Portable Radio on the Cheap.

I have tested the Retekess radio. All analog. Price about 20 GBP on amazon UK. I wanted to play a bit with a modern cheap radio with short wave.

Power supply is a single 18650 cell, rechargeable in the radio via a micro USB connector. I like that. The cell can, of course, be replaced. 

The radio covers FM 88 - 108MHz, SW 8 - 18MHz and MW 530 - 1710kHz.

FM works mostly nicely, tuning is OK, a little fiddly, but doable. Good sensitivity.

MW tuning quite fiddly, sensitivity poor to mediocre. Probably due to a small ferrite antenna.

SW: One band 8 - 18MHz. practically impossible to tune to a station. Sensitivity barely sufficient with the built-in telescopic antenna.

Very nice sound from the speakers, surprisingly good for such a small radio, will probably be in use.

The radio, as it is, is unsuitable for short wave reception, it is essentially impossible to tune it to a single station, mostly due to backlash in the tuning system, and due to covering 8 - 18MHz in a single band. It is essentially just a toy for SW reception.

I might be possible to make it tuneable on SW with a fine tune addition, but the modification might not be fit into the casing.

All in all a somewhat decent portable FM receiver with a medium wave performance only sensitive enough for local reception of strong transmitters.