Easy guide to the incredible Qodosen SR-286 and English manual

[@mootpointjones8488]

Thanks for the thorough demonstration 👍. I have today bought one for £70 UK money. You have helped me a lot.

[@swlistening]

My pleasure, I am glad the video helped!

[@corpo33]

Should have my radio tomorrow or Tuesday and I'm going to study this video to give me a helping hand getting started ..cheers brother for your efforts as per ..Ged Ireland 🇮🇪

[@swlistening]

My pleasure Ged, and enjoy the radio!

[@johnsheedy5772]

Where did you buy the radio im in ireland also

[@corpo33]

@@johnsheedy5772 Ali express il see if I can find a link.Great lil Radio have gud few months no problems ..

[@corpo33]

@@johnsheedy5772 did you get my reply John they seem to have deleted it .

[@Dan40049]

Thanks for the comprehensive how to guide for this radio. It's good to have both the local time and GMT time displayed. Also the antenna switching is a good feature. Just by the by I was able to purchase a vintage Sony TR-1001 for $10. So having a lot of fun tuning around MW and SW on that, it's a great performer.

[@swlistening]

My pleasure Dan, glad you enjoyed the video. What a great buy to find the Sony TR-100 in working condition for only $10! I am jealous :-) It looks like a terrific radio, I am sure you will have great catches with that one.

[@toobalicious]

Thank you for this. I followed all the steps on my radio as you were performing them. The time setting part really had me stumped, but following your instructions got both local (DEN) and world (GMT) set exactly. I'm amazed at how well this radio works and how many functions it has.

[@swlistening]

Thank you for your comment, glad I could help! This radio really is quite something.

[@dougmiller2937]

Auto function is extremely useful for surfing the bands to see what is out there. Also Antenna amplifier ON with he whip antenna works well with AM as it does in a car radio.

[@swlistening]

Hey Doug, thanks for your comment! I also use the auto search quite often, and the antenna amp helps me pull in many distant signals that I haven't heard before.

[@josealeixes2861]

Muito top cada vídeo eu vou aprendendo um pouco deste rádio parabéns…

[@swlistening]

É um prazer José, fico muito feliz que você goste dos meus vídeos!

[@Kw1161]

Andre thanks for the video and link…now I have to practice…😂! 73! Have a great day!

[@swlistening]

Sure! Have fun :-)

[@walleyvideo8297]

Thank you so very much for this video. I have yet to finish watching it, but your explanation of setting world time and local time fixed the issue I was having since I bought the radio. Now it’s time for me to watch more of the video. Thank you again. I have learned so much from this video

[@swlistening]

My pleasure Walley, glad it was helpful!

[@vcv6560]

Awesome so much more pleasant than reading the manual thanks for putting this together

[@swlistening]

My pleasure, glad you enjoyed it.

[@DmytroTertyshnyi]

hi! thanks for the tutorial. i bought the same SR Qodosen but didn't know how to use it. you helped. thanks! 73. 😊

[@swlistening]

You are welcome, Dmytro!

[@ronaldgroves6350]

Received mine today. Wasn’t expecting it till may. Already had a play with it. What a great radio!!

[@swlistening]

Good to hear that Ronald. It really is a great radio! Enjoy!

[@isleifoterogarcia4478]

Thank you very much for the guide, I will get mine soon. Is a wonderful device. I love your videos and I learned a lot from them.

[@swlistening]

Glad I could help! Thank you so much for your comment about my videos, much appreciated!

[@markr.1984]

Needs SSB. It gets SSB, I'll buy one. In the western United States, it's really hard to get any broadcast SW stations at all. No matter how good your antenna is. We can get plenty of ham radio on sideband though. With the very poor sunspot activity these days, ionospheric skip is very limited to maybe one weak hop. They can get a lot more in the eastern states because they are closer to Europe and western Asia. I can't even get WWV time signal on any frequency (most of the time) and it's just over the mountains from Utah, WWV transmitter is located in Colorado.

[@swlistening]

Hi Mark, thanks for your comment. I can understand your need for SSB, based on your location. It might be added to future editions of this radio with a slightly different chip. The current TEF6686 chip does not seem to have any SSB capability, and it is also not easy to add this capability.

[@sahbazvlog03]

Hie Dear I am Shahbaz from India, I watched your entire video, thank you very much for giving me so much information, I have bought this radio, I have just ordered it from America, it is a very awesome radio.

[@swlistening]

Hi there Shahbaz, thank you for your comment, I am glad my video helped!

[@jamesvfields]

Wonderful video - I should have the DX-286 tomorrow. Looking forward to it!

[@swlistening]

Hi James, thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video. Hope you will have lots of fun with the DX-286. It's a wonderful radio.

[@isleifoterogarcia4478]

I just found that Amazon is selling a new version of this radio, the DX-286 for $80. The keyboard interface has been improved and is more easier to use. Is the same radio and comes with a list of the new keystrokes. It will shipped with no battery.

[@andrefourie4578]

wat a grate radio i did hear your videos about that radio grate of wat 1 kan pick up

[@swlistening]

Thank you André, this is a really nice radio indeed!

[@jerseyjeeper1575]

Excellent! Thank you.

[@swlistening]

You are welcome! Glad it helped.

[@corpo33]

Absolutely delighted with my radio have been using it last couple days its amazing picking up stations i never got before like all India radio over 8449km away also voice of korea 8375 km away ...also the usual like radio Romania and Radio france International still getting use to the features but hooked up to eighter of my two external antennas its amazing is it too earli to sell all my other radios and clear sum space .if this radio came out wit ssb i think it might be the best radio ever .haven't delved into Mw or Fm yet .really enjoying sw at the minute .was even listening to psg against Barcelona game on R.Exterior de espana earlier too anyways have a crackn Day my friend .

[@swlistening]

This is really great news Ged! I honestly think this is one of the best radios to have been released in recent years. It sounds expensive, but I think with the sensitivity you get, and all the features, it is most certainly worth the price. I think you will have lots of fun on MW also, there are more MW signals in Europe than here in South Africa. You can try MW with the whip antenna, and even with your external antennas, just switch to external antenna on MW.

[@arcticradio]

Would interesting to see a table top receiver based on this chip. I also want a shortwave car radio! SW in the car would be fun

[@swlistening]

Hey Matt, there is actually a homemade table-top version of sorts on Ali Express, a very simple looking receiver but many members of a TEF 6686 group on Facebook seem to rate this tabletop version quite highly. And it is quite inexpensive. If you search on Ali Express for "Multifunction DIY Desktop Full Radio TEF6686" you will find it.

[@electro-soma]

I read in a comment somewhere else that there's a desktop version in the works, the SR-386.Whether that's true or not who knows!

[@swlistening]

@@electro-soma That will be very interesting, if it does happen!

[@radellaf]

This video is so needed. There's more features, but this helps. DX286, ant amp works on MW if ext ant is set. AM stations can be manually saved down in FM pages (I have page 0 and 1 for FM, 2 and 3 for AM). The manual is not that clear on how to deal with memories, not for a lack of trying. Video might be better/

[@swlistening]

Thank you! I think I will do an update of this video with the DX-286 and cover some of the other features, and some of the changes. The features are great, but not always very clear, as you say.

[@radellaf]

@@swlistening Thanks. I admire their effort making the English manual, but it could be much better. A lot of typos. IDK how I would explain all the details about the memory system, in just text. Your video was a lot of help in getting me started, though. I'd love to see a video of the designer talking about it, even if it was in Chinese.

[@swlistening]

@@radellaf I agree, the manual can be confusing at times, especially where they talk about the memory system. I haven't quite got my head around that yet 🙂 A video of the designer would be really great to see!

[@AntonLeneis]

Thank you for this tutorial on setting up the DX-286. I am still unable to set the FM band tuning steps to 200KHz which is the station spacing here in the States. I'd appreciate your telling me how to accomplish that.

[@swlistening]

Hi Anton, there should be an option for 200 kHz steps when you set up the radio. When the radio is off, press the "set" button to access the settings. Scroll through the various options with the tuning wheel. On mine the first option I see is for MW steps, then the next option is for FM band, then the next option is for FM steps. When you reach the FM steps option, keep pressing the "set" button until you see the 200 K option. Press the "page" button to save it as your FM step setting.

[@AntonLeneis]

@@swlistening Andre, Thank you so much! I am now able to tune in 200 KHz steps. Also your video helped me set up the time display so thanks too for that. The DX-286 is a truly remarkable radio performance wise but initial set up can be challenging!

[@swlistening]

@@AntonLeneis My pleasure! Set-up is a bit tricky, it is true. But it really is quite an amazing radio.

[@F4LDT-Alain]

Hello André, this is an incredibly useful video, thanks for sharing. I've had this radio for a few weeks, and your video made me discover functions I was totally unaware of. OK, I must confess that I've been too lazy to read the user manual from page 1 to the end 😁 I take the opportunity of this comment to ask the community of SR-286 users if they notice SW signals received way off their actual frequency. I've seen two signals in the 21 Mhz and 25 Mhz bands clearly shown as on 2375 and 2845 kHz. I've checked on another radio and the signals were heard on their normal frequencies and not where the Qodosen found them. There's something wrong here and the weirdest thing is that the Qodosen does *not* receive them on their actual frequencies, total silence there. Only on these "ghost" frequencies. So it's not what's usually called a "ghost image". It's not a major annoyance, but it still bugs me when I'm using this otherwise wonderful radio.

[@swlistening]

Thanks Alain! I would very much like to hear if anyone else has experienced the "ghost" frequencies. I also experienced something similar in the 60 metre band with CNR1. At first I thought it might have been new frequencies, but when you mentioned this experience it made me think that those two frequencies I picked up (4685 and 4780) might also be something strange happening. I have experienced something similar on some of my other radios, like my Tecsun PL-368 and the D-608WB, in the past, I have no explanation for this...

[@F4LDT-Alain]

Thanks for your reply, Andre. Yes, ghost images are far from being unheard of and I've experienced them on different receivers as well. What is different here is that the Qodosen only picks up these ghost signals on the bogus frequency and not also on the actual one. In my experience with other radios, the signal could be heard at both locations.

[@swlistening]

@@F4LDT-Alain Hey Alain, indeed, that is really quite a strange occurrence on the Qodosen. In my case I did hear CNR1 on various frequencies, so I am not sure at all which one caused the ghost image. But your example is a bit different, with the Qodosen not hearing the original frequency. I'm really hoping we will get some comments here from others to see if anyone has experienced the same.

[@corpo33]

Just messing with mine now arrived today using ur video as I go through the settings frequency mode is deadli.

[@swlistening]

Enjoy!

[@pweadon]

I enjoyed your video, very informative. One vexing question, I want to save specific stations and be able to go back to them. How does one do that?

[@swlistening]

The easiest way for me is to press and hold the numbers 2 to 9 to save the station in the page memory system. The SW pages started at 450, so if you don't have any stations saved yet, then you can start saving from 450 onwards. Press and hold the 0 on the station that you want to save, and it will be saved as 450, press and hold 1 and it will be saved as 452. Use the "page" button to toggle between the pages and the frequency display, and to access your stored frequencies. You just need to keep track of where your stations are stored, and switch between the different pages by pressing the "page" button and using the tuning dial.

[@adalbertoflores2341]

Greetings, I just bought the radio. , and Thanks to your tutorial I understand it a little better. ,,. my question is; When the radio is turned off, does the screen still show the time?

[@swlistening]

Hi Adalberto, thank you for your comment. Yes, the radio still displays the time when it is turned off, but the backlight is off.

[@WayneMcNab]

Hi. Great video. Just received a radio. Very nice. FM works great. Very impressive. However, AM receives nothing on any band. Checked DEFAULT for Atten which is no Atten. I have a standard small AM /FM radio next to my bench. It picks up at least a dozen Broadcast AM station while the 286 receives nothing. Ext Ant makes no difference. Am I missing something or did I get a defective one. Is the Ext Ant always on in SW mode or is there only internal for this mode Holding PAGE and 0 does not give me AMP ON, it gives me COSEN XX Cannot find AMP ON or OFF for SW anywhere in the manual Thanks Wayne

[@swlistening]

Hi Wayne, it definitely sounds to me like you got a defective version. MW (AM) is one of the absolute strong points of this radio. It does not matter whether the antenna attenuation is on or off, it receives MW very well. I would return it. About the external antenna. When you are in SW mode, it automatically switches to an external antenna the moment you plug it in. No need to change settings. When you unplug the external antenna, it switches back to the whip. You only need to use the settings to switch to external antenna in MW mode. By default it will use the internal ferrite antenna for MW. If you want to use the whip as antenna in MW, you can switch to external antenna. When you plug in another antenna while switched to external antenna, the radio will use that external antenna as the MW antenna. Do you have the DX-286 version? The settings are slightly different from the SR-286. For AMP on and off you need to press and hold the SET button. For switching to the external antenna, you need to be in MW mode and then press and hold the RDS button. I hope this helps.

[@WayneMcNab]

@ thanks so much. Love the radio other than this particular problem

[@KrissDucky95]

First of all, thank you very much for your work and your valuable advice. I wanted to ask you two questions, can you please tell me how to store the stations that I wish in manual mode and also when I use the external antenna mode in LW and MW is it possible to use the antenna telescopic to improve reception. Thank you in advance for your valuable responses.

[@swlistening]

Hi Kriss, the question about the external antenna first, When you use external antenna mode for MW and LW, it actually uses the telescopic antenna automatically to improve reception. But it also picks up more noise, so it helps to go outside or to a quiet area. When in external antenna mode for LW and MW you can also plug in an external antenna, like a long wire with a 3.5 mm mono plug, into the antenna input on the left side. The easiest way to save stations manually is to use the M/TONE button. This way you will not delete currently saved stations, it will save in open memory locations only. When you are on the frequency you want to save, just press M/TONE quickly. You will see the page number (for example PAGE 45) at the bottom of your screen. It will automatically be the first available empty page. You will also see at the same time the actual empty storage location number at the top of the screen, for example P451. Then just press M/TONE again, and it will be saved. To listen to the stations then, you need to press PAGE to go into memory mode and scroll through the saved stations using the tuning dial. You can also recall stored stations by selecting the page with the UP or DOWN arrows, so let's say there is a station on page 45, at P454. Press the UP arrow until you find page 45. Then press 4, and it will jump to P454.

[@KrissDucky95]

@@swlistening I thank you very much for your help and again respect for your work on video. I take this opportunity to give my opinion on this radio that I received this morning and which many people consider to be an exceptional radio. In LW and MW I find it roughly in the same style as the xhdata d-808 with the added bonus of being able to use the telescopic antenna outdoors. Function that was also found on Tecsun PL 990. For FM I find it nice to be able to improve reception with the BW ST function. As with many of these radios, I would have appreciated a slightly longer telescopic antenna. I have tested the SW range very little but I have noticed that the amplification function on this band considerably improves the reception and on this subject, I regret that it does not exist in LW and MW. Good luck and many thanks

[@swlistening]

@@KrissDucky95 Hi Kriss, thank you for sharing your views! I wish you best of luck as you explore the radio more. For me, it is better on MW than my D-808. An external antenna plugged in to the antenna input does help a lot. I agree about the SW amplification, it improves reception considerably on weak signals. I have had many good catches with this radio so far, I think it is very sensitive and I really like it.

[@KrissDucky95]

@@swlistening Please may i ask you one more question? when you use the bandwidth function on fm for example 84k on any frequency, is it possible to memorize this setting to prevent it from returning to BW AUTO during the next restart? Thanks a lot

[@swlistening]

@@KrissDucky95 Hi Kriss, I haven't tested this on FM. When I change the bandwidths on AM, the radio remembers the last setting, so when I turn it on again, it will be on my last setting. I guess it works the same for FM, I will check later. Just don't have the radio with me at the moment.

[@PoormanAudio]

Question: How to turn off the muting when you turn the tuning specially during sw dxing. TIA

[@swlistening]

As far as I know it is not possible to turn off the muting. The muting is, unfortunately, one of the less desirable characteristics of almost all radios with DSP chips. It's just more noticeable on some. I think it is not too bad on the Qodosen, but it is still present.

[@vinayfondekar3455]

Hello sir good day I just received mine. when you talked about switching antennas holding a.m. and page together, it didn’t work for me after searching on my radio if I press and hold RDS it works on that button. Don’t know why

[@swlistening]

That is correct. On the DX-286 you need to press and hold RDS to switch between internal and external antenna, the way some of the buttons function changed on the DX-286. It is different on the SR-286.

[@MarcosBoaventura]

What difference is there between Qodosen DX-286 and Qodosen SR-286?

[@swlistening]

Hi Marcos, there is no real difference, just some minor changes that were made to the DX-286. It is slightly easier (fewer buttons to press) to switch between internal and external antenna for MW on the DX-286, and to switch the antenna amplifier on and off. New FM tuning steps were added to the DX-286, but that only benefits users in the US and the SR-286 still works for FM in the US. Reception sensitivity and everything else is exactly the same.

[@infoels3]

qosoden sr 286 vs tecsun pl600..wich radio give best sound ?and am reception ?

[@swlistening]

Hi Hassan, I don't own a PL-600, but I have the PL-680. The sound on the PL-680 is definitely better than on the Qodosen. AM (MW) reception is better on the Qodosen. The Qodosen is really great for MW listening.

[@rmuzic1]

radio off and push 1+3 (off or On display auto off)

[@swlistening]

Aha, that's a nice trick, thanks!

[@rmuzic1]

Radio On/ buton Page+Auto(down) ... i dont know what chandge... :)

[@swlistening]

@@rmuzic1 Let me know when you find out 🙂 I'd rather not try that until I know what it does. Maybe I'll find it in the manual, I will look.

[@corpo33]

Is there a way to delete all stations because when I do an auto scan it's sayn mine is full ...I would like to be able to auto scan but not save all or to be able to delete all in one go and just auto scan again if I want to ...cheers and sorry for annoying you ..Ged ..

[@swlistening]

Hi Ged, you are not annoying me at all! There is a way, just hold the "DEL" button for 10 seconds, a message will appear that says "ALL DEL" and then the memory will be clear again, across all the pages, all bands.

[@corpo33]

@@swlistening omg thanks so much brother that's made my life sooo much easier 😁🤣im still havn great craic picking up loads of new stations I havnt tried s long wire yet just using my two antennas out the bk .But when I go fishing next week I'm going to throw a long wire up a tree and stretch it out see what I pick up out fishing cheers for ur help appreciate it .Ged Ireland 🇮🇪

[@swlistening]

@@corpo33 I think that fishing trip will morph into a DXing trip! Out in the country, less interference, a wire, the Qodosen. You will be far too busy catching new stations to have time for fishing 😁

[@Radinto]

Hello Andre. How is the MW spectrum in South Africa? Here in the states, I seem to only pick up US/ Mexican stations with a few exceptions (Cuba). All less than 3200 km. Granted, I haven't been to the coasts to try to get the trans ocean dx yet. How is it that you can pick up Moldovan, Egyptian MW stations over 6500 km away? Is the band less crowded? Love the videos, keep up the good work!

[@swlistening]

Thank you so much for your comment, I am glad that you like the videos! The MW band here in South Africa is actually very quiet, which helps with picking up distant stations. There are only two MW stations left in Johannesburg, where I am. At night around 20 or so stations come through from neighbouring countries, distance of about 350 km to 2000 km, mostly Mozambique and Botswana, and also Lesotho and Eswatini. But otherwise the band is still empty, so that makes it possible for me to pick up much more distant staitions on the unoccupied frequencies. This helps to catch Sao Tome, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, sometimes Egypt and some others. Some of the Mozambican ones also close for the night at midnight, which opens up even more frequencies for distant DXing. So I am a bit lucky. But I don't always pick up the very distant signals like Moldova, it depends on the conditions.

[@Radinto]

@@swlistening I see. That's fascinating that Joannesburg only had 2 stations. Here in the USA any major US city will have a bunch of AM stations. Our AM band is propped up by the government, for better or for worse. Ford motors tried to remove AM capability from their cars a few years ago but met fierce backlash from the government since they say it is important for emergency alerts and whatnot. I guess I can understand that reason, but the AM band is quite congested and DXing is usually limted to USA, Canada, and Mexico.

[@swlistening]

@@Radinto Here, there seems to be no interest in MW anymore, the government is pushing hard for digital radio. There have been some DAB+ tests for years, and I think they might also bring in DRM at some point. So the few MW stations we have left are just survivors from previous times when MW was still very popular. It does help me with my MW DXing, no crowded bands 😀

[@quvazar]

Make disassambly video

[@voornaam3191]

Tsjodosen? It says Qodosen itself. Are you tsjo tsjo? Da da?

[@swlistening]

😂Quite sure!