Hi all - my name is Mark and I'm a new member here in the group, this is my first post.
I noticed that there's a thread focusing on the Retekess V115, but not much mention of 'the other brother' - the AA powered analogue V117, from the same brand.
I own both of these units and I must say that despite the online reviews claiming that the 115 is one of the best radios on a budget, without doubt I do get a lot more enjoyment from the superior build quality and user friendliness of the V117.
The smooth analogue tuning knob is a hugely better than the loud clicky hard plastic buttons on the 115 and, because of this you therefore don't have to go through the tuning 'fiasco' that's mentioned on the original post. Of course being analogue you don't have the precision of inputting directly, however this process on the V115 can sometimes prove to be a bit problematic anyway. The V117 unit as a whole has IMHO a far nicer feel to it and is both easy and enjoyable to scan the bands, old school!
I've not had much use of the radio in AM or FM, however the performance in the SW band is admirable, for such a cheap unit (I paid £16 UK).
From a recent trip to central France, I had no problems locking onto UVB-76 on 4625khz, the Russian Air Horn on 3510 kHz, Brother Stair coming out of North America on 6070kHz and China Radio International on 7415 kHz, but to name a few. Signals were good, interference mild and there was little in the way of bleed over from nearby frequencies. This was all using nothing but the unit's built in 48cm antenna and listening through the small (fairly good quality) speaker, without earphones.
All in all I'd say that this portable definitely fits the bill of an 'ultralight dx' radio, being about as basic as you can be. However there's something very nice about that and it works as it should do with no fuss or niggles.
I'll look forward to having a bit more time with it in the future exploring the AM and FM bands.
Hi all - my name is Mark and I'm a new member here in the group, this is my first post.
I noticed that there's a thread focusing on the Retekess V115, but not much mention of 'the other brother' - the AA powered analogue V117, from the same brand.
I own both of these units and I must say that despite the online reviews claiming that the 115 is one of the best radios on a budget, without doubt I do get a lot more enjoyment from the superior build quality and user friendliness of the V117.
The smooth analogue tuning knob is a hugely better than the loud clicky hard plastic buttons on the 115 and, because of this you therefore don't have to go through the tuning 'fiasco' that's mentioned on the original post. Of course being analogue you don't have the precision of inputting directly, however this process on the V115 can sometimes prove to be a bit problematic anyway. The V117 unit as a whole has IMHO a far nicer feel to it and is both easy and enjoyable to scan the bands, old school!
I've not had much use of the radio in AM or FM, however the performance in the SW band is admirable, for such a cheap unit (I paid £16 UK).
From a recent trip to central France, I had no problems locking onto UVB-76 on 4625khz, the Russian Air Horn on 3510 kHz, Brother Stair coming out of North America on 6070kHz and China Radio International on 7415 kHz, but to name a few. Signals were good, interference mild and there was little in the way of bleed over from nearby frequencies. This was all using nothing but the unit's built in 48cm antenna and listening through the small (fairly good quality) speaker, without earphones.
All in all I'd say that this portable definitely fits the bill of an 'ultralight dx' radio, being about as basic as you can be. However there's something very nice about that and it works as it should do with no fuss or niggles.
I'll look forward to having a bit more time with it in the future exploring the AM and FM bands.
The following files have been uploaded to the Files area of the main@UltralightDX.groups.io group.
By: Paul Blundell <tanger32au@...>
Description:
Latest New Zealand AM station list.
| Freq(MHz) | Callsign |
| 0.549 | 2CR |
| 0.585 | 7RN |
| 0.729 | 5RN |
| 0.747 | 7PB |
| 0.864 | 7RPH |
| 0.891 | 5AN |
| 0.936 | 7ZR |
| 1008 |
HPON Launceston
|
| 1080 | HPON |
| 1224 | 3EA |
| 1422 | HPON MELB |
| 1593 |
HPON (Rete Italia)
|
Hi Paul! Congratulation for your DXing activity and catches. Well, it is clear that is just the chance and not the polar (ID) absorption ;-)I have heard Radio Payam quite a few times during the night when Hungary fades in and out. Irani waves have a very recognizable music and talk rythm, Farsi is also a recognizable tongue most of the times.Something that puzzles me is that you haven't recorded any station from Spain or Portugal. Some of them reach well Greenland and remote receivers in Lapland, so maybe the ones transmitting from medium latitudes are a kind of 'shadow area' for you? Any explanation?I am redirecting your listening reports to our IberiaDX e-mail list to spread your work and audios to promote outdoor ULDXing here in Europe.Hope your time, even darker and colder now, be warm enough with the arrival of stations IDs.Take care y buen DX!Jorge
El lun., nov. 1, 2021 a 18:18, Paul B. Walker, Jr.<walkerbroadcasting@...> escribió:Radio geekdom moment: When DXing international AMs 5000-6000-7000-8000 miles away from Alaska, I rarely catch a top of hour station ID and even more rare is a staiton ID I can understand when I have a tunnel open to Europe or the Middle East.But I caught one last week. One tone, a station ID and then more tones.. which according to my notes it’s several seconds AFTER the top of hour.This is audio from the 300,000 Watt Tehran, Iran transmitter of Radio Payam on 1188khz:
El lun., nov. 1, 2021 a 18:18, Paul B. Walker, Jr.<walkerbroadcasting@...> escribió:Radio geekdom moment: When DXing international AMs 5000-6000-7000-8000 miles away from Alaska, I rarely catch a top of hour station ID and even more rare is a staiton ID I can understand when I have a tunnel open to Europe or the Middle East.But I caught one last week. One tone, a station ID and then more tones.. which according to my notes it’s several seconds AFTER the top of hour.This is audio from the 300,000 Watt Tehran, Iran transmitter of Radio Payam on 1188khz:
Hello just a language notice .
Gharbi in Greek is the SW wind used solely by sailors. The word is derived from older Persian with the meaning of south and passed thru older English as mentioned in Wikipedia . this is also a surname in Greek. One very famous female singer and an old schoolmate of me!
936kHz IRIB Radio Azarbyajan Gharbi via 300KW transmitter in Fesanduz,
My location: McGrath, Alaska using a C.Crane Skywave, 5” DeBock FSL antenna, Zoom H1 digital
recorder and Sony MDR7506 headphones. All were confirmed either by a match to a
web stream or known to me with 100 percent certainty that’s what I was hearing.
This isn't all, but is most of what I’ve logged, some
stuff is left out such as weaker stuff I’ve reported already. I try to keep my
logs to stuff that’s interesting for one reason or another, a new log,
exceptionally strong signal given the circumstances.. something like that!
864kHz Trans World Radio via 1,000,000 Watt Gavar, Armenia transmitter site on Wed Oct 27 at 1708UTC with some singing by a man and woman followed by a brief Interval Signal interlude then the start of another program. Signal is VERY good at times, but does fade out a bit. 5209 mile transpolar path. Audio: http://bit.ly/Armenia864Oct27_1708utc
936kHz IRIB Radio Azarbyajan Gharbi via 300KW transmitter in Fesanduz, Iran on Wed Oct 27 at 1640UTC with music followed by a man talking, maybe over the phone. The signal was good enough and clear enough that Soundhound and Shazam were able to correctly ID the song. It was getting beat up by splatter from other stations but overall, a good signal otherwise. 5460 mile transpolar path. Audio: http://bit.ly/Iran936Oct27_16
1053kHz Radio Iași via 400KW transmitter in Iași, Romania on Wed Oct 27 at 1628UTC with some real good Romanian music, good audio quality and good signal but my local NDB beacon in the background. You see, VTR is running a blistering 1KW on 350kHz and 1050 is square on it’s 3rd harmonic. 4827 mile transpolar path. Audio: http://bit.lyRomania1053Oct27_1628utc
NEW! 1179kHz IRIB Radio Iran via 50KW transmitter in Chah Bahar on Wed Oct 27 at 1557utc. This was initially an unknown as MWlist says its on 558kHz but WRTH still has it on 1179khz. Someone also ID’d the language as Farsi and said its much more likely to be Iran then the other 1179 in the Middle east, KuwaitStarts with a woman talking, a music interlude then a man talking. Near the end of the recording, you can hear it give way to a Chinese language station. Poor to fair at times, but other times, a good signal. 5484 mile transpolar path. Audio: http://bit.ly/Iran1179Oct27_1557utc
NEW! 1188kHz IRIB Radio Payam via 300KW transmitter in Tehran, Iran on Wed Oct 27 at 1559UTC with music and some talking interspersed. A few seconds past 1600UTC top of hour, there’s a brief time tone, “Radio Payam” station id and a few more tones. So rare for me to get a station ID from a non English speaking station that I can so easily understand. 5460 mile transpolar path. Audio:
http://bit.ly/Iran1188Oct27_1559utc
NEW! 1260kHz SBA Radio Riyadh via 500KW transmitter in Damman, Saudi Arabia on Oct 27 at 1602UTC with a woman reading what sounds like a news report and playing some sound bites followed by some music later on. Not too bad of a signal for over 6 minutes! 6102 mile transpolar path.
Audio: http://bit.ly/SaudiArabia1260Oct27_1602utc
NEW! 1278kHz IRIB Radio Kermanshah via 200KW transmitter in Kermanshah, Iran on Wed Oct 27 at 1624UTC with a musical interlude then a female talking. Weak/noisy signal. 5600 mile transpolar path. Audio: http://bit.ly/Iran1278Oct27_1624utc
NEW! 1368kHz IRIB Radio Golestan via 150KW transmitter in Gonbad-e Qabus, Iran on Wed Oct 27 at 1623UTC with some talking, a brief musical interlude and more talking. Noisy and poor signal. 5308 mile transpolar path. Audio: http://bit.ly/Iran1368Oct27_1623utc
1395kHz Public Radio of Armenia via 400kw transmitter in Gavar, Armenia on Wed Oct 27 at 1617UTC with man talking. The signal fades out a bit and comes back with music for a bit, before yet another fade down and rise up. On peaks, pretty good signal. 5209 mile transpolar path. Audio: http://bit.ly/Armenia1395Oct27_1617utc
1449kHz IRIB World Service via 400kw transmitter in Bandar-e Torkman, Iran on Sat Oct 23 at 1637UTC with female in turkmen language, with what sounded like a news report. Slight het from 250 Watt KLAM 1450 but pretty good signal for nearly 3 minutes. 5835 mile transpolar path. Audio: http://bit.ly/Iran1449Oct23_1637utc
NEW! 1467kHz IRIB Radio Qom via 100KW Transmitter in Qom, Iran on Oct 27 at 1650UTC with music. Signal was brief but very good! 5460 mile transpolar path. Audio:
http://bit.ly/Iran1467Oct27_1650utc
1512kHz IRIB Radio Ardabill via 50KW transmitter in Ardabill, Iran on Wed Oct 27 at 1611UTC with a man talking, sounds like he’s on the phone. There’s a musical interlude, and more talking. The signal is exceptionally clear and strong at times especially considering the power level! I’ve yet to log the 1 megawatt Saudi on 1512! 5320 mile transpolar path. Audio: http://bit.ly/1512IranOct27_1611utc
Paul
Paul,
those are great catches!
Please keep posting your reception reports. Living, as I do, so close to a big city means a lot of QRM so I really enjoy finding out what others can hear.
WOW! What a morning!Iran on 936, 1026, 1179, 1279, 1467, 1449 and 1512Saudi on 882 and 1260Moldova on 864 and 1413Romania on on 1053 and 1152UNID on 1395 and 1413 that didnt match any stream nor did they sound asian.Paul
https://ultralightradiodxing.blogspot.com/2021/10/link-rdmw-2022-launched.html
Interesting news about the battery Paul.
i’ve had the opposite experience as I love the full sound of this radio and listen to it every night, primarily to my own part 15 AM and FM stations that are streaming WQXR on the AM side and CFZM’s Big Band Sunday Night on w FM side.
Charging hasn’t been a problem and again due to the sound quality my other ultralights such as the CCrane sky wave, XHDATA808 Tecsun PL3108 etc sit
Best regards,
Paul W0AD
Hi Paul,I am always adding this to my DX loggings, but the original one we designed, as the quality is already shown by SIO or SINPO codes.73!Jorge Garzón Gutiérrez "IberiaDX"(EB7EFA · EA1036 SWL · BDXC Member 1409)QTH: IN83ag / 43º15' N · 03º56' WSan Roque 95, casa 5 (Villasevil)39698 Santiurde de Toranzo (ESPAÑA - SPAIN)..................................................................................En martes, 26 de octubre de 2021 10:34:21 CEST, Paul Blundell <tanger32au@...> escribió:Has anybody continued on with this? With my new logging system, I am in the process of adding this information in.
I have a TIVDIO V-115, which should be the same as the Retekess version.
The tuning modes are that you either manually enter a frequency via the keypad
or you use the auto tune modes, you can’t scroll from frequency to
frequency, say from 531kHz to 540kHz, you need to either enter each frequency
or use the auto tune modes,
On my specimen I can scroll from one frequency to another by pressing the record player controls "Fast Forwards" or "Fast Backwards".
I don't like how the AGC behaves on thisreceiver, but the recording function is very good, so I am using it as an audio recorder only.
73
Egil - LA2PJ
Interesting news about the battery Paul.
i’ve had the opposite experience as I love the full sound of this radio and listen to it every night, primarily to my own part 15 AM and FM stations that are streaming WQXR on the AM side and CFZM’s Big Band Sunday Night on w FM side.
Charging hasn’t been a problem and again due to the sound quality my other ultralights such as the CCrane sky wave, XHDATA808 Tecsun PL3108 etc sit
Best regards,
Paul W0AD