My luck with buying modern portables and pocket radios has not been the best. They often have problems right out of the box or develop them within months or the first year of operation. By modern portables, I'm talking about the last 20 years or so, at least since the year 2000.
In the narrative below are $905 dollars of radios I have bought in the last ten years and the problems I have had with them. This points to continued quality control issues and poor materials in today's cheap (and not so cheap) consumer radios coming out of Asia.
What's a radio nut to do? I doubt things are going to change any time soon. You either put up with it or leave the hobby.
MY EXPERIENCES
Kaito KA1103 $80
After a year an occasional processor glitch would cause tuning to become erratic, skipping every other channel. The only fix was pulling the batteries and letting the radio sit overnight. Reset did not cure problem.
Radio was also highly sensitive to static. Wipe your hand the wrong way across the display face and the processor would lock up.
Eton E1 $400
At about the one year point the radio and display would go dead intermittently due to apparent processor problem. Problem remained intermittent and was never resolved.
Rubberized coating got sticky and attracted grime after about a year. I used alcohol to remove the rubberized coating but the plastic underneath didn't fare well in some areas, bleaching the grey color out.
Another ding for this radio was the poor quality display for such an expensive radio.
Tecsun PL-380 $45
After a year many of the Tecsun's notoriously hard-to-press buttons started to fail to make contact making it impossible to set frequency or control radio settings. Some buttons now are unusable.
In the narrative below are $905 dollars of radios I have bought in the last ten years and the problems I have had with them. This points to continued quality control issues and poor materials in today's cheap (and not so cheap) consumer radios coming out of Asia.
What's a radio nut to do? I doubt things are going to change any time soon. You either put up with it or leave the hobby.
MY EXPERIENCES
Kaito KA1103 $80
After a year an occasional processor glitch would cause tuning to become erratic, skipping every other channel. The only fix was pulling the batteries and letting the radio sit overnight. Reset did not cure problem.
Radio was also highly sensitive to static. Wipe your hand the wrong way across the display face and the processor would lock up.
Eton E1 $400
At about the one year point the radio and display would go dead intermittently due to apparent processor problem. Problem remained intermittent and was never resolved.
Rubberized coating got sticky and attracted grime after about a year. I used alcohol to remove the rubberized coating but the plastic underneath didn't fare well in some areas, bleaching the grey color out.
Another ding for this radio was the poor quality display for such an expensive radio.
Tecsun PL-380 $45
After a year many of the Tecsun's notoriously hard-to-press buttons started to fail to make contact making it impossible to set frequency or control radio settings. Some buttons now are unusable.
***Update. October 2020. Virtually no buttons work now. I just ordered a Radiowow R-108 to replace my PL-380.
Mechanical tuning encoder is sub-par and cheap. When tuning slowly in one direction, frequency will jump intermittently to a channel in opposite direction.
Eton Traveler 3 $45
The weak orange-on-black display is unreadable in outside daylight. Overall contrast has gotten even worse over time.
Mechanical tuning encoder is sub-par and cheap. When tuning slowly in one direction, frequency will jump intermittently to a channel in opposite direction. Again. The problem is is particularly bad on this radio.
CCrane Skywave $80
Mechanical tuning encoder is sub-par and cheap. When tuning slowly in one direction, frequency will jump intermittently to a channel in opposite direction. Again.
Sangean ATS-909X $205
AGC problems started after about a month. Radio eventually went dead at two months. Sent in to Sangean for repair. Two way shipping costs were $26. Radio now works great. Good job Sangean. I was sweating this, as the 909X is a particularly expensive portable.
Panasonic RF-562DD $50
Tuning glitch occasionally occurs at a certain spot on the dial where the radio suddenly goes dead. It seemed to be a misplaced litz wire contacting one of the I.F. cans. After moving the wire the problem disappeared, I thought. It has since re-ocurred occasionally. Maybe a battery contact issue caused by flexing of the case by the tight dial mechanism? Or a bad leaf in the tuning capacitor? Still unknown. Luckily it's only very intermittent.
SUMMARY
Manufacturers: WAKE UP! Use better materials. Up your quality control game. Charge a little more if you have to. Sell me a radio that will work a year from purchase.
Will I keep buying Asian radios? Probably.
If you feel like adding your experiences to the comments section, please do.
Mechanical tuning encoder is sub-par and cheap. When tuning slowly in one direction, frequency will jump intermittently to a channel in opposite direction.
Eton Traveler 3 $45
The weak orange-on-black display is unreadable in outside daylight. Overall contrast has gotten even worse over time.
Mechanical tuning encoder is sub-par and cheap. When tuning slowly in one direction, frequency will jump intermittently to a channel in opposite direction. Again. The problem is is particularly bad on this radio.
CCrane Skywave $80
Mechanical tuning encoder is sub-par and cheap. When tuning slowly in one direction, frequency will jump intermittently to a channel in opposite direction. Again.
Sangean ATS-909X $205
AGC problems started after about a month. Radio eventually went dead at two months. Sent in to Sangean for repair. Two way shipping costs were $26. Radio now works great. Good job Sangean. I was sweating this, as the 909X is a particularly expensive portable.
Panasonic RF-562DD $50
Tuning glitch occasionally occurs at a certain spot on the dial where the radio suddenly goes dead. It seemed to be a misplaced litz wire contacting one of the I.F. cans. After moving the wire the problem disappeared, I thought. It has since re-ocurred occasionally. Maybe a battery contact issue caused by flexing of the case by the tight dial mechanism? Or a bad leaf in the tuning capacitor? Still unknown. Luckily it's only very intermittent.
SUMMARY
Manufacturers: WAKE UP! Use better materials. Up your quality control game. Charge a little more if you have to. Sell me a radio that will work a year from purchase.
Will I keep buying Asian radios? Probably.
If you feel like adding your experiences to the comments section, please do.
