Daytime SW: Qodosen SR-286 vs three others from Sri Lanka, Hawaii, Australia and the USA
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- Опубликовано: 1 авг 2024
- This is a daytime comparison between the Qodosen SR-286 and the XHDATA D-808 and D-608WB, and Eton Elite Traveler, on shortwave. I am still so impressed with the SR-286 with its TEF-6686 chip, it just seems to be such a capable receiver.
In this video you can see some stronger signals (WWVH and Reach Beyond Australia), and two very weak signals. All received during the day, just after lunchtime my local time. One is AWR from Sri Lanki to Bali in Indonesia, the other is WWCR from Nashville, Tenessee, to the north-east USA. I am in Johannesburg, South Africa. On the weak signals I think the SR-286 shows its strength.
However, on the stronger signals there is more of a contest, I think the Eton Elite Traveler sounds great, and the two XHDATA radios also do very well, sometimes they seem clearer than the SR-286.
I recorded the sound digitally on the Tecsun ICR-110 and synced the visuals with the audio during editing. I think this sounds better than my previous videos where I used a microphone for recording, the mic seemed to cause some fluttering.
I think the SR-286 is clearly a weak-signal chaser, and, of course, a great MW radio. MW season is beginning to open up here in South Africa, so my MW videos will start coming soon.
00:00 Introduction
00:54 AWR from Trincomalee, Sri Lanka
09:36 WWVH from Hawaii
11:18 WWCR from Nashville, USA
13:20 Reach Beyond Australia from Kununurra 
Развлечения
Another great radio reception video. Thank you again Andre.
Thanks Dan!
Thank you Andre for taking an effort of recording the radios with your ICR-110! Now that's much better indeed 😊
I think this video needs to be watched a couple times to catch any differences between all four radios. Really!
The Qodosen SR-286 does stand out in all cases, but more for its kinda tinnier, less bassy audio, rather than reception quality. However, the shootout does confirm the SR-286 deals a bit better with fading.
There was quite a lot of QSB on the AWR Trincomalee signal, so a fair comparison isn't easy. In fact, I'd even call it a tie between all four units!
WWVH was phenomenal - except on the Eton, which has some bad birdie or other noise mixing in with the signal. Definitely a loser in this case.
On WWCR, in fact, all four radios managed to retrieve at least traces of audio, which is quite cool on its own. But it's only on the Qodosen that I might actually try deciphering what that guy was saying. And maybe a word or two on the D-808.
Finally, with Reach Beyond Australia, I've noticed a bit of audio distortion on peaks during the talk segment on the D-808. This is in line with my own unit of the same model, and I think it's IF AGC reacting slightly too late. Unfortunately, your D-608WB & Eton snippets only contained music, so I couldn't see if they show a similar behaviour. And I never paid attention to that 😂
At some point, when I left the video out of scope but continued listening to it, a transition between two radios was so smooth, and difference between their audio so small that I hardly even noticed that transition 😂 but now that I want to find that moment... I can't 🤣🤣🤣 Perhaps it's the speakers of the radios themselves that make more of a difference? 🤔
Anyway, thanks again for the comparison & looking forward to your MW videos involving the Qodosen 😅
Thanks Arnie, I am very much looking forward to my own MW comparisons also :-) Things are getting better here, I am beginning to hear weak traces on some frequencies that have been quiet for a while, and some brand new catches already on the Qodosen, like ERTU Al Shabab (711 kHz, 100 kW) from Egypt (not their other 500 kw transmitter). I think very soon I will be able to make some videos of MW catches.
What you say about the speakers is an interesting point, I think they do make a difference, which you cannot hear when you record digitally. So that's one small disadvantage about recording digitally. But, I agree with you, it just sounds miles better. I think it was the mic I used.
I was quite surprised by the WWCR catch in daytime, not one that I have ever caught in daytime on this frequency. I agree with you that the Qodosen is the only one here that was almost decipherable. On many of the other signals, as you say, the difference in some cases is really very small.
I think the Eton sounds best to my ears -- it seems to be at least as good as the 808 in terms of intelligible speech. Sometimes that can make or break IDing a station, regardless of signal strength.
All good radios, and another very informative video! I appreciate your time and effort in making these.
Thank you so much for your comment! I agree with you about the Eton sound, it is among the best-sounding radio of all my radios, it is a very good little radio. But, as you say, all these are good in their own way! Thank you for watching my videos.
Mooie ontvangst van deze stations 👍 groeten uit Nederland 🇳🇱📻
Dankie Albert, en baie groete vanuit Suid-Afrika aan jou!
It's incredible how that little radios perform...
Thanks Vinsu, I agree! They are all incredible.
Muito bom gostei parabéns
Obrigado José!
All are impressive. The WWCR Nashville was a surprise.
Thanks James, I agree, all are impressive. I was as surprised by WWCR as you were. I do pick that one up fairly often, very late at night my time, usually in the 31m band. This frequency was completely new to me. Interestingly there were faint traces on all four radios, but only the SR-286 seemed to be fairly stable.
The music was more enjoyable on D-808, but the voice sounded more understandable on SR-286 and on Eton traveler. Although D-608WB was a hair behind of the other radios in every meaning, it's the best receiver in its class.
I agree, I think the sound is good on the D-808 for music, but I think it is even better on the D-608WB for music. The voice quality is very good on the SR-286. I really think you are hitting the nail on the head about the D-608WB, for its price and in its class it is really a top-quality receiver.
Great video, André. It shows how much it's hard to rank these receivers. Things change quite a lot between the two rounds on the first station.
Yes, the Qodosen is the overall winner here, but not always and not by a large margin sometimes IMHO.
This confirms that the D-608 is noisy, that good old D-808 isn't out of the game despite the cutoff effect clearly heard here. Funny that I haven't noticed it on this radio. It does affect all my Retekess radios quite a lot.
The Eton is consistent but is does distort the signal a bit.
If I ever receive my SR-286, I'll do my own shootout too, putting my PL-330 and my newly acquired Degen D1103 (analog version) in the game.
BTW why do you very seldom include the PL-368 in your shootouts?
Great idea of recording the sound from line out instead of with your microphone. It sounds like the result is much, much closer to what we'd actually hear if with you.
Hi Alain, thanks for your comment! I agree with you that the margin between the Qodosen and the other radios, in some cases, is really very small. On some of the stronger signals some of the others even seem to sound better.
I have been using the Qodosen a lot lately, and performed many conparisons. It is clear to me that it really shines on weak signals, where others only catch a few words or noise, the Qodosen often still manges to pull in a weak signal well enough to be decihereable. But on stronger signals the difference is much smaller. For me the Qodosen is my weak-signal radio, the one I will use to find really elusive signals.
The reason why I almost never use the PL-368 is very practical :-) The shape. I need to place it very far away from the phone camera so that one can see the entire radio, but then the screen becomes unreadable. My camera's zoom function (like so many phone cameras) is fuzzy, so it's no use zooming in. Or I need to hold the PL-368 kind of sideways (as I have done in the past) close to the camera. Which looks a bit odd. But I do want to compare the PL-368 to the Qodosen a bit more. I'll probably try to raise my phone camera and place the PL-368 in a way that one can see only the screen.
Qodosen is winner.
I agree!
SR-286 is a winner on weak signals.
I agree, I think that is where it really shines.
Thanks Andre however, I don’t think you are supposed to use actual ammunition…😂!
73! Have a great day!
Thanks! 😂
This Eton receiver has rds?
It does indeed have RDS.