The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / Will Someone Make My Ideal Radio?

**Posted by RadioActive** June 11, 2025 7:26 am

Industry futurologist James Cridland outlines what would be in his ideal radio, but my guess the answer to his question is "no."

Too bad. I'd like one of the models he envisions, too!

Will someone make my ideal radio?

**Posted by tvguy** June 12, 2025 7:37 am

I will provide an assessment of the XHDATA 808 next week. Ordered it from Aliexpress a few days ago. With a “coupon” it priced out at less than $120 CDN - express shipping included. I can’t beleive the speed of getting it from China to Toronto…I suspect that with Trump’s China tariffs, not much is flowing to the US from Aliexpress or Temu…hence the discounts and record breaking shipping times via air and express ground service. BTW, I don’t think there is a radio out there (portable) with DRM…or any other of the European digital “standards”. The chinese are manufacturing for a world market, and oddly DAB doesn’t seem to be available in radios from Temu or AliExpress.

**Posted by RadioActive** June 12, 2025 9:28 am

I look forward to seeing what you think of this radio. I was intrigued by its description, but I don't think I'd order one unless I could test it out first. Thanks for being my guinea pig!

My favourite radio of all time was a SONY (as opposed to a SOWNY!) ICF-SW7600GR which they no longer make. The set in question had a ton of pre-sets, was good with DX, came with AM/FM and SW (with single side band, no less) and had one feature that I've never found on any other radio.

It allowed you to preset any station on any page, without having to change bands first. So you could have nine presets, with 5 AMs and four FMs, all at the push of a button. Most sets force you to have only AM on one list of presets and FM on the other - no combos. It's a small thing, but you'd be surprised how annoying it gets having to switch from one band to the other all the time.

It finally stopped working after decades of ownership and I took it to an authorized SONY dealer, who told me they no longer make the motherboard and it could not be fixed. Too bad. That was a great radio.

**Posted by tvguy** June 12, 2025 10:43 am

I had a multiband sony about 38 years ago which I carried with me throughout asia. I loved that radio to death. Sadly no photo, and the radio literally fell apart from its travels. I have some very happy memories of receiving BBC and VOA in English on the Island of Rawa (probably not on a map), about 1 hour boat ride offshore Malaysia's coast. You had to "know" the island's owner to go there. The island is the "sister island" (much smaller) than Teoman, where they filmed South Pacific. Nothing but palm trees, fresh coconuts, rustic accommodations, and a wonderful beach. The cuisine was seafood, locally caught. I might add, best snorkelling I've ever done...manta rays, and every description of large colourful fish, just off the dock. The sharks kept their distance to the other side of the tiny island...but that's another sory. I mention my Rawa adventure, because there was no RF interference---they turned off their little generator around 10 pm. There was no RFI...best place to DX I've ever been to. But there was no FM reception...and this pre-dated cell phones, internet, etc.

There's a photo of Rawa island (today)
https://rawaislandresort.com/

Last edited by tvguy (June 12, 2025 10:46 am)

**Posted by Retaw** June 12, 2025 8:35 pm

I'm not familiar with DAB/DRM, but the lack of HD radio options from the generic Chinese radios makes sense. That isn't an open source industry standard, but closed technology that has to be licensed. I'm guessing there isn't enough demand to warrant reverse engineering that (and facing the potential legal issues) or paying Xperi for official use. The HD Radio site doesn't exactly list a wide range of at-home options.