TECSUNR9700DX 12-Band Dual Conversion AM/FM Shortwave Radio

I have had this radio for 3 years now. I have been an avid SW listener for going on 30 yrs. I am not a ham but I was a MURS and Hurricane NET operator in the military so I know a little about HF. I am not going to compare this to a ICOM or Drake ham rig. I will review it on its merit for what is is compared to other consumer grade receivers. I own or have owned Sangean 803A, 818, Grundig S750, S350, DEGEN 1102, 1103, WRX911. First off If you want to listen to utility signals skip this because its SW segments only cover the SW broadcast bands with exception of 120, 90 and 11 meter bands. That being said it covers most of them. This is hands down in my opinion one of the best portable SW travel radios made. This is the reason I purchased it. It controls are extremely simple. It as nice dial that lights up the dial. It is auto shut-off after 20 seconds but has a switch that bypasses that and allows you to leave it on constantly. its has a music news tone switch and an ext ant jack nd a DX local switch which is an attenuator in the local position. This pads the whip as well as the ext ant attached. It has a nice speaker that kinda raises your eyebrows when you 1st hear it because it lacks the tinny, tiring sound most portable this size have. It has a fuller, richer sound. The radio takes 4 AA batteries and they last what seems like 4-ever due to the miserly analog circuitry of this radio. Volume is a slide switch and tuning is a thumb wheel on the right hanf side of the radio. Supposedly you can charge the batteries in the radio and it slow charges the 4 Nmih batteries that come with it even though there are no details in the manual or the box on how it does it. I take the radio with me only when I travel with the exceptions when I get it out to compare to other radios. The FM on this radio is excellent and the stereo thru the headphones is superb, especially when you use a better grade of music headphones. The selectivity and sensitivity on FM are outstanding. The AM portion of this radio is where the people will find it lacking or so it seems. Its AM selectivity is good but sensitivity is mediocre. This not a lost cause though because like a lot of new portable SW radios that don't have a lot of room for a large proper AM antenna you can place an AN100, 200 MW loop antenna near this and the AM band comes alive with signals seeming to leap from the noise floor. I have never a portable SW receiver AM section benefit from this type of AM loop antenna as much as the R9700DX. While packing an AN200 along with isn't in the travel recipe if you have this on your office,study desk or kitchen table with an AN200 loop antenna this is an AM performer. SW selectivity and sensitivity are excellent. It hears signals off the whip that any of my other portables her as long as the R9700DX. The provided long wire should be able to bring in a signal if enough of it is there to bring in. If prefer to use the long wire because it lowers the noise floor so much. On the stronger signals I just use it in the LOCAL position and the pad tames any overload. A roll up long wire is the perfect travel companion. I have a long wire and a multi band long wire in the attic that I run my S750 and 803A on and with the DX/LOCAL switch in local postion this radio pulls any signal pulls any signal the others can as long as it is on the tuning dial with no overload and a super low noise floor. This radio has none of the synthesizer noise that a PLL radio has even though it is dual conversion. I have read reviews on this radio where people try to force the tuning wheel to tune a signal. Don't do this! This will break it. I it can't be tuned it can't be tuned. This radio dial is relative in that with the AC power adapter, Alkaline batteries or Re-chargeables plugged into its analog circuitry the dial will tune in slightly different positions per the the different DC levels fed to its analog circuitry. 1.5VDC AA alkalines vs. 1.2VDC Nimh AA's. With that in mind the radio radio will require about 10-15 minutes for the internals to stabilize but will require a slight nudge from time to time to peak your tuning, not nowhere near the amount an S350 requires. If you are as old as I am and remember the audio that came from the old higher end stereo receivers this radios audio has the same purer sound to it that the pre digitally processed audio use to have. My ears can tell the difference. This radio (or some of the other SW portables) connected to a decent attic antenna and the headphone/line audio piped thru a decent set of powered bookshelf or computer speakers you have a very decent analog SW BCB listening station that will make an S350 green with envy. An AN200 MW antenna completes it. This is a Great BCB radio and hats-off to the engineers who designed it. This is one of the best travel radios made for someone that has no need to receive utility signals. It also has a very, very nice travel case. It's analog tuning is perfect for band scanning in a new area you may be visiting or over staying over-night in. I highly recommend this radio. I am not going to take away from it due to no SSB and the things it doesn't do. You buy it for what is supposed to do and that it does extremely well. This radio is a keeper. If Tecsun reads these reviews it would be nice to see an 803A size radio, analog tuner and dial with fine tuning with S350 speaker audio depth/quality with 120/90 and 11 meters using this technology would be a winner. I don't think SW is going to die and see it as resurgant into the future. A portatop radio with out the hissy digital signal processing and grate audio would be nice. Hopefully they have the engineers who designed this are coraborating on other projects.

Great receiver. For the cost the Tecsun dual conversion receiver has the sensitivity and stability of more expensive sets for shortwave. In addition, its sound quality makes listening a pleasure. If you are used to classic receivers, it is great that the Tecsun offers this with analog tuning.

This is a very good analog radio, It has strong AM reception, during auto scan it catches as many AM stations as my Tecsun PL880 does, and some stations are weak and hard to catch on other digital radios.The speaker is sweet sounding, as good as PL800. Actual I like its sound better than the PL880 as the 880 sounds a little muffled in voice.It is fun to turn the dial around, but the biggest problem is - the tuner dial is too stiff as many reviewers mentioned, although it is very accurate. Only this issue gave me a headache to keep or not. I don't experience other issues as others mentioned. Probably I will keep it as there are few choice on analog radios nowadays. Enjoy

( I'm adding this caveat, I took the radio outside today for the first time and noticed lint under the display as from white gloves and scratches on the underside of the window. The radio works great and the sound is awesome for something so cheap. Just a heads up)Right out the box I listened to the Rams Eagles game and was impressed at the speaker sound. The sound was very rich and wasn't tinny. Tonight I am listening with headphones and now I have to invest in some audiophile ones. I also was finally able to pick up some short wave stations here in Inglewood California. I was able to do this with power lines outside of my window. This radio is for those who are fans of the medium. The FM and AM reception is wonderful in my experience and had no problem up and down those bands. I posted a picture of the light which is such a nostalgic touch. I love the gentle amber color that doesn't sear your retinas like the modern led backlight displays. The radio comes with a full kit and is worth the price of admission. I did want to add, if you do love in the city hook up a long wire to this. I also found the radio locked in the stations better with DX on. I want to add that I returned the item because of the noise on headphones, the popping when adjusting the volume, terrible overload on AM and QC issues with the display. Another big one is that it's very loud and too much bass on headphones.

Despite all the rave reviews, I was disapointed in its performance. Seems like quality control issues. FM reception was not good at all. The antenna seems to be the wrong size. Also, the included case doesn't match the pictures.