I bought a Qodosen DX-286 portable radio at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3V3H356 for 80 USD + tax.
I compared it with a tecsun PL330 last evening.
Good,
- The tiny speaker is surprisingly loud and deep. Better than tecsun PL330.
- Stellar performance in FM band. It clearly received 38 stations without pulling out the antenna. While tecsun got only 19.
- Good MW performance. It picked up 15 stations. Tecsun got 12 stations.
- It decodes FM RDS/RBDS.
- It uses a widely available 18650 battery and can charge the battery through USB.
- The build quality feels nice.
- The tuning knob has good tactile feedback.
- It is extremely compact.
- It has many powerful settings.
- The LCD display has good viewing angle and even backlight.
Meh
- It does not receive SSB or air band. But I have other radios for these.
- It is power hungry thanks to the TEF6686 chip. The quiescent current in FM band is 200 mA.
- The 18650 battery is not included in the package.
- I wish the RDS info could be displayed on a dot-matrix with more characters.
- Buttons serve multiple functions. I must not lose the user manual.
- The English user manual has a few translation errors.
- The noise floor in FM is higher than PL330's.
- The radio mutes for ~100ms between tuning, probably due to DSP.
- The buttons do not have a bump on 5, making it hard to use in the dark.
- It takes ~1 sec to boot.
Bad
- The "world" clock setting is counter-intuitive. IMO, the correct order is to set UTC time and then choose the local timezone.
- The kickstand feels flimsy.
- Charging port is micro USB, not type C.
- The volume control is weird. The volume knob is a potentiometer. The MCU reads its output to set the actual volume.
- The carrying case is a waste of plastic.
A teardown of the radio is at https://www.shouyinji.com/thread-2518-1-1.html
Jay Allen's review at https://radiojayallen.com/qodosen-sr-286-am-fm-sw-high-performance-portable/
Note that DX-286 is an improved version of SR-286.
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