Tecsun R9700DX 12-Band Dual Conversion AM/FM Shortwave Radio

I’ve been into radio since my teenage years and for nearly two decades I’ve been an amateur radio operator. I feel my experience and background will make my review valid. For under $100, you WILL NOT find a better performing shortwave radio. It just isn’t going to happen. The audio clarity from the good sized speaker is superb for a radio in this price range. While the tuning is analog and not fancy digital, I prefer analog tuning because I’m able to “slide” through the band easily without the tuning steps associated with digital. The display does light up for use in the dark. You get access to all of the major shortwave bands, which will provide hours of entertainment. There are some gaps in frequency coverage between the bands, but nothing that would warrant deducting a star. It's just worth mentioning and to most users, isn't a big deal. Now on a more technical note, the receiver in this is dual conversion. For simplicity sake, this means there are “two” stages to the IF circuit which allows the user to better finely tune in stations and increases rejection from interference. A feature you normally only find in really high end models. If you’re on the fence, let me knock you off of it. Buy this radio. You will not be disappointed at all. Included is a nice little case/cover, a long-wire antenna, and AC adapter.

For past few days. I had really fun on this radio. The SW part of this radio. Is very good. An pills in weak signals. An makes strong stations come in like local FM station. With the local an dx switch. It keeps it from overloading when it comes to Very strong stations. Like Radio China, an Cuba, as well as bible study stations. The stations. That r weak. Like BBC world an DW international. An NHK world Japan. Comes in good with home made wire antenna i made. Havent to much use it for MW bands. To give u review. FM is totally very good. An the stations. Are not like cheap sounding. But instead sounding like PL-660. But its analog. So u have play with it. But pulls them in very good. An not much moving aound. So u dont have two tune it in. Every few min. So it holds frequency very good. Ill make other reviews on MW band next week. Since i be playing with radio on that. But i give it 5out 5. An its good for what u pay for. Even pull AM hams on 80m an 40m band. Worth my time an money. An really love it. U need buy ur ownn battery. But the wall charger is vood. But dose make noise on MW an SW. So i do wanna add that. I just run my on batterys. An the light on it. Stays on for min. But there is switch on top on radio that dose keep it on. But remember never use the light unless u need two. Other wise it kill battery fwster. I do have rechargeable battery in my. An so fwr havent kill it just yet. Only own it for 4 days now. Soo ill make other review soo with update.

So after receiving 3 separate radios and finally getting one that works properly here's my take. First off I love the style and construction of the radio. If you like "old school new tech" then this is definitely satisfying. The FM and MW/AM band is very sensitive and the DX function works quite well picking up a lot of faint stations. I look forward to trying out the MW with a loop antenna. I haven't had much luck picking up many SW stations but it's probably due to unfair weather lately. Sound quality I would say is good, stereo and mono sound switch is drastic between the two and preferences may vary. Build quality feels good, especially the tuning dial, nice resistance for fine tuning without worry of skipping past those faint signals and holds the station well. Also the tuning dial is quite accurate on my particular radio. Very nice getting the AC adapter and FM/SW wire antenna included, at least a $20 value. Case is also pretty nice, a stiff seemingly well made canvas type material that fits nice and tight over the radio. Overall I'm very satisfied with the radio and look forward to further testing. The bad is the fact that it took me 2 replacements to find one I was satisfied with. On one radio, the tuning dial was WAY off. If I tried tuning to 92.3FM for example, it would read 95-96FM. The other radio had a loud popping noise when turning the backlight on, loose tuning dial, scuffs on the station backplate, very loose band selector switch etc... I'm sure most people would be fine with some of these nitpicky things, but for a $50+ radio I expected a little better. As long as you get a good functioning radio and don't expect perfection I would recommend this radio for the styling, sound quality and sensitivity.

This radio has very good sensitivity and selectivity considering its cost. The lighted dial is especially nice since I tend to use the radio when it is dark but the band selection is not lighted so cannot see what band you are on without looking. The am and fm band is far left so you can feel the click but switching around the SW bands is hard to determine what band you are on in dark. The slide volume switch on side is good and I didn't think I would like it but feels good and works good. The shortwave works good with good sensitivity and selectivity when bands are open. There are not many English stations anymore on SW in this country and mostly of what I hear are Spanish stations and religious stations in English. If you're in a foreign country then you may have more English stations. The radio build is good also and not flimsy like others I had and the tuning wheel and sliders seem solid. It has an led tuning led which helps with weaker stations. The addition of the wire antenna helps with weaker stations but doesn't make much difference for the most part and has no affect on am stations. Not sure of battery life as I just got the radio but the included ac adapter is a bonus for sure.

El único defecto que le encuentro es el movimiento del disco para sintonizar, está demasiado apretado. Por ser de metal y de filos duros, al cabo de un rato lastima a los dedos. Por lo demás es un aparato excelente, con muy buena sensibilidad, buen sonido, gran resolución en el dial. He podido escuchar estaciones de varias partes del mundo, con SW. Usando AM logré captar una estación de San Francisco, desde Ensenada, unos 950 Km, de manera clara y fuerte.

This is probably one of the best analog radios available today. Sensitivity and overall functionality is great. The only complaint I have is that the tuning wheel is a pretty stiff. If your use case is to tune to a station and then listen to it, it is all good, but if your use case is to constantly scan and tune to different stations, then you may find the stiffness of the tuning button pretty challenging. Personally, I am happy with my purchase and find the sound quality and selectivity of this radio to be excellent. It is a keeper.

Es bueno que incluya su cargador de pared, solo es importante considerar que el cargador es bueno para uso de FM... para AM y SW es mejor usar baterías ya que el cargador introduce ruido al AM y SW. La recepción en general es muy buena y el sonido es potente para tener solo una bocina, muy recomendado si se quiere un radio sencillo y de buena calidad

Good reception on all bands with decent muting of interference between stations. A good basic radio. However I returned mine because I have arthritis in my fingers and found the tuning dial very difficult to operate (overly stiff). I ordered a Tecsun PL-880 instead (it hasn't arrived yet as of this writing).

I bought this because it had an analog dial as opposed to a digital one. I suppose it reminded me of radios I owned in the past. It is fine on FM, decent on AM and shortwave. It is not a "serious" radio, just something for casual listening. It comes with a nice case, a wire antenna, a charger and earphones. It is a small radio and seems to run for a good long time on batteries. On the back of the radio is a fold out stand so it can be used inclined for easier viewing; on the bottom is a pull out stand to make it more stable in the upright position. The band coverage is interesting. On AM it does not cover the 1610-1700 kHz portion of the band that was added in the 1990s. On shortwave the radio provides 10 bands, each 550 kHz wide. This means that some frequencies are not available. This includes some amateur radio bands but since most amateur radio transmissions are single side band, digital or morse code this is not really relevant - on shortwave this radio only receives AM signals. While not as accurate as a digital display the tuning display is reasonably good, the SW dials are marked in 10 kHz increments. There is a light for the display which can be on continuously or briefly. Unfortunately the only way of telling which SW band is in use is by looking at the tiny dots above the band selector. These are not lit up by the light and there is no other indication of which band has been selected. Not an easy radio to use in a dark room. Overall an attractive and compact unit with reasonable performance at a reasonable cost.