Norice this radio has been used for short time as it worked trribly totally useless radio Chibo
KKD220 is my new mini toy. The reason i bought it (at a price of $20
plus shipping $10 form Taiwan)is that i needed a radio quite small
with the ability to have a good audio level while i am on streets to
listen with quite good fidelity audio.And also quite small , smaller
than my De17
to fit better in my pocket . The parcel has been received in 16 days.
There was also a paradox with the reception , as the offices of my
work were closed due to strike . Hopefully the head person of the
mail service knows me well and gave it me me without providing them
the necessary reception document . Otherwise i had to wait 5 days more
! This radio seems as clandestine ie a not so well known . There are only a few sites selling it.  This is the packet , enough small to be included ina A4 envelope! One hour later while in the office i managed to open the envelope and look at the contents of the box presented here:  As
you look Ther are many goodies . Except the radio there is a nice white
earphones on bottom left , an antenna (middle bottom ), a guarantee , a
second document , a user's guide (right to the radio ), a second
pamplhet (at left of the radio ), a case . There are also some other
interesting goodies as a pen , a pencil , a rubber and a small green
tree sample !!  The earphones are similar to Sony design ie elongated with 90deg elbow.  This is the first page of the user's manual . As you see it is printed in Chinese . BUt the radio is still easy to use     And here is the photo of the rather funny in ear-earphone ,. With this design its base comes direct downward to the ear...    and this is the radio . All information is in Chinese although
most are self explaining . i needed some help to understand some of
its functions . But Google translate has the solution! Now (when exactly??) Google has the ability to use handwritten text in order to make translation easier ! Here are the functions of the radio reset display power Sw band band change mem dwn mem up mem store scan tune down tune up vol down vol up  Operation and comparison with De17 in short : The radio works best with the
telescopic antenna unwounded, in FM and SW !
MW : Frequency band is 520 – 1710. Rather poor audio due to narrow bandwidth. There is a high level of soft mute that affects reception of low signals. DE17 shows signal test clicks on empty freqs but not 220 . 220 seems little more sensitive (parallel listening with 17 ) but seem tt both have poor sensitivity comparing to PL880 . 220 has a ‘hard’ mute (intense degradation of audio and sensitivity comparing to analogue radios especially in lower signals that are below a S/N of 10 db ). I found that many empty frequencies ar filled with radio’s self generated noises etc I found a level of ca 90 db from a the 500 W station of the university in a distance of 50 meters This station effects SW band reception in such a short distance SW : Audio quality is the same as with MW. Best
signals are achieved with full antenna. Memory and time is always shown
in the display. After a frequency or memory change for ca 2-3 secs
signal and signal to noise radio are shown in the display . Same
happens to all bands (inc MW and FM ) . Audio is not good probably due to
narrow bandwidth
and is similar to 17’s audio quality
Inductive effect can greatly
enhance reception . Connecting to my external
antennas leads to radio overload
Shortwave band can be disabled from settings (ie during power off ) FM
: Audio quality is
rather fair (using its earphones but fair to good using the Sony
earphones ) and more ‘equalized’ than the ‘trebly’ 17 . Testing in
parallel between De17 and KK220 I found more bass coming from 220
and more treble coming from 17 .Earphone cable can also be used as
antenna but does not affect too much as best reception can be achieved
with antenna. Narrow bandwidth also effects on the reception of
signals
as they are heard as distorted (something that does not happen to any
Degen or Tecsun DSP radio ). The bandwidth is about 200 kHz
and very close to other DSP radios from Tecsun and Degen Earphones: the earphones seem to
be quite good ,
Memories : 30 memories for each band. I have a minor complaint with the memory
change . Sometimes changing up and down the memories the button does not
work properly ie losing a memory and requires me once again to press the button
Some
information about volume
This is a digital volume with 40 steps (I didn’t check do far ). In a
silent place the volume of 9 – 10 is OK . Using earphones as I the best setting is
9 with 10 being quite high . This is
what I was expecting from this new radio
. Here are a couple of complaints : 1.In
this range 8-12 at least the volume steps are too high volume difference between each step. 2. Sometimes navigating memories (especially in FM )the audio volume drops or jumps upwards
And little about the display
/readout .
With the radio off the time
and date are shown with radio on the frequency is shown with
EEEEe readout and time / volume / signal strength (db S/N and
S ) / memory on the top of the display
The buttons on off switched
off have some interesting functions :
-Storage
/time button can disable shortwave band
- band change
function can be used for time adjustment . The readout can show the
day and the date (Monday etc as number )
On
off button pressed for more tan 2 secs adjust the sleep time
Frequency up change MW step by 9 or
10 can be set when radio is switched off and pressing the freq up
button
Verdict : This radio
is possibly the fist one using SDR technology in so small size
tough is a bit too bulky. A medium quality radio with quite
simple operation U aBUt the problem seems rather solved : the battery was down ....!!! (in less than 10 hours of use ) And
another mini update : about earphones : tested earphones with the
Bolong radio revealed that the earphones thoug quite good filter out
completely freqs above 10 kHz thus removing any hets between two non adjacent freqs . Good for me who has tinnitus |
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