XHDATA D-109 is the best you can get for the money #review

hey everyone this is Andre from swl and this is my review of the xhdata d109 now there's been a lot of talk already about this radio uh it's a very popular idea I think because of the really good price you can currently still buy it from the exact data website for only thirty dollars but as everyone probably knows there was a bit of an issue when the radio was released there was a problem with the firmware so that you couldn't input frequencies between 17 000 and 20 000 kilohertz that issue was resolved fairly quickly the radios were sent back to the factory and the firmware was updated and those of us like myself who got the first version this one which has the flow were given free Replacements which is this one so my review today is based on obviously on the new updated version that was the only issue on the old one actually and the old one works perfectly in all respects except for that one input issue between seventeen thousand and twenty thousand kilowatts on shortwave which to my mind isn't that big an issue actually because there are not that many frequencies there and you can still find I mean stations there between seventeen thousand and twenty thousand and you can still use the manual tuning to find stations there so this one I'm still using it it works it works perfectly fine but yeah the new version obviously doesn't have that flow in my testing I have uncovered one or two other floors well two which I will get to later all radios I have flaws I mean and in this price range I think it's to to be expected it's still a quality piece of equipment I still think this is a really nice radio and in my review today I will I will discuss various aspects around this radio it's got so many functions actually and the reception is very good on all bands the sensitivity is great I think it really picks up stations very well I've used mine with a wire antenna as well it's actually got a little plug on the side to plug in your own antenna a little wire and it works it picks up signals quite well if if I use that so before I actually get to the nitty-gritty let's just a reminder I have done an unboxing so I will put up a card here you can click on the card if you want to see the unboxing but this is the box that it came in very basic box there's not much in it they don't give you any goodies with it you quite simply you get your USB charging cable and the manual and that is all there's nothing else that comes in the box but that's fine because at thirty dollars I don't think you can expect much more of course the actual price is fifty dollars but on the xh data website currently you can still pick this up at 31 dollars very good price and the shipping from China is not so bad that's where I got mine and I've ordered from their website many many times in the past and I've had no issues except once and that issue I resolved through PayPal so it was just the radio that I ordered that never arrived and then I got a refund through PayPal so I I think these people if you order from the website directly from China it's fine so you've got quite a detailed manual with all the functions it's it's very detailed it's it's in good English so you will find pretty much everything that you need will be in the manual so the functions on this radio it really covers a lot you've got two alarms you can actually set two different alarm times as you can see there there's a sleep function these um that's for stereo in FM this is your tuning if you say VF then it's tuning by frequency VM is tuning by memory so if you turn the dial it will go according to your memories that's to do a scan you can switch on this is to change the bandwidth and you can switch on the backlight permanently so if you are listening at night then the screen will remain lit which is nice I really like that some other radios just switch off automatically and you cannot change it in your short wave buttons here this is where you select the different shortwave bands and you can also do automatic scan and store automatic scanning and storage function there I will demonstrate that then your medium or even long wave button there also if you hold it in it does an automatic scan and storage function and FM the same thing if you hold it in automatic scanning and storage function you can change your medium wave steps to 9 or 10K yeah you can change the F in between the different FM bands and you can change your clock there to 12 or 24 hours and then there's a memory and delete button and here for Bluetooth which works quite well it's got a Bluetooth function and it's got an MP3 function there's a spot down there where you can add an SD card with your own music and you can play it there's a reset button as well so quite a lot of functions so to turn the beeping sound on and off you also use the stereo button this stereo and the b stands for beep so if the radio off if you hold this in the beeping sound is back you will see now when you switch it on it will beep and radio off hold this one again it says off so beeping sound is off now you will see if I turn it on now no sound go to Bluetooth no sound switch the radio off you don't have that beeping sound tuning Dalia and volume this is an external DC in if you want to you've got a little flip stand at the back which is Handy the battery is that 18650 battery that most of these radios now use so the capacity is down there 2000 as you can see on this side you've got your headphone jack and your antenna Jack obviously the sound through the headphones is in Stereo if it's a stereo station and it does that automatically when you plug in your headphones if the session broadcasts in Stereo then it will display the stereo sign up there on the screen so sound on this little thing is very good I think it's got a it's somewhere I think on the box it shows it says extra base you can see it there extra bass I wouldn't call it extra bass but the sound is nice and warm it it's not a tinny sound so it's quite good and then you have this little strap to carry it around it's it I think it's a nice looking radio it's got a little bit of a premium feel to it although of course it isn't a real premium radio I would just like to maybe at this point say something about my reviews in general I review radios that I buy myself I do not earn money from affiliate links I do not earn money from advertising these companies don't Supply me with the radios I buy them I review them honestly because I buy them because I one thing myself and then my reviews I just do it maybe I can help you to make a decision also so I'm not influenced by anything or anyone when I do my reviews and I base my reviews on obviously the the specific context and and standard of these radios I'm not comparing this radio to a top of the range um I don't know the top of the range Texan BL 880 for example PL 990. there's no comparison the price difference is massive it's just a different radio this is a very much a mid-range right there in the 30 to 50 dollar bracket and that's what I will compare it with uh I think it's unfair to expect absolute perfection from a radio in that price range so yeah I just I just think it's important to mention that so in this review I will do as I always do FM demonstration I will do a medium wave demonstration a short wave demonstration and then also the Bluetooth and the SD card demonstration so that you can see in here for yourself what this radio can do but I have done a number of extensive tests already you can see the cards here and you can click on those if you want to I've compared this to the d8 for example on medium wave and on shortwave so I have done some extensive tests I know it does very very well on shortwave and on medium width but in this review I will briefly again do a short wave test and a medium wave test so that you have everything here in one place and we will start with the if um band what I'm going to do let me just open that dinner I'm going to do an auto scan on FM now I have a Panasonic rfd30 right here which is a a disk right here it's quite a big radio it's a dab and if only radio it's got a massive antenna so that one is kind of my standard for FM when I do an auto scan on that one I get 37 stations so a very good desktop radio picks up 37 FM stations in my area I actually haven't done this scan yet on this one so I will be I'm quite interested to see myself how many FM stations this one will pick up and there is one specific FM station that I always use as a benchmark to see if it can pick up distance stations it's 104.2 which is from Pretoria some distance from me and not beamed directly towards me so that station is usually not picked up nicely in the area where I am and I always check my radio to see if they can pick that up and that gives me an idea of the FM quality so we're going to do the scan first see if it can pick up 37 stations and then I will check if it can do that 104.2 foreign that was a very quick scan I see it picked up City stations so not as sensitive as my big Panasonic on FM but it's got 30 stations I want to see the Panasonic picked up one station twice this one this is a station called arisgir public service station Lionel Richie mate hello foreign picked this one up on 101 as well yeah which as we can see the xh data is not picking up so let me just see if it finds it if I tune manually because the 101 signal is not beamed towards my area [Music] yeah it's got it not strongly but it's got it let's see just one or two other signals [Music] it's all music now so I'm moving fast I don't want to get a copyright strike man how much does it bring in in the kingdom of God leadership is measured by the making of the man not the making of money the making of the man I've really asked and searched [Music] foreign stations quite well good sound it picks up seven stations fewer than my big Panasonic not bad the antenna is quite a bit shorter than that Panasonic so I think not bad let's see if it can pick up 104.2 let's just go to VF [Applause] okay that's the weak signal radio Pretoria or Pretoria FM it's called 104.2 comes through so I think FM sensitivity is quite good I'm not an fmd EXO so I use FM to listen to local stations I'm just yeah sort of trying to give you an idea of what this thing can do on FM so there you go and let's see if we use the SD card I have some recorded music that I'm going to play now so that you can get an idea of what it can do [Music] and that was the top volume it's not very loud but I suppose it also depends on the quality of your recording good and clear [Music] you can use the hierarchy to scroll through your track if you hold it in it will move fast as you can see [Music] and if you just press it quickly it will go to the next track [Music] once again that's the top volume but it's nice and clear and of course playing pauses here you see you get an indication there that it's pausing and play again I will just show you if I plug in the headphones it will indicate that it's playing in Stereo there at the top [Music] so as you can see there I've plugged in the headphones and there it's in Stereo and you just press this button quickly then it will go off again if you don't want stereo but this only works when the headphones are plugged in you will see when I plug them out that little stereo sign will disappear okay that was MP3 and then just a quick demonstration of the stereo on FM and now I will show you on Bluetooth I'll just stream the BBC from my phone so that you can see it also works quite well on Bluetooth right so I paired the radio with my phone now and I'm streaming BBC World Service on Bluetooth month to cooperate militarily along their 800 kilometer border area where groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State operate I think this is a very handy function because the the Bluetooth capability actually turns this radio pretty much into an internet right here you can use any smartphone or any phone with Bluetooth that can pick up internet radio stations and stream it to your radio so I think it's experience the the radio as I said it does have a lot of functionality and all of them seem to work pretty well big celebrations correspondence 102 now I will have a look at shortwave this part of the video is recorded a little bit later than the earlier part which was still during day time but I waited for night time to do the short wave and the medium wave test so on short drive I'm going to do an auto scan and then we will scroll through and just see some of the signals that's been picked up I'll also have a look at maybe one very weak signal and then plug in my my wire antenna and see if that helps and yeah then after that I will also have a look at medium wave so let's do the auto scan on shortwave all right so it found 97 stations on shortwave during auto scan obviously with an auto scan you don't necessarily pick up all the stations that's there there are some weaker ones that might just be skipped by the auto scan but I find that it's a it's a good idea to or it's a good way to just get an idea of what is out there so I'm just gonna scroll through and have a look at some of the stations now we can see already it's picked up the Xperia signal here at 2245. there's nothing here all right that's another one and another one and another one and one more lots of spurious signals here so here we get to the real signals now this is voice of America from Botswana [Music] [Applause] this one is voice of Hope from Zambia let's see what happens when I plug in the wire antenna at the end yeah you can see there's a clear difference it does work quite nicely with the wire antenna this is a 7 meter 23 feet antenna you know there's little tickson roll-up wiring thinners and clearly it does have an effect a positive effect on a weak signal that's with the antenna the built-in antenna 's a lot I'm not a problem [Applause] and that's with the wire I've seen some people complain that this overload when you plug in external antennas but obviously that's not the case yeah but okay this wiring thing is not a very strong antenna but yeah it does work and I think for most people who do DX thing is amateurs like myself this is fine the wire antenna clearly helps okay let's just have a look at a couple of other stations before I will move on to medium wave I'll read some eggs for you Southern trees they're Strange Fruit Blood On The Leaves trees to drop here's a strange and bitter crop this is China Radio International from Beijing the first time I never forgot the melody ends [Music] yeah that's another Chinese signal thank you [Applause] foreign ER from Ethiopia from Addis Ababa again week so let's see what happens with the wire [Music] performance [Music] yeah much better with the wire now see each other during this exercise but we do record ourselves on our phones and then [Applause] [Applause] thank you [Applause] foreign this one is Vatican radio yeah it improves a bit with the wire [Music] this is voice of America from tinang in the Philippines so that's a very distant signal keep in mind I'm in South Africa [Applause] thank you [Music] [Applause] okay also better with the wire foreign [Applause] [Music] thank you very much this is all India right here from Bengaluru [Music] China again and this is Vatican radio again Santa Maria legal area China radio again this is voice of Korea from kujang in North Korea broadcasting in Korean significantly improves when I put the wire [Music] all right okay and [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah I think this is not wwvh I think it's BBM the Chinese time signal [Applause] okay okay and it's radio exterior of the Espana let's see without the wire s [Music] [Music] nice reception of this one okay so I think this gives you a very good idea of what it can do on on short life it does well it picks up very distant signals of course like all shortwave listening it depends on the conditions I see in the auto scan it identified lots of signals but not all of them are coming through but those that are coming through are quite clear and good I mean we even got North Korea and the Chinese time signal let me just see if we get wwvh Maybe with there is a Time signal there but again I think it might be BPM [Applause] right so I will end the short wave taste there I think you get the idea and I think it answers your questions also maybe about the wire the external antenna because I've as I say I've seen some reports and some comments that the radio just overloads on external antennas but I don't think it's entirely true as we've seen here now that on some weak signals it actually the this little wire actually really helps to pull in those those weak signals so on short drive good I'm quite happy with what it can do let's have a look at medium wave I will start with some strong local signals five seven six radio pulpit a great way to enhance your relationship with the Holy Spirit is by meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary spirit let's see Botswana from Moon it's good that's about 800 kilometers oh my God let's see Magic 8-8 from Cape Town [Applause] [Music] that's very good that's 1250 kilometers so quite a long distance let's try uh amisor provincial de Cabo Delgado Mozambique [Applause] [Music] [Applause] coming through there's two thousand kilometers 1 200 miles and let's see Radio Free Africa when three double seven [Applause] yeah it's there that is in one side in Tanzania it's over 3000 kilometers away and lastly let's see Voice of America from sartome Island that's about 4 000 kilometers 2 800 miles [Applause] [Music] yeah it's coming through so good on medium wave as well and this is using only the internal ferrite antenna it I've used it with my Loop sometimes and that actually significantly improves the the reception I think I will just show you on on this voice of America when I bring in the loop that it also works quite well with the external Loop it's absolute [Applause] [Music] maximum [Applause] [Applause] organized because [Applause] [Music] with the loop I can make out what they are saying and there we go [Applause] South Africans [Music] so I think you get the picture it works on medium wave with its own little internal ferrite antennae picks up lots of stations and very very distant stations but once you bring in the loop it actually just gets better and the same on shortwave when you bring in that little wire antenna it significantly improves some of the weakest signals so I don't experience the overload thing that some people have spoken of when they bring in external antennas I think the shortwave test and the medium wave tests give you a very good idea of what you can do with this radio if shortwave and medium wave dxing is your thing it's good my verdict after all this I think comparing like for like this is a very good radio it is not a top of the range radio obviously but at thirty dollars on discount right now and at fifty dollars the full price it's still very very good value for money despite the few issues the flaws that I do want to mention it's a bit of a spurious signal magnet I have a video there's a card there you can click on it but in the 120 meter band it picks up lots and lots of spurious signals that's not really an issue for me because there's not much happening in 120 meter band so it's not like it's covering other signals that you might want to listen to I think I don't know it's um I've had some comments that people say it's probably a hardware issue with the chip inside but I haven't found that anywhere else in any of the other bands so to me that's not a major issue but the one thing that is a little bit hard to live with the antenna I rotates as you can see but you cannot actually rotate it stand up because as you can see there there's no there's no Gap there to let you rotate the antenna all the way to stand up um let me just show you for example with the eat an elite you can rotate the antenna stand straight acne like that same thing with the X Edge data you can rotate the data item you can rotate until now to stand straight up like that you see but on the d109 because there's no Gap like here for the antenna to rotate into as you can see this one doesn't have it so that's a bit of an issue there those are pretty much the only fools that I have experienced on this radio so far so my recommendation at thirty dollars the discount price on the xh data website go ahead and buy it that's a absolute plugin there's nothing else that you can get for that price even the the r108 the seaward on r108 which is a nice radio and it's got air band as well it's 45 once this radio goes back to its regular price the the 50 price then yeah then you have to think a little bit I haven't tested the r108 I have heard many good things about that one it's got more functionality it's got that air band this one does give you the MP3 functionality so that's something that the r1i doesn't have you will have to think whether you're going to use the the air band more or the MP3 and the Bluetooth more the d88 is quite a bit more expensive it's about 70 dollars and the other options in the same price range the 50 price range would be the Texan PL 380 and the Texan pl3 10 ET both those are older ideas they've been around for many many years both of those are very good radios I don't own them but the reviews I've seen and the videos I've seen of those online people are really really happy with those radios so that would be your your your consideration do you want to get one of those much older radios or this one of course those two don't have the MP3 functionalities this one's got shortwave full bands it covers shortwave all the way from 1711 to 29999 so the same as as those decks and radios I think compared to what is available in the market in this price range in the 30 to 50 dollar price range this is right there at the top it it just works and it's good good value for money despite a few small floors so I hope this video helped you in making your decision

Channel: SWL

Views: 12,366

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Id: axmKR2yNuao

Length: 39min 48sec (2388 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 01 2023