| KX4LG |
Rating:  |
2024-02-13 | |
| Full of loose connections. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Mine was plagued with loose connections.
Tapping on the case had profound effects on the receiver.
Birdies would show up out of nowhere even with the rig on a dummy load.
Sent back to Chinese vendor for full refund.
Obviously this is a single point of data.
YMMV. |
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| N5ID |
Rating: |
2023-11-07 | |
| Excellent Radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| This little rig is excellent for the price. No its is not an IC-7300 or FT-710, but for a fun portable radio to play with it is great! The receiver for a cheap Chinese radio is very good. The Receive and transmit equalizer work very well, the noise reduction is not the best but it gets the job done. The peak filter on CW is really good. It does take a while to align and calibrate the radio, but once aligned its hard to beat. I compared it with the X6100 and I like the RS-918 better. |
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| K7UQ |
Rating: |
2019-09-02 | |
| follow up on my first review |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| This review is of the R928 Plus, not the RS-928 which I posted the first time. I read the label wrong on the radio. Sorry. That leads to another remark. There are many versions of the RS-918. They all look the same, and I presume, when working will all perform about the same. My radio is the R928 Plus. It has a internal battery which at the present time does not work. I pulled out the dfu port so now it will not work digital, or unable to download firm ware updates. Be very careful with this port. It is very flimsy. As it is, the radio is still a joy to use, working both ssb and cw. Receive audio is better than my big station rig. |
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| WD8U |
Rating: |
2019-06-17 | |
| 2 year update |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
2 year update
I was one of the first to review the RS918,in 2017,,(see my review) And after some tries to update the software that would not work for me,,,but the radio worked fine as it was,, I sent my rs918 (128k) to Mike K0JTA and he did a upgrade of my software!
It now has a cw decoder and is upgraded to new software.. Thank you Mike! There has been a few versions of this radio sold...I got mine from QUANZHOU RISEN ELECTRONICS CO., LTD...and Mike was able to work with it for me... It now works even better than new. No problems ...For me it was worth the cost to get a proper upgraded software. K0JTA helped me out.
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| K4LXY |
Rating: |
2019-05-29 | |
| Excellent rig with a learning curve |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
The Chinese-made RS-918 is a compact, multi-band, HF rig with a maximum output of 10W. Its touchscreen display includes a colorful bandscope with waterfall option and provides readout of various parameters such as frequency, DSP and noise reduction settings, SWR, S-meter, RF power and more. It even includes a workable cw decoder. Many of the parameters are user-configurable through the menu. A speaker is built-in.
This is an all-mode unit that includes SSB, digital modes and even FreeDV. It can be connected to a computer via two USB ports. However, as a hardcore cw operator, I have only used it in cw mode and my comments are based only that; I have not tested other modes.
It is easy to update the firmware, and an active group of international developers regularly provides updates that either tweak existing functions or add new ones.
Other “pros” include easily-selectable output power levels (including .5, 1, 2, 5 watts - perfect for QRP), a tune button, a zero-beat indicator (though the indicator jumps around and takes some getting used to), an easily adjusted iambic keyer with speed readout, and dual VFOs. Both the DSP and the NR (noise reduction) are adjustable and function well. There is an adjustable RF gain/AGC control. Bandswitching is done through up/down buttons. Sidetone/offset frequency is selectable. Calibration, adjustment and parameters are set through extensive menus, but once set, the menu rarely needs to be accessed.
The rig has a 2 ¾ x 7” faceplate, with a built-in tilt stand. Knobs are nicely-machined metal and many of the push-buttons have dual functions, but they are organized in a logical way. Once I’d figured it out, I found the layout convenient and comfortable to use.
The rig does have some downsides. Some of the parameters can be accessed through the touchscreen, but some of the touchscreens aren’t very responsive. Fortunately, most things also can be accessed in other ways. Plug wiring for a straight key is not standard. The built-in SMD fuse is hard to change, so it’s best to use an additional in-line fuse in the DC line. There is no built-in antenna tuner.
This rig is not plug-and-play. It comes from the factory without being calibrated, so a number of parameters like PA bias must be adjusted immediately. Documentation is on line but it isn’t always easy to decipher and with firmware updates, may not be totally current. Much of the operation is different than a conventional, non-SDR rig. Consequently, there is a fairly steep learning curve involved. In addition, quality control is not great, and factory support is poor, so there are significant risks in buying from China, eBay or Amazon. Fortunately, however, Mike, K0JTA, who runs the user group for this rig, also sells the rig after testing it, updating the firmware, setting the basic parameters including the built-in TCXO, and generally ensuring that the rig is working well and ready to go. To me, the few extra dollars he charges are well worth the cost.
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| W6UXB |
Rating: |
2019-05-24 | |
| Excellent |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I found Mike from the RS-918 Groups site, I did put an offer in for a radio from China that was rebuked. Good job because Mike offered me a NOS radio with 512K firmware but with the plus battery and complete checkout, turns out the brilliant programmers of mcHF have complied the whole thing into les than 512K so my radio was good to go with RTTY and other digital modes. I am blown away by how this performs for a pocket SDR beautiful display good DSP no it is not a perfect radio stations 2 Khz away are still annoying but it is a very enjoyable radio, I bought an Elecraft T1 tuner to go with it I just love the pair, if you want one make sure you talk to Mike K0JTA |
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| N2DTS |
Rating: |
2019-04-25 | |
| Fantastic |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I got the 928 plus version which has a built in battery, there are various versions of the mchf, some have big snap in batteries.
The radio seems great, up to 20 watts out (I set my max power to 10 watts), filters work great, has all the right buttons and tons of info on the screen.
Go through the easy to figure out menu's to set the power per band and other options you like, and its done.
It does overload on strong signals with a full size antenna, the S meter scale turns red when it does, but it does not seem to cause problems when that happens.
Audio out (headphones or line out) is fantastic, clean, low distortion, great fidelity.
CW seems great, AM modulates well, ssb works well, the processor does not really work, it seems to limit peaks to a lower value and brings up the background noise, better to just turn the mic gain up, much more power output.
Vfo a/b button, band up and down buttons, mode button, filter button, power output button, tuning rate buttons, its got all the right buttons to actually operate the radio.
The screen is fantastic, it gives you a LOT of info, no guessing what is on and where things are set, its on the screen in color.
In TX, the knob functions change function and its shown on the screen, mic gain, EQ, compression, and other cool things.
Tone controls for RX and TX, digital voice, digital modes, FM, AM, sync AM (RX), frequency is spot on.
The only thing I would want is more AM tx bandwidth and a built in antenna tuner.
I have had a LOT of rigs, sdr and not, and these radios are easy to use and sound great.
Time will tell how they hold up, it seems solid and well made, I have had it apart and it seems well made for the most part.
I replaced the encoder for a non detent one and fit a better knob with some felt behind it and it tunes like a $3000.00 radio.
The radio is easy to work on should you want to.
Like any sdr, software/firmware can be upgraded to add features or improve performance.
I have not bothered but there have been several upgrades so far.
The newer units have more memory, better output devices, and an upgraded vfo chip.
Buy one and you are likely on your own, but the radios seem solid for the most part, and the price is low.
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| NZ8J |
Rating: |
2019-04-11 | |
| Impressed! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought one of the RS-918-PLUS units that Mike K0JTA sells and I am very impressed with it overall. It came with a 6800ma battery that seems to hold up well. I am particularly impressed with the scope and the detail it shows for only having a 48 Khz max bandwidth. I set it for 24 Khz bandwidth and as a cw op it has excellent definition. There are a multitude of scope adjustments, it just takes experimenting to get what suits you. I have made several contacts with it, both domestic and DX. Even worked the C5DL pileup with 10 watts using the split function and watching the scope to see where he was listing.
I made some cables to hook up my KPA500 amp if needed as well as speaker and external keyer cables. It's a little confusing since they use four conductor 1/8" plugs for those connections but there is enough info available to make them.
So far I really like it, it has many features and I fully expect with more firmware updates there will be even more features in the future.
Buying from Mike was a smooth experience, he corresponded immediately throughout the process, shipped it USPS priority mail immediately and was available to answer any questions. I felt more confident buying from someone who has gone through it to set it up properly.
This is my initial impression, I will review it again after a few camping trips this summer which is why I bought it in the first place.
Tim
NZ8J
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| N2UJZ |
Rating: |
2019-03-30 | |
| Awesome little radio. Great for digital. |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I got one of these little guys (the battery with mine is a 3800mAH) and am very happy. I got this to replace an Icom R75, I also have an AFEDRI SDR. I had got General in 2011 but the closest thing I'd owned to an HF radio was an HTX-100 10 meter.
So first thing I checked was 10 meters luckily a contest was going & I made 5 SSB contacts on 10 that day. I thought I'd mostly use it for listening but here it has really shines for me is on FT8. One USB cable to the PC and ready to go. So far it has surpassed my expectations by thousands on miles (to 38 countries even!) For my antenna, I have a 20M dipole & an MFJ-929 tuner.
At first, it worked on 11m but the latest Firmware limits output to 50mW outside the Ham bands. Thats fine. As much as I love this rig, I'm giving 4 stars because on mine the F1/MENU button sticks and I can only get about 7W out on 10 & 80 (that hasn't stopped me from making contacts on those bands!) I have not tried it on FreeDV mode but for SSB & FT8 very good! |
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| W6ZTM |
Rating: |
2019-03-20 | |
| The RS-918: an excellent base for learning SDR |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
To me the attractiveness of the RS-918 was that, as received, it worked well enough, and formed a good base for hacking to a pocket-size package I can be proud of.
The Power Amplifiers and drivers seem the weakest link. There are many discussions on-line describing various hacks/improvements for the PA and drivers, I found that the PA was improved by
1. Measuring and adjusting the output filter toroids and SMD capacitors
2. Replacing the output RF transformer, which saturates at about the 5W level. I used several #61 ferrite balun cores to get the IMD down to reasonable levels. A bonus was the increase in maximum power to 10W (and above on some bands)..
3. Drain to gate resistive feedback on the PA transistors improved their linearity and stabilized gain from band-to-band.
But all in all, the tweaked RS-918 I have now is one I am proud to put on the air. A huge advantage are the continuous firmware updates from the volunteers at the UHSDR project (http://df8oe.github.io/UHSDR/ ). My RS-918 came equipped with a megabyte of RAM, future-proofing it for all these new UHSDR features/upgrades -- the size of which has now exceeded the original 512K CPU limitation.
If you are wavering on exploring home-brew SDR, but really don't have the time to brew from scratch, then take a good look at what the RS-918 offers -- a well-documented open-source device excellent for tweaking and learning, but which works out-of-the-box. |
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