Sangean ATS-909X | The Good and the Bad

An honest review of the Sangean ATS-909X shortwave world radio receiver after a few weeks of use. Is this radio worth buying?
VIEW ON AMAZON: amzn.to/2K1J4si
In this video, I discuss 8 pros and 11 cons of the ATS-909X. If you're looking to buy a radio like this and have thought about getting the Sangean, I hope you find this useful in making your decision. I hope Sangean see this at some point. The radio has massive potential but it let down in a few key areas.
PROS: 0:51
CONS: 4:50
Have you used this radio? Do you agree with my thoughts? Let me know in the comments. Thank you for watching and please subscribe to the channel.
#shortwave #radio #sangean
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[@Sangean1974]

Thanks for the review. We will definitely take your valuable feedback into account. Cheers!

[@CrawldaBeast]

The muting that occurs when tuning in larger steps is a nature of the beast. That mute is the PLL circuitry unlocking and the locking up on the new frequency.

[@hadireg]

very good points!! I modified an old Sangean ATS-909 and it's just perfect!! spot on for the tuning wheel on this one. exactly why I never considered this upgrade

[@therabbitchannel2059]

I like the detent tuning knob. I can use my thumb while holding the radio. It tunes convenient band steps. Great for in the dark. Also the up/down buttons will scan if held for a second.. Manual tuning it will indicate on the meter any station I pass even when going fast. I had a serious radio collecting bug and have owned probably a hundred radios and this is the best portable SW receiver I've ever had. I'm going to compare it to my GE Superadio on AM DX which should be interesting. I used to have a Ham ticket so I do know a little bit about radios but not as much as I used to.

[@kc8tby]

Fantastic video review of this radio! Thanks for the honesty and for the more detailed review of the good as well as the bad. By the way, Merry Christmas from western Michigan, USA!

[@tdcattech]

Merry Christmas to you too from Bristol, UK.

[@jeffbannister3931]

I have no problem with the tuning wheel holding it with 2 hands and spinning with my thumb. I use this radio daily and travel for my work. I especially like the auto tuning when arriving in a new city and then picking through the stations. I have owned for 4 years now and purchased with the Clearmod upgrade with detent and am going to upgrade the speaker next. I own several at home including a Satellite 800, RF_2200 and several Grundig 350 and 450 models. The 909x is my goto for travel and packs well in my luggage. Backlit keys would be nice but I don't think I have ever seen them in a radio of this size. Before dismissing this radio because of the tuning knob pick up a book of similar size and hold it sideways with both hands and see where your right thumb rests...for me it's right at that location. Obviously we all have different preferences but this is how I prefer to scan through the stations until I find a program to listen to.

[@ambush1sg]

The tuning wheel smooths out with use. It took a month with moderate usage on my 1st 909X & about 2 weeks on my 2nd one with every day usage. In any event after a few days I got used to it & coped marveling at the quality of signal reception all the while. I've had none of the other bugs described. I would like a standard coax antenna plug for plugging antennas into the radio but there are adapters available & it's easy enough to cobble up an adapter. There are so many different coax plugs that to standardize on one would irk the people that use other ones. Sangean sends a 22 foot antenna on a reel along with their radios. I t has the jack that mates with the with plug in the radio.

[@ronaldpokatiloff5704]

the new sdr from china has the proper terminal. r75 has uhf, a butch!

[@medo123345]

Tks very good feedback. I express support concerning tunning wheel. Stay successful.

[@zamkhirah6963]

This is the best ever i've seen explaination👍🏻👍🏼👍🏽👍🏾👍🏿

[@spqa2004]

I was looking at buying this radio and the Tecsun PL-880. Thanks to your critique of the tuning wheel, i settled on the PL-880. I like tuning with a knob and, thanks to you pointing it out, i knew right away that spinning the ATS-909X's wheel would become really tiresome and uncomfortable for my hand. It's a bummer because i really like the look of this radio. If Sangean releases a new version with knobs instead of wheels, i might buy it!

[@ambush1sg]

The tuning wheel will get looser & smoother. I'm on my 3rd 909X & one in particular was very stiff but loosened up within a week. I like a little bit of detent in my 2 remaining receivers & now they're at that point.

[@ofthedawn]

@@ambush1sg why 3? Why are people ok with poor quality?

[@echohunter4199]

Tough call, I’ve watched quite a few reviews about this radio and all the competitors out there. There’s features I prefer from each of them so in due time, I bought the all the 909 series then a few Tecsuns and Etons along with a few Grundigs sprinkled in, lol. I pick mine up usually second hand except the high end ones so I don’t inherit someone’s problems and so far the radios perform well but each has its pros and cons.

[@TheAx504]

Thanks for the review. Seems like you are looking for features that are in SW radios that are double the price. You mentioned that it’s an expensive radio. However, it really is an entry level radio/price for the serious SW listener who would most probably buy this radio for traveling use. That being said, I understand your frustration!

[@jmflyer55]

Just FYI... The ATS909 shortwave radio has been around quite a long time. I bought one about 20 YEARS ago! This one is "updated" but only a couple of very minor changes. First off, if you're NOT wanting primarily for the shortwave, don't buy this radio!! If you ARE buying it to het a good shortwave? YES, this is the radio for you!! This is one of the best shortwave radios Ive ever owned. (As said above, Ive been using & buying shortwaves a very long time) Ive spent more than this, Ive had "fancier" radios than this. However, at $250, I can say, hands down, this is the best shortwave you're going to get. And even above that price point, this will still be a better radio. The signal holding is excellent, the sensitivity is excellent, the reception is excellent. The audio is matched for voice, and its great great sound quality. (For VOICE!!). Buy this radio if youre in the market for SW.... Do NOT spend $250 on this, if you plan to listen to FM radio playing music etc... While it does "fine" doing that, you can do MUCH better elsewhere if you want a radio for music and just am/fm.... Hope this helps someone out... BTW, Hey man, on that tuning disc you're complaining about is hard to turn? Its designed to be turned with your right thumb, as you're holding the radio. Not with a pointed index finger.🙄 But anyhow, that tuning disc will loosen up as it breaks in. USE YOUR THUMB! Lol

[@bigkamran]

Thanks for this video, I have a Tecsun 680 and I wonder which of these two would be a better DXer? If you can elaborate on this I would appreciate it

[@ubcxlt]

Thanks for the review, it would have been nice to hear what SSB sounds like on theATS-909X. My go to radio is an old Yaesu FRG-8800 which I bought in the early '90s - a brilliant tabletop receiver. I also have a Tecsun S-2000 tabletop, an old Sangean ATS-818 from the arly 90's and a Tecsun PL-660.

[@ronaldpokatiloff5704]

some sangean portables would have ssb, some would not have ssb, so be careful to check.

[@MrAwschannel]

Thanks for the good review, but I have some comments. The first is about the "page problem". If you want to store a frequency that you're listening now and the page is full, just press MEMO. You now see Memo and Page blinking. Now press "TuningUp"or "TuningDown" to change to another page. If you find a page which is not full, press ENTER. Your frequency is now stored. This method can also be used to copy stored frequencies to other pages. The second is about alphanumeric tagging. Most radios in this price range do not even know what it is, to store a name instead of a frequency. So be glad to have this option per page on SW. Ok, this radio is not perfect. But than, the perfect shortwave radio does not exist. This radio is in a price range, where is should be today. The top models of the big contestor Tecsun are in the same price range, or more. If you want a really better radio, go for an ICom or a Yaesu or something like that. But don't forget that these radios start at 1200,-- Euro or more. Have fun with what you got, Arie

[@tdcattech]

Fair point that you can buy better but it’s unfortunate that these user interfaces are antiquated. There’s no excuse for it. Sure this is a basic SW radio but consider what can be done at this price. I guess it’s just a lack of demand and no drive to evolve. As always, appreciate the feedback and corrections! 👍🏻 Good to hear from you. Greetings from Bristol, UK.

[@MrAwschannel]

@@tdcattech I agree that more people should listen to shortwave so there could be more diversity in radios. Greetings from suburban Amsterdam, NL.

[@DIlic-iz9tx]

*_Bravo prijatelju._*

[@colddeadhands7202]

Good critique.

[@LIM_Khuan]

fully agree with u, the front tuning knot , bad bad design

[@Radio_Activity]

Interesting review. I own quite a few SW radios but not this one. I know the 909X divides opinion, well most of these radios do to be fair. Removing the detent on the spinny tuning wheel seems to be a popular mod. The lack of sync on a £200 multiband radio seems like a really bad omission. Then again none of the modern manufacturers appear to have the know how to even equal Sony's brilliant sync technology from the 1980s. As seen on the ICF-2010/ICF-2001D. I've found the Tecsun PL-660 to be the best bang for the buck at a smidge over £100. Decent sync detector - it doesn't quite rival the sync on my old Sony ICF-2001D but it's not bad at all, no mute on tuning, proper tuning wheel (quality of the knob could be better though). I just wish it had RDS and covered OIRT. For £110 it's a steal really. The forthcoming Tecsun PL-990 really does look promising. Includes recording functionality.

[@tdcattech]

I have to admit that I would probably go for a Tecsun second time around. You're right about the PL-990. It looks interesting. Great to see that new radios are still in development for products that must not sell in huge quantities. It must be worth their while.

[@Radio_Activity]

@@tdcattech Yes you're right. Sony, Panasonic and others left this arena along with the big SW broadcasters and the Chinese have filled the void on the radio front. The market still seems to be quite vibrant. Eton/Grundig announced days after the PL-990 leak they were putting the legendary E1 back into production.

[@ambush1sg]

I wouldn't spend the money on the tuning wheel mod on the 909X. It'll loosen with use in a shortwhile.

[@teunaydin]

Nice report thank you but most important is lack of performance on whip antenna?

[@georgiehogman2001]

I ordered a Tecsun pl660 to replace my Grundig g5 which was incredible.

[@David-xd9iu]

Thanks for the info - so which good radio has backlight keys - did not find one

[@FrancoDX]

Degen DE1103 when the backlight is on. Good receiver too but don’t see many around now.

[@b57ecv]

It's a very good shortwave radio....running an active loop is best i use the mla 30x it absolutely brings this radio to life on shortwave....the antenna can be trimmed at both the box where the stainless steel wire screws to and inside the amplifier it's self, there's a variable capacitor in both.....i did it by turning the rf gain right down on the receiver on a weak signal at the lower end of the sw spectrum volmet is good for this ....then i ajusted the variable capacitors to give the highest signal strenth on the s metre on the radio....once done it absolutely transform this radio into something really special and the rf gain work's correctly.....my review is on Amazon as well i saw yours.....I liv ten miles north of Gloucester Gloucestershire not far from May Hill.

[@o00scorpion00o]

I sold my Tecsun PL-880 and S-8800 and while some People might moan about the tuning encoder on the 909x remember that the performance on the Tecsuns on SSB is just horrible and the DSP and filtering are worthless if the sound quality is rubbish. Even the New Tecsun 990 sounds bad. One example is even if you're not interested in listening to Ham Radio operators SSB has an incredibly useful function on LW/MW/SW, say there's a station you want to listen to on one of the bands but there's another stronger station close by, then switch to USB/LSB and tune the BFO until the sound is as natural as you can get it and in most situations it eliminates the interfering station or noise source. The background noise is also higher on the Tecsuns.

[@vibesstr]

Are you using that wheel as tunning wheel or as a Dj scratching vinyl ?

[@phoebus]

Geez, most of the things you are complaining about are things that can't even be done on most other radios. I'm not a big fan of the tuning wheel either, but if I was sufficiently motivated I'm sure I could make little modification to it myself that would make it a lot better. My biggest complaint is that the back light doesn't stay continuously on when on batteries. It would be nice to have lighted buttons, but show me a portable that does? Overall it's a very nice radio and looks and feels of quality. I got mine for under $200 new on Amazon. I also got one for my mom and she knows nothing about SW or HAM SSB but loves it on AM and FM and loves it's quality looks.

[@charleswendt4868]

If you hold the tune are for a little but the band will scan till it finds a station

[@tinasmith8104]

well tell us which radio do you think is good?

[@DIlic-iz9tx]

*_I saw that they have the Sangean ATS-909X ClearMod. It is much more responsive and has additional built-in filters and a higher quality speaker that does not interfere with the ferrite rod-antenna that is for the MW band._*

[@phoebus]

I've picked up MW AM stations nearly 3,000 miles away with my 909x on the internal ferrite antenna with no mods, so the speaker can't be effecting it too badly.

[@fjdkfdfjdf33]

Too bad they haven't modernized this device more. Could be cool for sentimental reasons, but i'd loose interest soon because it's not at all user friendly. Thanks for showing us!

[@phoebus]

Not at all user friendly? It has nice layout and a lot of features that are very user friendly.

[@andrewclough660]

totally agree about tuning wheel, its a no buy for that reason for me. it really makes you wonder what went on in the design team. surely they had seen other radios, touched other radios, then why did they think this wheel was a good idea... Sangean generally make good quality stuff and i love my bedside DCR 10 nearly 10 y old and is still perfect.

[@ambush1sg]

The tuner wheel will loosen with use in a short time. Once I found that out on my 1st 909X. I used the manual tuner most of the time instead of the up/down buttons with my 2nd & 3rd. It took less than a week & I noticed a difference within a few days.

[@ivanigorpollick6690]

bad copy of Sonys wheel-which are great

[@phoebus]

How do you know until you try it? And it's not the only way to tune this radio. Generally I use the keypad or up-down buttons for large frequency changes then go to the wheel for smaller increment frequency changes and of course for tuning on SSB . Tuning by just using the manual knob on any radio with this large of frequency range will become tedious no matter how smoothly or easily it turns.

[@chancha807]

Every 4 seconds I hear a pulse noise on LW SW and AM. Is my unit busted ?

[@forgetyourlife]

NO, you have RFI in your house. Probably power supplies, appliances or LED lights.

[@zamkhirah6963]

It has no filters or any clamb circuits so it can smooth the signal received😜

[@paolonervi2208]

40 Hz Step..? i tought it was 50 Hz..am i wrong?

[@phoebus]

40 Hz in SSB.

[@joed3613]

Can't you just glue a knob to the tuning knob?

[@noelgeoghegan6952]

What radio has back lit keys?

[@tdcattech]

No idea but this one should as the keys are difficult to see in low light.

[@lorrenwatson5942]

Sorry to say this but if u hold the tune button down it will scan.

[@Cheetorblz]

A lot of very good observations. Unfortunately, sw radio (outside sdr) is dying and not going to get any better. There is minimal and sharply declining demand and decreasing competition. It seems like 2005 tech because it is. The life cycle of this industry is at the grave.

[@tdcattech]

Shame. I know that SW is redundant in many respects but it would be nice if these radios employed more current tech.

[@hdofu]

The problem with this radio is it's really a starter radio for this hobby... but its priced way higher then comparable radios with more options because of the sangean name making it not the best choice for getting into the hobby, it offers good ssb but lacks sync detection, stays with their tradition of putting RDS on fm, has a large number of memories which is helpful but the menu system for shortwave can be downright baffeling to get set up.

[@tdcattech]

What would your recommendation be as a starter radio?

[@hdofu]

TDCatTech these days if you’re looking for an easy to use, compact option, tecsun 310 is good option at 48 dollars ... it’s full coverage about the only major weakness is no single sideband tuning, if you’re going for a unit with single side band my best advice is look for a used Grundig Yacht Boy 400, they can generally be found for around 40-80 bucks these days. Another option that used is often not bad is the Realistic DX-398, a clone of this Radio’s Predecessor the ATS-909 as they sometimes can be found for as low as a quarter of the cost of this radio and the differences of options is surprisingly not that much

[@usmankhan-xi4dl]

Well it doesn't work on sw but it's better for fm reception

[@douglasallen511]

"It doesn't work on sw", please elaborate upon your assertion.

[@usmankhan-xi4dl]

@@douglasallen511 well it sometimes but you need to connect sw reel antenna

[@chancha807]

Which in home short wave radio would you recommend as the best of the best ?

[@tdcattech]

Impossible to say really and they excel in different areas. However, I wouldn't buy the Sangean again. I would probably go for the Techsun PL-880 (amzn.to/2uSCYEh)

[@DXLUPO]

@@tdcattech No, the Pl 880 is not better, it is too bassy, no RDS, and with the DSP chip it is very bad on SSB, Tuning wheel of ATS is very good... if you have problems with it... go to a doctor with your hand:-) :-)... Sangean has LINE IN, etc. There is no such thing as the best radio ... each has its advantages and disadvantages... let me tell you... I have both Radios and I prefer the Sangean:-)

[@o00scorpion00o]

I would go with the Sangean, I got bitten twice hard by Tecsun PL-880 and S-8800 and they were expensive. The DSP on the Tecsun 880 and S-8800 is just horrible if you listen to SSB. The Sangean sounds as SSB should sound, low background noise and no distorted Audio, the Tecsun DSP radios will break your heart believe me. I sold my 880 and S-8800 and got the much cheaper PL-680 and I was gob smacked by the audio on SSB and the low background noise, even the New Tecsun PL-990 is rubbish or any of their DSP radios. I sold my 880 and S-8800 and got the much cheaper PL-680 analogue radio, sure, it doesn't have the filtering the DSP radio has but what's the use if they sound so bad especially on SSB ? Tecsun should be ashamed because on such expensive radios these are major faults and the radios should never have been allowed to advertise SSB it should have been disabled and the radios sold at half the price. Even if you don't listen to Ham radio operators on SSB, SSB is highly useful to what's called Zero Beat on LW/MW/SW , what this allows you to do is say there's a close by station on SW and it's effecting your ability to hear a weaker station then you can press USB/LSB and tune the BFO until it sounds as natural as possible and this can greatly reduce or entirely eliminate the interfering station. Sangean have a new design 909 in development and might be available by the end of 2021. If you want the latest and greatest then check out the Malachite SDR, it's available in kit or fully built, it can only be got here by contacting the developer in this forum. hamforum.ru/viewtopic.php?p=1774#p1774 IF you see one on ebay or Amazon they are fakes and avoid because there are many complaints of issues. I think it comes or has the option of coming with case with built in speaker, telescopic antenna and built in Lithium battery. IF only Sony still developed multiband radios, so sad.

[@o00scorpion00o]

@@DXLUPO Yes I agree 100% the Tecsun PL-880 and the new 990 are just pure rubbish, for the money these issues on SSB should not exist. My real issue is that many new people to Shortwave think that the sound qualty and performance of these radios is somehow good or normal. The XHDATA D-808 also suffers but not as bad on SSB, it has it's own issues like severe overload with external antenna at night but on the telescopic it's very sensitive and good for a put in your pocket and go radio and at the cost many issues can be forgiven but not the Tecsuns, they are a disgrace for releasing these radios at the price with shockingly bad SSB Performance. You can't even Zero beat on LW/MW/SW because SSB is useless. Avoid Tecsun radios like the plague. I sold my 880 and S-8800 and got the much cheaper non DSP PL-680, far better audio, much lower background noise it's performance justifies the price, yesterday I ordered the Sangean 909x, I've heard countless videos with it on SSB and I think I'll be happy enough.

[@DXLUPO]

@@o00scorpion00o I do have Sangean 909x and I do love it:-)

[@geevervarghese9862]

Made ..?

[@cariza5]

DLF = Deutchland Funk.

[@ronaldpokatiloff5704]

my X2 only lasted for about 2 years. NO POWER

[@ivanigorpollick6690]

so overpriced,a shame

[@tdcattech]

You're right. It is too expensive.