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Reviews For: Tivdio V-115 Portable AM/FM SW Radio

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Tivdio V-115 Portable AM/FM SW Radio
Reviews: 5MSRP: $17-$25
Description:
TIVDIO V-115 portable radio with all features you need: FM/AM/SW band, and also
have 3 record mode, bass sound music player. You can record your favorite music
or talk shows on the radio, and can record the external sounds with the built-in
microphone. So this Multi-Functional Radio not only allows you to enjoy the radio,
but also bring you a great fun
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Cheap-FM-AM-SW-Full-Band-Stereo-Radio-Receiver-TF-Card-MP3-Player-REC-Recorder-Rechargeable/204596_32540444782.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0053.6
WIEDEMA Rating: 2020-01-02
Teleskopantennenkabel muss auf Distanz zur Platine Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Ein wirklich tolles kleines Radio. Ich habe zwei Exemplare gekauft. In beiden Fällen war der Empfang auf KW stark beeinträchtigt und gestört. Ich entschloss mich, meine Geräte zu öffnen. Als langjähriger Radiobastler weiß ich, was Sache ist. Der Fehler fiel sofort ins Auge. Das Verbindungskabel zur Teleskopantenne wird einfach über die Platine geführt, und nimmt dort - induktiv - die Störsignale der Chips auf. Ich hab das Kabel bei beiden Geräten auf Distanz zur Platine gebracht und hatte anschließend ruhigen und viel besseren Empfang. Die Empfindlichkeit auf Kurzwelle könnte noch etwas besser sein insgesamt. Aber mit der kleinen Teleskopantenne kommen schon recht befriedigende Ergebnisse. Rolf-Dieter Wiedenmann, Wetzlar
KE8WO Rating: 2019-01-05
Good Performance in Current Sample Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
A year later, I decided to try this again to see if performance has improved. In this case, Amazon was running a special (just $14) on the identical Retekess V115 made by the same company just a different lable on it. The radio performs much better. AM still has the noise on weaker stations but medium and louder stations work just fine. FM performance is very good, typical of modern DSP based radios. Ditto for SW performance. I have not tried any of the audio recording and playback features. So overall radio performance is good and good features in this price class.

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Earlier 3-star review posted by KE8WO on 2017-12-22

Bought this from Amazon for $17.

FM performance is very good for sensitivity and selectivity. On the par with more expensive radios. The V115 must be DSP based to give such good FM results.

But AM and SW were a different story.

AM was fine for the medium and louder stations. But weaker and even the medium stations had a fair amount of buzzing at all frequencies. I believe the internal circuitry was causing this.

The SW bands all had a general mumbling of AM bleed through on all SW bands. Not super loud on most frequencies but always present.

I didn't use any of its audio recording and playback features.

The V115 seemed well enough in construction quality. The display is bright and big. There are reasonable options for configuring the radio. The buttons are very mechanical / clicking sounding. Including a rechargeable battery at this price point is a plus.

For just FM band usage its maybe worth $20.

I elected to send it back based on its AM & SW performance. I have other $20 or less radios that have much better performance.
KA3PCX Rating: 2018-07-12
This radio may be ok for some not others! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
If you listen to strong stations on MW and FM it is ok
The shortwave section received not one station.
Has a high background noise,other better choices in this price range!
N4YX Rating: 2017-12-24
Amazing Cheapie Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I must give this a 3 rating ("OK") because for $17 it is just that - OK! Pretty amazing results from a radio of this price point. No - it's not going to win any contests but performance/features to price ratio is pretty high. You could spend more & get less. Other than the sometimes-can-be-heard internally generated phase noise it works quite well. I think of it like a disposable lighter. However, if you throw it away please remove & recycle the 1000ma rechargeable cell phone battery.
KB2NAT Rating: 2017-07-04
Amazing for the cost Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I give this radio a 5 with a caveat: There's nothing that does what this radio does as well as it does for the price. It's not quite up to the level of, say, a Kaito 1102 or Tecsun 660/880, but it's not it's not THAT much below them. The speaker fires out both the front and back for added bass and volume. It comes with a rechargeable cell phone battery and a cable to recharge from any USB port (5volts).
It operates from 4.9 to approximately 22.9 MHz (no SSB). Price runs from $17 (eBay) to $25 (Amazon).
Pros:
-Fairly sensitive (surprisingly) with its relatively small antenna
-Records huge gobs of either vocal or on air files with a micro card (you buy it separately)
-Volume is quite substantial, especially since the unit is only slightly larger than a deck of cards
-Radio does fairly well in our crowded city with relatively few ghosts and overloading. It's not perfect, but it's still pretty good.
-The battery lasts for an afternoon of non-stop operation
-The screen lighting has settings for how long it stays lit
-It also has a carrying cord with a metal bracket attached that plugs into the back of the set to allow the radio to stand on an angle on a desk or table.
-It has 100 memory settings.
-It doesn't get goofy with added antenna wire connected to its vertical.
Cons:
-The radio can be sensitive to the angle of its antenna (ferrite rod or pull out antenna.
-It's not stereo in FM
-The manual is small and marginal in its English grammar. Some things are therefore left to experimentation for your learning curve.

In short, if I paid $60 or more for this, I would have paid too much. But at $17+ bucks, it's hard to quibble. If it fell into the pool, I'd buy another one and not worry about it. Oddly, it's incredibly tiny size allows me to use it far more frequently than the others that I have. It's just fun on a budget. It's very much well worth the money.