SIHUADON R108 Shortwave AM FM Radio LW MW AIR Band DSP Full Band Portable Radio Battery Operated with Sleep Timer Alarm Clock 500 Memories preset Stations for Family by RADIWOW (Grey)

Companies making radios have a problem, and this little Sihuadon R-108 shows what that is: If you can get something this good for this money, why would you pay three, four or ten times as much for a radio that’s about 95% the same as this one? There might be a few reasons, but first consider all you get here.Reception-wise, to evaluate shortwave I put the R-108 next to my Sangean 909X2 as well as the earlier models in that series I own, the original Sangean 909 and the RadioShack DX-398. There were no signals – not one – that were listenable on the bigger and more expensive portables that were not listenable on this little R-108. There were a few that seemed to be a little stronger on one of the radios or the other, but any such difference was so slight as to be barely noticeable. Note that the R-108 does not receive single-sideband broadcasts, so if you want to hear those signals that would be one of those handful of reasons why you might opt for one of the costlier radios.FM on the R-108 is extremely good. Sensitive, selective, and it even sounds rich and full. Here, the Sangean 909X2 does outshine it just a little because it has an FM bandwidth control, so if the station is completely crowded in by strong signals on either side, the Sangean did have a very slight advantage. But compared to the older iterations of the 909 series, the R-108 blew them out of the water, bringing in stations that were completely crowded out on the other radios to the point of being not receivable.MW (AM broadcast) is surprisingly competent for a radio this size, since a small size means the internal AM antenna cannot be very large. Here, the original Sangean 909/DX-398 were best, rendering weak AMs a notch stronger than the R-108, which you expect given that they are physically bigger. But here again, nothing was listenable on these slightly stronger AM performers that wasn’t still listenable on the R-108. If ultimate AM reception is your primary interest, you probably already know you need to go with a larger radio that has a bigger internal AM antenna. But if you do need something that is pocketable, this R-108 is a great choice for AM. And, stronger AM stations sound really nice when you use the wide bandwidth (6 KHz) setting. The middle settings (3 and 4 KHz) are typical of what you are used to hearing on a radio that does not have a bandwidth setting, while the narrow ones (1-2 KHz) let you sacrifice some audio fidelity to hear weak signals with less static.Air band is a little harder to compare, because you get different signals at different times, and the Sangean 909X2 is the only other air band radio I have. A nearby small airport’s automated weather info frequency came in well on both this radio and the Sangean.One big advantage of this radio over some other small shortwaves is on this one the controls are more intuitive and easier to remember how to operate without referring back to the instructions.As mentioned previously, sound quality is quite pleasant for a radio this small. There is balanced audio with some bass, not that scratchy “transistor radio” sound. In addition, you can turn the volume up all the way if you need to and the audio does not distort. They put a halfway decent speaker in here.Power comes from a BL-5C rechargeable battery similar in size and shape to a mobile phone battery. It’s hard to say exactly how long it goes between charges because on mine, I just plug it in for an hour or two every so often and I never have to worry about the battery going dead. You can charge it with any common micro-USB charger, and the battery sits behind a traditional battery door so is easily user-replaceable if it ever stops holding a charge.Bottom line: I believe this R-108 is the best shortwave radio you can buy for this money. Everything it does, it does well, and the performance here is virtually indistinguishable from radios that cost far more. If you have no interest in shortwave, consider the Sangean PR-D19. It's about the same price as this R-108 but it's a little larger, has two speakers, and gets a bit better AM reception.

This (R-108) is a small pocket radio but punches well above its weight class. I will be comparing it against my RadioShack DX 375 and my Sangean 818. Sensitivity and Selectivity is measurably better than the DX-375, which is well traveled older radio, probably a $50.00 class radio back in the 80’s. The Sangean is a high end SSB all band SW radio with better than most in class selectivity and rejection, with narrow filters and a good front end for receiving.I like the audio on all bands and its band width is adjustable on MW and SW. It has squelch too.The air band actually is useful and works.500 memories are great and they are divided between the bands. The buttons are good and the tiny radio even has rubber pads to keep it in place on slick surfaces.Scanning frequencies will take practice and only use the Auto Tune System once per band, as it will erase previous stored memory. This is documented in the well written instructions.** Hidden preset scan function for SW was found by experimenting. When in a SW band press the 0 (zero) button to jump to the next higher SW international band. Once there press and hold the up arrow button to begin scanning through all the frequencies allocated to SW stations. This is a great time saver and the radio is fairly fast.This is a quality radio, not a scanner and I have enjoyed getting to know it and listening to some far and near stations. I don’t have any need for the LW band so I have left it deactivated.I want to thank the previous detailed reviews, many from hams and SWL’ers like myself. It helped me make a purchase decision.73,Tim

By 'market segment' I mean 3"x5" (index-card-sized) 1" deep AM/FM/Shortwave portable radios. By 'market segment leader' I am referring to the 'C.Crane CC Skywave,' introduced in 2014. The Sihuadon R-108 is manufactured by XHData (Dongguan XinHuaide Electronic Commerce), founded in 2015. The company currently uses XHData, Radiwow and Sihuadon as brand names. (Tecsun, also based in Dongguan, appears to be a different company.)From a shortwave-noobie shopper's perspective, there's just not a whole lot of difference between the R-108 & the Skywave:* R-108: Time is 24-hour 'military' format only. Skywave: 12-hour option and 24-hour option for time-formatting.* R-108: (1) BL-5C (a rectangular, old school Nokia phone Lithium battery), 3.7v, 1020 mAh (included). Skywave: (2) AA batteries (not included).* R-108: Micro-USB charging port. Skywave: Mini-USB charging port.* R-108: Battery run time, about 10-12 hours. Skywave: Battery run time, about 60-70 hours.* R-108: Full-sounding, robust speaker. Skywave: Tinny speaker.* R-108: Bright, orange/amber display. Skywave: Dim lime-green display.* R-108: No weather bands. Skywave: Has 7 weather bands.* R-108: No carry case or earbuds. Skywave: Carry case & earbuds included.* R-108: Shortwave range is 1711-29999 kHz. Skywave: Shortwave range is 2300-26100 kHz.* R-108: 500 total presets available. Skywave: 400 total presets available.Of course those with expertise in shortwave radios can surely list a ton of other technical differences, many of which might not even matter to beginning shortwave users. One might be more interested, however, in their comparisons in terms of gain, sensitivity & overall performance.Included accessories: 9' external wire antenna with 3.5mm jack, a 24" micro-USB charging cable, a paper Operation Manual in (pretty good) English & (1) BL-5C 3.7v 1020 mAh battery.The MAJOR COMPLAINT about the Sihuadon R-108, gauged by the statements of other reviewers, revolves around the R-108's RECHARGEABLE BATTERY. That the battery doesn't last long; reviewers reporting that it is completely drained after about 5-8 hours of use. Also that the battery trickles-down to dead pretty quickly when the radio is powered-down. Because the screen's time display stays on anyway. And reviewers report re-charging can be very slow. If the battery dies, btw, the presets will hold, but the clock time is lost. (And the time is also immediately lost when you change-out the battery.) These battery issues comprise the one-star ding.One solution, what I am doing, is to keep a couple of charged-up spare batteries at-the-ready. The BL-5C is a common size and easy to find; XHData vends its own-branded (larger-capacity) 1500 mAh version, a 2-pak, here on Amazon (B0796LK6GY) for just $9 and it has excellent reviews. And I was able to snag a REALLY cheap external BL-5C charger cradle off feeBay.Or I suppose you could just get in the habit of popping-out the battery when the radio is not in use. Either way, one would have good cause to wonder why Sihuadon did not go with AA batteries in the first place. Because in wilderness, emergency and/or survival scenarios, the ability to charge will be at a premium.There are four different brands of retractable/'reel' wire 20'+ external FM/SW antennas available here on Amazon (Kaito T-1, XHData AN-80, Sangean ANT-60, C.Crane) that all look pretty much the same. Reviewers complained about all of them, that they are nearly impossible to retract. So I stopped by Home Depot. I bought 20' of 14 gauge stranded black wire off their by-the-foot reel for $0.41/foot. Plus a 2-pack of small crimp-end alligator clips. Total cost was $11.15 before tax.I found, through another reviewer, that the Amazon-listed GLCON GL-03 Hard Carry Case (B01E70SBB8) is a perfect fit for the R-108. I bought one and it holds the radio, the 9' external antenna, the micro-USB charging cable and even the two spare XHData 1500mAh BL-5C batteries.Happy motoring!