I have been through quite a few cyclones over the years including cyclone Tracy in Darwin and yes radios like these or even just a basic one are an absolute must have👍
Great review Fred, I especially like the intro story about the power cuts that was the lead in to this review, which was relevant to the radio! I cracked up laughing when you said there were all these poor sods outside saying "can you get a signal"!!!!!. TBH I had little sympathy, (you handled it well, the sods holding their phones up didn't, haha) as here in Ukraine this is our daily routine due to the Russian bombing more than half our power generation capacity, so we have daily power cuts to manage the grid loads. The cell towers do have battery backup (via solar chargers) but they don't last long, as we find here, but no one here in Ukraine goes outside holding their phones up begging for a signal, we know how it all rolls! You sold me that radio just for the bright lights to light our flat up at night. I already have a SW receiver, but hey maybe I'll save up money to get the XHDATA, can't hurt to have a spare. Cheers Fred and it's nice to know you all got a taste of life in Ukraine with the power cuts! 😉📻
Thank you. Wishing you and your family the very best. Terrible situation that you have to live in and just so wrong on all levels. Please take real care.
I was in Adelaide, South Australia, during the 2016 blackouts. For 46 hours, there were no cell towers, street lights, or Wi-Fi, and plenty of trees were down due to the storms. Without a radio, we wouldn't have a clue what was going on.
Thank you Fred. This is absolutely the best survival radio (and such an incredibly low price.) So many useful features. No scrambling about for torches, batteries (what a superb speaker too !) And your advice about putting audio books on a memory card to keep your mind off any civil emergency - superb. SW seems really stable too. This is a must-have buy. Thank you Fred.
The SOS siren is the loudest one I've ever heard. Excellent radio design with the right features. The loop on the left side would work with a detachable lanyard. There are some vinyl radio bags which will work for travel/storage. The passive radiator (on the back) is interesting to watch while listening to bass heavy music. Very effective. Great review!
Got mine today. A point of note, if anyone's interested, lol? Battery is 'button top', so 18650 'flat top' will not work, aka, the ones that you use in your vape device ;) You could file down plastic lugs in battery compartment (not much need taken off them), and 'flat top' will then work, (spring has enough give), or solder/spot weld onto connection to make it protrude a little, both are doable. The battery is 3000mah, but charging in my super dooper 18650 charger, singly, aka, separate from unit itself, results in a max charge rate of 0.5a. Slow. I charge all my 18650's @ 2.0a. This is probably because the battery is of the 'protected' type, and not 'high drain'. Just a heads up :) Radio is great though :D BTW. My screen came all scratched, but screen does have a film protector on it, although a bugger to remove ;) Good nails required lol. All OK after removing. *Edit Just spot welded one of my VTC6, works fine, full charge rate :) May not hold as long?, but hey, it's only a radio, and the 'dynamo' should charge it quicker also, if needed ;)
Cheers FRED got me wind up light got me 10 m ,11 m and so no. All I need now is a radio and I didn't even notice that I never had one with batteries, all electric. Great stuff again and see you soon Alan, 💯👍
Nice little radio Fred, but for the fact that you gave that advice about the shut down in communications it really hits home what you are saying. Yes it would actually be a comfort should things go wrong. It actually looks nicely made, I personally would keep one of these handy on standby. I have no doubt that the Sangean would be like a Rolls Royce in comparison but at a lot more cost. You haven’t lost your touch mate great to watch your videos as always 👍Tom.
Another good reason for having a MW backup radio (for me particularly but anyone else in a similar situation), I live within the radius of a nuclear accident alarm. The guidance if you hear it is to close all windows, remain indoors, and listen to the local radio station for updates. My local radio station does still transmit on MW too, so there's that if the FM goes down. In short, it doesn't hurt to have something like that just in case you need it, it's certainly not paranoid or prepper stuff. If you go camping, hiking, etc as well, it's good to take something so you can listen to weather forecasts.
I think your bang on sir. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Our fragile system. CAn and probably will call over. Cracking radio fit for purpose for the price - good review and recommendation
Thanks Fred for the rant and review…👍😀! I agree about both as I bought two Xhdata D-608WB’s back in Spring for $27.88 as an introductory price. Anyone trying to argue with you on the minimum chance something could go wrong are utilities will be restored quickly…steer them to US based Storm chasers especially Tornado or hurricane ones. It is hard for the phone companies to restore cell service when the cell tower is a twisted wreck. 73! Have a great day!
Love it. Doesn't fall over like other radios :) Solar panel seems to pick up a charge even if it's not in direct sunlight. Love the bluetooth/SD features, and, of course, you can pick up and answer a phone call while lying in the bath! Has anyone tested how many revolutions of the crank are needed for, say, 30 minutes of listening time?
I have had this radio for close to two months. Your review was as I have found it - a very good machine, with great sensitivity. One thing you wouldn't necessarily notice. I live in an apartment that is part of an older house. We are all elderly and there is a fitted movement sensor and light for night time. On many of my other radios it causes a constant clicking on all A.M bands which is annoying and prevents night-time DXing, this radio is able to suppress that constant clicking and I can DX at night without any problem. The only other radio that does that is a small SDR and but the speaker on that is not as good as this XHDATA. I guess it can suppress electrical interference as a part of it being an emergency radio. Great review, I live in Estonia in a rather quiet rural locality.
Fred ,don't apologise for the rant . You are correct. It's radio operations that will be the greatest help in an emergency. Just a little radio like the one in this review is what can get information that will be needed. CB or Ham even better.
This is a very good radio, i really like it. It has extremely good sound, it receives very well on all the bands, it can ve used as a battery pack, it has BT and MP3, for the price, fantastic. And the battery life is very good.
There's nothing wrong with being prepared Fred. We have the same problems in my part of the UK too. I've just finished hardware and firmware modding an ATS-20+ to give over 50 hours runtime per full charge. I can charge it from a small solar panel in the garden. I may never need the full 50+ hours, but it cost very little to do and may get me out of a jam someday. 👍
Cute radio but... Buy a standard radio with the bands mentioned a torch and some lithium primary cells, they do have 20 years shelf life and do not leak. I don't like to put my radio in the hot sun for charging through the panel. Not good for the battery. How long will the battery survive when not used for years when the radio is stored. When solar charging in the winter I asume the display light and the charge indicator will use more power than this very small panel can deliver and it will drain the battery instead. The handcrank may work though. Take it apart and do some measurements. Thanks for the review its a nice kitchen radio.
One time when I was camping we got caught in a rain shower out on a hiking trail. When we got back to our tent, I was soaked and cold and angry and wanted to pack up an go home. Then I remembered my car, lol. I got in, put the heat on and in a few minutes happy. 😊
Cracking little radio Fred!! Ignore the conspiracy theory haters, there's nothing wrong with being prepared, there's nothing more reassuring than having a radio on in the background during an outage, when things go out of our control, having light, a source of power and to hear updates on the situation is key to surviving even the smallest inconvenience with our sanity intact. The internet, phones and other smart tech are brilliant, but only when powered lol. Thanks for sharing!
I wonder if football is on SW? I live in US and we get Premier League games here on TV, but I’d like to hear it on radio. Doesn’t even need to be Premier League. The radio looks nice. XHData is a good brand. I have a D109WB and like it.
As to the "rant" intro. People often think that the self reliant are somehow paranoid. During hurricane Sandy many people were without power, water, food, medicine etc. There were relief stations put up within blocks of half starved people but no one knew about them. Why? No radio, no communication. So a lot of folks went hungry until authorities could contact them directly.
thank you for the video! i've been thinking recently about getting myself an emergency radio so if you were going to choose one, right now, what would it be?
Alkaline batteries have a very long shelf life these days. Unlike lithium which self discharge quickly and are dead when you need them. Pity that 198KHz is going to clang when the valves expire and all the MW stations are closing down.
XHDATA D-808 with looooong wave. 198kHz UK emergency frequency still on 28/07/24. You must be near BP transmitting station. When I lived in Hertford, at times I could hear R4 in the house wiring! 😂 Stevo these days.
awesome video ones again,just wanna ask if there is no power then radio stations dont have power as well? idk as i m in the netherlands and so far as i can remember whe never had a total blackout so idk just wanted to ask,i mean i have radio,s like that and for my cb radio,s i have battery power 73,s 19ct031
@@CB-RADIO-UK lol not if your in a country where this stuff never happends not know for sure but lol,but i have my HT,s programmed with pmr so if there is a blackout i can hand out those to the neighors and stuff
@@CB-RADIO-UKIt wouldn't hurt to give them each a radio for Christmas, so that in a blackout, they'd know what's happening. I have multiple radios in my space, just to hand out to others in case there's a hurricane heading our way.
Your not a nutter Fred but you should prep for at least 4 weeks. So call me a nutter but what with Trump's anti-NATO stance and Putin's lunacy, one would be a nutter if you didn't put something away for the rainy day.
![[UA] NAVI vs MOUZ | BO5 | IEM Rio 2024](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CMBYk0cbGoA/mqdefault.jpg)
I have been through quite a few cyclones over the years including cyclone Tracy in Darwin and yes radios like these or even just a basic one are an absolute must have👍
I came for the CB radio videos, and I stayed for the SW reviews. Cheers!
Welcome aboard!
Great review Fred, I especially like the intro story about the power cuts that was the lead in to this review, which was relevant to the radio! I cracked up laughing when you said there were all these poor sods outside saying "can you get a signal"!!!!!. TBH I had little sympathy, (you handled it well, the sods holding their phones up didn't, haha) as here in Ukraine this is our daily routine due to the Russian bombing more than half our power generation capacity, so we have daily power cuts to manage the grid loads. The cell towers do have battery backup (via solar chargers) but they don't last long, as we find here, but no one here in Ukraine goes outside holding their phones up begging for a signal, we know how it all rolls! You sold me that radio just for the bright lights to light our flat up at night. I already have a SW receiver, but hey maybe I'll save up money to get the XHDATA, can't hurt to have a spare. Cheers Fred and it's nice to know you all got a taste of life in Ukraine with the power cuts! 😉📻
Thank you. Wishing you and your family the very best. Terrible situation that you have to live in and just so wrong on all levels. Please take real care.
I was in Adelaide, South Australia, during the 2016 blackouts. For 46 hours, there were no cell towers, street lights, or Wi-Fi, and plenty of trees were down due to the storms. Without a radio, we wouldn't have a clue what was going on.
I am travelling to Asia soon , and need a cheap SW radio to throw in my bag,I am looking at the xhdata D219 and D 220.
Very impressed with this radio,bought the XHDATA long wire to go with it with great results 👍
Thank you Fred. This is absolutely the best survival radio (and such an incredibly low price.) So many useful features. No scrambling about for torches, batteries (what a superb speaker too !) And your advice about putting audio books on a memory card to keep your mind off any civil emergency - superb. SW seems really stable too. This is a must-have buy. Thank you Fred.
Couldn't agree more!
This is a nice radio. Receives well and sounds good. It is in my rotation of regular use travel and field radios. Thanks for the review!
The SOS siren is the loudest one I've ever heard. Excellent radio design with the right features. The loop on the left side would work with a detachable lanyard. There are some vinyl radio bags which will work for travel/storage. The passive radiator (on the back) is interesting to watch while listening to bass heavy music. Very effective. Great review!
I agree with you
Got mine today. A point of note, if anyone's interested, lol?
Battery is 'button top', so 18650 'flat top' will not work, aka, the ones that you use in your vape device ;) You could file down plastic lugs in battery compartment (not much need taken off them), and 'flat top' will then work, (spring has enough give), or solder/spot weld onto connection to make it protrude a little, both are doable. The battery is 3000mah, but charging in my super dooper 18650 charger, singly, aka, separate from unit itself, results in a max charge rate of 0.5a. Slow. I charge all my 18650's @ 2.0a.
This is probably because the battery is of the 'protected' type, and not 'high drain'. Just a heads up :) Radio is great though :D
BTW. My screen came all scratched, but screen does have a film protector on it, although a bugger to remove ;) Good nails required lol. All OK after removing.
*Edit
Just spot welded one of my VTC6, works fine, full charge rate :) May not hold as long?, but hey, it's only a radio, and the 'dynamo' should charge it quicker also, if needed ;)
Frid in the shed I learn lot from you about bying cb radios and antennas for cb radios and power supplys for cb radios my friend
Cheers FRED got me wind up light got me 10 m ,11 m and so no. All I need now is a radio and I didn't even notice that I never had one with batteries, all electric. Great stuff again and see you soon Alan, 💯👍
Frid in the shed my hobbies are painting pictures 🖼 and listening to shortwave and ssb iam thinking about getting my Grms license my friend
Frid in the shed I wish you and your wife and kids and your dog 73s that means best wishes my friend
Frid in the shed the color of the XHDATA D-608WB yellow my friend
Nice little radio Fred, but for the fact that you gave that advice about the shut down in communications it really hits home what you are saying. Yes it would actually be a comfort should things go wrong. It actually looks nicely made, I personally would keep one of these handy on standby. I have no doubt that the Sangean would be like a Rolls Royce in comparison but at a lot more cost. You haven’t lost your touch mate great to watch your videos as always 👍Tom.
Another good reason for having a MW backup radio (for me particularly but anyone else in a similar situation), I live within the radius of a nuclear accident alarm. The guidance if you hear it is to close all windows, remain indoors, and listen to the local radio station for updates. My local radio station does still transmit on MW too, so there's that if the FM goes down.
In short, it doesn't hurt to have something like that just in case you need it, it's certainly not paranoid or prepper stuff. If you go camping, hiking, etc as well, it's good to take something so you can listen to weather forecasts.
Got it for less than £33 with a 20% coupon, which is great! Looking forward to seeing this little radio arrive.👍
Hope you enjoy it!
Its sounds good for a little radio nice
Frid in the shed your UA-cam videos are awesome my friend
I think your bang on sir. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Our fragile system. CAn and probably will call over. Cracking radio fit for purpose for the price - good review and recommendation
Thanks Fred for the rant and review…👍😀! I agree about both as I bought two Xhdata D-608WB’s back in Spring for $27.88 as an introductory price.
Anyone trying to argue with you on the minimum chance something could go wrong are utilities will be restored quickly…steer them to US based Storm chasers especially Tornado or hurricane ones. It is hard for the phone companies to restore cell service when the cell tower is a twisted wreck.
73! Have a great day!
Love it. Doesn't fall over like other radios :) Solar panel seems to pick up a charge even if it's not in direct sunlight. Love the bluetooth/SD features, and, of course, you can pick up and answer a phone call while lying in the bath! Has anyone tested how many revolutions of the crank are needed for, say, 30 minutes of listening time?
I am going to say that the crank is best for emergency use only. Too flimsy.
Frid in the shed iam thinking about getting the XHDATA D-608WB AM FM sw wx Bt mp3 weather Alert emergency portable radio my friend
Neat radio.
You should always have a few supplies in the house. A weeks worth at least. The radio is a good edition to any emergency situation.
I have had this radio for close to two months. Your review was as I have found it - a very good machine, with great sensitivity. One thing you wouldn't necessarily notice. I live in an apartment that is part of an older house. We are all elderly and there is a fitted movement sensor and light for night time. On many of my other radios it causes a constant clicking on all A.M bands which is annoying and prevents night-time DXing, this radio is able to suppress that constant clicking and I can DX at night without any problem. The only other radio that does that is a small SDR and but the speaker on that is not as good as this XHDATA. I guess it can suppress electrical interference as a part of it being an emergency radio. Great review, I live in Estonia in a rather quiet rural locality.
Great review Fred, the price now is £41+.......
Hi. Look below there is a 20% coupon which takes it down below £33
Fred ,don't apologise for the rant . You are correct. It's radio operations that will be the greatest help in an emergency. Just a little radio like the one in this review is what can get information that will be needed. CB or Ham even better.
This is a very good radio, i really like it. It has extremely good sound, it receives very well on all the bands, it can ve used as a battery pack, it has BT and MP3, for the price, fantastic. And the battery life is very good.
There's nothing wrong with being prepared Fred. We have the same problems in my part of the UK too. I've just finished hardware and firmware modding an ATS-20+ to give over 50 hours runtime per full charge. I can charge it from a small solar panel in the garden. I may never need the full 50+ hours, but it cost very little to do and may get me out of a jam someday. 👍
Nothing daft about some basic preparation, sound advice i think. 👍
Cute radio but...
Buy a standard radio with the bands mentioned a torch and some lithium primary cells, they do have 20 years shelf life and do not leak.
I don't like to put my radio in the hot sun for charging through the panel. Not good for the battery.
How long will the battery survive when not used for years when the radio is stored.
When solar charging in the winter I asume the display light and the charge indicator will use more power than this very small panel can deliver and it will drain the battery instead.
The handcrank may work though.
Take it apart and do some measurements.
Thanks for the review its a nice kitchen radio.
It is a torch Fred !!
Or even a flashlight 😇
I think in an emergency, the last people I want to listen to is the UK media ;)
Great radio though!
I think your right Fred, my Mrs village often loese power for Days
Good advice fred ive got a el cheapo wind up raidio with torch function.
It’s a sensible buy.
A lot of people forget that they also have a radio in their car parked outside the front door.
One time when I was camping we got caught in a rain shower out on a hiking trail. When we got back to our tent, I was soaked and cold and angry and wanted to pack up an go home. Then I remembered my car, lol. I got in, put the heat on and in a few minutes happy. 😊
Cracking little radio Fred!! Ignore the conspiracy theory haters, there's nothing wrong with being prepared, there's nothing more reassuring than having a radio on in the background during an outage, when things go out of our control, having light, a source of power and to hear updates on the situation is key to surviving even the smallest inconvenience with our sanity intact. The internet, phones and other smart tech are brilliant, but only when powered lol. Thanks for sharing!
I wonder if football is on SW? I live in US and we get Premier League games here on TV, but I’d like to hear it on radio. Doesn’t even need to be Premier League.
The radio looks nice. XHData is a good brand. I
have a D109WB and like it.
I ve never heard football on SW. However they did have tennis being broadcast.
As to the "rant" intro. People often think that the self reliant are somehow paranoid. During hurricane Sandy many people were without power, water, food, medicine etc. There were relief stations put up within blocks of half starved people but no one knew about them. Why? No radio, no communication. So a lot of folks went hungry until authorities could contact them directly.
Copy that bang on.
Frid in the shed your XHDATA D-608WB AM FM sw wx Bt mp3 weather Alert emergency portable radio is awesome my friend
Great video , but a shame all the medium wave stations are shutting down in the uk 😢
So sad
I have a Tecsun S-2000 in my shed ;-)
Nice radio.
this is like the shopping channel 🤣
Without the dolly birds.
Great video Fred, may I ask which radio for reliable backup that is able to pickup most available stations here in the UK would be
Try this one for a tenner. ua-cam.com/video/hc52ucUqJuE/v-deo.html
Ed in the shed here in Missouri..if it had a bnc connect
thank you for the video! i've been thinking recently about getting myself an emergency radio so if you were going to choose one, right now, what would it be?
Prob this one.
Alkaline batteries have a very long shelf life these days. Unlike lithium which self discharge quickly and are dead when you need them.
Pity that 198KHz is going to clang when the valves expire and all the MW stations are closing down.
Hi Fred another great review,but I wanted to ask if your not using a radio for some time what is the best way to store the battery's.
Somewhere dry is best and make sure they dont touch ends.
XHDATA D-808 with looooong wave. 198kHz UK emergency frequency still on 28/07/24. You must be near BP transmitting station. When I lived in Hertford, at times I could hear R4 in the house wiring! 😂 Stevo these days.
awesome video ones again,just wanna ask if there is no power then radio stations dont have power as well? idk as i m in the netherlands and so far as i can remember whe never had a total blackout so idk just wanted to ask,i mean i have radio,s like that and for my cb radio,s i have battery power 73,s 19ct031
I think most radio stations will have emergency generators.
@@CB-RADIO-UK lol not if your in a country where this stuff never happends not know for sure but lol,but i have my HT,s programmed with pmr so if there is a blackout i can hand out those to the neighors and stuff
"my kids don't, my friends don't, nobody does . . ."
Get your kids and your friends each a battery-powered radio for Christmas.
They are way too busy glued to their phones. Hardly can bare not touching them for a min at a time. Sad fact.
@@CB-RADIO-UKIt wouldn't hurt to give them each a radio for Christmas, so that in a blackout, they'd know what's happening. I have multiple radios in my space, just to hand out to others in case there's a hurricane heading our way.
Was interested in this radio for £27 so I followed your link to Amazon. On there it's priced at £41. Not sure if it's worth that kind of money though.
If you look there is a 20% off voucher so its just below £33. :-).
🟠 6:19 nope, it only comes in that color
I guess your advertising did well for Amazon, the price has now gone up to £41. Damn it.
Hi. If you look there is a 20% off voucher which brings it down.
£33 with delivery
Convid was bollo* we went everywhere during lock*own never questioned!! Enjoyed our time off!!!!
Nice glad you had fun. I went to work every day and prayed that i would not bring it home to my family.
Your not a nutter Fred but you should prep for at least 4 weeks. So call me a nutter but what with Trump's anti-NATO stance and Putin's lunacy, one would be a nutter if you didn't put something away for the rainy day.
if nuclear war happens the last thing i care about is a fooking radio lolol.
LOL :-)
Bought a D109 bricked itself in three months won't take a charge it's not battery it's the radio .never buy from them overpriced and poorly made