Modern 5 Core AM FM SW Radio T291 Disassembly And Test Made In INDIA

A look inside
vwestlife video, • Searching for the last...
He also released a disassembly video the same time I was recording this...
• Secretly made by Sony ...
Legacy Box video, • Legacybox "professiona...

[@NickG123]

I love to see the KZbin community getting inspired by each-others videos. This is what KZbin is for, not the million-dollar channels which are slowly taking over KZbin. The tech KZbin community is what KZbin was made to be! -Nick (Mazz-Gras Radio youtube channel) (Other account).

[@KenSilvers]

Yes, but... thats how libraries about books already in them get started. Gets stale fast

[@antraciet]

Exactly Nick. Is indeed nice to see.

[@donaldhoot7741]

I agree with you! I'm just afraid of the damn "money" people, they seem to win too many times.

[@robertgaines-tulsa]

"When you pull it out of the box, just rip the antenna off and throw it in the trash." I cracked up! Best quote about a portable radio ever!

[@benw12345]

My previous truck was Indian. The interior fit and finish was much like this radio. It was a strong truck though, and you could fix anything on it with just a hammer and shifter.

[@anishglx]

Brand?

[@benw12345]

@@anishglx It was a Tata TL4

[@Aneesh.Asokan]

I saw your truck on FILCKR with your comment!😂😁😀

[@benw12345]

Yes, the blue one on Flickr was mine. I do miss it. It was a great truck.@@Aneesh.Asokan

[@harleytwincam2]

The Royal Enfield motorcycle is made in India and sold in the US. It is actually pretty good motorcycle for the price.

[@johnchildress6717]

They make old school Triumphs that are good bikes.They do have new tech. fuel system.

[@alm5966]

They're 25 dollars too. 50 dollars with a built in 5Core sound system.

[@jhallenworld]

I watched the vwestlife video, and I thought the same: I wanna see inside of that!

[@antraciet]

Yes, is a great channel, everyone should sub.

[@hallieboy]

He did a followup where he opened it up

[@cjpwolf2436]

I saw it too. But I happy with my Realistic DX-440.

[@tarstarkusz]

I was thinking, I don't want to see the inside or outside of it. Cheap. Just looking at it screams CHEAP!!! If it was less money, like $14.88, I might splurge. But 25 plus shipping from India is just too much money for such cheapness.

[@vwestlife]

Mine isn't nearly that wideband on AM, but I'm not next door to a 50 kW transmitter like you are. And the loopstick is supposed to go the other way around, so maybe that has something to do with it. Neither the Sony chip nor the loopstick were designed for shortwave, so that's why it's so poor on that band. And its sensitivity on FM is indeed impressive.

[@andygozzo72]

maybe shango's radio has a fault, why its so wide? bad IF transformer? i'd think the 3 plastic cased cans are the AM IF and metal ones for FM..???? with that ceramic filter for FM , looks like it has empty position on the board for another ceramic filter, for AM?

[@Trance88]

Yeah. I think this specific radio is a partial dud, both due to the fact that it was damaged and its performance on everything other than FM is really poor.

[@markanderson350]

Yes agreed. He is in a very unusual market. I turn on am in ohio and I have maybe 5 stations, only 2 close by. Poor selectivity means better sound. Am is Almost dead too. I was really impressed with your review and loved your am740 spotlight. That's from where I was born. It's a terrific station and not just for music. It's time to change the track...

[@andygozzo72]

@@Trance88 certainly possible, unless shango has a few very strong stations nearby swamping it out, i'd say 'something' is wrong.... i've made trf sets using the famous/infamous ZN414 and its equivalents with seemingly better selectivity, on average strength stations, on a single tuned circuit!

[@andygozzo72]

even nearby to a strong station, IF selectivity should be better than that.....

[@pyeltd.5457]

in the UK i saw a 70s Car Radio by PYE that was Made in India

[@pcno2832]

One of the only things I can remember with a "Made in India" label was one of those cheap Raleigh-knock-off bicycles, either a Triumph or a Robinhood. Another was a storm-drain grate near where I used to park for work. For some reason, India doesn't export a lot of stuff to the USA; maybe they send more to the UK under whatever Commonwealth trade agreements are still in place.

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

Oh great. Vwestlife showed it off and now everyone is going to want one! ☺

[@TheFirstGroover]

V for Viral Westlife. I love his asmrish voice.

[@Detroit8V92tta]

I don't think so...

[@onefatstratcat]

India's GNP number will shoot through the roof!lol...

[@netautorisationnetautorisa545]

*NO NEVER*

[@user-cj7zl5jc6i]

@@Detroit8V92tta I kind of want one lol

[@DEW409]

Don't forget to give it an A for sound quality. The sound blows the old radio away.

[@PhaQ2]

Some quality electronics right there. Not every defect in that thing can be blamed on USPS.

[@KongKingman]

Bought a vintage radio, very scratchy volume pots and other maladies, seller blamed it on USPS lol

[@mfbfreak]

The bad selectivity does mean your audio is much better. It is always striking how good the quality of AM stations is in the USA, compared to the rest of the world. Pretty much all european tube radios have 10-12khz bandwidth at most (transmitters RF 9khz to mayyyybe 11khz, except for Radio Romania that sounds good at 16khz with a wideband receiver) so you get audio just a hint better than phone quality. It was very much needed because every single european country used to have a bunch of 100-500kw medium wave transmitters, 10 times more power than the typical USA transmitter - otherwise you'd just have a jumbled mess all the time. I can still hear stations from the other side of the continent in the Netherlands at night.

[@patricknesbitt4003]

If I recall didn't the FCC limit AM stations to 10Khz bandwith back in 1989?

[@brianleeper5737]

Many AM stations in the US have to lower their transmit power at night. Do stations in Europe have to do the same thing?

[@johnclarke2997]

European broadcasters mainly limit audio to 6 KHz. Some reduce audio to 4.5 KHz to reduce adjacent channel. Very few are running 500kw these days. Not uncommon to find services running 100kw today which in the old days ran 500kw. Those services under threat of closure due to running costs.

[@joenutt1329]

I bought one. I've had no trouble, and it's been a great garage radio. Its also proved to be quite durable.

[@user-cj7zl5jc6i]

How is the reception in your experience?

[@conanthemodeler858]

I’m back!!!!! I forgot about this video because I went looking for the video by VWestlife and never came back. What a treat.

[@LaptopLarry330]

I am a longtime shortwave listener. When listening to shortwave radios, you have to turn the tuning dial slowly, especially if all of the shortwave bands are on one universal band on the radio. The stations tend to be crowded in a handful of locations on each shortwave band. Turning the tuning dial too fast can make you miss some stations, especially when some of them have signal fade issues. Not every international broadcast network will have a good, strong signal. Another factor affecting reception quality is the time of day you are listening. In the Eastern Time Zone, the best time to listen to shortwave broadcasts is between 7:00 PM and 11:30 PM. Some of the international broadcasters broadcast their programs for Pacific Time Zone listeners between 7:00 PM and 11:30 PM also. Solar storms on the surface of the sun can hinder or block shortwave signals, so that has to be taken into consideration when listening for important news broadcasts on shortwave radios.

[@mindcaptive]

Nice video. I bought one of these and was surprised at how well it receives. Your short wave problem is the assumption that the loop is also for Short Wave, it is not. I connected the whip antenna to a Sangean ANT-60 portable wire reel antenna with great results on SW. Please don't throw out that antenna!!! Just treat it tenderly! This is a $25 dollar radio, and it's built like one. Everything about this radio is done on the cheap. It's amazing how well it works.

[@russellhltn1396]

That wide tuning on AM may be a bonus. Too many radios limit the bandwidth to 5KHz or even 3KHz, when the transmitters are putting out 10KHz. That wide bandwidth might cover weaker stations, but I'll bet what it does pull in sounds better than most.

[@edumafra82]

Here in Brazil, we had a company called Motoradio. It was pioneer on automotive radios and sold a lot of portable radios. Will be interesting if you grab one of those to check the quality, especially the units made in the '70s, when Motoradio used Sony components.

[@MrRadioRover]

Get a MotoBras Dunga VII. Fantastic old school transistor portable. They are impossible to find here in the USA

[@joseislanio8910]

@@MrRadioRover unfortunately, the models after the Dunga iii are all DSP garbage.

[@madmax2069]

​@@joseislanio8910 not all DSP based radios are garbage.

[@joseislanio8910]

@@madmax2069 I agree with you. But that's not the case here. Also, DSP is best used when you can actually set the frequency digitally, not with an analog dial.

[@madmax2069]

@@joseislanio8910 Sony fully transitioned into DSP based portable radios not too long ago, the ICF-P27 as example you can't really tell that you're tuning a DSP radio.

[@radiorexandy]

Shango, "5 Core" is not the only Indian- made radio. They used to make the Èton E1 (Grundig?) in Bangalore, India. Its circuitry was based on the Drake SW8. It also had an FM band and provisions for XM radio. It's been discontinued. I still have mine and it's a darned good radio -- so the Indians can make a good radio!

[@thetechgenie7374]

The e1 is a great radio. Just rubber coating on case had to clean off as became sticky.

[@ritdhar6579]

Philips' still make radios in India. Philips Prince, Champion are to mention a few. I'm pretty sure that the circuitry in this 5core radio is a copy of philips Prince (with a philips chip in place of a sony)

[@joseppuig925]

The datasheet of the IC provides a diagram and there is a ceramic filter for AM, and this radio does not have it, and it could improve selectivity at least to a decent level. Even if you look at the PCB there is space for it.

[@defaultuserid1559]

The datasheet says the IC has 500 mw output when supply voltage is 6 volts. This thing only gets 3 Volts from 2 D batteries. That must be a really efficient speaker.

[@binarybox.binarybox]

Yes. CF2 is missing and CF3 is shorted out. It would be interesting to to fit the 2 missing ceramic filters.

[@williamkilleffer5382]

Could you pull the bridge from the space marked CF3 and replace it with a 3-pin filter like SFU455Y?

[@LiamsTaxi]

Perfect for fishing 🎣 trip or a workshop ,sounds like the average 70s radio my dad would have used in the basement while working..

[@ravipatil207]

Thanks 🙏 for reviewing Indian analog redio. It's finishing looking low but audio quality best other than well-known brand. . Best wishes from India🌹👍

[@olddisneylandtickets]

I saw the same video and kept saying "I want to see the inside of that"... THANK YOU!!!!

[@IrishvintageTVRadio]

I want to see the inside of that too, and that's exactly what I thought when I seen Vwestlife's video. Thanks for stripin' er down!!

[@ralphhoskins2115]

I couldn’t resist,,, just bought one..... it does sound very nice for such a small radio... now the only thing missing is another review from phononut.....can’t wait for his take on the five core

[@johnstone7697]

I have a feeling he'd shit all over it. He's a lot grouchier than even Shango, and that's saying something.

[@CoreyDeWalt]

I was surprised when he didn't open it, he's usually good about that! I'm glad you made this! This would be a neat radio to take out to the desert to include in a sensitivity test round-up video.

[@zx8401ztv]

Fm sounds really nice for a budget radio :-D Narrower filters would help. Shame about the postage system knocking it about, but no expanded poly in the box :-(

[@jameskeefe1761]

One nice thing about it, uses full size electronic components rather than surface mount junk. Would make it easier to repair or improve with ceramic filters.

[@1959Berre]

I live in Europe. Never have I ever seen a speaker size in metric, whatever its origin.

[@shango066]

Russian Soviet speakers are in millimeters

[@5roundsrapid263]

Tire sizes are always metric in width, but inches in diameter. Bizarre, but that’s how it is. There was an attempt to make both metric in the late ‘70s, but it failed.

[@patricknesbitt4003]

Used to see metric speaker sizes in Japanese radios from the late 60's through the 70's. 10 CM was a common size-just a hair under 4 inches.

[@MrBhalchand]

Hello from India

[@F40PH-2CAT]

Man FM radio in LA is awesome. Even compared to my area (NYC)

[@jrmcferren]

Glad to see you test one. Strong locals can really wreak havoc on more recent true analog tuners on AM. Ironically, the tuner I had the issue with is the opposite of Vwestlife's problem where it is an analog tuner with digital readout (from around 2010) instead of a digital tuner with analog readout.

[@PapiDoesIt]

I don't need to pay $25 for the Sound of India. All I have to do is answer the phone and talk to the extended car warranty guy.

[@Rainbow__cookie]

I like to watch Indian guy on KZbin tutorials

[@ColoRadio6996]

@@Rainbow__cookie Take a listen to KITBOGA on Twitch.

[@f.k.b.16]

Ok... Not gonna lie... That made me laugh!

[@Rev22-21]

Indeed...they are verdy verdy goud Johnny Quest. Me, I can't understand their perfect English Indian dialect most of the time.

[@markanderson350]

In indian talk v is w and w is v. So wave is vawe

[@chetpomeroy1399]

Shango may wish to consider taking this for a reception test in the desert the next time he goes there. That 1960's-era Sylvania radio appears to be a post-CONELRAD receiver -- they sure don't make 'em like *that* anymore!

[@Rev22-21]

That or an exploding radio test.

[@sumatoborukiSaru]

I thought you would have tried to do an alignment & 'squeeze a bit more juice out of the lemon' (so to speak).

[@Derundurel]

I wondered about that. It might improve the selectivity on AM as well.

[@allthegearnoidea6752]

I would like to see that

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

Maybe mount the pcb on something else and trash the cabinet

[@_wave64_]

I recognize the ferrite antenna by its color and flat sides: it's the common 10x100mm Chinese ferrite rod that goes between $1 and $3 a piece on ebay and aliexpress.

[@Prnencetti]

Vwestlife also did another video on the radio where he took it apart so yes that is an actual Sony chip from what he said in His Radio.

[@nefariumxxx]

My computer's motherboard was made in India by "Asrock". It has been working pretty well for about 8 years now. Still able to play modern games. Does have a few quirks but nothing terrible.

[@bigalsmallengines]

Never seen anything electronic manufactured in India myself. Cool to see this radio and it being an analog format design. And yeah cool way for the board to separate from the tuning string track set up. Yeah not much competition in the AM tuning arena to the American analog portables, but a lot of them do as good as this one on FM I think. Thanks for showing it! Cheers! 🍻 -AL

[@mrmobodies4879]

Thanks to you customers know exactly what they're buying from the inside.

[@pradeepkumarpanda7626]

I am from India. Never seen this brand in any electronic or music shops in my country. It's a new local brand by a small scale manufacturer under the govt's Make in India initiative. You can buy Croma brand of modern digital radio made in India by the Tata group. By the way there are few radio enthusiasts in India these days and they are no longer interested in these antique or rather assembler models.

[@uxwbill]

The shortwave band on mine worked really well. Unfortunately, something's wrong with the speaker. I contacted the seller and they're sending me another, no questions asked.

[@davek12]

I love that you're wearing gloves when dealing with a brand new item in a box.

[@Seiskid]

Yeah - I noticed this too :)

[@davek12]

@@Seiskid I guess when you're used to stuff covered with condensed cigarette smoke, sprinkled with rat piss, and dusted with asbestos...

[@rdhchannel9548]

Maybe you try for fun to realign and/or install missing ceramic filters on AM band? Sounds like it has too wide IF.

[@Seiskid]

Agree, CF2 and CF3 are definitely curious.

[@rexoliver7780]

Love how the speaker is mounted off center in its speaker grill!Climbing to new Heights!!!

[@rocka3743]

Off-topic I know, but congrats on the 50k subs mate! Love your vids.

[@drsysop]

E-Mail the seller tell them to send you a replacement as it was damaged when you got it. Shortwave sucks on it as you hear FM bleed though on it.

[@SarahRWilson]

Gotta love intermod!

[@ColinRussianForce]

Brings back memories of the days when we turned the tuning knob to see what we could find

[@Thievius333]

I recently bought a $20 modern radio that hss analog tuning as well, the Sony P26. It isn't the most amazing radio out there but I like it a lot because its small like an old "pocket" transistor radio and I can DX pretty effectively on it, particularly at night. Hell I picked up a station in Iowa tonight and I'm in Syracuse, New York roughly 800 miles away. But it does have a problem at times with overlapping station signals like that 5 Core, so I'm sure it has its limitations as well. But for just $20 on Amazon, I've been pretty happy with it.

[@defaultuserid1559]

I ordered one the same day VWestLife put up his video and it's still not here (FEMA Region III). Hope it's not all smashed up like yours. Edit: No physical damage but the dial pointer was off the track and jamming the tuning - easy 1 minute fix. Circuit board and speaker identical to yours. AM performance is better than expected but has poor electrical noise rejection - bandwidth was a little wide but nothing like yours. FM antenna broke right away but this thing doesn't care and gets really good FM anyway. SW is useless. The sound is better than expected and should get better as the speaker breaks in. I got this thing as a throwaway radio for working on stuff outside but I'm starting to like it more and more.

[@nykwynes]

Ever since you mentioned K-Jazz I've been listening on the app. Good station. Another great video as always!

[@jeffking291]

Based on this, and the other review, I bought one - should have it by Friday. I got the other model. I have an old Magnavox D-1066 AM pocket radio made in India. 📻🙂

[@nmosfet5797]

WHAT A GREAT PORTABLE RADIO! I'm not sure what your quality criteria are, but from where I'm standing, this looks like a great little radio. The sound is about 1.35 million times better than any western portable radio I've bought lately - you know, the ones that have a huge speaker grill in the plastic, but inside you have a piezo element. This one has a proper speaker and it actually has bass too. The power consumption is remarkable. 5 milliamps plus speaker drive, that's remarkable, the modern digital tea5767 based units have 4 times bigger power consumption. This would play for months from 2 D cells. And it picks up stations really well. From U.S. big city point of view the selectivity is not great, but for rural areas, travel, hiking, this has great sensitivity. In short: a great piece of proven design, they really did do these better in the analog days.

[@eDoc2020]

You might give the AM an "F" but it's way better than my old portable tube radio which on a good day can pick up a distorted version of WBZ (the strongest station around me). But if I change a few caps and redo the alignment the situation might change a bit.

[@elpoints77]

Hi there, greetings from Ireland. I'm into all about radio and love your content. Just by looking at the PCB of this radio, the AM selectivity is none but you can fix this easily. there is unpopulated 455 KHz IF filter on the board. Just remove jumper and solder one in. I think it's worth it. then the sensitivity desert test would be nice:)

[@williamkilleffer5382]

So, pull the bridge from the space marked CF3 and replace it with a 3-pin filter like SFU455Y?

[@richardbrobeck2384]

I was Impressed with the build of that .

[@ChickenLordCL]

I thought the same thing watching that video. Thanks for this content!

[@LakeNipissing]

As I said on VWestlife's dismantle video, the speaker is simply ludicrous for a ½ watt amplifier!! Unlike most modern junk, which would have a 1¼ inch speaker behind a 5 inch grill, this 5 core has a speaker so large, it goes behind the dial scale!

[@andyjackson9990]

@shango66 Just wanted to say congratulations on passing 50,000 subscribers. You deserve it!

[@hardrivethrutown]

This actually looks pretty decent, I've heard that India actually has a decent manufacturing sector (much better than China IIRC) Sad thing is these sorts of radios can't be sold in the EU because of some B-S DAB laws requiring all new radios sold to come equipped with a DAB receiver

[@Tall_Order]

[something floating around inside] Only the best...

[@circuitblog01]

Nice video dan i seen the v westlife video and i wish he opened it up to see the circuit but he did not so thank you for opening it As for the radio circuit it is a am/fm front end with rf /if and build in amplifire the volume signal control it happen in side the ic but the volume control key it control a voltage and the voltage go to the electronic volume control circuit that feed the audio signal to the amplifire in put circuit inside the ic there is an smd type with the same part number it is made in china license by sony corp and it is from cxa1..... family the radio that banggood give you and you build it the am / fm one it has the same type of ic but smd but it is a from the cxa family

[@s8wc3]

Inches is still used for speakers and screen size just about everywhere. Back in the tube TV days we (in a metric country) used cms but for some reason when flat panels came out everyone suddenly switched to inches... I don't really get it, cm is always a higher number, wouldn't they want to use that for their marketing??

[@christopherhulse8385]

Here in the UK they tried going over to cm for TV screens around 20 years ago but went back to inches again.

[@pyeltd.5457]

@@christopherhulse8385 UK bad

[@user-cj7zl5jc6i]

Lindybeige I think wants to use the imperial system in england

[@11sfr]

FWIW, my new Motorola phone was made in India and seems perfectly fine quality wise, I expect its just the same situation as China, or, anywhere, really - pay for quality, you'll get a quality product, pay to cut costs, you'll get a costs-cut product. Personally, I kind of like it when stuff is made there, versus some other places, because, reasons

[@1L6E6VHF]

In LA, One can't tell the shortwave band from the FM band, ten languages other than English on each.

[@rogertyler3237]

I'm A Classic Country Guy. Have Been All My Life Ever Since I was 2 Years Old

[@antigoseraros]

Excelente rádio! Parabéns

[@IchbinGroot]

I like that !! The high end staff from Cucumba technologies ;=) ^^

[@joojoojeejee6058]

Inches are being used almost worldwide in some circumstances. For example, hard drive enclosure sizes, DVD/CD/floppy sizes, jeans sizes, speaker sizes, display sizes, wheel sizes to name a few... Feet are being used in aviation worldwide except in Russia.

[@steviebboy69]

Its funny in Australia we went metric before I was born , but to this day they still use imperial for TV and mobile phone screen size and sometimes even put newborn baby weights in the old money as in Pounds and OZ.

[@joojoojeejee6058]

@@steviebboy69 Well, many countries have "always" been metric, but imperial units are still being used in the forementioned specific applications, because it has become the industry standard.

[@steviebboy69]

@@joojoojeejee6058 Well this country was imperial and even had the old funny money as I would call it. I am glad they changed it though metric is easier to work with I guess.

[@joojoojeejee6058]

@@steviebboy69 Yes. Canada on the other hand seems to still be in "transition" after adopting the metric system in the 1970s. Both systems are being used there, and imperial seems to be predominant..

[@steviebboy69]

@@joojoojeejee6058 I guess it is also what you are used to using, my mother would still use the old system.

[@AyushmanAdhikary]

I remember, as a kid way back in the mid 90s, my dad used to buy me matchbox sized radios which I believed were manufactured in India. I was probably 7 Or 8 years old. It was 1999 when I first saw a computer which was the only one in our town in a small computer training center. I had interest in radio signals. I figured out that the cordless phone that we had communicates to the base station over FM at 90 MHz and one day I surprised my dad by playing back a call he had a while back, on our two in one cassette recorder which had the ability to record from radio. 😁

[@OWK000]

gotta love the the birds singing in the background. . .

[@LeeLocke]

You found one. Very good.

[@38911bytefree]

The speaker is actually pretyy good, even to 90s standards, it bigger than the one in the average radios, even Philips that is a well known brand, had smaller speakers. It sounded nice, but probably this should sound better

[@RssutharJaisalmer]

अरे वाह 😊👌🏻👆🏻🙏🏻

[@keithlogan6641]

Cool video shango 066 i saw the video i got me one of these radios my salfe i like all your video s so you hnow

[@frankowalker4662]

I wonder if AM would be better if the postal service had'nt thrown it around?

[@shyambhaskar4835]

Exactly

[@randyc8171]

I just got the T22 and it has superb AM performance surpassing all my other radios. FM is awesome too. Short wave ???

[@rajesh00ify]

This is the most commonly used circuit in all the local models in India. These sets have demand in small towns and remote areas.

[@tonyturtle5805]

very nice rig thanks for video !!!!

[@lurkersmith810]

I have an old Philco tube radio that lost all of its selectivity sometime between the time I repaired it, aligned it, and put it on the shelf, until the next time I powered it up. I still haven't gotten around to looking at it though. In the meantime, my Freshman Masterpiece from 1924 (TRF with three tuning dials) is much more selective than that, even with KNX and KFI, and I can see KFI's antenna from my upstairs window!

[@AKATenn]

lucky you have so many radio stations there... there's like 5 in total here, including AM, maybe like 9 or 10...

[@Ken-wd4wk]

Thank you for doing this ,,I almost bought this puppy .. I do love that speaker tho... :)

[@airplaneengine]

Try realigning the AM section. Maybe even add a ceramic IF filter (on the board it looks like the place labeled CF3 with a jumper across it), could improve the selectivity. Maybe lose that disc capacitor next to it. Looks like that Sony chip uses an IF of 455 kHz. Data sheet specifies a SFU455B CF (I'm sure you have a junk radio that you can pull one from).

[@Mr_Meowingtons]

omg this video was the best!

[@darkwinter6028]

I have seen some stuff marked “Made in India” before; but it is kinda rare...

[@reacey]

Iv just repaired a little radio but the reception is terrible, the antenna broke off so I put some copper wire for the antenna but it doesn't work very well, however when I wrap some solder round the copper it works well, is it that copper is not a good metal to use as an antenna ?

[@loneranger5700]

It's a made in India product..much more durable & reliable from any Chinese or other asien country made goods😉😎...

[@onefatstratcat]

I love their custom name brand original speaker :)

[@jordanch68]

One thing about the Shortwave. Put the antenna back down and return it to the stored position for use with SW. I get no SW at all with the antenna up. On AM I get FM bleed over with the antenna up too so I only put it up when listening to FM. I think the filter arrangement needs help. The datasheet for the 1619 IC has it using three ceramic filters (CF1, CF2, and CF3). The radio has places for them on the pcb however only one is installed. (at CF1) and a jumper where CF3 should be. The one installed at CF1 is one of the 10.7 filters (Either CF2 or CF3 on the datasheet) and the 455 CF is not installed so that's probably why AM is all over the place and FM isn't as precise as it could be. I've ordered some filters based on the datasheet and I'll install them in mine and see if it works any better. Mine had the same problem yours did, busted standoffs and the ferrite antenna busted off and magnetically stuck to the speaker. Mine also had 6 missed solder connections on the back of the board so if you get one of these radios check for that. Also use some hot glue to better secure the ferrite antenna, it's just held in with a small amount of wax. One thing I did notice was the plastic can be repaired with superglue quite well. So this radio has some things going for it, it's easy to repair and has modification potential (convert to one 18650 battery for power, add a tuning LED indicator since the IC supports it and filters based on the datasheet.)

[@bugdrvr]

That sounds like a really fun project. I ordered one based on VWestlifes video. I'll definitely have to look into getting it up where it can be.

[@spu441100]

good review Thanks

[@Steveuk405]

It is what it is, It is it's own special creation..... I wonder how it would perform in the back country - even with the Antenna not ripped off. That is not a genuine SONY chip from what you say. People who buy those put them in the kitchen and listen to Mambo Rock on them.

[@rich_edwards79]

The UK still stubbornly uses imperial measurements for most things (despite constant attempts by the EU over the last 50 years to metricate us.) Beer is still served in pints, distance expressed in miles, weight in pounds (and for people, stones) and most people know that 80° is a warm day and 30° is a cold one, even though the TV weather forecasts dropped Fahrenheit years ago. Officialdom tends to use metric, for example the doctor will tell me I weight 120kg which means nothing to me so I have to Google it to find out that I'm 18 1/2 stone. I work in planning / construction and we have to work in metric; any drawings provided in feet and inches are rejected as they have to be in metres (yes, spelled the stupid French way) and cm. It's a weird hybrid that we've been dealing with for decades and is the direct result of our uneasy relationship torn between the USA and Europe, and the (apparently doomed) attempt by the latter to impose their system of weights and measures on us (an attempt that the English population have largely resisted, and which some would argue was even a contributor to the decision to leave Europe and align more closely with the USA.)

[@pyeltd.5457]

it should all be Metric worldwide. its not in the UK as apparently its to expensive to change everything but not for other EU countries.

[@jonathaneastwood2927]

Only old farts that are still using imperial system, nobody under 50 has much love for it now and are quite happy with the metric system.

[@rich_edwards79]

@@jonathaneastwood2927well, I'm 41 (so not ancient, though I'm sure Gen Ys assume i'm some bigoted old boomer) however I do tend to listen to the 70s / 80s music I grew up with, and I still use a lot of imperial measurements, possibly because my late wife was American and I spent a lot of time there. I just can't visualise a kilogramme or a tonne (and why all the extra letters, it's a thousand years since we were invaded by the French!) in the same way I can a pound (lb) or ton. I suspect the old measurements wont fully die out until everyone who was raised using them has shuffled off this mortal coil, so, only another 30-40 years to go :)

[@tiporari]

Some of the "bling" is just cultural, many Indians I have known enjoy jewelry and stylistic themes we would consider over the top. Some of it is certainly appealing to the lower socioeconomic tastes much as rent-a-center furniture and stereos from the 80's here did. Nothing wrong with it.

[@CheezyDee]

I hope the next video you try to tune it for more selectivity... it sounds like the Chinese AM radio kit I slapped together a couple years ago before I tuned it. I wonder if it even uses standard 455/10.7 IF.

[@jrs0007]

Just thinking... shango066, can you find a Murata SFU-455 ceramic filter and place it in the radio to see if it improves the AM selectivity? Might make for an interesting project.

[@the-np4mr]

Honestly I think the old looking through hole pcb is really cool

[@vicmabus1532]

Thank you for the review! Won't be buying this radio, but just installed the KJAZZ app so I can listen, too.

[@piwex69]

same

[@TonyLing]

Ideal for listening to in your Tuk Tuk

[@huwkelvinmorgan3575]

i must admit to being moved to tears just watching this video on the 5 core radio and all its glory truly a top radio in its dumpster sorry i meant class no really really i meant class HONEST

[@Santaji55]

I believe there are a few more radios using this IC in the Indian market. Some are branded Philips. Presumably the build quality will be better.

[@p-fix]

I love those fake feet. So stylish

[@Rainbow__cookie]

Same

[@tedbell4416]

That's how you tell high quality