Unbelievable MW reception on Qodosen SR-286 in the park with external antenna

[@StratmanII]

What a treat! Not only the SWL King takes his favorite radio out to the local park, we also get to experience what a quiet evening out in a recreation park in Jo'burg feels like! 📻👍 Whoever lives in that beautiful house overlooking the Sandton business district in the northeast is really lucky. That view outside their balcony must be just as awesome, there's the added benefit of an unobstructed line-of-sight perfect for FM and VHF catches, extra elevation to boost MW and SW catches and not to forget the park outside their gate is just perfect for making night time MW band scans and flashlight review beam tests for KZbin! 🔦 😀 Did you get funny looks from joggers or people walking their dogs in the park when you made this mini documentary? 😁👫🐕🐩 Enjoyed this episode, Andre. The SR-286 is still an early production design which has yet to mature like the XHDATA D-808. It probably needs better bandpass filters and internal shielding to reduce the harmonics and EMI. I wonder if the Qodosen's improved MW reception is due to its built-in LNA. 🤔

[@swlistening]

Glad you enjoyed the video and the park! It's a really nice place indeed, and not far away from my house. I actually expected a few funny looks from the dog walkers and joggers, but there were none. A few people did look at me, sitting there with the two radios and the wire up a tree, but more out of curiosity, I could see they were wondering what I was doing 🙂 I haven't actually ever seen anyone DXing in any of our parks, and I do use them all quite a lot. But, who cares if I get funny looks, as long as I am having fun 😁 Personally I think the improved MW reception on the Qodosen is because of the TEF 6686 chip. That chip is just amazing, it is so sensitive and really pulls in signals. Especially on MW and FM, but definitely also on SW. I still think this is groundbreaking technology and the other radio manufacturers will have to catch up, otherwise they will fall behind.

[@StratmanII]

@@swlistening I was hoping that some people would approach you and ask the name of your YT channel! 😀 This wasn't Delta Park, was it? It looks like this is an affluent neighborhood with a security patrol, swimming pools, at least an SUV in every garage, solar panels on the roof, perhaps a generator set or a 6 kWH rechargeable battery bank. I'll bet none of these folks who live here own a Kenwood R-1000 and a Qodosen SR-286 though. 😁📻👍

[@swlistening]

@@StratmanII Maybe next time when I go there again, with more radios and with my AN-200 loop also, I might get some questions 🙂 This wasn't Delta Park, no. We are quite lucky in Johannesburg, we have very many green areas and parks, from small to very big. Delta Park is a well-known one and actually quite big, there is a lake also, and a wonderful coffee shop and restaurant. It is not too far away from me. But this one in my video is just a small neighbourhood park, I don't even know if it has a name. It is in my own neighbourhood, which I would not call affluent, more middle class 🙂 The solar panels and generator sets are becoming common in South Africa because of the electricity problems we have. Although, we have had about six weeks now without any power cuts at all, following a year or so with daily power cuts. We do have an election coming up in less than a month 😉

[@StratmanII]

@@swlistening Houses like the ones in your video are considered "upper middle class" where I live, just slightly below the typical millionaire's row! 😀 There is a small park with a man-made lake near my home and since 2005 it's been upgraded with paved jogging tracks, a playground for kids and exercise machines. The sad part is that the pre-existing 33 kV transmission grid crosses the edge of the park which makes shortwave DX'ing a poor experience and a light rapid rail system also follows that perimeter. Elevation: only just 20m ASL. Nope, I can't see the Sandton financial hub from here either. 😥 Here's to a brighter (pun intended) future for South Africa - a nation where energy woes and scheduled power cuts will be a thing of the past! 🇿🇦🙏💡🔌🔦

[@swlistening]

@@StratmanII Sounds like a nice park, despite the lack of DXing opportunities. I remember the light rapid rail system in KL very well from several visits to the city in the 2000s. It is a very efficient system, I used it all the time. Wish we had something like that here in Johannesburg. We have good bus services and minibus services, but it's not the same, not as fast. Thank you for your good wishes. I can't help but smile at how efficient the government has become all of a sudden in the months leading up to the election 🙂 Everything works, all of a sudden, including the energy supply. I am hoping this efficiency will continue after the election.

[@RJDA.Dakota]

The park or a nice walk through my forest is a fantastic place to listen. Almost no RFI at all.

[@swlistening]

Lucky you, a forest nearby! That sounds like a wonderful DXing spot.

[@RJDA.Dakota]

@@swlistening it is, if you can put up with some wildlife and insects. I usually do okay. The very rear part of my garden is sufficiently far away to actually sit and listen.

[@F4LDT-Alain]

Hello André, what a nice place you have here! It's elevated, overlooking the city with an unobstructed view as it seems in your video, green and nice with tables and benches. It must be quite enjoyable to go there for some listening. And reception seems very good indeed. Little noise, no interference. Great catches there! I was outdoors too today too as you know, mostly for ham activity but I also did some SWL and MWL. I really didn't have the same nice weather you had though. Grey, rainy and kind of cool for the season.

[@swlistening]

Thanks Alain! It is a very nice park indeed, the elevation is good and the views are nice! And it's not far away from me, less than 5 minutes' driving, up quite a steep hill. It's green now, but give it another month or so then the grass will be dry and brown. Most of the trees remain green throughout winter though, it's still a nice place in winter. Now that I know how well the Qodosen works there on the whip and a bit of wire, I will try to go more often. I can just imagine when propagation conditions are really good that reception in the park would be quite amazing.

[@terrytartu]

In 1968 I was in thebritish merchant navy, we sailed to tour the Australian and coastal ports. We stopped off for fuel in the canary Isles then to Cape Town and on to Freemantle. On the way down I had a small soviet radio which had a remarkable shortwave reach - for the time. However, I as we crossed the equator I noticed a sharp degregation in signal. The ship itself could receive BBC World service without problem and I went to talk to the radio operat6as to why that was. It seems being a lowly deck hand I was not privvy to the information. He only told me that around the equator (especially as close to land as we sailed) and the heat generated lightning storms all the time and that was the signal degrading I suffered. Even in Australia some days was quite poor (it was around Jun to August we were in Australia. We came back to Capetown early September and still the reception was abismal. I admit I have not until recently kept up with the hobby of my youth. Your poor reception at times on medium wave reminds me of the frustration I felt at those distant times. I still kept up the hobby in the uk until 1980 and now in Estonia have only recently picked it up again. Although I loved to listen to distant far away stations and especially finding a new one, I also tried to discover what those weirdly musical sounds I occasionally caught were. Not static, not generated by radio stations that I knew was I still (rarely) hear them nowadays.

[@swlistening]

Hi Terry, thank you so much for sharing this story. Very interesting about the degradation at the tropics, I guess that's also why some bands are actually called tropical bands. Because they work well in the tropics. Like the 60 metre band. I am glad to hear that you picked up the hobby again. I hope you will enjoy it as much as you did before. I also only returned to the hobby around three years ago. I was an avid DXer in the mid 1980s, but then drifted away. There are fewer signals now, for sure, but still many interesting ones. And I am enjoying MW DXing a lot, not something I ever tried in the 1980s. But, as you rightly say, my MW reception is very unpredictable, especially in my summer. Then it can be very noisy and distant signals are very hard to catch. Now as winter is approaching I can see how MW conditions are improving, more and more stations are coming through, and getting stronger. I am hoping for some good catches mid-winter with the Qodosen!

[@mrtsp91]

Cool video. I've been to Sandton. On my visit I brought a Sony portable and sat outside at night at the camps inside Kruger National Park and DXed the MW band.

[@swlistening]

Hi Tom, thanks for the comment! Did you have any good catches there? Sure you heard all the Mozambican stations!

[@mrtsp91]

@@swlistening It was amazing on how empty the MW band is compared to here in the US. I heard lots from Mozambique, Botswana (VOA), South Africa, some of the high-powered stations from Saudi Arabia, but my favorite was hearing Malawi on mediumwave. I'd love to come visit again.

[@swlistening]

@@mrtsp91 Yes, our MW band is quite empty. Which makes DXing on the MW band a lot of fun, you never know what you will hear. Very distant catches are always likely, like you experienced also with Saudi Arabian signals.

[@migsvensurfing6310]

Quite a difference with the wire antenna. clearly the chip was made for a car whip antenna as you told in an earlier video.

[@swlistening]

I agree, this chip really works well with the wire antenna, I think it shows that it was optimised for an external MW antenna.

[@racinchef]

I had heard some radios had improved medium wave reception with the whip antenna extended, but I had never heard of a long wire attached for MW reception.

[@london19657]

He must have switched the radio to external ant. This radio can do that. Cheers.

[@swlistening]

@racinchef It's basically just like attaching a wire to the whip for shortwave listening. It also works on MW, as it improves reception. I did switch the radio to external antenna also, as @london19657 commented.

[@kwdavids1]

I got a surprising result. I tried MW on the Qodosen with the whip extended, but no external antenna plugged. I got more stations with the EXT ANT setting than I did with the INT ANT setting. In my test the whip was better than the loop stick on MW.

[@swlistening]

Hey Kevin, thanks for your comment! On my side I find that when I am home, the whip does not perform so well. I think there is too much RFI. So at home I mainly use the INT ANT setting. But outside, like in this video, the whip easily beats the internal ferrite antenna, with the EXT ANT setting also, like what you did.

[@kwdavids1]

@@swlistening The loop stick is directional and that helps with noise.

[@swlistening]

@@kwdavids1 Thanks Kevin, that is very true! I also find that my AN-200 passive loop helps a lot with noise, and it is also directional. Do you use a passive loop antenna for MW? I find that the difference can be quite remarkable. It helps to null out noise, and also strengthens weak signals quite a bit when paired to the internal ferrite. By the way, off topic, I watched you video today where you compared the D-608 to a bunch of radios on the Canadian time signal and another signal, I found it very interesting indeed! I think the D-608 fared quite well there. Not the best of the crop, but not bad either.

[@skinnyblinddude]

Is there an advantage to clipping into the telescoping antenna versus plugging a long wire into the external antenna jack?

[@swlistening]

@@skinnyblinddude Wayne, I think it is better to plug it in, there will be a bit less noise. But clipping it onto the external antenna also works fine.

[@arcticradio]

I really wish they would make a new car radio based on this that covered SW too. Bit more dedicated to radio rather than an afterthought as most radios are currently. I can dream!

[@swlistening]

That would be a very special radio indeed! I would buy one, if ever such a radio comes out.

[@Kw1161]

Andre it looks like you picked the right moment to go “Parking” with your little “Q” radio…😂! If I heard your local Radio Islam right it sounded like she said “you turn gas, into oil to run the industrial machines” …😂😂😂! Have a great day! 73!

[@swlistening]

Good catch there 😉 You heard right!

[@Kw1161]

@@swlistening 😀😀😀!

[@ronaldgroves6350]

I use this radio to search for long wave non directional beacons and it beats my Tecsun, xh data and sangean radios. I am finding beacons I never heard before

[@swlistening]

Hey Ronald, that's great to hear! I haven't even begun exploring LW on this one, too busy on MW and SW :-) But I will start checking out LW beacons as well, thanks for the tip!

[@joeweberofficial]

Wow, what a difference external antenna can do. Great catch, awesome radio.👍🏻

[@swlistening]

@@joeweberofficial It really makes a big difference on this radio. My Tecsun PL-368 also works on the whip (or a wire) on MW, but it does not really catch MW signals as well as the Qodosen with the whip. It is actually rather poor when using the whip. So I definitely think it's the TEF 6686 chip that makes the difference on the Qodosen.

[@user-qd1lb8mu9j]

Have you tried to connect external antenna to the antenna jack and use also a ground wire? A ground wire, connected to a water pipe if you are indoors or a copper pipe stick into the ground if you are outside, could improve further the reception in LW, AM and SW.

[@swlistening]

I haven't connected a ground wire yet, no. I will try it.

[@gmorgan1118]

This is another environment where I would be curious to see how well a passive loop antenna would perform. Maybe you can try it soon.

[@swlistening]

No problem, I will add it to my list and certainly do such a comparison. I will be quite interested in seeing how the passive loop performs outside in a park.

[@railcard.britain]

When the 'external antenna' option is selected for MW can you plug a long wire into the ant socket or do you have to clip it onto the whip like in your video? I'm thinking of getting a DX-286 and wonder if the same will apply.

[@swlistening]

You can plug in a long wire or any other antenna for MW when you select the external antenna. I use a Tecsun AN-200 loop, plugged in.