QODOSEN DX-286 Portable Radio, with TEF6686 Automotive Chip,LW,AM, FM, Shortwave,data system(RBDS/RDS),Antenna Attenuator,Antenna Switch, AMP Switch,1000 Presets,Tone Switch,Clock/UTC/ALARM/Sleep

This Radio was highly recommended to me by "Fred in the shed" on Youtube!First impression: it is very well made, feels & looks a bit like the Sony mini radios of the 80's and 90's, (Icfw 55/100) compact, massive, solid and nothing looks or feels cheap! Quite the opposite in fact! All in all a really nice set. FM is a treat, I can suddenly hear stations I never heard before! MW & LW is not of much importance here. But SW is again excellent, right up there with my big SW-receivers which are of a high quality - incredible! You will need to work with the manual, don't underestimate this radio! Not so great: no battery, but you can get these easily. One detail I am not all to happy with: I had to pay €22.- in customs charges. I ordered this radio on the amazon uk website thinking, I would get this radio through the UK ( like most of the things for Ireland) and thanks to the customs agreement UK/Europe ( For goods up to €150 no customs charges occur) would not be confronted with customs charges. I still think the radio is well worth it , no question. But the fact that customs charges will apply need to be highlighted on the Website. Otherwise all in all: an exceptional product and one hell of a Christmas present!Thanks Fred!

The radio is really only for someone who knows about radios. Don’t get me wrong the radio is really nice, super sensitive fm reception. Great sound quality, it’s amazing for its size. But it has loads of interesting and useful settings, I don’t think you will get the best out of this radio unless you go into settings it up how you want to use it.Not good battery life warning, it says the battery is full then without any ramp down in displayed power, it displays almost empty!!!Don’t attempt to just switch on and use,Read manual first, or not much will happen.I think that the default settings could do with tweaking, depending on where it’s being sold.Personally I am really enjoying using it.

Nice compact radio complete with its own case. I bought this primarily for FM dxing and it hasn't let me down. Please read the manual that comes with it as has many features and functions not only for FM but also AM and shortwave. Would I recommend it? You bet!

reception poor on medium wave.

All around radio great on FM

Very little not to like a bit better battery life.

This radio has a vastly improved sensitivity over any other radio that I have tested. I tested it with a passive Youloop and an active MLA-30+. The passive loop works best overall with the lowest noise. It took me a little time to determine that the supplied aerial lead is of inferior quality and needs replacement (see my image). I have removed the telescopic aerial completely since it is a noise and interference magnet when the external aerial is being used.

Being popular amongst numerous reviewers, I purchased the DX-286 recently.The first thing is that the radio doesn't really work straight out of the box. Batteries (or in this case, battery) are not included. For this, you need to buy a separate battery, and it's not one you can buy in the shops. So, battery from Amazon in hand, I insert it, it looks as if it's charging and I leave it to charge. Only, it doesn't. I swap out the cable, and use a different charger. No difference. It only works directly plugged into the mains.So, let's move to the radio itself. Operation is not intuitive and is complex. The first thing you discover is that RDS on FM is not turned on by default, and "enabling" it doesn't work unless you go to a different menu and choose a custom set up.And the performance? Abysmal, I have a 15 year old Walkman cassette radio with greater sensitivity on FM than the DX-286. I have absolutely no idea why people rave about this item.Let's move on to technical support - there is none. Qodosen DO have a webpage! But support is not available there. Either the links don't exist, or most of the working links link to an FAQ page that it's totally irrelevant.And returning to Amazon? As this is a third party seller, YOU have to pay for the return, which Amazon will refund you.Do NOT buy this radio, unless you want to be disappointed