Do not waste your money on this radio. It should never have been released for sale and basically it should be in the Beta stage. There are much better radios on the market and for equal or less money. It is definitely a packed radio as far as functions and with the ability to be controlled from an App. I owned this radio for roughly two weeks and in that time these are the issues I found with it from an operation point of view. It’s since been returned. What caught my eye on this radio was the range of frequencies it covers, that it can receive Upper and Lower sidebands and the UHF / VHF ability. The other draw was it could be linked to an app. #1 Issue was the muting of the audio when tuning through the frequencies. This to me is a big issue and as far as I saw was yet to be fixed through a software upgrade. In fact many persons say not to perform the upgrade since the patch had issues to the level of “Bricking” the radio, making as useful as a brick. #2 Issue was the unstable receiver. I noticed that tuning into a strong signal on a secondary radio (Yaesu FTdx10) and an external antenna and setting the TR113 to the same frequency, that the radio was tuned lower than the reference radio. Tuning higher using the fine tune control brought the signal in, but when moving away and then back to the same frequency it was not consistent and needed to be adjusted once again. This was repeated over and with differing results. #3 Issue was the external antenna jack. This was a selling point for me being able to connect external antenna’s VHF / UHF through the SMA top connector and shortwave (HF) to the rear of the radio. The radio also has a third input on the top next to the SMA connector for a magnetic (ferrite) antenna that comes with the radio. The jack on the top for this antenna is basically a 3.5mm stereo jack. The rear jack never seemed to make good contact to my external antenna and I was using basically a mono 3.5mm plug / cable / PL 259 connector to the antenna. I can’t confirm, but the top and rear connector on the radio looks to be the same (stereo). The standard for these portable receivers uses mono plugs like the Sangean ANT-60. I found the connection to be loose and finicky. #4 Issue was with the App. Basically the app works as a remote control. It will not provide an audio signal and is only for remove control. The main issue I found was with tuning. The App has an UP / Down button and basically tunes the radio in jumps of 10khz. No where in the app could I find any way to reduce the step lower than 10khz even if the actual radio had the lowest setting possible. There are a lot of reviews of this radio and very few go into issues and how poor of a radio this is. There are other issues with this radio (poor manual, lack of a VHF / UHF rubber ducky antenna, etc.). I've very surprised on the reviews it gets and was partially the reason of deciding to go with it. Invest your money elsewhere in either a Sangean or a Tecsun that has been around for a few years and have proven track records. This radio will probably be replaced by another model leaving you without any support or software upgrades. Its also in my opinion not a good radio for someone starting out in shortwave listening.
Do not waste your money on this radio. It should never have been released for sale and basically it should be in the Beta stage. There are much better radios on the market and for equal or less money.
It is definitely a packed radio as far as functions and with the ability to be controlled from an App. I owned this radio for roughly two weeks and in that time these are the issues I found with it from an operation point of view. It’s since been returned.
What caught my eye on this radio was the range of frequencies it covers, that it can receive Upper and Lower sidebands and the UHF / VHF ability. The other draw was it could be linked to an app.
#1 Issue was the muting of the audio when tuning through the frequencies. This to me is a big issue and as far as I saw was yet to be fixed through a software upgrade. In fact many persons say not to perform the upgrade since the patch had issues to the level of “Bricking” the radio, making as useful as a brick.
#2 Issue was the unstable receiver. I noticed that tuning into a strong signal on a secondary radio (Yaesu FTdx10) and an external antenna and setting the TR113 to the same frequency, that the radio was tuned lower than the reference radio. Tuning higher using the fine tune control brought the signal in, but when moving away and then back to the same frequency it was not consistent and needed to be adjusted once again. This was repeated over and with differing results.
#3 Issue was the external antenna jack. This was a selling point for me being able to connect external antenna’s VHF / UHF through the SMA top connector and shortwave (HF) to the rear of the radio. The radio also has a third input on the top next to the SMA connector for a magnetic (ferrite) antenna that comes with the radio. The jack on the top for this antenna is basically a 3.5mm stereo jack. The rear jack never seemed to make good contact to my external antenna and I was using basically a mono 3.5mm plug / cable / PL 259 connector to the antenna. I can’t confirm, but the top and rear connector on the radio looks to be the same (stereo). The standard for these portable receivers uses mono plugs like the Sangean ANT-60. I found the connection to be loose and finicky.
#4 Issue was with the App. Basically the app works as a remote control. It will not provide an audio signal and is only for remove control. The main issue I found was with tuning. The App has an UP / Down button and basically tunes the radio in jumps of 10khz. No where in the app could I find any way to reduce the step lower than 10khz even if the actual radio had the lowest setting possible.
There are a lot of reviews of this radio and very few go into issues and how poor of a radio this is. There are other issues with this radio (poor manual, lack of a VHF / UHF rubber ducky antenna, etc.). I've very surprised on the reviews it gets and was partially the reason of deciding to go with it. Invest your money elsewhere in either a Sangean or a Tecsun that has been around for a few years and have proven track records. This radio will probably be replaced by another model leaving you without any support or software upgrades. Its also in my opinion not a good radio for someone starting out in shortwave listening.
Thanks for your detailed observations.