station that it found was Radio Exterior de España on 17.855.Meh. Really inexpensive but mediocre radio. It’s too big for a pocket radio, and it really needs direct frequency entry if it’s going to be that big. FM sensitivity should be better. The flashlight is good and the speaker is loud. I have better radios. I donated this one to charity.

A good radio with a lot of features.

For the price this is a great deal. Basic and easy to use.

Works okay on AM/FM bands, but doesn’t work well at all on aviation bands. Bought this as a small radio to keep in my flight bag to listen to the ATIS before starting up the aircraft, but it wouldn’t receive it anywhere I was on the field. Luckily it was pretty cheap, so I’m not out much on it, but I’ll have to look for something else for the intended purpose.

Works ok given that the model # implies that it might use the newest DSP chip, but it lists using a ferrite bar antenna and the newer DSP chips can do reasonably well with just a whip antenna, (as long as you're outside if it's a weak AM signal from my experience) it does need the external antenna as SW reception is close to what to expect if the whip is fully retracted.Weak AM signals are ok, it captures them, but for whatever it's worth, there is a lot of added "hiss", (like white noise) in the audio while listening to weak AM signals, but there is the EQ settings, E-1, (out of 6 choices) E-1 is the normal setting and the radio resets to E-1 when it's turned off, so whatever setting you put it in while listening, it will revert back to E-1 each time it's turned off.I use the E-4 setting (listed as "jazz" in the manual) for a deeper sound that makes most of the hiss go away.FM is fine, VHF has 4 bandwidths to choose from, (50, 100, 150 or 200khz) it can scan between 30 - 199.975 Mhz.Selecting the FM range chooses the AM step tuning as well.There's also the 7 channel WB mode, you can also, (if you choose the default 5khz bandwidth on VHF) pick up the WB (NOAA) channels on VHF mode as well if you're ok with it stopping a lot on either nulls inside the DSP chip or random noise signals, the whip antenna only extends 9.5 " from the top of the receiver body, there is no external antenna jack, one probably needs to use the supplied wire that comes with the unit to extend reception range of the tiny whip.

I can’t understand a lot of the negative reviews about this radio. But, as a couple of others have said, they are most likely due to inexperienced shortwave radio users. Regardless, this is a very inexpensive yet awesome radio. No, it doesn’t have some features, like single side band, that higher end and much more expensive radios have but, it works great with the features it does have. It’s small and compact and easy to carry and is solid and well built. It has NOAA weather frequencies (all 7) plus a weather alert function. It has a light and headphone jack. It has a clock and alarm. It has shortwave (meter band) with frequencies from 3.20 to 21.95 MHz. It is also capable of receiving VHF frequencies. It also has Bluetooth connectivity so you can play your own music from your phone, iPad, or computer. And, of course, it’s also an AM/FM radio. I live out in the country pretty far from any town or city and I get great reception, even with just the built-in antenna.It’s just a great all around radio at a very great price.

I bought this for SHTF. I like that it is small, very lightweight, easily handled with a telescoping antenna and long antenna extender. A quick read of the instructions makes its use pretty easy. I quickly found a couple of stations that come in pretty clear and most importantly, the weather station is clear. The unit's sound is the typical "a little scratchy" as expected. Not smooth sounding like my car radio but for $25 it's plenty understandable. In Oregon where I live we rarely have a weather event so I got it just in case. I am thinking a police/emergency scanner is far more important. I just have to find one that is crystal clear.