DX-286 Portable Shortwave Radio AM FM LW SW Ultra High Sensitivity Full Band Radios with TEF6686 Chip for Kitchen, Desk, Bedroom, Office and Outdoors.

Outstanding Performance! The very best choice for a small economical radio. I purchased this radio after seeing many positive YouTube reviews . I’m not new to the SWL hobby. Therefore, I am able to compare this little gem to other expensive shortwave radios that I own. This radio holds its own and sometimes outperforms $200-$300 dollar portable radios. Shortwave performance is very good with a small indoor window antenna. FM and Broadcast Band AM performance is outstanding! During the nighttime hours, I am able to pick up 90% of the US clear channel AM stations without an external antenna. FM has high sensitivity and good sound for such a small radio. The only downside (if it had one) is no SSB tuning. But I personally would not expect it on an easy to use radio in this price range. All in all a great little radio for emergency back up, travel, camping.or arm-chair listening.

This is an outstanding portable. I have been able to receive signals that I never thought possible. To begin with, I put the radio's performance against other well-regarded portables I own and the 286 came up a winner by far on all bands - LW, MW, SW, FM. Then I put it against desktop amateur radio base transceivers I have and the 286 came out with solid results, in some cases offering a more legible output to an identical signal. The features of the 286 that give the listener superpowers- whether you are merely seeking the best reception or whether you are seeking DX are to (1) utilize the antenna switching options - internal/external and couple it with the appropriate antenna for the job you want done, (2) adjust the AM filtering or FM bandwidth of the incoming signal and (3) utilize the adjustment on how it processes FM signals. Working these in various combinations makes it possible to get the 286 to focus and, after some thinking for a few seconds, the radio begins to lock-in on signals and stays there. I have found that the 286 will pull in signals on your target frequency that you never knew possible. LW, MW and FM are outstanding. SW is as good as it gets! The ergonomics are very good. The size of the unit (smaller than what you think) is ideal for travel and it comes with its own hard-case for protection, which can fit a few charging accessories as well. I got mine with the unique-type battery-included, so it was good right out of the box without hassle and it charges directly through the radio. The speaker gives good output for the size. This radio immediately put all my others into the drawer and I can't recommend it highly enough. At this price, you should have already ordered one for yourself by now...

It is smaller than I expected. I've had it for a while but recently I had a power outage and needed something to listen to so I got this out. The battery that was in it still had power. I like that it has a spare. It worked pretty good pulling in an AM station that lowers power and the beam pattern switches to reduce radiation to my location. The lack of any RFI from powered devices due to the outage sure made for clear reception.

QODOSEN DX-286 Radio, Portable Shortwave Radio AM FM LW SW Ultra High Sensitivity Full Band Radio with TEF6686 Chip for Kitchen, Desk, Bedroom, Office and Outdoors. Sold by: Qodosen radios for $89.99 on March 14, 2025. My reviews are always 100% my personal honest opinion I never receive anything for my reviews. TLDR: Best FM broadcast radio to date, beats all the so called "super radios", but can stand improvements. So this radio for its size does extremely well on SW, MW broadcast and LW AM but does it's best using an external antenna. I can say the same thing about the CCradios. With that said, the CCrane EP and EP Pro beat this radio due to the size of their internal ferrite rod antenna. The customization ability is outstanding. Love the 18650. FM sensitivity and selectivity is the best period easily beating the pants off the CCranes. Step over CCrane, their is a new kid in town and he is kicking your but up and down the coast! I am not going to take one star off for things I knew before buying, IE don't knock it for not having the weather band, don't knock it for being small, rather learn how to read! However, the volume wheel appears to be a simple old style potentiometer that is fed into an A2D, if true, it WILL wear out as they all do. Even the cheap $10 FM tuner boards are using encoders with noticeable steps. I could be wrong on this but this is what it appears to me. I also did not expect micro USB for a charge port. The picture wasn't clear and it the type of port was not mentioned in the desciption - I guess that should have been a red flag. Come on Qodosen, thats Dodo land, for USB port, especially charge, it's type "C" or nothing. So for that last issue I take off one star. It's far from a "perfect" 5.0. Note for all that have this radio: I warn you not to pulg and unplug the micro USB charge port often, it WILL wear out. With that said, I agree with Radio Jay Allen, it's FM performance is five and a half stars. Out of the box this radio picked up a very difficult to receive favorite station by just extending the whip in the same location others cannot. On other radios their is a lot of spot hunting and antenna pointing required. AM can be five stars indoors with a larger external ferrite antenna like the CCranes have but take it out in the woods and it is five stars right out of the box on the whip. However, it is not rain proof nor water proof by any stretch of the imagination so if you do take it into a wet environment, consider putting it in a 1 gallon zip lock bag poking a hole for the whip antenna. Sound given a handheld portable and small speaker is as expected. I would not say it is stellar by any means but voices are clear and sharp, this over 60 senior with hearing damage had no problem hearing it without hearing aids. But not as good as larger radios with larger speakers of course. I look forward to what Qodosen offers in the future. Fix these two problems and it is indeed an all around five star new standard setting handheld portable radio. Throw an additional NOAA alert receiver in the mix that will interrupt you while listening to FM/AM and nothing can beat it. Put it in a larger box with larger stereo speakers and 8" ferrite antenna for a table top plug in the wall like the Sangean HDR-16 and OMG!!!!! If you want NOAA alert with DSP PLL FM and AM performance then look to the "Portable AM FM Shortwave Radio, with Best Reception, 4000mAh Battery, NOAA Weather Alert Radio" sold here on Amazon by several different vendors and listings in different colors e.g.: https://www.amazon.com/Jazmm-Shortwave-Reception-Rechargeable-Emergency/dp/B0D2D4C5MM?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1 That radio is not as good as this one on sensitivty and selectivity but it is very nearly as good as the CCranes for a lot less money with vastly better sound than this small portable and it does NOAA Alert, but be forewarned you cannot listen to an FM/AM station and have the weather alert interrupt you. There are few radios that do that as it requires two receivers in the same box. The manual is done very well indeed and I have attached images of the manual pages for digital posterity. I absolutely love how it was shipped inside the included latching plastic foam lined carrying case. That is awesome. Makes it easy to toss in the truck or glamper. I cannot say it is difficult to use because out of the box it worked perfect without me having to change a thing. I didn't even read the manual first as AM and FM was intuitive and perfect right out of the box, no tweaking necessary. Go Go Qodosen! Edit 4/7/2025: As expected the micro usb port stopped working but in a spectacular way...it melted fusing the usb cable to the port. Ended up putting in a USB C port instead. Also, I received the XHDATA W-109WB and I have to say, I prefer it to the Qodosen. I couldn't tell a difference on FM and it's more intuitive, easier to use, sounds better, has external SW/AM antenna port and comes stock with a USB C port oh and it has weather band and weather alert, although it cannot remain in alert while you listen to a different station like you can with the Sangeans (that support weather alert like the PR-D4W) or the CCradio 2e/3.

Small compact radio. Great for camping/bug-out bags. 2 @ 18650 button batteries included. Note: Batteries don't charge via USB-C. Fantastic FM reception. I added a portable windup SW Antenna to mine as well via the 1/8" antenna jack. With Sangean ANT-60 external Antenna, I can pick up SW from around the world. Speaker is clear and sharp but only 1 cone, thus mono. I prefer headphones, so it comes with an additional jack for those. Sound quality is very good via headphones v.s. clear and very mono via the single speaker. Speaker is about 1.5 " in diameter so don't expect any bass. Is it perfect? No. Radio is very "Europe/Orient" in its design, and thus it doesn't come with the NOAA radio bands that many competitors do. I liked this radio so much, I purchased a 2nd. See picture for relative size.

This is one of my most favorite radios that sooner or later I will be placing a second order for this radio. This radio can receive my very weak part 15 low powered AM and FM transmitters way farther than what my regular DSP chipset radios can receive. Also it's a really a LW-MW (AM), SW, and FM power house. You can really take this radio out on a road trip and you will be guarranteed that you will receive radio stations very far away. I was able to receive one radio station during a tropo event on 104.1 FM which was over 150 miles away from another area of NC and it came in very clear. As for the LW band, it works great on LW, it's able to receive my semi local NDB's especially Beacon LLW on 254 kHz from Elizabeth City, NC while other regular LW DSP chipset based receivers hit and miss them, also the AM band, it's very good, that it's receiving lots of MW stations during the daytime and mostly at night while my part 15 AM stations are not bleeding over them. This radio works great in my 2 bedroom apartment where reception is very poor on most radios. Also the SW bands, I received more stations than I have been before even ones that are propagating especially on the 31 meter band. It has many features that you need to study the manual to get the most of it. Also has the ability to use a single long wire antenna as a FM wire antenna and also has the ability to use active and passive antennas for LW-MW and Shortwave.

This is my 5th shortwave radio ( previously purchased and still have Grundig, Sangean, CCrane, Tecsun) and surprisingly the best features and sound of all of them come from this one. The signal is stronger and crisp. You can set to more bass/treble on side switch. The antenna is firm not cheap and flimsy. I really like the pocket size of the radio. It does sound amazing with wired earbuds too. The dial is accurate and the written instruction book is in larger print with diagrams. Very easy to follow and learns settings and functions of this radio. The screen readouts are easy to see and bright enough at night. Highly recommend this radio.

Nope, this radio does not have air band or ssb, but it is a beast on reception. It also has very good tonal quality and even FM bandwidth calibrations. It doesn't seem to follow the other major brands in function button selections, but has plenty if you take the time to learn them... I'm still learning. So... Buy one, you will not have buyer remorse. I have a D808... I like this one much better for features, memory channel storage, rotary knob functions and sound quality. The "auto" mode on the rotary knob is gold for seeking channels up and down. Don't get me wrong, the D808 is a fantastic radio well worth the price, but this one has even better reception and feature.

Molto buona, ottima ricezioni in FM, buona anche LW,AM,SW.

I struggled at first but the more I use the 286 the more I love it. It really is a great radio. I pick up UK FM stations from Ireland. And for me thats a winner. Plus it does virtually everything else excellently.

Ich war Anfangs etwas skeptisch, da der Qodosen DX-286 in Deutschland bislang nicht so einfach zu erhalten war und sich noch niemand zu dem Gerät geäussert hat. Die Empfangsleistung, gerade auf UKW und MW sind wirklich ausgesprochen gut. Kurzwelle ist ebenfalls hervorragend, einziger Nachteil: Es gibt eider keine Möglichkeit im seitenband zu hören, das gut der verwendete Chip leider nicht her. Mit einer modifizierten MLA-30, die es ebenfalls bei Amazon gibt läuft der RX zur Höchstform auf. Einfach mal bei Youtube nach dem Gerät suchen, ich habe dazu ein paar deutschsprachige Videos gemacht...