Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Risen RS-918SSB (Quanzhou Risen Electronics Co. Ltd)

Category: QRP Radios (5 watts or less)

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Risen RS-918SSB (Quanzhou Risen Electronics Co. Ltd)
Reviews: 18MSRP: 350.00
Description:
Great 5-10 watt HF all mode transceiver,,Full color touch screen,waterfall and scope full time view..Very nice reciver
and lots of fun to use..
Its the china version of the mcHF M0NKA project..
Product is in production
More Info: http://en.recentchina.com/product_detail.php?id=42
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00184
W5FCX Rating: 2018-08-23
Great QRP SDR Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have had the RS-918 for several months now. Finally got it integrated with WSJT-X for FT8 use. It works surprisingly well, for an inexpensive QRP rig that costs around $400 or less. I was able to configure it with a single USB cable to Windows 10 on a Suface Pro 4 and made dozens of contacts, both in USA and DX into EU and South America with decent signal reports, using a marginal inverted vee antenna on 20m and 40m.

It’s built in CW decoder rivaled CW Skimmer in some brief tests.

I’ve had less luck with it using SSB, probably due to the QRP power levels combined with marginal antennas. However, I have made contacts and while signal reports are 56 to 57 and lower at times, audio quality reports are good.

I have compared the receiver signal quality with higher end units, including ICOM-7300 and Flex 6300, on the same antenna, where the background noise is only S1 to S2 on those other radios from a remote location. With the latest firmware, I’m still seeing significantly higher noise levels vs the other reference receivers - like 4 to 5 S-units more noise on the RS-918. This makes it much tougher to use it with SSB especially. For more noise immune modes like CW and FT8, it works like a champ.

Hopefully someday the SDR signal to noise and noise rejection processing will improve. In the meantime, it’s a great little, inexpensive, flexible QRP rig I’m glad I have available to take with me.
M0KZX Rating: 2018-03-04
Amazing value for money QRP radio. No shack should be without o Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've owned my SR-918 for about 6 week s now and have spent many happy hours using it.
It cost about £320 here in the UK via one of the global internet auction sites.

The build quality is excellent. The radio is housed in a heavy gauge steel case. All of the controls feel to be of good quality and the colour display works a treat.
It works straight out of the box, but it's worth spending some time tailoring the controls to fit your needs. The menu structure is logical and easy to work through.

My one and only negative point is the microphone. The transmit audio is very boxy. This is very easy to fix my taking the mic apart and drilling some small holes in front of the mic element. After doing this the audio reports were all excellent.

The radio puts out about 12 watts from 13v supply.

I've made SSB contacts all over Europe using this radio and reports have all been excellent.

If you have £320 burning a whole in your pocket this radio is a must have.
UR7FM Rating: 2018-02-02
Cool radio! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Cool radio, every day firmware update.Tested in all modes-good signal,10-15 watt on full power.My second SDR after IC7300, not same but I am impressed.Very good for mobile activity.
PE1DHI Rating: 2017-11-27
Now good TX version Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The next one I did receive seems o.k. and performs good.

In my last review I wrote about a TX fault, this next one working as adverised.
W5RHR Rating: 2017-09-28
fun QRP radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Although I own an FT817 and and SDR Play2 I wanted to play with another QRP transceiver with SDR capabilities.Only had it a few days but these are my reflections thus far.

It is not a plug and play radio for the appliance operator. You have to be versed on firmware updates and be ready for the radio to act quirky. In the past few days it either hung up or stopped receiving, also using PTT caused a carrier to be emitted with no modulation. After a reboot and refresh of the firmware it has so far played nice.

Fairly good receiver with DSP processing for NB and filters and the band scope is real time.

The mic that comes with it is cheap, I am planning on replacing it with a HEil hand held ,THe case gets VERY warm due to the regulators.XMit audio monitored on a second receiver sounds pleasant.

I succeeded in interfacing it on a win10 PC with HRD after a few error messages stating the radio was not connected. I have decoded FT8 And psk31 thru the USB audio connection. The latest firmware has rtty and cw decoding built in (and supposedly an interface for a PC keyboard to send the same), but I havent had luck in getting it to decode much less send.

All in all a fun rig and worth the 450 dollars.
One ironic note , a seller on a particular site was asked why they raise their price and they replied since there were so many "fakes" on the market there's was genuine and worth the price. News flash all of these are fakes in the sense they are clones of M0NKAs project, including the seller who raised the price.
KJ6ZH Rating: 2017-09-07
Didn't Realize QRP Could Be So Fun! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Ordered an RS-918 look alike from Shengda Electronic Technology which they rebranded as an SD-109G but it appears to come from a common manufacturer as the RS-918. Paid $420 including shipping and trade assurance from Alibaba on August 15th and received it on August 25th and have been playing with it ever since. This model appears to have the v0.5 boards since the resistor location on v0.6 boards for R43b near the mini USB port is missing. Not a big deal as this optional resistor is used to supply +5v on that port and is not needed nor desired. After looking around the internet for mcHF Transceiver, I found lots of information (manuals, quick start up, firmware updates etc.) on the M0NCA and GITHUB websites. This model will not let you start it with the USB cable connected to a computer (gives you a white screen and won’t boot) but it’s not an issue to turn on the radio and then plug the USB cable from the computer into it. It came with a recent bootloader (3.1.4) and older firmware. Updating to the most recent boot loader and firmware from the GITHUB site was easy and added RTTY with on screen decoding via a keyboard plugged into the large USB port. All features and controls are adjustable via firmware menus and, once the parameters are set, you rarely need to adjust from the menu. I like that you get FreeDV as an option. The radio connects up to Ham Radio Deluxe using the USB cable with the Mini USB connection and selecting FT-817 as the radio. Able to easily work digital modes. Played with the settings and get 10-20 watts out on full power setting (max power on 40 meters less on other bands) and 5 watts at the 5 watt setting for all bands. Hooked it up to my 40 meter full wave vertical loop and easily worked the western US from my QTH near Sacramento, CA. Audio reports were very favorable with mic gain at 15 and compression at 4. You don’t need to overdrive this rig as the mic is sensitive and crisp. Touch screen is a nice feature but really don’t use it and it does lack some response when selecting a feature. Compared the receiver against my Kenwood TS-590S using an A/B Coax switch. The 590, as expected, was able to pull signals out of the noise better than this rig but I probably would not be able to work those stations on 15 watts anyway.

Conclusions: The price is right, features comparable and in some cases better than my TS-590S, small, lightweight, works off a $20 4.8 AH LiPO battery for hours, fits into a small laptop bag with my Superantennas MP-1, coax, key, and wire with room to spare. This is not a plug and play, appliance operator radio but if you like to adjust, upgrade and experiment, this is one neat radio.

I never thought QRP could be so fun (previous philosophy: Life is too short for QRP) but this has changed my mind and introduced me to a fun, new facet of my ham radio experience.
RW9OA Rating: 2017-09-06
It's good! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.

I bought an RS-918 (clone mcHF M0NKA) on the Recent (Quanzhou Risen Electronics Co.). The attached short instruction on one page without additional information from the Internet is insufficient for use. When checking the parameters, it was found that the enterprise was not configured, the main parameters are set by default. The transmitter power indication (Full - 5W - 2W - 1W - 0.5W) is not configured in the received device. When trying to turn on the RS-918 connected to the laptop, a white screen is displayed and the power is not turned on. This fault is described by users, but the Recent is not fixed. The primary view of the transceiver is a semi-finished product for an experienced user. Correspondence with the enterprise was limited to general recommendations from the manufacturer.
    Verification of the declared parameters in the laboratory before adjustment. The transmitter power is 9-15 watts on different bands, the sensitivity of the receiver on the favorite range of 20 m is 0.11 μV (-126 dBm). The real reception of RS-918 signals JT65 and FT8 with the FT-450D transceiver in the same conditions (one antenna, the same versions of the WSJT program) is compared. In fact, the RS-918 accepts more stations than the FT-450D. The signal quality of the SSB transmitter is estimated by correspondents as excellent. For coordination with the antenna used a Chinese QRP tuner self-assembly. Convenient connection of the transceiver to the computer with just one USB cable! The quality of the transceiver's operation corresponds to the declared, except for the defects mentioned above.
    Detailed instructions on the machine's settings are available at https://github.com/df8oe/UHSDR/wiki/
    Many thanks to M0NKA! I wish to respect the radio amateurs, we are many!
I apologize for the machine translation into English!
N8NN Rating: 2017-08-15
Impressive Radio! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Received my RS-918ssb on Aug 10, 2017 and it worked perfectly right out of the box. Worked 5 countries in the first hour on 40m CW with 5 watts into a random wire. SSB QSOs brought excellent audio reports later the same day.

The Good: Very sensitive receiver, many DSP filter settings, peak/notch filters, noise blanker, two VFOs and split operation, built-in keyer, variable tuning rate, USB connection for computer control, SSB/CW/AM/FM/DigitalVoice, spectrum display. It has almost all the features you find on a modern SDR radio.

The less than good: No internal antenna tuner, no internal batteries, clunky menu system, no manual, no memory banks, touch screen is difficult to use, headphone volume can be too loud on audio spikes.

The good far outweighs the less than good. This is a super QRP radio. The software appears to be the same as the mcHF radio, but I have not tried to update the software via USB. Well worth the price.