Raddy RF760 Portable SSB Shortwave Radio Receiver with NOAA Alert, Full Band AM/FM/SW/CB/VHF/UHF/WX/AIR, Battery Operated, Rechargeable Digital Radio with Earphone Jack and 9.7ft Wire Antenna

The media could not be loaded. I've owned somewhere north of 100 shortwave radios over 60 years, so I'm an experienced listener. Based on the considerable negative commentary in Amazon reviews, I was somewhat hesitant to make a purchase, but the discounted price was about half of the price the RF760 when it was introduced in 2022, and I decided to give it a try.So let me cover the negatives first.The biggest negative is the sound quality from the speaker. It's tinny. Speech is understandable, but music of any genera is unpleasant to listen to. The headphone experience, however, is good. I didn't try the included earbuds (I have a big box of unused earbuds that come with radios) but rather some good headphones. There is no booming bass, but the midrange is good.The second negative is the complexity of operation. This unit has 8 bands, including a user-defined band. It allows step settings, bandwidth settings, attenuation settings, deemphasis settings and a squelch. It has upper and lower sideband decoding. It has a clock, alarm, sleep timer and a thermometer with display in F and C. It manages all that with a mere 11 buttons and a knob. With that said, basic reception is possible with what could be easily figured out for someone familiar with other radios.The third negative is the user manual, which is not the most helpful in places, and whose English is somewhat nonstandard. Just what is a "flying shuttle button"? There is a way to quickly tune to a specific frequency without number keys, but it's hidden in the manual in a mass of awkward English.The display is readable as far as the basic information, band, frequency, memory location and signal quality, but there are some setting items that are almost microscopic, and unless your close up vision exceeds 20-20, you will need a magnifying glass to see some of the things (that probably don't matter).In a radio this small it is inevitable that the telescopic antenna is thin and the user should take care not to bend it. One video I saw showed the antenna becoming loose, but I have not seen this so far. I would suggest a little silicone lubricant on the antenna. Others reported problems with the tuning knob that I have not seen either.I gave the radio 5 stars from the point of view of an experienced shortwave listener who wants a pocket radio that does everything, someone who has seen their share of bad translations from the Chinese. With such a small size plus weather alerts, it makes sense as a camping radio or a travel radio, and I was frankly surprised at how well it performs. It exceeded expectations.MW performance is necessarily poor because of the small size of the radio, limiting the size of the internal MW antenna, but with an external antenna, I got 10 times as many MW stations! And with an external antenna, the RF760 automatically adds longwave reception, shown in the video I included of a nondirectional beacon on 351 kHz. FM coverage is very good and I didn't see any signs of overloading. Shortwave is reasonable. Weather band reception is the best I have seen. Raddy includes a simple external wire antenna, giving a significant boost.The auto tune search (ATS) seems to work well, but there are only 100 storage locations per band (1000 total), and one might exceed that on shortwave with an antenna.I tried SSB reception on the 40 meter ham band. The biggest difficulty was the impenetrable language of the manual. If you ignore all the part about "2MIX" that apparently doesn't even exist, it makes a little more sense.My unit serial number started 2411, so I am speculating that it was manufactured in November of 2024, perhaps correcting issues with earlier runs.

This thing is quite impressive for what it costs. It manages to do every band, every option for less than anything else I can find on the internet.It scans every frequency available and has an external antenna jack. The battery is commonly available (even in increased capacity) and replaceable. You can adjust the squelch and de-emphasis.If you are interested in shortwave listening, this is probably the best-valued device available in the market right now.

For me, this is an awesome little radio. And I mean little! Being about the size of a deck of cards. Now, with that said it has advantages and disadvantages. Sensitivity of the radio… It’s internal antenna is capable of catching channels impressively “if” you are within range of them. If not, you’re going to listen to static. A remedy is the 9’ external cord that actually helps but isn’t a miracle worker. So far, FM is the undisputed champion. AM comes in decently. AM and FM are fairly clear. I have not heard anything from any of the others. However, I believe I’m not within range of any of the others either. So I can’t exactly expect them.The sound is definitely not Bose quality. I believe you can imagine from the small size that quality of sound lacks. But I don’t believe that this radio was meant for great sound. It’s kind of either a hobby sort of thing or survival/bug out bag/emergency etc.I bought this radio out of curiosity. For all the features it claims and just to tinker around with. I find it fun to mess with. I understand this little thing used to be $100 but currently at $64. I find the latter price ridiculous and the current price is still steep. But depending on what you want it for makes all the difference. For me, tinkering and emergency use makes it worth having.

Have tried to receive communication on all the bands and found after hours of searching I can only receive AM and FM, I purchased this mainly for the Air band because I live under the glide slope of my local airport the is only 1 mile from me I found the frequency’s for my airport and several of the local airplane manufacturers in my city and to no avail this unit has yet to pick up and communications, also have tried the other bands with no communication.Please note that this has been tested with the supplied antennas indoors and out, I’ve seen that if you add an expensive loop antenna this item works great but I can’t see spending as much for the radio as the additional antenna I did contact but no response. Will be returning.