XHDATA D219 Portable AM FM Shortwave Radio Battery Operated Small Great Reception Radio with Good Sound,Earphone Jack for Elder,Home,Child [Silver]

Initially, I had problems with the Shortwave Reception. Ordered a replacement, but it was lost in shipping! I'm a long time radio enthusiast, radio amateur operator, and tinkerer so I disassembled the radio. I re-routed the antenna wire, which was too long and poorly dressed. I added an SMA Jack for an External Antenna using RG-174 and attached the Ground to the PCB’s ground plane. There’s a ton of info on the Si4825 IC Chip used in this radio and this little guy is very sensitive and is a great platform for modifications. Cost me less than $9(USD) delivered, which is a fraction of the cost of a Si4825 Development Board. I’ve been building radios since age 9, and at 71 I can say that none of my homemade xtal sets, regens, or direct conversation receivers worked as well as this XHDATA D219. I believe this little guy would work much better out in the countryside. I live in a large metropolitan area which is full of radio broadcasters, cellphone towers, TV stations, and VHF/UHF utility stations. The IC Device, a Si4825, which is the heart of this radio, is subject to RF interference. To some degree, all DSP devices suffer from this issue. In higher cost radios using these chips, filtering is added. Because there are really no filters on this inexpensive radio, it is subject to RF Interference and Overload. This becomes even a greater issue in a large metropolitan area with many transmitters. Out in the countryside, your reception on Shortwave would be much better. My radio did improve once I shortened the lead wire from the built-in telescoping antenna and added a jack for an External Antenna. I have been using my outdoor longwire antenna. It would overload and suffer from intermodulation without any filtering. So I've been using my Ham Radio Antenna Tuner between the radio and my outdoor antenna. And I've added a homemade Antenna Attenuator, you can see it in my video. Works just great. The sound quality is just fantastic for having such a small speaker. And the plastic used for the case is very high quality and nearly unbreakable. My wife liked the little radio so much that I ordered another for her. She loves the "Big Radio Sound" coming from this really small speaker and we've both been listening to a local AM Radio Oldies Station as we cook and go through our daily routine. Some users have reported that their radio was "dead" on the Shortwave Bands. As a long time Shortwave Listener (SWL) I will advise you: you must make sure that the Shortwave Bands are "OPEN". In other words, there must be radio signals present in order to hear them. For the past two days the Shortwave Bands have been "dead" due to Solar Flares. This evening I tuned the little D219, which my wife calls "Gidget", to the 17 meter SW Band. It was full of stations with Radio New Zealand booming in the loudest. I also received Radio Free Asia, transmitting in Chinese from Saipan. It was being "Jammed" - by guess who? I'll leave that to you to surmise. If you're persistent in listening, you will hear stations, some of them quite exotic. BTW, I did try out the XHDATA D219 this evening without using my outdoor antenna and attenuator. I stood next to my apartment window and easily picked up Radio New Zealand on 17.675 mHz, just using the built-in telescoping antenna. Overall, I highly recommend this little radio.

This radio is well made. Not some cheap plastic dollar store junk. It is very loud and with crisp clear sound. Very loud for its size. I can hear it clearly for about fifty feet in my home. I won't have to cart it around from one room to the next so I can hear it. Just set the station I want to and let it rip. AM only picks up close local stations during the day, but more at night which is typical for AM. The stations have adequate dial in with well delineated band width. The antenna is only needed for AM and SW (which I have not tried yet and really am not interested in). It is compact, the battery compartment is snug and easy to access and fits the batteries well. They do not justle around in it all. This will be excellent to throw in the glove box of my wives' car in case of CHTF scenario or break down to save the car battery while she waits for help. It will go well in the couple small of bug out bags we have. This radio is very compact and can fit in a shirt pocket or pack pocket. I am really amazed at the sound quality. No static or bleed in the stations. I am especially satisfied with the fact that the on/ff button is separate from the volume button. Something that you would not expect in a low-cost radio. It would be awesome if it had NOAA, but for under $9.00 you cannot expect everything. I am super happy with this purchase. You will not find a better value or bang for your hard-earned buck anywhere else. This radio gets better reception than my Denon home stereo receiver does, and it cost over $2000 new (I got it second hand for much less). I will update this listing when I check out the SW channels. I do like the fact that these are preset and that there is not a jillion of them like I have seen on other models. I cannot give these guys 10 stars, but if I could, I would. The shipping was lightning fast, and it was double boxed to boot. I am going to get 2 more of these for sure. They would make great gifts for birthdays or Christmas. Man, I can say enough good things about this radio. If you are looking for a low-cost emergency or game day radio, then you absolutely need to consider this one. Am I satisfied with this radio? You bet your life I am and it might just be a God send should my life count on it in an emergency. It is all analog easy to use and looks like it is way more expensive a model than it is. Ruggedly made and will last if one keeps it out of direct sun which is not known to be very nice to plastic over time. You have to buy this radio if you are in the market for one. Later: I used the SW bands. During the day is best for this radio for this band something I expected just the opposite. Nighttime decreased my options for reliable stations with no bleed out. Move it to the number on SW band and then use the dial to find a station you want to listen to. Some of the bands provide clear stations by the boat load. Some have nothing on them. It does add to the stations you have at hand to listen to. Most of them are talk radio stations...Spanish or religious stations. It definitely expands the radio stations you can listen to. I have used earphones with this, and it is stereo, and the sound quality depends on the ear buds or phones you use. I do imagine they will decrease the battery life. I bought three more of these to use as gifts, and sent one to a friend.

If your thinking about whether or not to buy this radio, think first about what you'll use it for. I believe its best use would be as a backup radio for news and weather in any emergency. - It uses AA batteries. *(how long they will last is yet to be determined) - It has around a 2" speaker that sounds crisp but by no means unpleasant. *(No base or mid to speak of, but it does sound much better than many other small radio's. The speaker sounds very clear on both AM and FM, and I did actually like the sound of some symphony music I heard on the public radio station. - The antenna is 53.3cm (21"), is sturdy, and swings 360. *( More than adequate for this radio) - The tuner seems very sensitive and I found myself picking up "many" more stations on AM and FM than a few of my other radio's. *( however; you will hear some different clicks, hisses, and other faint background noises) as you tune through other stations. These all seem to get hidden or disappear once you get to a stronger station. - I didn't find that earphones made any significant improvement over the speaker. I also couldn't tell if I was hearing ST or Mono. I'm sure it must say it online somewhere. The headphones themselves were an inexpensive set. - There is a nice fold out stand in the back that sits the radio at a nice angle for listening. - Reception on Shortwave(SW) was fairly nonexistent. *(as expected for the whip antenna). If I really wanted shortwave I would not be buying this radio! Excellent shortwave still requires a significant expense! Final Thoughts: I bought this radio for very low volume nighttime listening while in bed. It failed that test because at the volume I listen at, (which is understanding 1 word in 5), the voice was distorted; I believe because of the low power not being able to drive the speaker properly. However; I plan to keep the radio as a backup storm radio, a purpose for which I believe it is well suited; chiefly because of how many stations this tuner picks up, as well as the other reasons listed above. $10. !

I bought this on a whim; I've got a dozen shortwave receivers and transceivers, but this one was (when I bought it) less than some of the combination meals at the drive-through fast-food places. I like having battery radios handy for emergencies and casual use, so I added it to my order. The surprise is the performance: selectivity is not very good, which is always the case with low-priced portables. But the sensitivity is surprising! With just the built-in antenna, this D-219 gets shortwave stations remarkably well. The sound is fine for such a tiny portable, the controls are a bit glitchy, but if you want to go to the park and still hear the baseball game on Radio Marti, you can slip this in a pocket and go. At the price, this is a fantastic little radio---not as good as a $1500 tabletop set :-) but surprisingly good. Recommended! 73 de AC4RD

The new XHDATA D-219 radio appears to have the same circuitry of the XHDATA D-328 less the Mp3 playback capability - but it also sells at a lower bargain price. What IS new is the AM and FM sensitivity of this radio - which seems to have been optimized to exceed that of the already excellent D-328, leastwise observed in the radio I have. FM stations are now heard that normally require extending the antenna a bit with the D-328. In AM mode, there is no question that there are more distant stations receivable at night. Lost count in how many stations are received in the SW mode in the evening hours. The 9 khz/10 khz statements made by some reviews are incorrect for this radio. The Silicon Labs chip used in this radio, probably the Si743X, is set for 1 khz steps in the AM and SW modes and 10 khz steps in the FM mode, and a highly stable external master clock is used to run the frequency synthesizer. It is possible to skip more that these prescribed step amounts if the tuning control is turned quickly or the control is not perfectly linear in electrical resistance. Therefore it is sometimes helpful to tune very slowly in the forward direction then in the reverse direction with these type of DSP radios in order to locate an especially weak station at night. The Silicon Labs chip also has an Automatic Frequency Control feature that tends to 'snag' the station if not tuned exactly on it, which sometimes causes odd peculiarities in tuning in a station. There are a lot of false images of stations with these type of radios. So ignore these and ensure you are correctly tuned to the proper and strongest station signal. XHDATA definitely wins the radio golden award by having a tuning control mechanism that has absolutely no slack in it, unlike too many other radios in this price range. The speaker sounds thin as one would expect from this size speaker. However with the proper earphones, good fidelity can be achieved. As is, the earphone audio output of the D-209 sounds a bit bright on the treble end and diminished on the bass end. Choosing an earphone set that has the reverse frequency response is helpful. Hard to find but included with many Tecsun radios, the Tecsun E-302 earphones have this quality, and if using, the resulting audio sounds good and fairly well balanced. However, experiment with what you have. Battery life using alkaline cells seems to be about 100 hours if using only the earphones. The D-219 is possibly the most capable and fun radios one can buy in this price range, and also one of the simplest to use. Easily another winner from XHDATA….

I have some experience with XHDATA, as I own a larger Model D-901, which is awesome, so I thought I'd try a mini version of that one to carry while working outside and while hiking and so forth. I got a great deal on this one, which was on sale for under a ten spot, so my hopes were high that it would be good a performer. It came in a few days and after unboxing I installed the batteries (not included) and noticed right away that it was quite sensitive, especially on FM. It brought in a lot of stations, even a few that I had trouble with before. I like the fact that the collapsible antenna swivels, which really helps when you want to set it down to listen. The other astonishing thing about this little jewel is it's LOUD!. The volume knob is located on the right-hand side and is actually intuitive (roll up to increase, and down to lower volume). The band selector switch is also very easy to figure out, with clear (though smallish) markings on the long slider control switch on front center, and the vernier dial is clear and easy to navigate. The design of this little radio is simple and elegant. The speaker, while fairly small, puts out some decent tone and surprising volume. I only had to turn up the volume about 20% to enable a good amount of sound, plenty for a good-sized room or shop. The sensitivity on this little radio seems good all around, although AM seems to be the weaker of the bands, but is quite good at night. Shortwave is decent, too, but really shines during evening hours and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it picked up on most SW bands during the night. (Most SW sets don't pick up worth a hoot during daylight hours, so that's just the nature of the signals against the ionosphere.) This little set really shines on FM, though, and there was only the tiniest amount of crosstalk on just one of the very strong stations in our area. The last little FM pocket radio that I had was almost unusable due to strong stations appearing over and over again up and down the dial - - very annoying! The digital tuner and chip in this unit seems to be top notch, like my bigger radio, and suffice it to say I'm very pleased with this little D-219 radio from XHDATA, and I highly recommend it for a good all-around pocket receiver!

4.5 stars Very good reception, picks up a weak station which some radios can't get. Tuner is about as accurate as analog tuners get, with all stations' dial location falling within the width of the tuner. It has minimal gaps in the DSP tuning steps, and responds quickly so you can scan along at a medium speed without missing anything. Minimal amp noise. The speaker is the main reason I drop half a star. I give it a B+. No specific flaws, it's just somewhat weak and narrow. Not horrible, just not great. This one is currently a fantastic deal, but I prefer the J-711, which has the same reception but with a better speaker.

Fresh out of the box I plugged an dc adapter into this little radio and nothing but loud static played, that was all. So I purchased brand new double a batteries for it, put them in and absolutely nothing but a very, very low static sound plays, controls/volume and tuning do absolutely nothing period! I literally started thinking did I overlook the info about this radio and it's actually just a dummie decoy toy type radio! It does not work, all it does it display the red power light on and play almost impossible to hear/low static with brand new batteries in it. I don't know if I got a defected radio or what but I'm very disappointed in this product because it was a waste of money and I can't use it. I wanted to replace my previous radio that was broken and this definitely was not the right choice for me. It's basically a paper weight! UPDATE: I did a return on the first radio I purchased that would not work and was kindly sent a brand new radio by Amazon which I appreciate it so much and the first thing I did was put brand new batteries in it and was happy because it actually worked and I found my Christian music station and it was playing but then BIG MISTAKE I plugged my dc adapter into the radio and that's when I realized.... Wow by doing that is what causes the radio to completely become useless and not work period just as the first one stopped working! I would have never ever known that was the culprit in basically rendering this type of radio dead! If I hadn't of put brand new batteries in first and actually heard the music playing this time around then I would of totally thought I received another defective non working radio. So disappointing! I wish I had never plugged a dc plug into it! I've never had a radio before just go dead after doing so but I figured it out and that is why! Do not plug a dc adapter into this radio like it says you can and only use batteries if you do not want it to die. I wanted a radio I could use electricity with instead of batteries because I play my favorite music station 24/7 non stop and having a radio just use batteries only would take purchasing new batteries constantly. Returning both to Amazon soon and will just find another dc type radio to purchase. As for this brand radio, I will never purchase it again!

It's good, but the power cable isn't included.

Very good little fm am sw receiver, with good reception and sounds. Unfortunately it is not many stations on shortwave band ,because we aren't in Europe, where is a lot of many news, music in different languages. As overall good toy for very low price. I will recommend this receiver.

Me gustó,el radio portátil es compacto y tiene una bocina que se escucha bien no distorsiona, su precio es accesible lo recomiendo...

Very good receiption .

As described, working fine and using external AC power adapter for my setup. Packaging and shipping was fine and the item arrived safely. Reception and sound is good and the compact size suits my location. Controls are easy to use. No issues. I use it every workday for about 8 hrs a day.