Good cheap sw radio.

[Moab]

The XHDATA D-328 has gotten some good reviews for a $15 radio. It takes a removable lion battery pack. And not AA's. But neither do our phones. And at least you can buy extra of these rechargeables.

Read the review and see what you think. It's not an $80 Tecsun pl368. Or $168 C. Crane. But its not meant to be. It's more a put in your car and not care if its ripped off radio. Or an "I need preps money elsewhere right now" radio.

Read the comments too. The review author follows up with more positive comments.

https://swling.com/blog/2018/04/the-professor-reviews-the-xhdata-d-328/

XHDATA D-328 Shortwave AM FM DSP Portable Small Multi Band Radio Stereo MP3 Player with Rechargeable Battery Earphone Jack Portable Multimedia Speaker with USB Micro SD Card Jack (Black) https://a.co/d/3x1klXx

You cannot view this attachment.

[EBuff75]

That looks like an analog equivalent of the Retekess V115.  For that, I found a clamshell case that had room for the radio, two replacement batteries, a charging cord, and the manual.  Same idea - a cheap radio that I can toss in the car if I want.  The MP3 thing seems like a gimmick, but I put most of my music collection onto a card and stuck it in the radio. I'll occasionally use it when I'm around the house, just for a change of pace from listening on my Bluetooth speaker.  And it would be a neat thing to take along for camping, so that you can listen to music without running your phone down. 

[Moab]

That looks like an analog equivalent of the Retekess V115.  For that, I found a clamshell case that had room for the radio, two replacement batteries, a charging cord, and the manual.  Same idea - a cheap radio that I can toss in the car if I want.  The MP3 thing seems like a gimmick, but I put most of my music collection onto a card and stuck it in the radio. I'll occasionally use it when I'm around the house, just for a change of pace from listening on my Bluetooth speaker.  And it would be a neat thing to take along for camping, so that you can listen to music without running your phone down.

I looked at that radio too. Which one is your preference? I couldn't find a review in swling.com. but I did see it mentioned.

Care to share a link to the case? 

[EBuff75]

It's a bit of a tight fit, but I bought a Ginsco EVA hard case.  I think that someone had recommended it in the comments and that's why I went with it.  Another quarter inch would've been better, but it does fit and there's enough room in the mesh pocket for the batteries and instructions. Since the XHDATA is slightly larger than the Retekess, the case probably wouldn't work for that one. 

The radio was on sale for $14.44 when I bought it (it goes on sale fairly frequently).  With the case and extra batteries, it was about $30 total.

Here's a picture of the case with the contents:
You cannot view this attachment.

The USB charging cord (the only way that I have to recharge the batteries) won't go in the mesh pocket because that makes it too thick to close the zipper.  Thus, it's tucked in next to the radio. 

I like it, although the controls are a bit confusing (and the instruction manual isn't great, particularly if yours has the pages printed out of order like mine!).  The sound is surprisingly good, although there's isn't much bass, but it's very clear.  Easily good enough (for me at least) to use to listen to music or news.  Just to make sure, I have it sitting on my desk playing OceanLab right now. 

I do wish that it had weather band, but that's the only major shortcoming.  I bought it as a replacement for an older (but similar sized) Sony shortwave radio that has some issues with the controls that make it a bit finicky.  I decided that I'd prefer digital this time around and the Retekess seemed like a good option. 

Since I don't have one of the XHDATA radios, I can't really compare them.  They have identical ratings on Amazon, so I'd say that it's up to you whether you prefer analog or digital. 

[Moab]

It's a bit of a tight fit, but I bought a Ginsco EVA hard case.  I think that someone had recommended it in the comments and that's why I went with it.  Another quarter inch would've been better, but it does fit and there's enough room in the mesh pocket for the batteries and instructions. Since the XHDATA is slightly larger than the Retekess, the case probably wouldn't work for that one. 

The radio was on sale for $14.44 when I bought it (it goes on sale fairly frequently).  With the case and extra batteries, it was about $30 total.

Here's a picture of the case with the contents:
You cannot view this attachment.

The USB charging cord (the only way that I have to recharge the batteries) won't go in the mesh pocket because that makes it too thick to close the zipper.  Thus, it's tucked in next to the radio.

I like it, although the controls are a bit confusing (and the instruction manual isn't great, particularly if yours has the pages printed out of order like mine!).  The sound is surprisingly good, although there's isn't much bass, but it's very clear.  Easily good enough (for me at least) to use to listen to music or news.  Just to make sure, I have it sitting on my desk playing OceanLab right now. 

I do wish that it had weather band, but that's the only major shortcoming.  I bought it as a replacement for an older (but similar sized) Sony shortwave radio that has some issues with the controls that make it a bit finicky.  I decided that I'd prefer digital this time around and the Retekess seemed like a good option. 

Since I don't have one of the XHDATA radios, I can't really compare them.  They have identical ratings on Amazon, so I'd say that it's up to you whether you prefer analog or digital. 

I'm still gonna get either the Tecsun pl360 or pl368. But neither of those get weather either. I wonder why that is? I think Beofeng ham handhelds do. I want a set of those two. But would rather just run one radio.

The 368 has better autotuning, and ssb. But takes a phone battery instead of AAs like the older 360. Times have changed. I don't think you can rely on that old standard. Of trying to run everything off alkalines. Or being able to as a last resort. Those days are gone. I guess you'd have to rely on solar. Or extra orecharged batteries. 

I do have a REALLY sh*tty little cheap weather radio that runs on like 3 forms of power. Including alkalines and a cheap crank. That would probably last a day. Oh. And it has a light. Why does everything have to have a light?! Lol! 

Countycomm used to sell both the Tecsun and a tiny Marathon am/fm/sw/noaa radio that ran on 2 AAs. For like 150 hours. It had an external antenna port too. And the whole thing was the size of a desk of cards. I had one for years. But it just died. It was the perfect bugout radio. 

[EBuff75]

I've got a half-dozen or so of those little AM/FM/WB cheapo radios too and yes, I think that almost all of them have a flashlight built in!  Several of them are "base station" weather radios which are meant to stay plugged in, but that will run on battery in case of a power failure.  

Because of this conversation, I pulled out my old Sony ICF-SW10 radio and fiddled with it again.  Nope, still sucks.  The problem is that it has a mechanical slider that also moves a geared band indicator (a yellow plastic bit that shows up through various portholes above each band).  That makes it really hard to slot into a band - if you give a bit of sideways pressure, it will change bands without changing the indicator.  I was able to get some FM stations without much difficulty, but couldn't get any AM channels at all.  Of course, I can't even be sure that I had the AM band selected, so that could be the issue...

[majorhavoc]

I've got a half-dozen or so of those little AM/FM/WB cheapo radios too and yes, I think that almost all of them have a flashlight built in!  Several of them are "base station" weather radios which are meant to stay plugged in, but that will run on battery in case of a power failure. 

Because of this conversation, I pulled out my old Sony ICF-SW10 radio and fiddled with it again.  Nope, still sucks.  The problem is that it has a mechanical slider that also moves a geared band indicator (a yellow plastic bit that shows up through various portholes above each band).  That makes it really hard to slot into a band - if you give a bit of sideways pressure, it will change bands without changing the indicator.  I was able to get some FM stations without much difficulty, but couldn't get any AM channels at all.  Of course, I can't even be sure that I had the AM band selected, so that could be the issue...

I have an older Eton/Grundig emergency radio that receives SW - the FR-200 I believe.  It also has that analog slider scale tuning. But it has both coarse and fine tuning knobs and the latter really helps slotting into a particular frequency.  

Still much prefer digital tuning.

[Moab]

How important is auto tuning? I know on scanners its a huge help.