New Tecsun R9700DX
 

I received my newest cheap Chinese portable today, a Tecsun R9700DX, and I
was very disappointed. It was packaged nicely and it arrived on time, but
the radio wasn't much of a performer. I tried all the bands, and at no time
did it seem to be very sensitive.Even when I tried to listen to Rush on our
local AM, I seemed to have trouble tuning the radio right in the middle of
the carrier wave.

I like the size and sound ok, even though I could get the radio to distort
fairly easily by turning it up over half way on a local FM station. It's not
very ergonomic, hiding the power switch at the bottom of the left side
panel. The tuning knob seemed to be a bit tight, but felt solid. The volume
control was a slider control, and even though I would rather have a knob, my
first radio had a slider, and I thought that would be a neat feature on this
radio. I didn't do much for me.

I've put the radio back in the box. If I had bought it at my local Wal-Mart,
I would take it back. If it was worth $100, I might sell it on eBay. But
since I spent only $27.90 for the radio, it's not worth sending back to
Liypn nor listing it on eBay.

You mirror my thoughts EXACTLY. I just got mine 3 days ago. (YAWN)
I have the much touted Degen 1102 due here any day. I have a sneaky feeling
that it also will be less than the hype surrounding it. As an aside:
No, I am not expecting Drake performance out of any of the cheapies. It
would be nice if some of them lived up to the hype...



"Corbin Ray" wrote in message
...
I received my newest cheap Chinese portable today, a Tecsun R9700DX, and I
was very disappointed. It was packaged nicely and it arrived on time, but
the radio wasn't much of a performer. I tried all the bands, and at no
time
did it seem to be very sensitive.Even when I tried to listen to Rush on
our
local AM, I seemed to have trouble tuning the radio right in the middle of
the carrier wave.

I like the size and sound ok, even though I could get the radio to distort
fairly easily by turning it up over half way on a local FM station. It's
not
very ergonomic, hiding the power switch at the bottom of the left side
panel. The tuning knob seemed to be a bit tight, but felt solid. The
volume
control was a slider control, and even though I would rather have a knob,
my
first radio had a slider, and I thought that would be a neat feature on
this
radio. I didn't do much for me.

I've put the radio back in the box. If I had bought it at my local
Wal-Mart,
I would take it back. If it was worth $100, I might sell it on eBay. But
since I spent only $27.90 for the radio, it's not worth sending back to
Liypn nor listing it on eBay.

"Jim Hackett" ...
You mirror my thoughts EXACTLY. I just got mine 3 days ago. (YAWN)
I have the much touted Degen 1102 due here any day. I have a sneaky feeling
that it also will be less than the hype surrounding it.
[snip]

I really think you'll like the 1102 and recommend it to others.
Let us know... ok?

I went ahead and listed it on eBay. No reserve. If somebody wants to bid on
it, here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3084068948

Funny though, I have close to 100 different portables (really need to count
them) and many are less than what I had hoped for. I have NEVER considered
selling any of them, so far. I did give a Bell & Howell away to someone on
the group for the cost of shipping though. Good or bad, they are mine.
Kinda like children, huh?



"Corbin Ray" wrote in message
...
I went ahead and listed it on eBay. No reserve. If somebody wants to bid
on
it, here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3084068948

"Jim Hackett" wrote...
Funny though, I have close to 100 different portables (really need to count
them) and many are less than what I had hoped for. I have NEVER considered
selling any of them, so far. I did give a Bell & Howell away to someone on
the group for the cost of shipping though. Good or bad, they are mine.
Kinda like children, huh?

Yep : )
I want to adopt a Tecsun PL-550 next

You mirror my thoughts EXACTLY. I just got mine 3 days ago. (YAWN)
I have the much touted Degen 1102 due here any day. I have a sneaky feeling
that it also will be less than the hype

*************rest snipped************
Jim and Corbin,
I feel your pain. *BUT*......you do get what you pay for. I don't undestand
the thinking. Unless, you absolutely don't have a small pocket radio, if
that's what you're looking for.......grab the DX399.....I'm sure they're out
there. If you want just BCB, grab a GE P-780.....shortwave with sideband the
DX402, a buddy a mine that has that piece cut out a lot of the problems
(fitering and whatnot) and now he can hook a longwire to it without all the
intermod and crosstalk on it.

Good luck guys, as I'm waiting on my second GE P-780. :-D

According to your 'write up' though on ebay Corbin, it is just fine. What
gives? Hmmmm?

I'm not "really" complaining. Radios are my hobby and I obviously have more
$ than brains ;) I enjoy buying new radios and if I only get a few hours of
"play" time out of a $20 radio, I'm ok with that. I would have spent MORE
at a movie and wouldn't have anything to show for it later...



"Dxluver" wrote in message
...
You mirror my thoughts EXACTLY. I just got mine 3 days ago. (YAWN)
I have the much touted Degen 1102 due here any day. I have a sneaky
feeling
that it also will be less than the hype

*************rest snipped************
Jim and Corbin,
I feel your pain. *BUT*......you do get what you pay for. I don't
undestand
the thinking. Unless, you absolutely don't have a small pocket radio,
if
that's what you're looking for.......grab the DX399.....I'm sure they're
out
there. If you want just BCB, grab a GE P-780.....shortwave with sideband
the
DX402, a buddy a mine that has that piece cut out a lot of the problems
(fitering and whatnot) and now he can hook a longwire to it without all
the
intermod and crosstalk on it.

Good luck guys, as I'm waiting on my second GE P-780. :-D

I noticed that too :~) What's he supposed to say if he wants to sell it?
LOL


"Dxluver" wrote in message
...
According to your 'write up' though on ebay Corbin, it is just fine.
What
gives? Hmmmm?

There is trouble in space , Blanking out reception of easy stations
Double reduction set; DX / Local switch OK ??

- Famous story about a man on Long Island who bought a Barometer, unwrapped it
HURRICANE said the barometer..
Tapped it
HURRICANE it read

Irate, Said person wrote a terse note, rewrapped the barometer, drove miles
through the rain & wind to an open post office.
Sent it back to Abecrombie & Fitch in New York,
arrived back at his house to find it washed away..

Hurricane !





In article , "Corbin Ray"
writes:



I received my newest cheap Chinese portable today, a Tecsun R9700DX, and I
was very disappointed. It was packaged nicely and it arrived on time, but
the radio wasn't much of a performer. I tried all the bands, and at no time
did it seem to be very sensitive.Even when I tried to listen to Rush on our
local AM, I seemed to have trouble tuning the radio right in the middle of
the carrier wave.

Diverd4777 wrote:

There is trouble in space , Blanking out reception of easy stations
Double reduction set; DX / Local switch OK ??

- Famous story about a man on Long Island who bought a Barometer, unwrapped it
HURRICANE said the barometer..
Tapped it
HURRICANE it read

Irate, Said person wrote a terse note, rewrapped the barometer, drove miles
through the rain & wind to an open post office.
Sent it back to Abecrombie & Fitch in New York,
arrived back at his house to find it washed away..

Hurricane !

That's pretty dang funny! Or sad, depending...

It's called marketing. And I spoke no lie there either. This IS my third
radio this week, and like it or not, I am henpecked to the point that my
wife really did tell me to sell this one on eBay.

The performance I experienced with my 9700 is probably average for that
particular radio, no better, no worse. As most of you know, I have found a
couple of cheap Chinese radios that I like better -- Tecsun BCL2000 and
Degen DE1102 -- and so I am choosing to sell the 9700 and keep the other
two. Also, to be fair, my opening price was only 1 penny, with no reserve,
plus the actual shipping I would need to send a three-pound radio anywhere
in the US. If the winning bidder paid $8.01 for the radio, would that be a
problem for anyone here? Not for me. What about $10.01 or $20.01? That's up
to the bidder. I paid a total of $47.90 to get that radio shipped to me. If
I sell it for less or more than that, it won't matter. I was able to try the
radio out for myself and I quickly found out that it didn't suit my
particular needs. That puts the 9700 in the same company as the Satellit 800
and the Sony 2010. That's pretty good company for some people.

What if I lose money on the transaction? Then it was a learning experience.
What if I make money on the transaction? Then it was a learning experience
on which I made a couple of dollars. Of course, I'll use those dollars to
order another cheap radio until I find one that I want to keep.

Thanks for being so understanding.

Hmm. I got one of those and it's really nice. Would make a great
retirement present for an Uighur horseman. I like its amber light. I
can guess what frequency I'm looking at +- 10kHz. It's my favorite
for travelling now. I'm in an analog radio phase.

On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 12:20:48 -0500, "Corbin Ray"
wrote:

I received my newest cheap Chinese portable today, a Tecsun R9700DX, and I
was very disappointed. It was packaged nicely and it arrived on time, but
the radio wasn't much of a performer. I tried all the bands, and at no time
did it seem to be very sensitive.Even when I tried to listen to Rush on our
local AM, I seemed to have trouble tuning the radio right in the middle of
the carrier wave.

I like the size and sound ok, even though I could get the radio to distort
fairly easily by turning it up over half way on a local FM station. It's not
very ergonomic, hiding the power switch at the bottom of the left side
panel. The tuning knob seemed to be a bit tight, but felt solid. The volume
control was a slider control, and even though I would rather have a knob, my
first radio had a slider, and I thought that would be a neat feature on this
radio. I didn't do much for me.

I've put the radio back in the box. If I had bought it at my local Wal-Mart,
I would take it back. If it was worth $100, I might sell it on eBay. But
since I spent only $27.90 for the radio, it's not worth sending back to
Liypn nor listing it on eBay.

Altawaowr wrote:

Hmm. I got one of those and it's really nice. Would make a great
retirement present for an Uighur horseman. I like its amber light. I
can guess what frequency I'm looking at +- 10kHz. It's my favorite
for travelling now. I'm in an analog radio phase.

Most commonly spelled Uyghar...

Sorry if I interrupted you.



On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 12:20:48 -0500, "Corbin Ray"
wrote:

I received my newest cheap Chinese portable today, a Tecsun R9700DX, and I
was very disappointed. It was packaged nicely and it arrived on time, but
the radio wasn't much of a performer. I tried all the bands, and at no time
did it seem to be very sensitive.Even when I tried to listen to Rush on our
local AM, I seemed to have trouble tuning the radio right in the middle of
the carrier wave.

I like the size and sound ok, even though I could get the radio to distort
fairly easily by turning it up over half way on a local FM station. It's not
very ergonomic, hiding the power switch at the bottom of the left side
panel. The tuning knob seemed to be a bit tight, but felt solid. The volume
control was a slider control, and even though I would rather have a knob, my
first radio had a slider, and I thought that would be a neat feature on this
radio. I didn't do much for me.

I've put the radio back in the box. If I had bought it at my local Wal-Mart,
I would take it back. If it was worth $100, I might sell it on eBay. But
since I spent only $27.90 for the radio, it's not worth sending back to
Liypn nor listing it on eBay.

In article .net,
Sanjaya wrote:
"Jim Hackett" wrote...
Funny though, I have close to 100 different portables (really need to count
them) and many are less than what I had hoped for. I have NEVER considered
selling any of them, so far. I did give a Bell & Howell away to someone on
the group for the cost of shipping though. Good or bad, they are mine.
Kinda like children, huh?

Yep : )
I want to adopt a Tecsun PL-550 next

Frankly, I don't see the attraction of this radio over, say, the Degen
1101 or 1102 ... except for size of speaker. In real-world use, certainly
it isn't going to be the extra memory slots that the Tecsun has which will
make the difference.

I'm a bit puzzled by some of the new Tecsun radios, and especially how
Eton has chosen which models as replacements for former offerings. For
instance, they sold the PL-707A, a dual-conversion set with weird tuning
controls, as one of the eTraveller models. Now they are carrying the PL-230
as the Yacht Boy 550 ... which is a _single_ conversion set ... a fact
they surely don't advertise. I don't see many user reports on this set,
apart from that one glowing review on RadioIntel, but there is a Yahoo
forum devoted to its twin-with-one-less-AA-cell, the PL-200. What sticks
in my mind from the few discussions there is poor battery life. Maybe the
PL-230 does better with an additional AA cell powering it.

I see no in-depth coverage of the brand new PL-550 so far .. .I'm
wondering if it's single-conversion as well ... as it seems to be
basically a big version of the PL-200 with an antenna trimmer. Does anyone
know otherwise?